Asian Latino
Encyclopedia : A : AS : ASI : Asian Latino
- For the usage of the word Latino, please see that article.
Asian Latino might also be a non-offensive term used for mixed-race people of Asian or Asian American and Latin American or Latino descent.
History and Composition
Four million Latin Americans (almost 1% of the total population of Latin America) are descendants of Asian immigrants.
The earliest are the descendants of Filipinos who made their way to Latin America (particularly Mexico) as sailors and crews during the colonial period. For close to two and a half centuries (between 1570 to 1815) many Filipinos sailed on the Manila Galleons, assisting in Spain'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 Acapulco, Mexico.
Most Asians, however, arrived as contract workers or coolies, others as economic refugees (especially from Japan), political refugees (victims of World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War), Asian Indian indentured servants under British rule and many fleeing Communist Party of China rule.
Today, the overwhelming majority of Asian Latinos are of Chinese, Asian Indian or Japanese descent, with Koreans and Vietnamese the most significant groups thereafter. While Vietnamese living in Latin America are almost entirely confined to Cuba and Asian Indians are mostly confined to the Caribbean and Guyana, other Asian groups are represented all throughout Latin America. Most of those of Japanese descent reside in Brazil and Peru, while those of Chinese ancestry are found primarily in Argentina, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Smaller communities of Chinese--numbering anywhere between a couple of hundreds to one or two thousand--also reside in Costa Rica (where they make up about 1% of the total population), Ecuador and various other Latin American countries. There is also a significant Filipino and Taiwanese community in El Salvador. The small Korean communities reside in Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
Most Asian Latin Americans are either white-collar workers, entrepreneurs of small businesses, or owners of Asian cuisine restaurants. In Peru, however, where the Asian (Japanese and Chinese) community is said to constitute some 3% of the population (the largest as a percentage of any Latin American country) they have become a disproportionately influential political and economic power. Many past and present Peruvian cabinet members have been of Asian origin, and even a past president, Alberto Fujimori, was of Japanese ancestry.
Brazil is home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan (numbering about 1.5 million)
Of those that made their way from Latin America to the United States, most live scattered among the largest cities, and can be found living amidst either Asian or Latino communities in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and San Diego.
See also
- Asian-Argentines
- Chinese Cuban
- Chinese Jamaican
- Chinese Mexican
- Chinese Peruvian
- Chinese Puerto Rican
- Japanese-Brazilian
- Japanese Peruvian
- Franklin Chang-Diaz
- Alberto Fujimori
- Ana Gabriel
- Carlos Galvan
- Hiromi Hayakawa
- Chino Moreno
- Barbara Mori
- Kelis
- Indo-Caribbean
- Chinatowns in Latin America
External link
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