Copyright by Benjamin Nicolas Narvaez 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Benjamin Nicolas Narvaez Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Chinese Coolies in Cuba and Peru: Race, Labor, and Immigration, 1839-1886 Committee: Jonathan C. Brown, Supervisor Evelyn Hu-DeHart Seth W. Garfield Frank A. Guridy Susan Deans-Smith Madeline Y. Hsu Chinese Coolies in Cuba and Peru: Race, Labor, and Immigration, 1839-1886 by Benjamin Nicolas Narvaez, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2010 Dedication To my parents Leon and Nancy, my brother David, and my sister Cristina. Acknowledgements Throughout the process of doing the research and then writing this dissertation, I benefitted immensely from the support of various individuals and institutions. I could not have completed the project without their help. I am grateful to my dissertation committee. My advisor, Dr. Jonathan Brown, reasonable but at the same time demanding in his expectations, provided me with excellent guidance. In fact, during my entire time as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, he was a model of the excellence of which a professional historian is capable. Dr. Evelyn Hu-DeHart was kind enough to take an interest in my work and gave me valuable advice. This project would not have been possible without her pioneering research on Asians in Latin America. I also wish to thank the other members of my dissertation committee – Dr. Frank Guridy, Dr. Madeline Hsu, Dr. Seth Garfield, and Dr. Susan Deans-Smith – for their support and comments. I am indebted to a number of other individuals in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin. This undertaking began as a seminar paper for a Cuban history course taught by Dr. Aline Helg. She was the first one to encourage me to pursue this topic for which I am forever grateful. Dr. Mark Lawrence has been a supportive mentor. Dr. Bruce Hunt, Dr. James Sidbury, and Marilyn Lehman helped guide me v through my graduate work. I wish to thank Mauricio Pajón, Jackie Zahn, Evan Ross, Jen Hoyt, Laresh Jayshanker, Matt Gildner, Chris Albi, Adrian Howkins, Claudia Rueda, Meredith Glueck, and Byron Crites for their friendship and encouragement. I would like to extend special thanks to Bonar Hernández, Lawrence Gutman, Pablo Mijangos, and José Barragán who have read, commented on, and discussed my work with me on numerous occasions. I am also grateful for the support I received from various people outside of UT- Austin’s Department of History. Dr. Kathleen López, Dr. Matt Childs, Dr. Grace Delgado, and Dr. Wendy Hunter offered their assistance at various times. The friendship and help I received from Dr. Camillia Cowling, Dr. Jorge Giovannetti, Matthew Casey, Franny Sullivan, Daniel Rood, and Allison Davis are important to me. In Peru, Dr. Humberto (Tito) Rodríguez Pastor and his family welcomed me into their home. Tito listened to my ideas, responded to them, and helped me find the information I needed to complete this project. His research on the Chinese in Peru contributed significantly to my work on this dissertation. Cecilia Tomanguilla and her family also helped me during my time in Lima. In Cuba, Mitzi Espinosa and her mother Violeta shared books, ideas, and meals with me. Mercedes Guadalupe González Rodríguez and her family helped me navigate life in Havana. Various institutions and their staffs made this dissertation possible. In particular, I wish to thank those who worked at the Benson Latin America Collection at UT-Austin, the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid, the Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, the Archivo General de la Nación and the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in Lima, the Archivo Regional de la Libertad in Trujillo, the Archivo Nacional de Cuba, and the Instituto de vi Historia de Cuba and the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí in Havana. I could not have completed this project without the support of the Fulbright IIE program. On a more personal level, I wish to thank Martha Schultz whose companionship and friendship have helped me not lose sight of what is important in life. I am also indebted to my family more than they will ever know. My grandmother Mabel (Laurie) Paddleford is an inspiration for how to live life positively. My brother David and sister Cristina have always cheered me up in difficult periods and have been the best of siblings. Finally, I wish to thank my parents Leon Narvaez and Nancy Paddleford who encouraged me from an early age to learn Spanish and to take an interest in Latin America and Spain. My father also listened to my ideas for this project, read what I wrote, and provided me with critical responses. To my loved ones I wish to extend un abrazo grande. vii Chinese Coolies in Cuba and Peru: Race, Labor, and Immigration, 1839-1886 Publication No._____________ Benjamin Nicolas Narvaez, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Jonathan C. Brown This dissertation examines the experience of the tens of thousands of Chinese indentured laborers (colonos asiáticos or “coolies”) who went to Cuba and Peru as replacements for African slaves during the middle of the nineteenth century. Despite major sociopolitical differences (i.e., colonial slave society vs. independent republic without slavery), this comparative project reveals the common nature in the transition from slavery to free labor. Specifically, the indenture system, how the Chinese reacted to their situation, and how they influenced labor relations mirrored each other in the two societies. I contend that colonos asiáticos, while neither slaves nor free laborers, created a foundation for a shift from slavery to free labor. Elites in both places tried to fit the Chinese into competing projects of liberal “progress” and conservative efforts to stem this change, causing them to imagine these immigrant laborers in contradictory ways (i.e., free vs. slave, white vs. non-white, hard-working vs. lazy, cultured vs. morally corrupt). This viii ambiguity excused treating Asian laborers as if they were slaves, but it also justified treating them as free people. Moreover, Chinese acts of resistance slowly helped undermine this labor regime. Eventually, international pressure, which never would have reached such heights if the Chinese had remained passive, forced an end to the “coolie” trade and left these two societies with little option but to move even closer to free labor. That said, this work also considers the ways in which the differing socio-political contexts altered the Chinese experience. In particular, in contrast to Peru, Cuba’s status as a colonial slave society made it easier for the island’s elites to justify exploiting these workers and to protect themselves from mass rebellion. My dissertation places the histories of Cuba and Peru into a global perspective. It focuses on the transnational migration of the Chinese, on their social integration into their new Latin American host societies, as well as on the international reaction to the situation of immigrant laborers in Latin America. ix Table of Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................................... xiii List of Figures..................................................................................................... xiv Introduction............................................................................................................1 Chinese Emigration and Coolies in Cuba and Peru during the Nineteenth Century...................................................................................................6 Coolies in the Historiographies of Cuba, Peru, and the Chinese Diaspora...12 Toward a Better Understanding of Chinese Coolies in Cuba and Peru........23 The Meaning of Transition ..................................................................26 A Similar Story, But Not the Same Story..............................................35 Why "Coolie?" A Note on Terminology .....................................................37 Chapter One: Choosing Coolies: The Adoption of Chinese Labor in Cuba and Peru ..............................................................................................................40 Conditions in China ......................................................................................43 Race and the Need for Labor in Cuba and Peru............................................48 Cuba and the Beginning of the Coolie Trade ......................................49 Peru and the Beginning of the Coolie Trade .......................................59 The Chinese Presence in Cuba and Peru.......................................................75 Conclusion ....................................................................................................87 Chapter Two: Getting and Controlling Coolies: A New Form of Labor Relations.......................................................................................................91 Getting Coolies: The Coolie Trade...............................................................95 Recruitment in Macao..........................................................................96 The Middle Passage and Sale in Havana and Callao .......................107 Exploiting and Controlling Coolies in Cuba and Peru................................128 Exploitation and Abusive