Migrants between empires and nations: The Chinese in Cuba, 1874--1959.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the transition of Chinese from indentured to free laborers in the late nineteenth century, and the formation of transnational communities in the early twentieth century. Between 1847 and 1874 tens of thousands of men from southeastern Guangdong Province went to Cuba as indentured labor for sugar plantations, providing labor prior to and during the period of gradual abolition of slavery. Restricted during the U.S. occupations (1899-1902 and 1906-1909) and in the early years of the first and second Cuban republics, Chinese immigration was re-initiated in response to a demand for agricultural workers to boost sugar production during World War I. This dissertation examines how racist ideology (in the Spanish colony, the U.S.-occupied island, or the Cuban republics), a multiethnic society, class stratification among Chinese immigrants, kinship and commercial networks, and the gender imbalance converged to shape Chinese experiences in Cuba. While extensive scholarship exists on Asian indentured labor in the Americas, less is known about the subsequent transition of Asians to free agricultural wage earners and small entrepreneurs. Chinese made this transition through various mechanisms, including engagement with the legal system, property acquisition, marriage, interracial alliances, and Chinese networks and associations. Unlike the majority of indentured laborers, many free Chinese migrants in the early twentieth century were able to sustain robust transnational ties to their home villages through remittances and return trips. This dissertation investigates the nature of these relations, including the maintenance of families, education of children, and philanthropic activities. By demonstrating how integration and transnationalism may coexist, this study replaces notions of the Chinese diaspora that define migrants as either sojourners or settlers with a portrait of an early and interactive globalization of labor, politics, and commerce. Through archival and ethnographic fieldwork and a microhistorical approach, this dissertation investigates several villages in the sending regions of China and the Cuban port city of Cienfuegos and its sugar-producing hinterland. It utilizes plantation records, notarial, judicial, merchant, association, and civil records, remittance data, newspapers, and memoirs, drawing upon Chinese-, Spanish-, and English-language sources to trace life histories as well as collective experiences.