Chinese migration to Cuba: racial legislation and colonial rule in the mid-nineteenth-century Spanish Empire. Issue 2 (4th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Regué-Sendrós, Oriol
• Is Part Of: Journal of Iberian and Latin American studies. Volume 24:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 279
• Page End: 292
• Publication Date: 2018-05-04
• Subjects: Cuba -- modern Spain -- Chinese migration -- race -- law -- colonial rule -- Spanish Empire -- indentured labour; Spanish literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Portuguese literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Latin American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Civilization, Hispanic -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Spain -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Periodicals; 306.0946
• DOI: 10.1080/14701847.2018.1492333
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-1847

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article explores how the Spanish metropolitan government re-examined the colonial policy of Cuba while confronting the consequences of Chinese migration to the island during the 1850s. A strong focus on debates about the migrants' labour conditions from the 1860s onwards has overshadowed the first formative years of the migration and has dominated its overall characterization in the historiography. Instead, this article examines the debates that occurred during the 1850s within the metropolitan government. In doing so, it illuminates the intimate relationship between the racialization of the Chinese population, the deprivation of their rights as "free white settlers, " and the colonial authorities' attempts to maintain the socioracial division of Cuban society, upon which Spain's dominance was based. This approach allows us to properly understand forced Chinese migration to Cuba in relation to the broader political strategies adopted by the Spanish colonial authorities in order to maintain control of its most important colony in the mid-nineteenth century.