Immigration and National Identities in Latin America
Between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, an influx of Europeans, Asians, and Arabic speakers indelibly changed the face of Latin America. While many studies of this period focus on why the immigrants came to the region, this volume addresses how the newcomers helped construct national identities in the Caribbean, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The essays, from some of the most respected scholars of migration history, examine the responses--some welcoming, some xenophobic--to the newcomers. The contributors also look at the lasting effects that Jewish, German, Chinese, Italian, and Syrian immigrants had on the economic, sociocultural, and political institutions. They explore themes of assimilation, race formation, and transnationalism to enrich our understanding not only of migration to Latin America but also of the impact of immigration on the construction of national identity.
Imagining and Linking Latin America: Chinese Regional Mobilities and Social Networks in Chile
abstract:Studies of relations between China and Latin America have largely focused on economic and political relations between the Chinese state and specific countries in the region, or examined the experiences of Chinese migrants in Latin American countries. This is also true in studies of China-Chile relations. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with ethnic Chinese persons in Santiago, Chile, this article examines how "China" and "Latin America" are mutually constituted and negotiated through ethnic Chinese intra-regional geographical mobilities and social networks. These mobilities and networks illustrate that "China-Latin America relations" are not disembodied macro-processes. Instead, they constitute and dramatically shape the lives and opportunities of ethnic Chinese persons in the Americas. I attend to the concrete ways these persons exchange and create information, and negotiate complex regional identities and networks, in response to historical and contemporary geopolitical uncertainties. In doing so, this article provides an important ground-up perspective to the shifting power dynamics between China and Latin America.resumen:Los estudios sobre las relaciones entre China y América Latina se han centrado principalmente en las relaciones económicas y políticas entre el estado chino y países específicos de la región. También se han examinado las experiencias de los migrantes chinos y chino-descendientes en Latinoamérica. Este patrón también se evidencia en los estudios de las relaciones entre China y Chile. Basándose en una investigación etnográfica y entrevistas con personas de origen chino en Santiago de Chile, este artículo examina cómo "China" y "América Latina" se construyen mutuamente y se negocian a través de las movilidades geográficas intrarregionales y las redes sociales de las personas de la etnia china. Estas mo-vilidades y redes ilustran que las "relaciones entre China y América Latina" no son macroprocesos incorpóreos. En cambio, ellas constituyen y configuran dramáticamente las vidas y oportunidades de las personas de la etnia china en las Américas. Este artículo se enfoca en las formas concretas en que estas personas intercambian y crean información entre ellos, y negocian identidades y redes regionales complejas, en respuesta a las incertidumbres geopolíticas históricas y contemporáneas. Al hacerlo, este artículo proporciona una importante perspectiva desde la base de la cambiante dinámica de poder entre China y América Latina.
THE WELSH COLONY IN PATAGONIA 1865-1885: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
The year 1965 marked the centenary of the establishment of a Welsh Colony in the valley of the river Chubut in Patagonia. While it was but an incident in the settlement history of Latin America, its initial phases (1865-85) illustrate many features of the greatest interest to the historical geographer, which have hitherto escaped attention. Due to the depressed conditions at home, many people from rural Wales emigrated overseas in the first half of the nineteenth century. They sought new homes in territories as far apart as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and South Africa, and in two or three generations their descendants became good citizens of their adopted lands. They often ceased to be able to speak the Welsh language and soon lost contact with Welsh life and culture. The establishment of the Welsh colony in Patagonia was an attempt to counteract this, and to establish a new home overseas where the Welsh emigrants could live together and maintain the language and way of life of the homeland. Such a plan was seriously canvassed by Welsh emigrants in the United States and it was here that the idea of establishing a colony in Patagonia was first mooted. One of the earliest supporters was Michael D. Jones who had settled in Ohio in 1845. His assistance, financial support and encouragement both in the United States and later in Wales constituted an important aspect of the movement. It was, how? ever, due to the enthusiasm of a group of Welshmen living in Liverpool in 1859 that the movement gathered momentum. They had been thinking on similar lines to those of the imigre Welshmen in the United States, and virtually formed them? selves into a Policy Committee complete with Chairman and Secretary. When in 1861 E. C. Roberts (one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the idea in the U.S.A.) returned to Liverpool and joined the committee it can be said that two parallel lines of thought had fused (Williams, 1962). Besides conducting propa? ganda through the Press, establishing contact with representatives of the Argentine Government and organizing numerous public meetings throughout Wales, the committee succeeded in doing three important things, each of which has con? siderable geographical interest.