El contrabando de chinos en la frontera de las Californias durante el porfiriato (1876-1911)

Abstract

En este artículo se analizan las circunstancias bajo las cuales, a mediados del siglo XIX, un gran número de chinos comenzó a migrar a los Estados Unidos, particularmente a California, en calidad de trabajadores bajo contrato. Se examinan las rutas que siguieron los trabajadores chinos para llegar a América del Norte, así como los métodos que utilizaron para cruzar la frontera entre México y California. También se consideran las posiciones de los gobiernos de Estados Unidos y México en torno al asunto, así como los esfuerzos del Servicio de Inmigración estadunidense para eliminar el “contrabando humano”. El artículo pone especial atención a las dificultades enfrentadas por los gobiernos de ambos países al tratar de controlar este tráfico de personas y las razones de su disminución y desaparición a fines de la década de 1920.ABSTRACTThe article analyzes the circumstances in which great numbers of Chinese began to migrate as contract laborers to the United States, particularly to California, in the midnineteenth century. It examines the routes that Chinese workers used to reach North America, including methods for crossing the Mexico-California border. It also considers the U.S. and Mexican government positions on this issue, as well as the efforts of the U.S. Immigration Service to eradicate the “human contraband.” The article pays particular attention to the difficulties both governments faced in trying to control the trafficking in people and the reasons for its decline and cessation at the end of the 1920s.

Cover image

Keywords

• migración internacional
• indocumentados
• inmigración china
• México
• California

How to Cite

References

1. Archivos
3. AGN Archivo General de la Nación, México, D.F.
4. AHES Archivo Histórico del Estado de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora.
5. ASDN, H Archivo de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, México, D.F., Ramo: Historia.
6. FG Fondo Gobernación, Archivo General de la Nación, México, D.F.
7. FPD Fondo Archivo Porfirio Díaz, Universidad Iberoamericana, México, D.F.
8. FPR Fondo Periodo Revolucionario, Archivo General de la Nación, México, D.F.
9. IIH-UABC Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Tijuana, B.C.
10. NA, RG 59, 812.00 United States, Department of State, Record
11. Group 59, file 812.00, Records of the Department of State
12. Relating to the Internal Affairs of Mexico, 1910-1929,
13. Microcopy 274, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C.
14. NA, RG 84 United States, Department of State, Records of the
15. Foreign Service Posts, Record Group 84, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
16. SDHS, OHP San Diego Historical Society, San Diego, California, Oral History Program.
18. Periódicos
19. El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas.
20. El Paso Herald Post, El Paso, Texas.
21. Los Angeles Herald, Los Ángeles, Cal.
22. Los Angeles Times, Los Ángeles, Cal.
23. New York Times, Nueva York, N.Y.
24. San Diego Evening Tribune, San Diego, Cal.
25. San Diego Union, San Diego, Cal.
26. San Diego Sun, San Diego, Cal.
27. San Diego World, San Diego, Cal.
28. San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, Cal.
30. Bibliografía secundaria
32. “Alleged Illegal Entry into the United States of Chinese Persons”, 55o. Congreso, primera sesión: 1897, Documentos 120, 167 (Serial Nos. 3562 y 3563).
34. “Arrivals of Chinese”, 51o. Congreso, primera sesión: 1889-1890, Senate Executive Document No. 97 (Serial No. 2686), y 52o. Congreso, primera sesión, 1891-1892, Senate Miscellaneous Document No. 67 (Serial No. 2904).
36. Barth, Gunther, Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States, 1850-1870, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 1964.
38. Bennett, Marion T., American Immigration Policies: A History, Washington (D. C.), Public Affairs Press, 1963.
40. Bonifaz, Roselia, “Conformación del Distrito Norte de Baja California,1887-1911”, en Ensenada: nuevas aportaciones para su historia, Mexicali, Universidad Autónoma de México, 1999, pp. 307-365.
42. “Compilation from the Bureau of Immigration of Facts Concerning the Enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Laws, May 23, 1906”, 59o.
44. Congreso, primera sesión: 1905-1906, House of Representatives Report No. 947 (Serial No. 4990).
46. Coolidge, Mary Roberts, Chinese Immigration, Nueva York, Henry Holt and Company, 1909.
48. Cumberland, Charles Curtiss, “The Sonora Chinese and the Mexican Revolution”, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 40, 1960, pp. 191-211.
50. Dobie, Charles Caldwell, San Francisco’s Chinatown, Nueva York, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1936.
52. Farrar, Nancy, “The History of the Chinese in El Paso, Texas: A Case Study of an Urban Immigrant Group in the American West”, tesis de maestría, El Paso, Texas, University of Texas, 1970.
54. ———, The Chinese in El Paso, El Paso, Texas Western Press/University of Texas at El Paso, 1972.
56. Fox, L. Clifford, “Pursuing the Smuggler”, Overland Monthly, 2a serie, LXI (junio de 1913), pp. 531-541.
58. Hagar, Anna Marie, The Filibusters of 1890: The Captain John F. Janes and Lower California Newspaper Reports and the Walter G. Smith Manuscript, Los Ángeles, Dawson’s Book Shop, 1968.
59. Holder, Charles Frederick, “The Dragon in America: Being an Account of the Workings of the Chinese Six Companies in America and its Population of the United States with Chinese”, en The Arena, 32, 177, agosto de 1904, pp. 113-122.
61. Hu-Dehart, Evelyn, “Immigrants to a Developing Society: The Chinese in Northern Mexico, 1875-1932”, Journal of Arizona History, vol. 21, 3, 1980, pp. 275-312.
63. Kung, Shien-woo, Chinese in American Life: Some Aspects of Their History, Status, Problems, and Contributions, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1962.
65. Lai, H. Mark, Outline History of the Chinese in America, San Francisco (California), Chinese-American Studies Planning Group, 1973.
67. Lister, Florence C., y Robert H. Lister, “Chinese Sojourners in Territorial Prescott”, Journal of the Southwest, 31, 1, 1989, pp. 1-111.
69. Loomis, A. W., “The Chinese Six Companies”, Overland Monthly, nueva serie, II, septiembre de 1868, pp. 221-227.
71. Lyman, Stanford M., Chinese Americans, Nueva York, Random House, 1974.
73. McKee, Delber L., Chinese Exclusion Versus the Open Door Policy, 1900-1906: Clashes Over China Policy in the Roosevelt Era, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1977.
75. Mei, June, “Socioeconomic Origins of Emigration: Guangdong to California, 1850-1882”, en Lucie Cheng y Edna Bonacich (eds.), Labor Immigration Under Capitalism: Asian Workers in the United States Before World War II, Berkeley (Calif.), University of California Press, 1984, pp. 224-233.
77. Myers, John Myers, The Border Wardens, Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey), Prentice-Hall, 1971.
79. Ngon, Fong Kom (Walter N. Fong), “The Chinese Six Companies”, Overland Monthly, vol. 23, 4, mayo de 1894, pp. 519-526.
81. Olmstead, Roger, “The Chinese Must Go!”, California Historical Quarterly, 50, 3, septiembre de 1971, pp. 285-294.
83. Perkins, Clifford Alan, Border Patrol: With the U.S. Immigration Service on the Mexican Boundary, 1910-1954, El Paso, Texas Western Press/ University of Texas at El Paso, 1978.
85. Rak, Mary Kidder, Border Patrol, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1938. “Regulation of Coming of Chinese into the United States”, 56o. Congreso, segunda sesión: 1900-1901, House Report No. 2503 (Serial No. 4213).
87. “Report on Chinese Immigration”, 2 de marzo de 1891, 51o. Congreso, segunda sesión: 1890-1891, House of Representatives Report No. 4048 (Serial No. 2890).
89. Reynolds, James Bronson, “Enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Law”, en Emory R. Johnson (ed.), Chinese and Japanese in America: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Philadelphia, 34, 2, septiembre de 1909 (reimpreso en San Francisco por R. & E. Research Associates, 1970).
91. Richardson, James D. (ed.), A Compilation of Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1902, Washington (D. C.), Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1907, 10 vols.
93. Samora, Julián, The Wetback Story, Notre Dame (Ill.), University of Notre Dame, 1971.
95. “Smuggling and Surreptitious Entry of Orientals”, en California and the Oriental: Japanese, Chinese, and Hindus. Report of the State Board ofCalifornia to Governor William D. Stephens, June 19, 1920. Revised to January 1, 1922 (reimpreso en San Francisco por R. & E. Research Associates, 1970), pp. 191-192.
97. “Some Reasons for Chinese Exclusion. Meat vs. Rice. American Manhood Against Asiatic Coolieism. Which Shall Survive?”, folleto publicado por la American Federation of Labor, en 57o. Congreso, primera sesión: 1901-1902, Senate Document No. 127 (Serial No. 4231), Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1902.
99. U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, The Border Patrol: Its Origin and Mission, Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1978.
101. Velázquez Morales, Catalina, Los inmigrantes chinos en Baja California, 1920-1937, Mexicali, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, 2001.
103. Wellborn, Mildred, “The Events Leading to the Chinese Exclusion Acts”, en Annual Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, vol. 9, ptes. 1-2 (1912-1913), pp. 49-58.