Korean Immigrants Place in the Discourse of Mestizaje: A History of Race-Class Dynamics and Asian Immigration in Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract

In May 2005, the Korean community of Mérida, Yucatán, celebrated the centennial anniversary of the arrival of the first 1,033 Korean immigrant laborers who had been contracted to work for four years in the henequen plantations of the region. During the week-long Henequen Festival funded by the Korean embassy, the building hosting the Asociación Coreana reopened after four decades and the Hospital Amistad México-Corea was unveiled along with a commemorative monument. 1)Canal Once TV and MBC, two leading public broadcasting networks respectively from Mexico and Korea, also co-produced a three-part documentary titled Henequen exploring the history of Korean immigration to Mexico. In an interview from Henequen, the then First Lady of Mexico, Marta Sahagun de Fox, expressed gratitude towards the Koreans that came over one hundred years ago and towards their contribution to Mexico and (lack of) Mexican references to Korean immigrants in official government correspondences and Yucatecan print media from 1904 to 1909, this thesis reinterprets the significance of Korean immigration from a Mexican perspective. Unlike most analyses that tend to read Korean immigration only as an extension of Korean history, it contextualizes the event within Mexican history. It also identifies the economic and political interests of the Mexican government and Yucatecan plantation owners in relation to its Korean population.