Imaging the Chinese in Cuban Literature and Culture

Notes

Notes Chapter 1. Introduction 1. The terms “the Orient” and “the West” are in quotation marks because, in many cases, they do not necessarily coincide with geographical locations, but are geopolitical notions. Thus, few people would doubt that Spain is a Western country; yet Morocco, the neighboring country to the south, is not generally conceived of as a Western nation by people in Europe and the United States. That Morocco is indeed geographically located in “the West” in the Arab worldview is proven by the fact that it is considered, together with Algeria and Tunisia, part of the Maghreb, an Arabic word that means “sunset” (and, therefore, West). For the same reason, sometimes Latin America is not considered part of “the West” and Amerindian cultures are not considered “Western.” 2. Frances Wood, in her book Did Marco Polo Go to China? (1996), argues that the Venetian traveler never went to that country. She bases her speculation on the fact that Marco Polo never mentioned aspects of Chinese culture that most other European travelers found fascinating, such as footbinding, Chinese writing, tea, chopsticks , woodblock printing, and the Great Wall. He did mention, however, porcelain and the use of coal and paper money, which, according to Wood, he probably found in Persian or Arabic guidebooks to China. 3. The Havana Chinatown began to be built in the 1850s. However, according to Homer H. Dubs and Robert S. Smith, there was a Chinatown in Mexico as early as 1635: “By 1635 there was already at least the beginnings of a Chinese colony in Mexico City” (189). Later, in 1806, the British government took 182 Chinese men and one woman as coolies to the island of Trinidad. 4. In his study La colonia china de Cuba 1930–1960 (1998), Napoleón Seuc claims that, in spite of its flaws, pre-Castro Cuban society was “relatively speaking, the least discriminatory of all known societies.” (“Relativamente hablando, la menos discriminatoria de todas las conocidas” [164]). 5. During a stay in Havana, I had many opportunities to witness firsthand some of the racial dynamics in the country. I remember, for example, how a tour guide was quick to announce that there was no racism in Cuba only minutes before she completed, with a smile on her face, a joke started by the driver: “whenever you see a ball, stop because a boy is coming after it; whenever you see a hen . . . accelerate because a black man is coming after it.” A few days later, when a cab driver got lost, he told me sarcastically that he was going to have to ask “those dark complected [verde oscuro] gentlemen on the corner, because, as you know, there is no longer racism in Cuba.” In the same vein, I had several conversations with Cubans who laughed at the official claim that the revolution had eradicated racism from the island. “If you are having a conversation with a tourist on the street,” an Afro-Cuban bartender told me, “this color of ours doesn’t help much; you will be stopped by the police much more often than if you are white”; “if you are black and you are dreaming about becoming a member of the national ballet,” a black dancer explained, “forget about it because that domain is only for white people . . . even if the person making decisions is a black woman.” These are only a few of the comments that I heard during my conversations with Cubans. Several of the Chinese I interviewed also mentioned the mockery they had had to endure all their lives: being called “narra,” being addressed “Hey, Chino,” children throwing things at them, and so on. 6. “Las desigualdades raciales persisten en Cuba, y se han hecho más visibles principalmente a partir de la crisis económica de los años 90. Se trata de la consecuencia de la funcionalización de formas de racismo que han permanecido agazapadas en la subjetividad de muchas personas. [. . .] En las representaciones raciales predomina una evaluación negativa de los negros y una positiva de los blancos, lo que configura una de las barreras fundamentales que limita la movilidad de los negros hacia los sectores más ventajosos” (10). 7. According to Henley C. Adams, however, the people rioting in Central Havana in August 1994 and demanding political and economic changes were mostly “young nonwhites” (169). 8. In the case of Peru, the first coolies were taken in the mid-nineteenth century from Macao and Guangdong to work...