Decorative items for sale in Cuba reveal the fusion of cultures.
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A personal letter sent by two daughters who live in Hong Kong. They told their father their family’s details and hoped that he could come back to Hong Kong. Listen to the letter in English above.
From the James and Ana Melikian Collection
A tiny treasure in the James and Ana Melikian Collection shows the family record of Yu Pu Wu (Julio Eng). He was born in Guangdong province in 1900, we speculate from the contents that he had two wives in China and 5 children. At the age of 27 he left China for Cuba, to work as a merchant in Havana. Leaving all of his family behind.
When you see the memo icon, follow along with the Eng family as they live the history of the Chinese in Cuba.
Asking him to come to Canada, or whether he is going to America?
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From the James and Ana Melikian Collection
Application for Eng Sep Nam, aka Jorge Eng, son of Julio Eng, asking to come to Cuba “owing to the political situation in China.”
“By 1932 there were 3.889 Chinese business establishments across Cuba, valued at $3,924,677. These included 1,808 grocery stores, 799 fruit and vegetable stands, 656 laundries, and 312 restaurants. The 18,484 registered Chinese were divided into three catagories: businessmen (8,611), workers (8,246), and miscellaneous (1,627).” 200
Chinese Cubans, A Transnational History, Kathleen López, The University of North Carolina Press, 2013
Like many lonely men who came to Cuba, in 1931 Julio Eng agreed to live with “that western woman” and married her in 1947. They had two children. Now a mix of Chinese and Cuban.
“Naval Bombardment of Santiago’s Harbor Defences, July 2,” Harper’s pictorial history of the war with Spain, by Nelson Appleton Miles, 1839-1925, archive.org
As Anti-Chinese sentiment grew in the United States, many Chinese left for Cuba.
Title: The magic washer, manufactured by Geo. Dee, Dixon, Illinois. The Chinese must go
Creator(s): Shober & Carqueville.,
Date Created/Published: Chicago : Shober & Carqueville Lith Co., c1886.
Medium: 1 print : lithograph, color.
Summary: Cartoon showing Uncle Sam, with proclamation and can of Magic Washer, kicking Chinese out of the United States.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-pga-02758 (digital file from original print) LC-USZC4-2045 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZ62-22398 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: PGA – Shober & Carqueville–Magic washer (D size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
30704R U.S. Copyright Office Office.
In 1861 the Rockland, Maine ship Forest Eagle set sail from Macao bound for Havana, Cuba, carrying 500 Chinese workers – “coolies” – to the sugar fields. The vessel was commanded by Captain Thomas Pillsbury, of Rockland, and had aboard a Coolie Master, John O. Shaw.
Courtesy Penobscot Marine Museum, PMM# LB1980.220.168, Applebee Collection
Wikimedia Commons: Amoy, from Kulangseu, Date: Published 1885, Source: Edwin Joshua Dukes (1885). Along River and Road in Fuh-kien, China. Author: Edwin Joshua Dukes
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