Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico
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A Chinese Puerto Rican is a person who was born, or resides, in Puerto Rico, but whose ancestors came from southern China. In some cases it can mean a person of mixed Chinese and Puerto Rican heritage.
During the middle part of the 19th century, immigration from Asia was restricted in Spain's remaining colonies of the Americas. In the early 1860s, José Julián Acosta, when commenting on Fray Iñigo Abbad y Lasierra's written history of Puerto Rico (which recorded events until the latter part of the 18th century), wrote a footnote in which he praises the local Spanish government for rejecting a proposal that would have allowed Chinese laborers to come to Puerto Rico from Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname. These restrictions were lifted in the latter part of the century. Acosta shows in his writings the biases against Chinese laborers prevalent at the time.
Chinese were the first people to arrive in Puerto Rico by large numbers during the 19th century after The United States Congress passed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. This act had forbid the immigration of Chinese to the mainland United States for a period of 10 years. Many of them went to Puerto Rico to work on the island's rail systems, just like many other Chinese who emigrated to other parts of Latin America. Many of the Asian railroad workers in Puerto Rico decided to settle permanently in the island and founded "El Barrio Chino" (Chinatown) in San Juan. Their children were among the first Chinese-Puerto Ricans.
Although Chinese-Puerto Ricans are small in numbers compared to Puerto Ricans of Spanish, Amerindian, or African descent, nevertheless, they form an identifiable structure of Puerto Rican society. Many are involved in operating Chinese restaurants, and others work in other sectors. Many members of Puerto Rico's Chinese minority have integrated both Puerto Rican and Chinese cultures into their daily lives.
Some Chinese have intermarried with Puerto Ricans from the time that they first settled in the island and many of today's Chinese-Puerto Ricans actually have Hispanic surnames and are of mixed Chinese and Puerto Rican descent, e.g., Wu-Trujillo.
Most Puerto Ricans of other races refer to all East Asians as Chinese (as is the case in other Spanish-speaking societies). Because of this, it must be clarified that in Puerto Rico, many Asians from other different countries also live there. Many Chinese not only came from mainland China, but also Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, while other Asian groups came from Japan, Korea, other Latin American countries — especially from Cuba and nearby Dominican Republic — and even mainland United States. Some of the Chinese-Puerto Ricans moved to the mainland United States for a better way of life during the early part of the 20th Century, however many Chinese-Puerto Ricans who immigrated to the mainland United States are migrating back to Puerto Rico, most of whom have set up Chinese food restaurants.
[edit] See also
- Overseas Chinese
- Overseas Chinese in Latin America
- List of notable Puerto Ricans
- Kelis, a successful entertainer of part Chinese-Puerto Rican ancestry
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