Contested Community: Identities, Spaces, and Hierarchies of the Chinese in the Cuban Republic(11 Chinese Overseas)

In Contested Community, the authors analyze the Chinese immigrant community in Cuba between the years 1900–1968. While popular literature of the era portrayed the diasporic group as a closed, inassimilable ethnic enclave, closer inspection instead reveals numerous economic, political, and ethnic divisions. As with all organizations, asymmetrical power relations permeated Havana’s Barrio Chino and the larger Chinese Cuban community. The authors of Contested Community use difficult-to-access materials from Cuba’s national archive to offer a unique and insightful interpretation of a little-understood immigrant group.

Table of Contents:
Map of Cuba frontispiece Acknowledgments ix List of Figures and Tables xi List of Images xiii Note on Names and Romanization xv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Capitalist Expansion, Republican Legislation, and Chinese Immigration 17 Chapter 2 Commercial Relations in the Chinese Community of Havana 36 Chapter 3 Chinese Institutions in Havana: Community and Ethnic Identity 59 Chapter 4 Alternatives to the Monopoly of Ethnic Identity: The Forgotten Chinese 87 Chapter 5 Economic Crisis and World War: Group Protection and Integration Strategies, 1931–1949 111 Chapter 6 Between Two Revolutions: The Politics and Economics of the Chinese Community, 1949–1959 145 Chapter 7 Political Crisis and Institutional Change: The Cuban Revolution in the Chinese Community of Havana, 1959–1968 160 Conclusion 171 Appendix: Timeline of the Chinese in Cuba (1900–1968) 177 Bibliography 197 Index 210

About the Author :
Miriam Herrera Jerez, MA, Instituto Juan Marinello, Universidad de Murcia, is a researcher at the Department of Cultural Heritage, Mayabeque Province, Cuba. The recipient of numerous research awards, she has several publications on the Chinese community. Mario Castillo Santana, MA, University of Havana, is a researcher at the Cuban Institute of Anthropology. In addition to his work on Chinese migration to Cuba, he has also published on such topics as Afro-Cuban identity and Argentine social activism. David L. Kenley, PhD, University of Hawaii, is Professor of Chinese History at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, USA. He is the author of New Culture in a New World (Routledge 2003) and several other works dealing with Chinese migration and identity. Charla Neuroth Lorenzen, PhD, University of Texas-Austin, is Associate Professor of Spanish at Elizabethtown College where she coordinates the Spanish Education program and conducts research on fostering multiliteracy in linguistically diverse classrooms.