The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940

1. Introduction: Chinese Immigration to Mexico and the Transnational Commercial Orbit

1 Introduction Chinese Immigration to Mexico and the Transnational Commercial Orbit Pablo Chee (see fig. 1.1) immigrated to Chiapas, Mexico, from Guangdong, China, in November 1901. Less than a decade later, after establishing himself as a successful merchant, Pablo married a Mexican woman, Adelina Palomegus. In 1910, the couple gave birth to their first son, Manuel Jesús Chee. Together with his Mexican wife and son Manuel, Pablo traveled to China in 1914 to visit family members in his home village of Jiu Jang. In 1915, he returned to Mexico, leaving Adelina and Manuel behind to live with their newfound Chinese relatives. As the privileged son of a successful overseas merchant, Manuel subsequently began his educational career as a student in a British school in Guangdong. Following Pablo’s return to Mexico, he increased his fortune as a successful businessman in Baja California. He made a large fortune as the owner of a grocery and general merchandise firm, as proprietor of a hotel and saloon, and, allegedly, as an opium dealer. Capitalizing upon his extensive licit commercial successes and based upon his merchant status, Pablo eventually gained the right to immigrate to the United States. In 1924, he applied for permission from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to bring his wife and son from China to live with him in Imperial Valley, California.1 Pablo Chee’s immigration to Mexico was part of a larger migration of more than 60,000 Chinese immigrants to Mexico during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.2 Following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barring the legal immigration of Chinese male laborers to the United States, Chinese immigrants flocked to Mexico in search of economic opportunity.3 By 1910, Chinese immigrants had come to settle in every state and territory of Mexico except for the central state of Tlaxcala, and by 1926, at a size of more than 24,000, the Chinese comprised the second-largest immigrant group in all of Mexico.4 As evidenced by the example of Pablo Chee, the Chinese of Mexico also achieved a high degree of economic success. Although the Chinese were initially recruited to Mexico to serve as agricultural contract laborers, 2 The Chinese in Mexico, 1882–1940 many Chinese transitioned into employment as merchants involved in the grocery and dry goods trade. Chinese shops were ubiquitous and dotted the streets and neighborhoods of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Baja California. Much like 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States today, Chinese grocery and dry goods stores were found on virtually every street corner in places like Sonora during the early twentieth century. By the 1920s, Chinese merchants developed a monopoly over the grocery and dry goods trade in northern Mexico. Their great success engendered organized anti-Chinese protests and campaigns replete with lootings, boycotts, massacres, and racist legislation. Sonoran anti-Chinese laws banned Chinese-Mexican intermarriage and ordered the segregation of Chinese into racially restricted neighborhoods. Tragically, anti-Chinese sentiment also expressed itself violently. The most horrendous act of violence perpetrated against the Chinese community occurred on May 15, 1911, during the massacre of Torreón. As part of the massacre of Torreón, 303 Chinese immigrants were murdered by revolutionary soldiers in a single day. The organized anti-Chinese movement in Mexico culminated in the expulsion of virtually the entire Chinese population of the state of Sonora in 1931.5 Figure 1.1. Pablo Chee. Source: Laguna Niguel, California, National Archives, Pablo Chee, Chinese Exclusion Act Case File no. 2295/7. Introduction 3 In response to the immigration restrictions placed upon them by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese immigrants flocked to Mexico not only in search of employment opportunities as agricultural laborers and merchants but also to get smuggled into the United States. Unknown to most people, the Chinese were the first “undocumented immigrants” from Mexico, and they created the first organized system of human smuggling from Mexico to the United States. As part of their efforts to circumvent the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Laws, Chinese immigrants created a vast, “transnational” smuggling business that involved agents and collaborators in China, Mexico, Cuba, and various cities throughout the United States. The Chinese also developed a variety of schemes and techniques to smuggle immigrants into the United States via train, boat, and “coyote,” or guide. Chinese Immigrant Transnationalism As reflected by the historical phenomenon of immigrant smuggling, Chinese...