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(Redirected from Asian Latin American) Latin Americans of Asian descent For the Latino population of Asian descent living in or native to the United States, see Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans. For the population in Asia of Latin American descent, see Latin American Asian.
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Ethnic group
Asian Latin Americans
Asiáticolatinoamericanos
Total population
c. 6,607,730 approximately
Regions with significant populations
 Brazil2,084,288 (self-identified East Asian ancestry)
 Peru1,461,638 estimated 36,841 self-reported
 Mexico1,000,000
 Venezuela500,000
 Argentina344,130
 Colombia213,910
 Panama140,000
 Cuba114,240
 Dominican Republic52,000
 Paraguay51,000
 Guatemala27,000
 Chile25,000
 Ecuador17,080
 Bolivia15,000
 Nicaragua14,000
 Costa Rica9,170
 Puerto Rico6,390
 Uruguay4,000
 El Salvador3,271 (self-reported; 20,000 estimated)
 Honduras2,609
Languages
European Languages:
Spanish · Portuguese · English
Asian Languages:
Chinese · Japanese · Korean · Filipino · Vietnamese · Thai · Malay · Arabic · Hindustani · Tamil · Telugu · Punjabi · Bengali
Religion
Christianity · Buddhism · Taoism · Shintoism · Islam · Zoroastrianism · Hinduism · Sikhism · Jainism
Related ethnic groups
Latino, Hispanic, Asian, Filipinos, Spaniards, Portuguese, European Latin Americans, Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans, Latin American Asian, Asian Caribbean, Chinese Caribbean people

Asian Latin Americans (sometimes Asian-Latinos) are Latin Americans of Asian descent. Asian immigrants to Latin America have largely been from East Asia or West Asia. Historically, Asians in Latin America have a centuries-long history in the region, starting with Filipinos in the 16th century. The peak of Asian immigration occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are currently more than four million Asian Latin Americans, nearly 1% of Latin America's population. Chinese, Japanese, and Lebanese are the largest Asian ancestries; other major ethnic groups include Filipinos, Syrians, Koreans and Indians, many of whom are Indo-Caribbean and came from neighboring countries in the Caribbean and the Guianas. Brazil is home to the largest population of East Asian descent, estimated at 2.08 million. The country is also home to a large percentage of West Asian descendants. With as much as 5% of their population having some degree of Chinese ancestry, Peru and Mexico have the highest ratio of any country for East Asian descent. Though the most recent official census, which relied on self-identification, gave a much lower percentage.

There has been notable emigration from these communities in recent decades, so that there are now hundreds of thousands of people of Asian Latin American origin in both Japan and the United States.

History

Chinese immigrants working in the cotton crop (1890) in Peru.

The first Asian Latin Americans were Filipinos who made their way to Latin America (primarily to Cuba and Mexico and secondarily to Argentina, Colombia, Panama and Peru) in the 16th century, as slaves, crew members, and prisoners during the Spanish colonial rule of the Philippines through the Viceroyalty of New Spain, with its capital in Mexico City. For two and a half centuries (between 1565 and 1815) many Filipinos and Chinese sailed on the Manila-Acapulco Galleons, assisting in the Spanish Empire's monopoly in trade. Some of these sailors never returned to the Philippines and many of their descendants can be found in small communities around Baja California, Sonora, Mexico City, Peru and others, thus making Filipinos the oldest Asian ethnic group in Latin America.

While South Asians had been present in various forms in Latin America for centuries by the 1800s, it was in this century that the flow into the region spiked dramatically. This rapid influx of hundreds of thousands of mainly male South Asians was due to the need for indentured servants. This is largely tied to the abolition of black slavery in the Caribbean colonies in 1834. Without the promise of free labor and a hostile working class on their hands, the Dutch colonial authorities had to find a solution – cheap Asian labor.

Japanese immigrant family in Brazil

Many of these immigrant populations became such fixtures in their adopted countries that they acquired names of their own. For example, the Chinese men who labored in agricultural work became known as "coolies". While these imported Asian laborers were initially just replacement for agricultural slave labor, they gradually began to enter other sectors as the economy evolved. Before long, they had entered more urban work and the service sector. In certain areas, these populations assimilated into the minority populations, adding yet another definition to go on a casta.

In some areas, these new populations caused conflict. In Northern Mexico, tensions became inevitable when the United States began to shut off Chinese immigration in the early 1880s. Many who were originally bound for the United States were re-routed to Mexico. The rapid increase in population and rise to middle/upper class standing generated strong resentment among existing residents. These tensions lead to riots. In the state of Sonora, the entire Chinese population was expelled in 1929.

Today, the overwhelming majority of Asian Latin Americans are either of East Asian (namely Chinese, Japanese or Korean), or West Asian descent (mostly the Lebanese or Syrians). Many of whom arrived during the second half of the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. Japanese migration mostly came to a halt after World War II (with the exception of Japanese settlement in the Dominican Republic), while Korean migration mostly came to an end by the 1980s and Chinese migration remains ongoing in a number of countries.

Settlement of war refugees has been extremely minor: a few dozen ex-North Korean soldiers went to Argentina after the Korean War and some Hmong went to French Guiana after the Vietnam War.

Roles in labor

Asian Latin Americans served various roles during their time as low wage workers in Latin America. In the second half of the nineteenth century, nearly a quarter of a million Chinese migrants in Cuba worked primarily on sugar plantations. The Chinese "coolies" who migrated to Peru took up work on the Andean Railroad or the Guano Fields. Over time the Chinese progressed to acquiring work in urban centers as tradesmen, restaurateurs and in the service industry. By the second decade of the nineteenth century, approximately 25,000 Chinese migrants in Mexico found relative success with small businesses, government bureaucracy, and intellectual circles. In the 1830s, the British and Dutch colonial governments also imported South Asians to work as indentured servants to places such as Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Curaçao and British Guiana (later renamed Guayana). At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Japanese immigrants reached Brazil and Peru. Much like the Chinese, the Japanese often worked as indentured servants and low wage workers for planters. Japanese work contracts were notably more short term than those of the Chinese and the process was closely monitored by the Japanese government to dissuade abuse and foul play. In both cases, the influx of Asian migrant workers was to fill the void left in the Latin American work forces after the abolition of slavery. Employers of all kinds were desperate for a low cost replacement for their slaves so those who did not participate in any illegal slave operations turned to the Asian migrants.

Geographic distribution

Chinatown, Lima-Peru.

Four and a half million Latin Americans (almost 1% of the total population of Latin America) are of Asian descent. The number may be millions higher, even more so if all who have partial ancestry are included. For example, Asian Peruvians are estimated at 5% of the population there, but one source places the number of all Peruvians with at least some Chinese ancestry at 5 million, which equates to 20% of the country's total population.

The Liberdade neighborhood is a Little Tokyo of São Paulo.

The Chinese are the most populous Asian Latin Americans. Significant populations of Chinese ancestry are found in Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Costa Rica (where they make up about 1% of the total population; or about 9,000 residents). Nicaragua is home to 14,000 ethnic Chinese; the majority reside in Managua and on the Caribbean coast. Smaller communities of Chinese, numbering just in the hundreds or thousands, are also found in Ecuador and various other Latin American countries. Many Latin American countries are home to barrios chinos (Chinatowns).

Most who are of Japanese descent reside in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia and Paraguay. Japanese Peruvians have a considerable economic position in Peru. Many past and present Peruvian Cabinet members are ethnic Asians, but most particularly Japanese Peruvians have made up large portions of Peru's cabinet members and former president Alberto Fujimori was of Japanese ancestry who was the only Asian Latin American to have ever served as the head of any Latin American nation (or the second, if taking into account Arthur Chung), Fujimori died in 2024. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan, numbering about 1.7 million with ancestry alone. Brazil is also home to 10,000 Indians, 5,000 Vietnamese, 4,500 Afghans, 2,900 Indonesians, 2,608 Malaysians, and 1,000 Filipinos.

Korean people are the third largest group of Asian Latin Americans. The largest community of this group is in Brazil (specially in Southeast region) with a population of 51,550. The second largest is in Argentina, with a population of 23,603 and with active Koreatowns in Buenos Aires. More 10,000 in Guatemala, and Mexico, This last with active communities in Monterrey, Guadalajara, Coatzacoalcos, Yucatan and Mexico City. More than 1,000 in Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Honduras and Peru where Jung Heung-won, a Korean Peruvian, was elected mayor in City of Chanchamayo. He is the first Mayor of Korean origin in Peru and all of Latin America. There are small and important communities (less 1,000 peoples) in Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Haiti.

Emigrant communities

Monument dedicated to Japanese Immigration in Santo Domingo (Paseo Bellini).

Japan

Main article: Dekasegi

Japanese Brazilian immigrants to Japan numbered 250,000 in 2004, constituting Japan's second-largest immigrant population. Their experiences bear similarities to those of Japanese Peruvian immigrants, who are often relegated to low income jobs typically occupied by foreigners.

United States

Main article: Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans

In the 2000 US Census, 119,829 Hispanic or Latino Americans identified as being of Asian race alone. In 2006 the Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimated them at 154,694, while its Population Estimates, which are official, put them at 277,704.

Composition

Asian Latin American population (incomplete data)
Country China Chinese Japan Japanese South Korea Korean Philippines Filipino Others References
 Argentina No data 65,000 23,063 15,000 2,000
 Bolivia No data 14,178 654 39 No data
 Brazil 350,000 2,000,000 50,281 29,578 No data
 Chile No data 7,500 2,700 8,000 No data
 Colombia No data 4,000 12,000 17,000
 Costa Rica 9,170 No data No data No data No data
 Cuba No data 1200 900 No data No data No data
 Dominican Republic No data 847 675 No data No data
 Ecuador 95,000 10,000 714 1,000 No data
 El Salvador 2,140 176 151 No data 103
 Guatemala 13,700 288 12,918 No data No data
 Honduras 1,415 422 No data No data No data
 Mexico 90,000 75,000 30,000 100,000 1,300
 Nicaragua 14,000 145 745 No data No data
 Panama 258,886 456 421 No data No data Tatyana Ali
 Paraguay No data 9,484 5,039 No data No data
 Peru 1,300,000 160,000 1,493 7,500 No data
 Puerto Rico >2,200 10,486 109 9,832 No data
 Uruguay No data 3,456 216 No data No data
 Venezuela No data 2,000 1,000 No data 10,000

Notable Asian Latino persons

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Cuba

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Asian Mexicans.

Nicaragua

Paraguay

Panama

Peru

Puerto Rico

Uruguay

  • Alberto Abdala, Former Vice-president of Uruguay; Lebanese Uruguayan
  • Barbara Mori, Uruguyan-born Mexican actress; Japanese and Lebanese descent

Venezuela

See also

References

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Further reading

  • Affigne, Tony, and Pei-te Lien. "Peoples of Asian descent in the Americas: Theoretical implications of race and politics." Amerasia Journal 28.2 (2002): 1-27.
  • Avila-Tàpies, Rosalia, and Josefina Domínguez-Mujica. "Postcolonial migrations and diasporic linkages between Latin America and Japan and Spain." Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 24.4 (2015): 487–511.
  • Chee Beng Tan, and Walton Look Lai, eds. The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean (2010) excerpt
  • Fu, Puo-An Wu. "Transpacific Subjectivities:" Chinese"--Latin American Literature after Empire." in Chinese America: History and Perspectives (2018): 13-20.
  • Hu-Dehart, Evelyn. "The Chinese of Peru, Cuba, and Mexico." in The Cambridge survey of world migration (1995): 220–222.
  • Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. "Coolies, Shopkeepers, Pioneers: The Chinese of Mexico and Peru (1849–1930)." Amerasia Journal 15.2 (1989): 91–116.
  • Hirabayashi, Lane Ryo, Akemi Kikumura-Yano, and James A. Hirabayashi, eds. New worlds, new lives: Globalization and people of Japanese descent in the Americas and from Latin America in Japan. Stanford University Press, 2002.
  • Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. "Latin America in Asia-Pacific Perspective Evelyn Hu-DeHart." Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions (2007): 29+.
  • Jingsheng, Dong. "Chinese emigration to Mexico and the Sino-Mexico relations before 1910." Estudios Internacionales (2006): 75–88.
  • Kikuchi, Hirokazu. "The Representation of East Asia in Latin American Legislatures." Issues & Studies 53.01 (2017): 1740005. doi: 10.1142/S1013251117400057
  • Kim, Hahkyung. "Korean Immigrants' Place in the Discourse of Mestizaje: A History of Race-Class Dynamics and Asian Immigration in Yucatán, Mexico." Revista Iberoamericana (2012).
  • Lee, Rachel. "Asian American cultural production in Asian-Pacific perspective." boundary 2 26.2 (1999): 231–254. online
  • Lim, Rachel. "Racial Transmittances: Hemispheric Viralities of Anti-Asian Racism and Resistance in Mexico." Journal of Asian American Studies 23.3 (2020): 441–457.
  • Masterson, Daniel M. The Japanese in Latin America. University of Illinois Press, 2004. 0252071441, 9780252071447.
  • Min, Man-Shik. "Far East Asian immigration into Latin America." Korea & world affairs 11.2 (1987): 331+
  • Pan, Lynn, ed. The encyclopedia of the Chinese overseas (Harvard UP, 1998). pp 248–2630.
  • Rivas, Zelideth María. "Literary and Cultural Representations of Asians in Latin America and the Caribbean." in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature (2019).
  • Romero, Robert Chao, and Kevin Escudero. ""Asian Latinos" and the US Census." AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community 10, no. 2 (2012): 119-138. online
  • Seijas, Tatiana. "Asian migrations to Latin America in the Pacific World, 16th–19th centuries." History Compass 14.12 (2016): 573–581. online
  • Tigner, James L. "Japanese immigration into Latin America: a survey." Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 23.4 (1981): 457–482.

External links

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