Traducciones

Intro

The photographic series Chinos Cubanos was conceived by its author, the documentary photographer Pok Chi Lau, to show the multiracial nature of the faces of Chinese descendants in Cuba and the filial relationship with their ancestors (blood or otherwise) expressed in the photographs and documents that they hold in their hands as valuable testimonies of the link with their ancestors and with China, that country they do not know, but of which they feel part. These photographs represent the current ethnic composition of the Cuban Chinese community formed from the year 1847 with the arrival in Havana of the first Chinese immigrants aboard the Oquendo ship.

80 photographs from the Chinos Cubanos series have been collected in this digital exhibition called Chinos Cubanos: a Pok Chi Lau exhibition. These photographs were captured during the Hong Kong photographer's trips to Havana, Sagua la Grande, Matanzas, and Santiago de Cuba between 2009 and 2019. Tusanaje-秘从中来 through its digital library IdenTusanes - 秘籍 (秘从中来电子资源库) is honored to present this photographic testimony as a tribute to its author and the Chinese community in Cuba.

Foreword

I am grateful for the homage that Tusanaje - 秘从中来 pays to the Chinese Community in Cuba with the exhibition of Pok Chi Lau's work. Faces very familiar to me - since I am also a member of that community - that show more than the multiracial diversity, the transcultural richness of the ethnographic processes exhibited by our Latin American Chinese communities. Many aspects of the Cuban Chinese community, one of the oldest in the Americas, are still insufficiently explored and little known. Due to the lack of documents and the physical disappearance of the migrants, it is difficult at this point to undertake studies detailing the many different aspects of its origin and development. A large part of the current members of the community does not know the specific place of origin of their ancestors, the village, the district where they came from. For them, saying ‘Canton’ is enough, without even imagining the vastness of this Chinese province. Pok Chi Lau realized these shortcomings, as well as the great losses. As the photographer comments, they hold on to a few images, memories, and anecdotes, which, as time goes by, these children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., enrich with the flights of personal appropriation. The ethnocultural process in which the bio-cultural crossbreeding was outstanding is captured in Pok Chi Lau's work and goes beyond photography, becoming an excellent ethnographic record, showing as an iceberg how deep the Chinese roots are in Cuba, where the process of ethnic integration was accelerated. In the last 60 years after the 1959 Revolution, the Chinese community in Cuba changed its development patterns, accelerating its structural transformations and integrating as another component of the Cuban ethnos. This kind of process of integration into the national ethnos has also been happening, perhaps somewhat more slowly, in all Chinese communities around the world, although it has taken off in the era of globalization and post-modern societies. Undoubtedly valuable are the contributions of this work that we enjoyed thanks to Chinos Cubanos: an exhibition of Pok Chi Lau developed by the Tusanaje collective - 秘从中来.

Yrmina Eng, Sociologist

Faces from Cuba

Faces from Cuba: Review by Yanet Jiménez

Simple composition and powerful declaration: people from distinct generations, mostly Cubans, holding a passport or a picture, sometimes a small one, almost always worn out by time. Faces that reveal the ethnic and cultural diversity and show the plurality of its contemporary society in Cuba. A mixture of expressions where solemnity and melancholy alternate with joy and tenderness. In each portrait, an intimate atmosphere, reinforced by the tangible and symbolic link between them and the memories they show. What do they have in common? Chinese roots, ties forged by blood or affection, that tell the same story from their specificity: the story of Chinese immigrants and the families they formed on the island. Faces with slanted eyes or without a visible Chinese trace, all of them showing their past and ancestry without gloating as a testimony as a revelation of a lineage that took its roots in Cuban lands, paying tributes to the culture-shaping and national identity that has in the different generations of descendants its heralds, its witnesses. Through these images, Pok Chi Lau masterfully captures the Chinese contribution to the Cuban ethno-nation and the miscegenation derived from its fusion with other ethnic groups. Its discursive potential is as relevant as his documentary value, the pictures are kind of like an exercise of the representation of a reality he invites us to explore.

Yanet Jiménez, Historian

The beginning of a project

It was the surprising look of mixed race right at the beginning of my first trip to Cuba in 2009. As some of them, being the third and fourth generation, the Chinese look was impossible to recognize. However these new faces convinced me of the fact that they were of Chinese descent and that they remember their ancestors and their lineage.

An accidental encounter

One touching story was my encounter in Havana with a man who tapped on my back and said “Wuan, Wuan. Mi papa Wuan.” It took me awhile to realized it that his father was Wan. I am guessing the Chinese 温.

A decisive anecdote

The second one was the owner of a little bed and breakfast in Santiago de Cuba. His name is Alberto Chang Andrial. We had just finished our breakfast, and he asked if we were Chinese. He then pull up his wallet and showed us a very fragile little picture of a Chinese man. It turned out that Old Mr. Chang was not Alberto biological father. Old Mr. Chang’s wife slept with another Cuban man, and she gave birth to Alberto, and his father left town. Old Mr. Chang raised Alberto as his own, and told Alberto that if Alberto leave him, Mr. Chang would die. They had a very strong bond, like Caridad Amaran, these descendants had no Chinese blood. From then on, I requested the subjects to put an ancestral photograph in front of their chests to have their portraits taken.

Feelings

None of them had been to China, but they all identified as Chinese. Some of them didn’t even look Chinese; you would never guess they were. But they held on to these portraits and identified themselves with the people pictured in them. And a lot of them cried when they talked about those people. It was powerful to me.

- Pok Chi Lau (Photography and Diaspora, Anthony W. Lee)

Thoughts

The China-born old timer Cuban Chinese will disappear in a few years. This large body of work will serve the remind us Cuba’s past, why men migrate and we resolve into the present and future generations.

- Pok Chi Lau

Families

Families of Cuban Chinese: Review by Yanet Jiménez

Almost all Chinese people that decided to stay in Cuba between the XIX and the XX centuries were male. That limited the Chinese ethnicities’ family reproduction. Many of these immigrants got married or partnered with Cuban, black, mulatto, white women, and even their countrymen’s daughters. They founded interracial families that substantially contributed to their Cuban socio-cultural environment assimilation. The generality of their half-blooded children grew with the Chinese culture, and this distancing deepened when the migratory influx got interrupted, most of the “natural Chinese” people have already died and their descendants have been more and more immersed in the reason behind this miscegenation. However, the memories of the immigrants remain in the new generations and the ones that succeeded us, those who treasure their pictures and memories and recognize them as the forger of their identity.

Fong Amaran Family

The Fong Amaran (Fong 方) family was formed by Julian Fong (Fong Piu 方標), a Chinese immigrant from Taishan in southern Guangdong province. In Cuba Julian Fong became an amateur actor of Cantonese opera in the Kuoc Kong theatre company, an art to which he introduced, in the 1940s, to his adopted daughter (of non-Chinese origin) Caridad Amaran (Ho Chou Lan 何秋兰), who became a leading actress in the genre. Caridad married a man surnamed Fong, to whom Jose and Daisy Fong Amaran were born. Jose Fong is the father of Yamil Fong, who has been a percussionist in the occasional Cantonese opera performances of his grandmother Caridad Amaran. From left to right, according to the photo sequence, actress Caridad Amaran shows a photo of her parents, her son Jose Fong Amaran holds a portrait of his parents, and her grandson Yamil Fong Dinza (son of Jose Fong Amaran) shows a photo of his great-grandfather Fong Piu.

Hung Family

The Hung family shows its consanguineous bond around the figure of its matriarch Rosa Bok, a Chinese immigrant, whose portrait and documents are shown by her descendants in this exhibition. Rosa Bok is the mother of Manuel Hung Bok who is married to Carmen Mok, parents of Mi Lei and Mifa Ng Hung. Mifa is the adoptive mother of a girl of non-Chinese origin. From left to right, according to the photographic sequence, Manuel Hung Bok shows a portrait of his parents, Manuel Hung Bok is portrayed with his grandson, Carmen Mok is portrayed with her grandson, Mi Lei the eldest daughter of the couple holds a document of her grandmother Rosa Bok, Mifa Ng Hung the youngest daughter of the couple holds a document of her grandmother Rosa Bok, the adopted daughter of Mifa Ng Hung shows the photograph of her grandmother Rosa Bok.

Lee Family

The Lee family 李 gathers around Rolando Ven Lee 李敬泉 an Indonesian-born Chinese immigrant who died in Sagua La Grande, Cuba, where he was a member of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution. Rolando Lee was married to a Cuban woman, with whom he had a daughter. From left to right, according to the photographic sequence, Rolando Ven Lee shows a photograph of Mao Zedong, Rolando Ven Lee's wife, his son, his daughter, his eldest granddaughter, and finally his youngest granddaughter.

Chong Family

Chong's family comes from the city of Enping in Guangdong province. The great-grandfather was born in China and the great-grandmother was an Afro-descendant born in Cuba. They were parents of Francisco Chong Diaz 吴修强, who was born in Cuba and educated in Guangzhou. He returned to Cuba at the age of 23. In these photographs, the Chong family gathers around the portrait of great-grandfather and great-grandmother. From left to right, according to the photographic sequence, Francisco Chong Diaz holds the portrait of his parents, Francisco Chong Diaz, together with his Cuban wife show a portrait of his youth, and Francisco Chong Diaz's grandson shows the portrait of his great-grandparents.

Lay Family

The Lay family 黎 shows their kinship around the great-grandfather Lay who had a grocery store, is portrayed in the passport-size photographs held by his son Elsebio Lay and his descendants living in Sagua La Grande. From left to right, according to the photographic sequence, Elsebio Lay, who has been engaged in carpentry, Elsebio Lay's brother, the Lay brothers hold the photograph of their father, the daughter of Elsebio Lay, who was the administrator of the Chung Wah Casino, and Elsebio Lay's four granddaughters show their great-grandfather's photograph.

Shot life Stories

Short life stories: Review by Yanet Jiménez

There are many books and academic articles written about the history of the Chinese people in Cuba. In almost all of them, there is a generalized look, anchored to the study of immigrants and their descendants as a whole. Individual experiences with nuance and evidence from their particularity, the past’s complexion, and the Chinese-Cuban community present are lacking. This is why this dialog between the pictures and stories registered by Pok Chi Lau becomes important, where the richness and deepness of these and other stories waiting to be told are shown.

Time

I feel very sad as a lot of my friends are dying off. The younger generation have no incentive to learn and develop Cuban Chinese culture. With the pandemic, everything Chinese is wiped out. The new Chinese immigrants do not share the same sentiments as the old. They speak Putonghua and not Cantonese. None come to any social gatherings.

Caridad Amaran

Caridad Amaran (Ho Chou Lan 何秋兰) was born on September 12, 1931, in Havana. She is a non-Chinese Cantonese opera actress. She was adopted by Julian Fong (Fong Piu 方標) from whom she learned the Cantonese language and introduced her to the ancient traditional art of Chinese theater alongside the Kuoc Kong theater company. Caridad began her life on stage at a young age in the 1940s interpreting female characters throughout her artistic career. She played an important role in the Kuoc Kong company, as she carried out the phonetic transcription of the scripts so that her companions, Chinese descendants who did not speak Cantonese, could learn the dialogues. Along with her childhood friend Georgina Wong, another actress from the Kuoc Kong company performed in different Cuban cities such as Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Camagüey, and Santiago de Cuba. When the boom of Cantonese opera declined in the Chinese communities of Cuba, Caridad Amaran dedicated part of her life to the dissemination and preservation of this theatrical genre through occasional presentations, and with the support of the documentary photographer Pok Chi Lau and the filmmaker Louisa Wei, traveled to China to visit Taishan, the province of origin of her adoptive father, the disclosure of her experience as an artist and the recognition of his legacy.

Georgina Wong Gutierrez

Georgina Wong Gutierrez (Wong Mei Yu 黄美玉) was born on November 2, 1929 in Havana. She is a Cantonese opera actress with a Chinese father and an Afro-descendant mother. Georgina Wong specialized from an early age in the interpretation of male characters in the Kuoc Kong theater company, together with her childhood friend Caridad Amaran. Following the culmination of the Cantonese opera boom, Georgina Wong graduated in Diplomatic and Consular Law, a profession that allowed her to work in the Cuban Foreign Office and travel to India. She returned to the Chinatown of Havana where she was reunited with Caridad Amaran, after 30 years of absence. She along with other colleagues from the defunct Kuoc Kong company reactivated their theatrical activities for the dissemination of Cantonese opera. With the support of filmmaker Louisa Wei, she traveled to China spreading her experience as an artist and recognizing her legacy.

Eugenio Lee Wong

Aboard a disused warship, Eugenio Lee Wong (Lei Ding Loi 李鼎來) left Hong Kong in 1949 for Cuba where he arrived on January 15, 1950, at the age of 22. He was born in 1928 in Taishan and raised in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. In Cuba, he worked in a family store until the Fidel Castro regime arrived and trained him to repair electronic devices. He married at age 48 in 1969 with Clara, a woman of no Chinese descent whose family and friends also married Chinese. They both decided to join their lives to support each other in old age. Difficult living conditions and health deteriorated by osteoporosis have strengthened the bonds of solidarity between Eugenio Lee Wong and his wife Clara.

Pedro Jesús Eng Herrera

Pedro Jesús Eng Herrera 吳帝冑 was born on the January 15th of 1935. He is the third son of Guillermo Eng, a Chinese immigrant from the Xinhui district in the Guangdong Province, and Elvira Herrera, a natural from Spain, almost an immigrant. His first language was the Taishan-Sunhui dialect, he learned Spanish in elementary school. Pedro Eng worked as a reporter in the commercial newspaper Wah Man Sen Po 华民商报 and many other businesses like stock houses, ice cream shops, and restaurants. After the Cuban revolution outbreak, he joined the National Revolutionary Militia and was part of the Chinese downtown’s order establishment of La Habana. After a period of heavy intensity, he moved to the Guanabacoa town with his wife where he became a painter. Through his color palette, with brilliant and childish stroked colors, many historic and revolutionary characters stand out. In 2009 he published a history book with the historian Mauro García Triana titled: “The Chinese in Cuba, 1987-now”. One of his biggest dreams was traveling to China, the country he has considered his home. In the year 2014 he was able to make his dream come true when the photographer Pok Chi Lau and some of his colleagues gifted him a plane ticket to visit Xinhui, his father’s natal city, where he met with his familiars again.

Francisco Chong Diaz

Francisco Chong Diaz 吴修强 was born in 1929 in Cuba. His father was born in the Enping city in the Guangdong province and his mother in Cuba. At 5 years old, his father sent him to Guangzhou, where he studied and learned the Taishan and Mandarin dialects. He was part of the New Democratic Revolution at 18 years old for three or four years. He came back to Cuba at 23 years old, where he joined a liberating army and worked with the Cuban militia. He got married to a non-Chinese-rooted woman with who he had a daughter.

Exhibición bajo Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 4.0 Internacional. Cada fotografía tiene la declaración Rights Statements Protegido por derecho de autor - Uso educativo permitido