The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940

2. The Dragon in Big Lusong: Chinese Immigration to Mexico and the Global Chinese Diaspora

2 The Dragon in Big Lusong Chinese Immigration to Mexico and the Global Chinese Diaspora My family was poor, so I was going to Lusong. Who would have known this would be a prison even for those just passing through? One cannot bear to ask about the loneliness in the wooden building. It is all because of a militarily weak nation with an empty national treasury. I leave word with you gentlemen that you should all endeavor together. Do not forget the national humiliations; arouse yourselves to be heroic.1 Unknown to most people, Chinese migration to Mexico dates back to the 1600s as part of the Spanish Manila galleon trade. As part of this vibrant colonial transcontinental trade, Spanish merchants purchased large quantities of Chinese luxury items, such as silks and porcelain, from Chinese merchants stationed in the Philippines.2 From the port of Manila, Spanish merchants transported their cargoes of exotic eastern goods to the port of Acapulco, Mexico, on board large Spanish galleons. From Acapulco, these luxury items were then distributed throughout Mexico and the rest of Latin America. As part of this transpacific trade, small numbers of Chinese immigrants entered colonial Mexico as personal servants of Spanish merchants from the Philippines.3 Following their initial arrival, many Chinese immigrants of colonial Mexico earned their living as tradesmen, barbers, and shopkeepers, and often resided in segregated quarters in the periphery of the city. During the period of the Manila galleon trade, Chinese referred to the Philippines as “Xiao Lusong,” or “Little Luzon,” and Mexico came to be known as “Da Lusong,” or “Big Luzon.”4 Though the Manila galleon trade ended in 1815, Immigration and the Chinese Diaspora 13 as evidenced by the poem introducing this chapter, Chinese immigrants of the early twentieth century continued to refer to Mexico as “Lusong” or “Luzon.”5 Although Chinese immigration to Mexico began nearly four hundred years ago, wide-scale Chinese migration to Big Lusong did not occur until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chinese immigration to Mexico during these years was part of a much larger international Chinese diaspora and was connected in important ways to patterns of Chinese migration and settlement in the United States. Following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States, Chinese emigrants set their sights on Mexico as a new land of economic opportunity and a gateway to the United States. Understanding this diasporic context of Chinese immigration to Mexico is important because it sheds light on three interrelated historical phenomena: (1) the shift of Chinese migration flows from the United States to Mexico during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, (2) the creation of a Chinese transnational commercial orbit in the Americas during these years, and (3) the development of rich transnational socioeconomic and political ties between the Chinese diasporic communities of Mexico and the United States. This chapter situates Chinese immigration to Mexico within the context of the global Chinese diaspora and examines the socioeconomic and political circumstances in China, the United States, and Mexico that engendered wide-scale migration to Mexico and the development of these three historical phenomena. Lee Kwong Lun and the Global Chinese Diaspora Lee Kwong Lun emigrated from his native Guangdong to Cuba during the second half of the nineteenth century.6 Cuba became a major hub of Chinese immigration and settlement during these years because of the “coolie” trade occurring between the years of 1847 and 1874, and later because it further became a popular destination for Chinese immigrants seeking employment as merchants in the Cuban commercial sector. Following a brief sojourn in Cuba, where he developed proficiency in Spanish and acquired the skill of cigar-making, Lee immigrated to San Francisco, where he began a family and settled as a merchant. During the first decade of the twentieth century, following preparation of the documentation necessary to maintain and secure U.S. residency privileges for himself and 14 The Chinese in Mexico, 1882–1940 his family under the merchant clause of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Lee gathered his wife and children together and migrated south of the border to Sonora, Mexico. In Sonora, Lee earned a living by serving as economic middleman between Chinese merchants of Mexico and Chinese wholesale suppliers of San Francisco. Capitalizing upon his multilingual proficiency in Spanish, English, and Chinese, which he acquired as part...