Abstract
This chapter investigates contemporary Chinese migration to and within Latin America. While this migration system dates back to the sixteenth century, it gained steam during the global migrations that took place in the late nineteenth century and continues unabated. Through a historical analysis and in-depth interviews, the piece looks at the trajectory and contemporary experience of Chinese migrants in two major global cities: Mexico City and Lima. This chapter contrasts the experiences of Fujianese and Cantonese who follow family networks of migration to Lima to that of Chinese migrant women of different regional origins who enter as vendors in Mexico City's popular markets. In their analysis, the authors emphasize the salience of translocal migration and show how historical and contemporary Chinese migrations have built steadily and contributed to the development of links and connections across territories, informing the transformation of local spaces in destination countries.
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Notes
- 1.
All interviews were translated by the authors from Spanish and Mandarin to English.
- 2.
According to Cervera (2007), one of the first influxes of Chinese to arrive to the southern Mexican peninsula did it from Cuba in 1892 to work as indentured workers in haciendas henequeneras, but there had already been a rather invisible presence of Chinese in the south that arrived through Belize.
- 3.
It can also be referred to as Taishan, Toishan or Hoisan.
- 4.
- 5.
These buildings, already in decay in the early 2000s, were later severely damaged by the lack of care and by the constant tremors characteristic of the Mexican Peninsula, situated in San Andreas Fault. This led to the demolition of the buildings that stood in Mexicali’s Chinatown, La Chinesca, and the dispersion of its inhabitants to other parts of the city.
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Alba Villalever, X., Rubio, F. (2019). New Patterns of Chinese Migration to the Americas: Mexico City and Lima. In: Feldmann, A., Bada, X., Schütze, S. (eds) New Migration Patterns in the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89384-6_10
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