The Coolie Speaks: Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves in Cuba (Asian American History & Cultu)

337 Pages·2008·1.48 MB·English

by  Lisa Yun

The Coolie Speaks
In the series
ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
edited by Sucheng Chan, David Palumbo-Liu, Michael Omi,
K. Scott Wong, and Linda Trinh Võ
Antonio T. Tiongson Jr., Edgardo V. Gutierrez, and Ricardo V. Gutierrez, eds.,
Positively No Filipinos Allowed: Building Communities and Discourse
Sucheng Chan, ed., Chinese American Transnationalism: The Flow of People,
Resources, and Ideas between China and America during the Exclusion Era
Keith Lawrence and Floyd Cheung, eds., Recovered Legacies: Authority and
Identity in Early Asian American Literature
Rajini Srikanth, The World Next Door: South Asian American Literature and the
Idea of America
Linda Trinh Võ, Mobilizing an Asian American Community
Franklin S. Odo, No Sword to Bury: Japa nese Americans in Hawai’i during World
War II
Josephine Lee, Imogene L. Lim, and Yuko Matsukawa, eds., Re/collecting Early
Asian America: Essays in Cultural History
Linda Trinh Võ and Rick Bonus, eds., Contemporary Asian American
Communities: Intersections and Divergences
Sunaina Marr Maira, Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New
York City
Teresa Williams- León and Cynthia Nakashima, eds., The Sum of Our Parts:
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Tung Pok Chin with Winifred C. Chin, Paper Son: One Man’s Story
Amy Ling, ed., Yellow Light: The Flowering of Asian American Arts
Rick Bonus, Locating Filipino Americans: Ethnicity and the Cultural Politics of
Space
Darrell Y. Hamamoto and Sandra Liu, eds., Countervisions: Asian American Film
Criticism
Martin F. Manalansan, IV, ed., Cultural Compass: Ethnographic Explorations of
Asian America
Ko- lin Chin, Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States
Evelyn Hu- DeHart, ed., Across the Pacific: Asian Americans and Globalization
Soo- Young Chin, Doing What Had to Be Done: The Life Narrative of Dora Yum
Kim
Robert G. Lee, Orientals: Asian Americans in Popu lar Culture
David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom, eds., Q & A: Queer in Asian America
K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan, eds., Claiming America: Constructing Chinese
American Identities during the Exclusion Era
Lavina Dhingra Shankar and Rajini Srikanth, eds., A Part, Yet Apart: South Asians
in Asian America
Jere Takahashi, Nisei/Sansei: Shifting Japan ese American Identities and
Politics
Velina Hasu Houston, ed., But Still, Like Air, I’ll Rise: New Asian American
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Josephine Lee, Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the
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Deepika Bahri and Mary Vasudeva, eds., Between the Lines: South Asians and
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Carlos Bulosan and E. San Juan, Jr., ed., On Becoming Filipino: Selected Writings
of Carlos Bulosan
Vicente L. Rafael, ed., Discrepant Histories: Translocal Essays on Filipino
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Yen Le Espiritu, Filipino American Lives
Paul Ong, Edna Bonacich, and Lucie Cheng, eds., The New Asian Immigration in
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1882- 1943
The Coolie Speaks
CHINESE INDENTURED LABORERS AND
AFRICAN SLAVES OF CUBA
Lisa Yun
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
Cover image: “A Chapter on the Coolie Trade” by Edgar Holden Harpers, New Monthly, June
1864, vol. 29, issue 169.
Publication of this book is made possible through the generous support of the Chiang Ching-
Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.
Temple University Press
1601 North Broad Street
Philadelphia PA 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2008 by Temple University
All rights reserved
Published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48- 1992
Library of Congress Cata loging- in- Publication Data
Yun, Lisa, 1963–
The coolie speaks : Chinese indentured laborers and African slaves in Cuba / Lisa Yun.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN- 13: 978- 1-5 9213- 581- 3 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN- 10: 1- 59213- 581- 1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Indentured servants—Cuba—History. 2. Alien labor, Chinese—Cuba—History.
3. Slave labor—Cuba—History. 4. Alien labor, African—Cuba—History. 5. Slaves’
writings—Cuba—History and criticism. 6. Revolutionary literature, Cuban—History and
criticism. 7. Cuba—Race relations—History. 8. Cuba—Emigration and immigration—
History. I. Title. II. Title: Chinese indentured laborers and African slaves in Cuba.
HD4875.C9Y86 2008
331.6'25107291—dc22 2007020202
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
To the Yun and Laremont families,
whose heritage spans fi ve continents

Contents
Ac know ledg ments xi
Introduction: Challenges of a Transnational History xv
Chapter 1: Historical Context of Coolie Traffi c to the Americas 1
The Narrative of Transition 1
The Early Experiments 5
Chinese and Indian Coolie Labor 7
Chinese Coolies and “Tea with Sugar” 11
Coolies on Ships and the Passage 14
Coolies on American Ships 21
Coolies on Land 28
Chapter 2: The Coolie Testimonies 36
The Commission Investigation 37
Methodological Challenges of Reading Testimonies 49
Coolie Testimonies and African Slave Narratives 54
Who Were the Coolies? 60
Chapter 3: The Petitions 72
The Witness Petition 80
The Verse Petition 87
The Argument Petition 105
Philosophical Prelude 106
Chasing Freedom 111
Slaves of the Market 133
The Paper Chase Petition 137
Chapter 4: The Depositions 143
Race, Re sis tance, and Spectacular Subordination 146
The Peculiar Fatality of Color 157
Struggle Before Solidarity 163
The Cost of Domination 173
Chapter 5: An Afro- Chinese Author and the Next Generation 183
The Subversive and the Translator 187
The Motley Tongue 196
Liberation, Solidarity, and “Socio- po liti cal Adultery” 209
Coolies and Californians 215