Chinese in Mexico

Chinese food in Mexico City

2012-01-07T15:32:00.000-06:00

I found this on a Food in Mexico City Blog and it makes me want to go. What I miss in small coastal towns is a variety of food options. Well this should get you started if you are in the "big city".

The young chef, Luís Alfonso Chiu is the son of immigrants from Canton. He grew up in the deco/colonial house, now converted into the restaurant. But the family feeling continues. As chef Chiu presides over the kitchen or mingles with clients his proud parents, Alfonso and Patricia, quietly run the ship.

Chef Luís recounted how his grandparents, who arrived here during the Mexican revolution, had been ‘asked to leave’ during the growing anti-Chinese movement of the ‘20’s and ‘30’s (astute business people, the Chinese were resented by the Mexican upper classes). His parents were born in China but the lure of Mexico remained and they immigrated--lucky for us. The chef grew up here, is as Mexican as mole, but loved the food of his ancestors, so he went back to Canton and Shanghai to study cooking.

Asian Bay Restaurante

Av. Tamaulipas 95 (between Vicente Suarez & Campeche) Condesa
Open Monday - Thursday: 12:00 -10:30 pm
Friday, Saturday 12:00 -11:30 pm
Sun:12-9 pm
Tel. 5553-4582

The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940

2011-01-16T10:09:00.001-06:00

History of Chinese in Mexico documented for first time in English-language book.
By Letisia Marquez December 16, 2010

The little known history of the Chinese in Mexico — one that is marked by a bloody massacre and a successful effort to shut down Chinese-owned businesses in one Mexican state — is documented for the first time in an English-language book authored by a UCLA professor.

“There’s this rich history of the Chinese in Mexico that’s been forgotten for the most part,” said Robert Chao Romero, assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano studies. “It’s been forgotten because it’s a dark chapter in Mexican history, unfortunately.”

The book, titled “The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940” (University of Arizona Press, 2010) notes that Chinese migration to Mexico dates back to the 1600s when Spanish trading ships sailed between Mexico and the Philippines. Small numbers of Chinese immigrants entered colonial Mexico as personal servants of Spanish merchants.

Some Chinese stayed in Mexico to earn their living as tradesmen, barbers and shopkeepers, and often resided in segregated quarters in the periphery of large cities, Romero said.

Wide-scale migration to “Big Lusong,” as the Chinese referred to Mexico, did not occur until much later, according to Romero. About 60,000 Chinese entered Mexico during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many of them with the intent of trying to gain illegal entry into the U.S., which had barred Chinese immigrants in 1882.

(At the time U.S. authorities did not arrest Mexican workers trying to cross the border for higher wages because there were no laws in existence that barred or even limited Mexican immigration to the United States, Romero noted.)

In 1899, the Mexican government also signed a treaty with China to recruit Chinese to work in agriculture in the northern border areas, Romero said. By the 1920s, Chinese immigrants who had settled in Mexico were the second largest immigrant group in the nation — after Spanish immigrants — with a population of 26,000, Romero said. They resided in every Mexican state except for Tlaxcala.

The rest of the Original UCLA Article

Chinesca Culture Offering Found in Tepic

2010-09-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

MEXICO CITY.- A funerary offering of Chinesca culture integrated by 8 ceramic pieces created between 200 BC and 400 AD was found in Tepic municipality, at Nayarit Mexican state. This is the first conjunct of Chinesca objects located in their original place in all Western Mexico.

Six anthropomorphic figures and 2 vessels were found; based on the way they were placed, a reduced space in a half-moon shape, it can be deduced it was part of a shaft tomb.

For the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) specialists, the finding represents an exceptional opportunity to explore shaft tombs of Chinesca affiliation, since these contexts had not been analyzed in situ before.

The distinctive characteristics of Chinesca culture are the oriental features of the figure faces, as well as its pottery, which present a buff colored coating and with fine black and red lines.

Armando Santa Cruz Ruiz, director of Nayarit INAH Center, and archaeologist Mauricio Garduño, informed that the discovery took place at 14 de Marzo locality, where houses are being constructed. Tepic municipal president, Roberto Sandoval Castañeda, gave notice to the Institute so the finding could be verified.

After positively dating the more than 1,600 years old objects, INAH began the salvage and moved the objects to Nayarit INAH Center for their register and restoration.

Mauricio Garduño, responsible of archaeological excavation, detailed that nuclear zone of Chinesca culture was settled in Nayarit high plateau valleys, in Tepic and Compostela, from where it diffused to other regions. “It was a highly developed culture for it time (200 BC to 400 AD), with an advanced agriculture, handcraft production and important commercial activity with groups at the coast, with whom exchanged obsidian and shell.

“Chinesca culture controlled important raw material deposits, such as in Navajas Volcano, where obsidian of excellent quality was found”.

The INAH archaeologist informed that evidence of this culture has been found at Cañon de Bolaños, Jalisco. Material of the same affiliation has been recovered as well in Northwestern Coast that corresponds to the first 2 centuries of the Common Era.

Most relevant funerary architecture in Prehispanic Western Mexico is represented by shaft tombs, underground funerary complexes integrated by crypts with vertical shafts, with rich offerings. “At this kind of Prehispanic tombs, offerings were placed around the shaft, in a half moon shape”.

Finally, INAH will continue doing probing wells in a 2,500 square meters area with the aim of recovering the most information possible, concluded Garduño.

Art Daily Article

The Chinese Clock

2010-08-30T17:49:00.003-05:00

This monolithic timepiece, on Calle Bucareli in the Colonia Juarez in Mexico City, is known as “the Chinese clock.” It is a replica of one that was given as a gift to the Mexican people by the Emperor of China in 1910, to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Anti-Chinese hooligans destroyed it in 1913. The replacement was set in its place in 1921.

From David Lida - The Chinese are coming

Learning Chinese in Mexico

2010-06-07T16:12:00.004-05:00

Damaris De Luna Sanchez, right, and a schoolmate study Chinese at Pedro Garcia Rojas elementary in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Students take five hours a week of Mandarin, four hours a week of English. (Aguascalientes / June 6, 2010)

Learning Chinese in Mexico: Children prepare for the future

As China swiftly expands its reach across Latin America, a pilot program in Aguascalientes aims to introduce students to the Mandarin language and make them more competitive in the job market.

Reporting from Aguascalientes, Mexico — Wo jiao Alberto.

Wo jiao Maribel. Ni ji sui?

Alberto and Maribel, sixth-graders at the Pedro Garcia Rojas elementary school here in central Mexico, introduce themselves to each other in Mandarin Chinese.

Their class also recites numbers, clothing items and weather conditions in a language that, to them, is about as foreign as it gets.

Some, like Damaris De Luna Sanchez, 11, move their hands the way a conductor directs an orchestra, slicing through the air to help them reach the proper intonations, the staccato flats and singsong vowelish sounds.

Their enthusiastic teacher, Gerardo Saucedo, is not Chinese nor has he ever traveled to China, but he has long been fascinated by its language and use of stylized characters as an alphabet.

"Zai dong tian ni chuan shen me?" he asks his uniformed students, dancing down the aisle among girls in plaid skirts and knee socks, and boys in blue sweaters. "What do you wear in winter?"

The sight of youngsters speaking Chinese in the Mexican heartland is unusual, to say the least. Parents told that pupils as young as 9 would be taught Mandarin had been skeptical. Wouldn't French or Italian (Romance languages closer to Spanish) make more sense? some wondered.

Savvy Mexican politicians have other ideas. State authorities launched the pilot language program in Aguascalientes, a working-class city, in hopes of jumping on the Chinese bandwagon. As China swiftly expands its reach across Latin America, Mexico is experiencing a flurry of new Chinese investments in traditional targets like nickel mines and in newer areas like car-part factories and electronics.

For many years, Mexico had lagged behind other big Latin economies, like Brazil and Chile, which saw China displace the United States as their principal trading partner. China spent an estimated $100 billion in Latin America in 2008, but Mexico had only a small piece of it.

Attitudes of xenophobia dating to the early 20th century, when Chinese workers came to the country to build the railroads, continue to inform Mexico's restrictive immigration policies for Asians, said Sergio Martinez of the Mexican-Chinese Studies Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. On top of that, Mexico's notorious bureaucracy and the reluctance of many Mexican companies to compete with cheap Chinese products have slowed the expansion of trade relations.

Complete LA Times article

Mexico at Universal Expo 2010 Shanghai

2010-05-10T09:41:00.001-05:00

Jalisco center stage at Shanghai Expo
From the Guadalajara Reporter

Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez presided over the opening of the Mexico pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo on May 1, highlighting the key issues of sustainability and cooperation, in keeping with the event’s optimistic theme of “Better City. Better Life.”

“We have come to share our vision with the world, recognize the problems that humanity has and offer Jalisco’s and Mexico’s solutions to these problems,” Gonzalez said.

Several Mexican states have been allocated time slots to promote themselves at the Mexican pavilion. Jalisco (often said to be the most typical of the country’s states) kicked off the ball in traditional style to the sound of mariachi music and the elegant movement of folkloric dancers. This privilege was given to Jalisco because of its sister-state agreement with the province of Shanghai.

Pavilion Features

The Mexico Pavilion features a Kite Forest combining colorful kites and green grass, representing the ideas of future urban life as advocated by Mexico. The site will mostly be an open area with an exterior grass slope that creates a large green public space, which embodies ecology, environment protection and peace.

A Journey through the History of Mexico

The pavilion will showcase the past, present and future of Mexico, which can also be interpreted as the history, culture and dream. In the "past" area, three large screens will display Mexico's history and ancient civilization; the current situation of major Mexican cities will be introduced in the "present" area; the "future" area, namely the "kite forest area" on the green slope, will show Mexico's main projects of sustainable development via the interactive touch-screens.

Authentic Mexican Cuisine and Mexican Handicrafts

In addition a restaurant covering an area of 400 square meters will be open in the pavilion. Visitors can enjoy authentic Mexican cuisine, including tacos, burritos, chili, tequila, among others. Apart from that, there will also be a store where traditional Mexican handicrafts can be found.

Mexico at Expo 2010
Mexico Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai

Chinese risk it all to reach US

2010-04-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Chinese migrants know the United States as "Gold Mountain". That name was coined in the Gold Rush, but it is still used today - by the hundreds of Chinese trying to gain entry to the US using increasingly unsafe methods.

Many take dangerous routes to reach the US, but that does little to discourage increasing numbers of Chinese from risking it all across the Mexican border to get here.

Mike Kirsch reports from the US-Mexico border in Arizona in the latest of Al Jazeera's special reports on immigration in America

Al Jazeera news article

Canadian Chinese in Chapala

2010-03-13T20:17:00.004-06:00

This post is not history - this is now. I wish I knew a little more about Betty but maybe you can find out on her Blog. She is Canadian Chinese living in Chapala and seems to be having a good time of it with her family. Here's a video of her son singing a simple English/Spanish lesson.

Here are the lyrics in case you want to sing along.

Pollito Chicken,
Gallina Hen,
Ventana Window,
Puerta Door,
Mesa Table,
Silla Chair,
Lapiz Pencil,
Pluma Pen

And here's her Blog
Chapala Jalisco Mexico

Chinesca

2010-01-09T10:00:00.001-06:00

"Chinesca" is an artful documentary about the Chinese heritage of Mexicali made by Marco Vera and Rafael Velarde. It was presented as part of "..ricorso .." by Armando Rascon.

Chinese in Mexico

Chinos de Mexicali

2010-01-06T15:28:00.000-06:00

Serie de videos Ventana a mi Comunidad. Una producción de Videoservicios Profesionales SA de CV para la Coordinación General de Educación Intercultural y Bilingüe de la SEP México. http://ventana.ilce.edu.mx

Chinese in Mexico

The old Parian on Mexico City's Zocolo

2010-01-04T14:05:00.004-06:00

Mexico City's Parian that sold goods from Asia

Over much of the 17th century, the Plaza became overrun with market stalls. After a mob burned the Viceregal Palace in the 1690s, the Plaza was completely cleared to make way for the “Parian”, a set of shops set in the southwest corner of the Plaza used to warehouse and sell products brought by galleons from Europe and Asia. This was opened in 1703.

On the 4th and 5th of December 1826, Lorenzo de Zavala and General Jose Maria Lobato led a mob of soldiers, artisans, and hooligans attacking the Parian. They robbed and burned it shouting “Death to the Spaniards!” “Long live Lobato and those with fury!” A number of merchants died and most were ruined. President Santa Anna finally had the Parian demolished in 1843. This left the Plaza bare again.

Model in the Mexico City Subway

Old drawing

El Parian de Filipinos en Mexico

Nao de China Exhibit - The Manila Trade

2010-01-04T10:18:00.001-06:00

The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) is proud to announce the opening of a new historical exhibit entitled "Nao de China: The Manila Trade, 1565 – 1815" on Saturday, November 8 in the Center's History & Literary Arts building. The NHCC is located at 1701 4th St. SW on the corner of 4th St. and Bridge Blvd. The opening will take place at 2 pm, is free to the public and authentic Filipino and Mexican refreshments and Filipino entertainment will be provided. In attendance to inaugurate the exhibit will be the Consul General of Mexico in Albuquerque, the Honorable Gustavo de Unanue Aguirre and the Consul General of the Philippines in Los Angeles, the Honorable Mary Jo Bernardo de Aragón.

From 1565 to approximately 1815 there existed a lucrative trade between Spanish merchants and traders in the Philippine Islands using Acapulco and Veracruz ports in Mexico as transshipment points and using Guam as a rest stop on the long voyage across the sea. Since the Philippines had been a center of trade between China and other Asian countries like Siam and India for hundreds of years, even including major trade with Islamic peoples, the Spanish encountered many items that contained different cultural accoutrements. Thus, the ships that sailed from Spain to Veracruz then from Acapulco to the Philippine archipelago brought back to Mexico items of trade, as well as people, which over time became a part of the Mexican folklore tradition.

This exhibit examines some of these Mexican traditions and traces them to the trade that took place with the Philippines, especially through the port of Manila. Such Mexican icons as la China poblana, majólica pottery, papel de china, etc. are examined and their roots traced to the Manila trade which employed large galleon ships called "Naos" to transport merchandise and people. Thus, the title: "Nao de China: The Manila Trade, 1565 – 1815." This exhibit will remain on view through May 30, 2009 and will be accompanied by a series of lectures and public presentations that will be announced at a later date.

Nao de China: The Manila Galleon Trade 1565-1815 Exhibit brochure (PDF)

When Chinese were smuggled into El Paso

2009-06-23T12:31:00.005-05:00

Leon Metz: When Chinese were smuggled into city from Mexico
Leon Metz / Special to the Times
Posted: 06/22/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

Nowadays, if one wanders through Concordia Cemetery, as I do on occasions, there is one site that we can observe through the iron gate -- but can't enter. And I'm referring to the Chinese Cemetery section.

This area is one of the best-kept secrets in the city, a national historic treasure, and yet one of the least-known and least-visited historical areas in El Paso.

We know when the first Chinese arrived, and that would have been 1881 with the arrival of the first railroad in El Paso. The Chinese helped build that railroad, but after reaching the city, they were stranded -- and subsequently deported.

So since the Chinese were denied legal entry into this country, they commenced slipping in by way of Mexico, and thereafter walked north.

During this period a resident Mexican could cross north across the international line with no delays and no papers. Hence, the initial U.S. Border Patrol arose. In popular and local parlance, they were usually referred to as "Chinese Immigration Agents."

But a few Chinese were already here. By 1890, El Paso had an official population of 11,120 residents and 312 were Chinese.

Most of the Chinese lived south of Overland Street, usually in hotels, restaurants, laundries, alleys or in railroad cars where they were often employed. And since most Chinese were men, such things as Chinese family units were essentially nonexistent.

A Chinese information bureau arose at 200 S. St. Louis Street.

Chinese merchandise stores, like American general stores, were usually placed where people could gather, exchange gossip, discuss news and hold meetings. In 1889, the City Council minutes mentioned an El Paso population of 11,069 residents, of which 7,846 were anglos, 2,069 were Hispanic, 810 were black, and 344 were Chinese. During that same year, four Chinese grocery stores opened in the city.

By 1892, the Chinese population had risen to 500, practically all illegally entering the U.S. by way of Juárez. Although some did not remain for any length of time, a great majority of them found El Paso employment with the railroads, or in restaurants, saloons and so forth.

During that same year, El Paso had 15 laundries, 13 of which were Chinese. Twelve Chinese druggists easily found employment. A Baptist Chinese mission opened at 412 San Antonio Street.

And before long, the Chinese had one particular dominant monopoly in town, the laundry business. During 1889, El Paso sported 18 laundries, all but one operated by the Chinese.

But during this period of years, 1870-1910, stories constantly and steadily arose of tunnels under the Rio Grande, and tunnels meandering through various areas and regions, houses and businesses. The only reason for these tunnels was to smuggle Chinese into the country.

Therefore, there used to be -- and perhaps still is -- a home in Sunset Heights known as the "Turtle House." It allegedly has a tunnel leading down and under the city, particularly under the Downtown subdivision of Chihuahuita, and by some a accounts, under the Rio Grande.

I've been in the Turtle House (in the presence of owners, of course), and have opened that entrance door and saw what looked like a totally black tunnel. I was offered an opportunity to crawl inside, but I chickened out.

Up until that particular instant, I never fully realized that I was claustrophobic. So I lost my chance, perhaps, of resolving one of the most interesting and intriguing historical puzzles and mysteries regarding El Paso's remarkable and historic past.

Leon Metz, an El Paso historian, writes often for the El Paso Times. E-mail: cmetz48888@aol.com

El Paso Times article

From Manila to Mexico

2008-11-05T15:21:00.006-06:00

GEMS OF HISTORY
From Manila to Mexico
By Go Bon Juan

When people talk about the galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco (1565 to 1815), much attention is placed on the trade itself, its economic significance, and, to a certain degree, its cultural influence. Little attention is given to the movement of people, especially of the ethnic Chinese.

In volume 2 of the five-volume work entitled Five Thousand Years of History of China and Foreign Cultural Exchange from China’s World Knowledge Publishing House, section six of chapter 10 narrates the settlement of the Chinese in Latin America.

According to documents that date back to around the late 16th century and first half of the 17th century, Chinese merchants, artisans, sailors and helpers arrived in Mexico and Peru to do business or work there, through the Manila galleon trade.

Since Spanish colonizers monopolized the trade between the Philippines and Mexico, the Chinese who went to Latin America had to pass through Manila. Consequently, they were called Manila Chinese. They were mostly merchants, serfs and sailors.

In the late 16th century, in order to develop and exploit Latin America, the Spanish colonizers ordered and allowed Chinese artisans to enter Latin America. Thus, thousands of Chinese artisans, including weavers, tailors, carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, jewelry smiths and barbers were continuously transferred from Manila to work there.

Not only that, as it was said that there were some Chinese sailors on the Manila galleon who could not bear slave labor and the torture they suffered from the Spanish colonizers. Thus, they often escaped when the galleon reached the Acapulco port and settled down across Latin America. It was estimated that in the middle of the 17th century, Manila Chinese who moved to the Americas were about 5,000 to 6,000.

Persecution also encouraged the Chinese to catch the galleon out of Manila. There were periodic mass expulsions, plus five massacres during the 17th and 18th centuries when 70,000 to 80,000 Chinese were killed.

This is the role played by Manila in the history of the Chinese in Latin America. It is safe to say that the forefathers of the Chinese in Latin America, especially those in Mexico, were Chinese from the Philippines or the Manila Chinese.

Manila Times Article

The Chinese Community in Mazatlan - Part 2

2008-05-03T10:10:00.004-05:00

THE CHINESE COMMUNITY IN MAZATLAN:

A JOURNEY FROM PAST TO PRESENT
(PART 2 - The present generation)
By May Q. Wong

While few are comfortable talking about how their families were affected by the backlash of anti-Chinese legislation in Sonora between 1929 and 1931 which forced a mass exodus of families, Juan Chong, a second generation Chinese-Mexican born and raised in Mazatlán, is an exception. Francisco Chong, his grandfather, came to Mazatlán in the 1920s from Hong Kong.

Again - I was asked by May to not use the whole article. Please follow the link

Pacific Pearl article part II

The Chinese Community in Mazatlan - Part 1

2008-04-14T16:48:00.002-05:00

THE CHINESE COMMUNITY IN MAZATLAN:

A JOURNEY FROM PAST TO PRESENT (PART 1)
By May Q. Wong

Imagine strolling the Plazuela Machado, watching families socializing, kids playing…but wait… the faces look more Asian than Mexican! If you were here in the late 1920s, you would have seen more Chinese than Americans or Canadians. Chinese faces may be rare here now, but they have graced this part of the hemisphere since the 1600s when the “Manila Galleons” plied the luxury trade route between the Spanish ports of Manila and Acapulco.

I was asked by May to not use the whole article so here's a link -

Pacific Pearl article Part I

2007 sees colorful Chinese cultural events in Mexico

2008-02-10T11:55:00.001-06:00

By Lisa Fournier
www.chinaview.cn 2007-12-17 10:09:24

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Marking the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Mexico, 2007 has seen a series of colorful and exciting cultural and artistic performances by Chinese artists, such as the "Experience China in Mexico" events and several major Chinese shows during the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato in October.

During the "Experience China in Mexico" festival, which ran from July 20 to Aug. 18 in Mexico City, about 23,000 people watched four major Chinese shows in the City Theatre and in the city's central square, the Zocalo, according to the local culture department.

The shows, "My Dream", "Shaolin Kung Fu", "Heavenly Beauty of Chinese Music" and "Traditional Clothing and Formal Dress from Chinese Dynasties and Ethnic Minorities," attracted great interest from the Mexican audience, offering them a glimpse of a totally different and fascinating culture by way of music, action and fashion shows.

The festival "was an excellent experience and a magnificent opportunity to reevaluate the culture of that country (China)," said Elena Saenz, director of the city's People's Cultures Museum, which hosted the China Craft Treasures exhibition.

While Mexico City hosted China's traditional culture shows, the Oct. 3 to Oct. 21 Cervantino Festival in the central city of Guanajuato showed off the charm of China's contemporary culture, performed by Jilin Song and the Dance Ensemble, the Chinese National Ballet, the Beijing Modern Dance Company, the National Theatre of China and the Sichuan Puppets Group. The festival also hosted the 50-piece Contemporary Chinese Ceramics Show and the Chinese Shadow play for Mexican children.

Some 180 tons of equipment were shipped to Mexico in six containers for the show.

"We overcame the language barriers with subtitling. There were memorable presentations which those of all sensibilities enjoyed, because the language of art is universal," said Cervantino director Mini Caire.

"The Guanajuato shows were a rich and representative selection of China's current art: that of a millennia-old country going through thousands of changes while fighting every day to preserve its traditions," she added.

According to Mexican art experts, 2007 is a model year in China-Mexico cultural relations, with some 700 Chinese artists having passionately showcased their work in various Mexican cities, helping the Mexican people to get to know more about ancient and modern China.

Editor: Sun Yunlong

Mexico: Chinese Community Celebrates New Year

2008-02-10T10:30:00.002-06:00

Se prepara comunidad China en México para recibir el Año de la Rata

Cuadernos de Silicio [es] describes the events surrounding preparations for the Chinese New Year in Mexico City, and that 2008 corresponds to “the Year of the Rat,” a year that members of the Chinese community think “could be favorable for having a lot of children, as it is characteristic of this animal”, he reports.

Mexico City - True to its tradition, the Chinese community in Mexico will be ready to receive the Lunar New Year from 7 to February 10 in Chinatown, the holiday that binds the embassy of the People's Republic of China in Mexico organizing a grand parade.

Traders who are members of the Chinese district of Mexico City since 1980, organized in conjunction with the Delegación Cuauhtémoc and Territorial Historic Center of Mexico City, this event marked by the burning rocket, as well as the traditional dancing lions and Chinese dragons .

There will also be exhibitions of martial arts (kung fu) and other disciplines as tai chi, which involves the management of energy in the body, as well as traditional Chinese dances and fashion shows of traditional Chinese costumes, among others.

A Sinologist Visits Mexico: Some Casual Observations

2007-11-23T16:58:00.002-06:00

A Sinologist Visits Mexico: Some Casual Observations

Lothar von Falkenhausen

On a square in Mexico City¡¦s former Chinatown, a clock erected in 1927 commemorates the Chinese Nationalist government¡¦s gratitude for the local Chinese community¡¦s support of Sun Yat-sen¡¦s revolutionary cause. The immediate origins of this community go back to the mid-nineteenth century, when, as elsewhere in the Western hemisphere, Chinese immigrants were brought in to fulfill the country¡¦s labor needs. A reliable estimate of the number of Chinese in Mexico today does not seem to be available; it would probably be difficult to obtain, due partly to a substantial proportion of illegal immigrants (some of whom eventually move on to the United States), and partly because of issues of definition ¡X for many descendants of the early immigrants have blended into the mainstream of Mexican society and no longer identify themselves as Chinese (Hu-DeHart 1998: 256¡V258). Even so, it seems safe to assume that the Chinese in Mexico now number several times the (possibly inaccurate) figure of 10,000 reported for 1967 (ibid., citing He Mingzhong 1967): a recent news story gives the current Chinese population of just the northern border town of Mexicali as 35,000 (Associated Press 2005). Consequently, a Sinologist visiting Mexico may feel a Chinese cultural presence in many places. In spite of Mexicans¡¦ justified pride in their own cuisine, Chinese restaurants are popular; following cues from their peers in the US, many young males adorn their bodies, clothes, and belongings with the emblems of Chinese martial arts (including dragon tattoos and fantasy ¡§Chinese¡¨ characters); and the presence of ¡§Fengshui stores¡¨ even in provincial locations such as Oaxaca is evidence to a popular fascination with the magical potency of the mysterious East.

This fascination, in Mexico, has a long history, and it takes unique and often surprising forms that, in turn, constitute a fascinating facet of Mexican culture. For instance, in the magnificent eighteenth-century church of La Profesa, two blocks west of the Zócalo in downtown Mexico City, a pair of huge Late Qing export-porcelain vases are displayed on both sides of the main altar. Their painted decoration of warrior figures from popular opera strikes one as being more than mildly incongruous with the sanctuary¡¦s dignified (albeit at times slightly morbid) Christian iconography. An esthetically sensitive Sinologist might, furthermore, be tempted to comment disparagingly on the clash between the (by Chinese standards) poor and hideously kitschy execution of the vases and the fine artistic quality of the Mexican-made church furnishings. But such pedantry would miss the point: undoubtedly, those who placed the Chinese vases near the altar of La Profesa valued them not as works of art, but because they stand out. Perhaps, these vases were perceived as embodiments of Mexican connections to far-away places, their placement in the church symbolically appropriating the resources of those exotic locales to the purposes of Roman Catholic worship.

A cup of Kangxi period (early 18th century) excavated from Templo Mayor, Mexico City. Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City.

Sinologist Visits Mexico: Some Casual Observations - Full Article

Ley family represents immigrants´ success

2007-10-21T11:24:00.001-05:00

The family of Chinese immigrant Juan Ley Fong has become a leader in the nation´s business and baseball communities

BY JONATHAN CLARK/The Herald Mexico
El Universal
January 03, 2006

CULIACÁN, Sinaloa - In 1910, a 10-year-old boy named Lee Fong left his home in Guangdong province, China, and stowed away on a boat headed for Mazatlán. When he arrived at the Sinaloa port city, he was taken in by a Chinese man already well-established in Mazatlán who helped him to learn Spanish and adjust to his new surroundings. Lee´s family name became Mexicanized as "Ley," and he adopted a new first name, Juan, to match. Soon, Juan Ley Fong was himself an established figure in the community.

"It was a very difficult situation for a boy of 10 or 11 years," said Álvaro Ley López, one of Ley Fong´s nine grown children. "But he had a fighting spirit. Plus, he was very sociable and had a good way with people."

He also had a way with business, and he soon began a series of mercantile operations that would eventually spawn the Ley supermarket chain. Today, that chain includes 124 outlets stretching across 10 northwestern states, where the trapezoidal red-and-white Ley logo is almost as ubiquitous as the golden arches of McDonald´s in the United States.

Ley Fong´s other passion was baseball, and his efforts in promoting the sport in the nation´s northwest earned him an induction into the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. Today, the Ley family continues that tradition as owners of two of the nation´s most reputable baseball franchises: the Culiacán Tomateros of the winter-season Pacific League and the Saltillo Saraperos of the summer-season Mexican Baseball League.

The story of Juan Ley Fong is not an uncommon one in Sinaloa, where a wave of Chinese immigrants arriving at the turn of the century managed to establish themselves as leaders of the state´s commercial sector. Their success, however, spawned a wave of resentment and discrimination that would result in attacks, deportations and anti-Chinese legislation. Still, the Sinaloan Chinese persevered, and today, surnames like Pic, Sam, Tang, Qui, Pug and Ley are as much a part of the local community as López, Hernández or Martínez.

ECONOMIC SUCCESS BRED RESENTMENT

The first national census in 1895 counted 1,026 Chinese in Sinaloa. By the time Juan Ley Fong arrived in 1910, the number had jumped to 13,118. Most of the immigrants were railroad or agricultural workers who came to Mexico by way of San Francisco, but as they became acculturated, many moved into the business sector. By 1919, almost a quarter of the registered businesses in the state were owned by Chinese immigrants.

The 1920s and 30s were tough times for Mexico. The economy was left in shambles by a decade-long civil war, and the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent worldwide depression only made matters worse. In states like Sinaloa, some Mexicans began to look at the relative economic success of the Chinese with bitterness and envy.

Soon, anti-Chinese committees began popping up throughout the north to promote an anti-immigrant agenda. In some states they successfully advocated for laws that required all businesses to employ an 80-percent Mexican workforce. In other cases, they won legislation outlawing Mexican-Chinese marriages. At the same time, affiliated street gangs harassed and attacked immigrants with relative impunity.

Responding to nationalistic sentiment, some state and federal governments used the new anti-Chinese legislation and existing immigration law to initiate a series of deportations. When violent disputes between rival Chinese political factions spilled over onto Mexican soil, the perpetrators were deported. Chinese immigrants accused of cultivating poppies and trading in opium were also kicked out of the country. Even violators of the "80 percent" laws or interracial marriage bans could find themselves forcibly loaded onto boats bound for China.

According to León Velásquez, head of Sinaloa´s state historical archive, the underlying motivation for the deportations was a feeling among local businessmen that they were losing control of the state economy to the immigrants.

"It was really just a way of expropriating Chinese-owned businesses," said Álvaro Ley.

In 1931, Chinese immigrant and businessman Agustín Lau was led away by federal troops, supposedly to a ship waiting at Mazatlán to ferry him back to China.

"There is no evidence anywhere that shows that my grandfather, expelled by the government of that era, arrived at the ship," said Ramón Elías Lau Noriega, two-time secretary of Culiacán´s municipal government. "For that reason, we can only assume the worst."

DISCOVERING BASEBALL IN DURANGO

Juan Ley Fong escaped deportation - or worse - by fleeing to the isolated mountain town of Tayoltita, in Durango state, where he found work as a supplier to a U.S. mining company.

He also met and married a local woman, and the couple had 9 children: 6 boys and 3 girls. With no other Chinese in Tayoltita, the children were raised almost completely within Mexican culture.

"My father never learned to speak Spanish perfectly - he always had trouble with the ´r´ sound," said Álvaro Ley. "Still, we only spoke Spanish at home."

In fact, the only Ley child who ever learned to speak Chinese was Sergio Ley López, currently Mexico´s ambassador to China. But he learned the language as a diplomat, and speaks the dominant Mandarin dialect rather than his father´s native Cantonese.

Due in large part to the concentration of U.S. mining engineers in Tayoltita, the town was home to a thriving four-team baseball league. When the oldest of the Ley children, Juan Manuel, began to play shortstop for one of the teams, Ley Fong became enthralled with the sport.

After the family returned to Sinaloa in 1954, this time to the capital city of Culiacán, Ley Fong began sponsoring teams in a local, semi-professional league. He went on to help form a series of regional professional leagues that led to the creation of today´s Pacific League. Along with Juan Manuel, Ley Fong founded the Culiacán Tomateros, who, since their debut in 1965, have won nine Pacific League championships along with two titles at the Caribbean Series, an annual tournament between the best teams from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
At the same time that he was launching the Tomateros, Ley Fong was running a bustling general goods store in Culiacán. When he died in 1969, his six sons, led by Juan Manuel, took over the family business.
Supermarkets were beginning to make their appearance in Mexico at this time, a development that had not met with Ley Fong´s approval.

"My father was not very enthusiastic about supermarkets," said Álvaro Ley. "He thought they lacked a personal touch."

But Juan Manuel had a different opinion about supermarkets, and in 1970, the first Ley supermarket opened in Culiacán.

A FATEFUL FRIENDSHIP

The chain grew slowly and steadily throughout the decade until Juan Manuel, while scouting for ballplayers in the United States, met Peter Magowan, owner of the Safeway supermarket chain and the San Francisco Giants baseball franchise. The two men struck up a friendship, and in 1981 Safeway purchased a 49 percent share of Ley supermarkets. With the infusion of new funds, the chain entered into a period of rapid expansion.

At the same time, the family began developing other business interests. They invested in agriculture, and are now one of the nation´s top tomato exporters. They also bought cattle and swine, opened a chain of bakeries, and created their own line of salsas.

The Leys also expanded their baseball interests when they purchased the Saltillo Saraperos franchise in 1999. They focused on relentlessly promoting and marketing the team - a surprisingly little-used formula in the Mexican Baseball League - and created a ballpark atmosphere that was family-oriented and filled with music, promotions and fireworks.

"Baseball is not just a game played on the field," said Álvaro Ley, who serves as adjunct president of both the Culiacán and Saltillo franchises. "You have to promote it, you have to work hard at creating a fan-friendly environment. That´s what we have tried to do, and now we see that model being repeated with other teams around the league."

For such innovation in promoting and marketing baseball, Juan Manuel Ley, president of the family´s baseball operations, joined his father in the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

MOVING FORWARD

Today, the Ley family is experiencing formidable opposition to its plans for further expansion in both business and baseball.

"The arrival of Wal-Mart has been very difficult," said Álvaro Ley, when asked about the future of the supermarket chain. "Wal-Mart is a huge company that works not so much as a competitor, but as a predator that seeks to eliminate those around it."

As for baseball, the family seeks to continue its promotion and development of the sport in Mexico, but sees a major roadblock in the nation´s two television chains, Televisa and TV Azteca, which both own professional soccer teams and are hesitant to give airtime to competing sports.

Still, Álvaro Ley remains optimistic.

"That´s the way all businesses are," said Álvaro Ley. "Wal-Mart, for example, is a very big business, and so they seem invincible. But it´s not a case of beating Wal-Mart, it´s a matter of taking advantage of the market and finding your place in it."

And that is essentially what thousands of Chinese immigrants accomplished in Sinaloa, where men like Juan Ley Fong endured prejudice and deportations to find a place for future generations of Chinese-Mexicans in the state.

"There´s a normal, natural respect here for what the Chinese immigrants and their descendants have accomplished," said Álvaro Ley.

He recalled the deportations of the 1930s, as well as the World War II era when virtually all Asian people in the Americas faced discrimination. But he said that those days had long passed.

"Now, there are many Chinese-Mexicans here and we don´t feel the slightest bit of racism," he said. "In the generation of our children, it´s a completely normal relationship."

Javier Cabrera Martínez of EL UNIVERSAL contributed to this report.

El Universal article

1421: The Year China Discovered America?

2007-05-18T12:07:00.001-05:00

On PBS
PBS Reviews - 2007

1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED AMERICA?, airing on PBS Wednesday, July 21, investigates a theory that could turn the conventional view of world history on its head: the startling possibility that a daring Chinese admiral, commanding the largest wooden armada ever built, reached America 71 years before Columbus.

The documentary examines the mystery surrounding China's legendary Zheng He and the spectacular Ming fleet of treasure junks he commanded in the early 15th century. The special provides a history of the known journeys of Zheng He's fleet and an account of new information uncovered by Gavin Menzies, a former British submarine commander who has spent nine years trying to prove that Zheng reached America decades before Columbus. Menzies, author of the best-selling book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, has assembled evidence that he believes substantiates his theory.

The first part of the documentary presents 15th-century China as an emerging super-nation with an armada of treasure junks that dominated the Indian Ocean. At the behest of Chinese emperor Zhu Di, Zheng He sailed this fleet to far-flung outposts throughout the eastern hemisphere, established major ports and extended the commercial reach of "the Middle Kingdom" far beyond its previous bounds. The first segment recounts this story through re-enactments, extensive location filming and innovative computer graphics imaging models of the fleet itself.

1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED AMERICA? then investigates the major historical mystery that arises from Menzies' theory: Could this incredible and intrepid fleet have shown the European explorers the way to the west - reaching America's shores decades before Columbus? Menzies seeks to prove his extraordinary theory by retracing the steps he believes the Chinese took from Africa to Europe to the Caribbean and along the eastern coast of the United States. The program examines the evidence behind his theory, then puts it to the test, drawing together historical accounts, archaeology and information from consultations with contemporary historians, archaeologists and scientists. The results are often dramatic and - like Menzies' theory itself - highly controversial.

Tramways of Lerdo

2007-05-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

The Tramways of Lerdo, Gómez Palacioand Torreón
By Allen Morrison

And, amazingly, tramway development did not stop there! The most unusual tramway in Torreón - perhaps in all Mexico, perhaps in the whole world - was built by the Compañía Bancaria y de Tranvías Wah Yick, founded in 1906 by a Cantonese named Wong Foon Chuck.
Chinese immigrants flocked to Mexico's boom town, opened laundries, restaurants, clothing stores and banks and developed agriculture and real estate on the city's east side. In June 1907 CBTWY announced that it would build an electric railway from Torreón to Matamoros and San Pedro 26 km east of the city. Nothing came of that plan, but in June 1908 CBTWY began laying track for a local tram line, from the cemetery on the city's west side along Av. Morelos to the Chinese settlement on the east [see map]. FELT tried to prevent CBTWY from crossing its tracks, but a thousand Chinese completed the job during the night of 1-2 January 1909.
Unfortunately, news sources dried up after that date. It is not known if CBTWY ever opened its line - or what vehicles it used if it did. Anti-Chinese sentiment festered during the Mexican Revolution and in early 1911 the Madero forces followed the tramway line into the city [Archivo Histórico "Juan Agustín de Espinoza, S.J." at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Torreón]: Between 13 and 15 May 1911, the Revolutionists killed 303 Chinese in Torreón, including most of the officers and employees of the CBTWY.

Tramways of Lerdo Article

The Pre-Columbian Lacquer of West Mexico

2007-04-01T09:36:00.000-05:00

The Pre-Columbian Lacquer of West Mexico
by Celia Heil
Evidence of Lacquer Technology Diffusion

Lacquer, known in Mexico as Maque, in China as Ch'í-Ch'í and in Japan as Urushi, was a technology well-known in Michoacán, on the west coast of Mexico, at the time of the Spanish invasion. The process of lacquering was practiced for several centuries by pre-Columbian Amerindians in what today are the States of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Michoacán, and perhaps as far north as Sinaloa. The pre-Columbian Maque technology is mentioned in the Mendocino Codex, by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in his Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España, [General History of the Matters of New Spain] and also by Fray Mendieta in his Crónicas de Nueva España [Chronicles of New Spain].

China is regarded as the original home of lacquer. The Chinese recognized the protective qualities of the sap at least three thousand years ago (Casals, 1961:7). From China it was introduced to Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and India, (Abrams 1984:19; Garner, 1969:16), and it seems, also to west Mexico. The earliest known example of Chinese lacquer dates from the Shang Dynasty, ca. 1523-1028 BC, when the middle kingdoms of China began using lacquer on household utensils, furniture, art objects, and to preserve historic records carved on bones and bamboo (Abrams, 1984:20).

The oldest fragments of lacquered objects found in Japan so far, occur before the Jomon period, ca. 6th to 3rd centuries B.C. Archaeological excavations have produced artifacts and fragments of lacquered objects dating from the Yayoi period ca. 250 BC-250 AD (von Ragué, 1967:4-5). In Japan lacquer producing trees became as important as the Mulberry for silkworms and paper making, and tea producing plants (Hayashi, 1983:360). Formal lacquer production in Japan can be defined to occur during the Kofun period, ca. 3th to 6th century (von Ragué, 1967:5; Casals, 1961:8). With the introduction of Buddhism in the 6th century lacquer became the medium to religious decoration.

Uruapan in Michoacán is considered the cradle of maque together with other centers in Chiapas and Guerrero. Maque art flourished there long before European contact. How did the Michoacán people come to know this art? Did they develop it? Was it introduced from Asia? If so, when and how? Maque in Michoacán probably dates from between the 8th and 12th centuries, when a wave of cultural innovations appeared in Michoacán, along with metallurgy and a new ceramic style.

Perhaps it was introduced earlier by the Buddhist monk, Hui Sheng, who in 458 A.D. led a group of monks from the kingdom of Jibin, today called Cachemira, on a voyage to the land of Fusang or Fusangguo, as recorded in the Chinese encyclopedia and other historical documents. Fusang is the Japanese word for a tree and describes the saguaro cactus plant native to Mexico, and guo means "country" or "land." Hui Shen returned to China 41 years later, in 499, and reported his findings to the Xiao kingdom of the Qi state. It was recorded as his personal testimony during the Liang dynasty between 520 and 528 (Vargas, 1990:13-14).

In 1920, the Secretary of the Chinese Legation in Mexico and the artist Gerardo Murillo, better known as Dr. Atl, were convinced that about the year 600 AD, the Chinese reached the west coast of Mexico to where now are the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Jalisco, and Nayarit. Dr. Atl published an article titled "The Chinese were the discoverers of our nation" in the newspaper Excelsior, on May 22, 1921. He speculated that merchants introduced the lacquer technology (de Paul León, 1922:56; Zuno,1952:145).

There is a story in Nayarit of a pre-Columbian Asian ship that arrived on their coast and was cordially received by the chief of the Coras. Archaeology in Nayarit has produced artistic tripod ceramic funerary urns in tombs known as tumbas de Tiro y cámara (shaft and chamber tombs); dated ca. 1000 to 200 BC.

The culture known as Ancient Coras (400-900 AD) practiced terraced agriculture, and between 900 to 1200 metallurgy was introduced (Encyclopedia de Mexico, Vol.9:671-672). Indeed, a multitude of evidence indicates that a vast network of Pacific rim merchants traded along the coast of the American continent from Peru to Alaska (Murra, 1991). (Fig.1,2)

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Chinese Stories - Asian American Film Festival 2001

2007-03-05T16:05:00.000-06:00

This short film is probably not to be found anywhere 6 years later - but who knows

Chinese Stories
DIRECTOR: Luciana Kaplan
Mexico 0:32:00 Color Spanish/Chinese

As a Chinese restauranteur apologizes to Lord Buddha for replacing him with the "new boss," the virgin Lupita, so begins this historical, yet personal account of the Chinese diaspora in Mexico. Combining old movie footage with archival photographs, government documents, news headlines and interviews, CHINESE STORIES aptly summates the Chinese immigrant experience in the ambush of colonialism, capitalism and racism. From "Wholesale Chinese" to "Yellow Peril" to present-day difficulties becoming a naturalized Mexican citizen, one is called to rethink the question, "Is this the beginning of the end of a race?"
Anita Chang

Mexicali's Chinatown: Sharks fin Tacos and Barbecued Chow Mein

2007-03-04T06:59:00.001-06:00

Less than 500 metres south of the U.S. border, in front of a rose-stuccoed shopfront signposted 'Mexburger', a technicolour banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs side by side with a red paper lamp bearing Chinese characters. Although nearly three months have elapsed between the Feast Day of Guadalupe and Chinese New Year, here in Mexicali--capital of Baja California, Mexico--the Chinese Mexican family who own the restaurant invoke all the heavenly powers to bring more business into their tiny cafe.

Four elderly Chinese men, two of whom sport the stiff straw cowboy hat common to northern Mexico, kibitz over hamburgers and green tea, speaking a mixture of Cantonese and Spanish. Along with burgers and chow mein, the red-bordered wall menu offers shark-fin tacos--perhaps the ultimate California surfer's revenge.

The only Mexican border town that's also a state capital, Mexicali boasts Baja California's largest population, an officially recognised 850,000. City promoters make much of the fact that the city is considerably less tourism-dependent than slightly larger Tijuana to the west; in Mexicali you won't find any zebra-painted burros on street corners, nor a bar strip designed to entice norteamericanos.

As citizens of the state capital, Mexicalienses see themselves standing a step closer to Mexico City, yet at the same time can claim to be true cachanillas. Like the cachanilla, a sturdy desert plant that flowers in arid, saline soil, Mexicali has flourished at the edge of the harsh Sonoran Desert and bloomed as one of Mexico's most prosperous communities. Mexicali's Chinese are proud to include themselves among cachanillas; many can sing or recite the verse from Antonio Valdez's famous corrido 'El Cachanilla,' which says, 'Mexicali fue mi cuna' ('Mexicali was my cradle').

Mexicali lays claim to perhaps the highest per capita concentration of Chinese residents in Mexico, but the current count of 5,000 of Chinese ancestry hardly compares with Chinese colonies in large U.S. cities like San Francisco or New York. Earlier this century, however, Mexicali was numerically and culturally more Chinese than Mexican.

The first Chinese to arrive in the area at the turn of the century signed on as labourers for the Colorado River Land Company, an American enterprise which designed and built an extensive irrigation system in the fertile Valle de Mexicali. Some immigrants came overland from America, often fleeing officially sanctioned anti-Chinese policies in the U.S., while others sailed directly from China via the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. As in California, thousands of Chinese coolies were lured to the area by the promise of high wages that never materialised.

A 200-meter desert peak near Baja California's Crucero La Trinidad is named El Chinero in memory of a group of 160 Chinese labourers who perished while crossing the San Felipe Desert in search of work in the valley. The desert itself was known for a time as El Desierto de los Chinos, 'Desert of the Chinese.' An unscrupulous boatman landed the group at a fork in the Rio Colorado, telling them Mexicali was only a short distance away; sixty-five kilometres of burning desert lay between them and the goal they never reached.

Many of the Chinese labourers who survived the building of the irrigation system stayed on after its completion, congregating in an area of Mexicali today known as Chinesca ('Chinatown'). Especially during the U.S. Prohibition years, when Americans flocked to Mexican border towns to partake of the alcoholic beverages outlawed at home, Chinese labourers and farmers moved into the city and spent their hard-earned savings to open bars, restaurants, and hotels. Chinesca eventually housed virtually all of the city's casinos and bars, and an underground tunnel system connected bordellos and opium dens with Mexicali's counterpart city on the U.S. side, Calexico. Bootleggers also used this route to supply the U.S. with booze purchased in Mexico. Many, but by no means all, of the Prohibition-era businesses were operated by chinos.

By 1920 Mexicali's chinos outnumbered the mexicanos 10,000 to 700. A group of 5,000 single Chinese males started the Asociacion China, a Mexicali social organisation at least partly devoted to the procurement of Chinese wives from overseas. The association remains active today. In 1927 a series of Tong wars in northern Mexico erupted over control of gambling and prostitution rings. Mexican alarm over the Chinese participation in organised crime led to the government-encouraged Movimiento Anti-Chino in the late 1920s, a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that swept the country and led to the torture and murder of hundreds of Chinese in northern Mexico--a tragic echo of what happened on a larger scale in California in the 1880s. To Mexico's credit, the government never enacted an equivalent to the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act, which for a time prevented all persons of Chinese heritage from holding U.S. citizenship.

Mexicali quickly became a refuge for Chinese fleeing the violence on both sides of the border, since in that Chinese-dominated city the clans were strong enough to protect their own. As the anti-Chinese movement faded away, still more Chinese arrived in Mexicali, which became the Mexican headquarters for the Kuomintang, Sun Yat-sen's nationalist Chinese party. During World War II, the nationalists were pushed out of China first by the Japanese and then by the Communists. In a humanitarian change of heart, the Mexican government loosened its immigration policies to allow a large number of Chinese refugees into Mexico in the 1940s.

By the end of the war, Mexicali featured just two cinemas; both of which screened Chinese movies almost exclusively. But as the city recovered from the post-Prohibition recession, a steady influx of Mexicans diluted the local population until the Chinese once again became a minority. Until Mexico severed diplomatic relations with the nationalist Taiwan government in the 1960s, Mexicali harboured a Taiwan consulate, which became a magnet for overseas Chinese travelling between the U.S. and Mexico. The consulate promptly moved across the border to Calexico, later to close when the U.S. in turn withdrew its recognition of Taiwan. Although the Calexico consular office continued operations under the name Coordinating Council for North America, the loss of the Taiwan consulate virtually ended the influx of new Chinese to the area.

Mexicali still boasts more Chinese restaurants per capita than any other city in Mexico, and a smaller Chinesca survives in the downtown area near the border, close to the intersection of Avenida Madero and Calle Melgar. Local Chinese associations struggle to preserve the arts and culture of the homeland through the sponsorship of Chinese festivals, calligraphy clubs, and language classes. But in most aspects, Chinese cultural life has blended with local Mexican and American traditions to create a unique, hybrid culture like that exemplified by the Mexburger Cafe.

At last count well over a hundred Chinese restaurants could be found in Mexicali. Cantonese cooking predominates, but with few exceptions it's not the sort you'd recognise from Canton or Hong Kong--or Vancouver or San Francisco, for that matter. As in many Chinese restaurants outside of Asia, immigrant cooks have adapted their native cuisine to local tastes. Almost every Chinese restaurant in Mexicali, for example, serves each dish with a small bowl of what tastes like generic steak sauce, a distinctly norteno touch. As in the rest of the country, the city's Chinese restaurants are among the most economical places to eat. To satisfy Mexican appetites accustomed to stacks of tortillas, lard-laced beans, heavily seasoned rice and barbecued meats, Mexicali's Chinese restaurants serve huge individual portions that might feed a family of five in China.Some dining rooms represent the ultimate in Chinese restaurant kitsch and are worth visiting for their exterior and interior designs alone. Along Mexicali's broader avenidas huge multi-room palacios with curving green-tiled roofs and red-and-gold lacquered pavilions invoke the imperial architecture of China past. The word 'Dragon' appears in no less than four local restaurant names.

Local chinos stick with the smaller, less ostentatious cafes in congested Chinesca. In addition to Mexburger, China Town (701 Avenida Madero, tel. 54-02-12) makes a good choice if you're touring the district.

Text copyright © Joe Cummings/ CPA 2001.
CPAmedia Article