Last Monday was Day of the Dead, which is celebrated differently throughout Latin America. In some regions of Latin America altars are created for their deceased loved ones. My Spanish classes' assignment was to do a sort of altar, more like a memory box for a relative that has passed away. Several of my Native Spanish speaker students remembered Asian relatives. One of my Peruvian students honored his Japonese great grandfather and another student of Cuban descent made an altar for her Chinese grandmother. She went on to explain why her grandmother had fled China, which was for political reasons in the start of the 20th century. This was a great link for me to the discourse I went to go see with Lisa See, the author of Shanghai Girls, gave on October 30th at the Chinese American Museum in downtown LA. She discussed his Chinese ancestors' migration to California and their struggles once they were here. I wondered if they were similarly welcomed in Cuba or even in other parts of the United States and Latin America. This would be a good topic to address in my Spanish classes. Her story was fascinating especially finding out she had Chinese roots when she looks nothing like you would expect an Asian person to look like. Both my students have some Asian features, but Lisa See did not. Makes me wonder where all my ancestors are from. Who's to say I don't have any Asian background? hmm...
Diana,
xiexie for inviting my students to see the exhibit you had at your school, they were very happy to see that Michael Jackson made it into the hearts of so many people and had so many altars on his honor.
I have seen that Papel picado from Mexico is the equivalent to the paper cuts in China, also I have seen these interesting kits of paper clothing thar are used to be burnt at funerals.
researching a little bit about the similarities between Asian people and Latin Americans I came across this
http://lacic.fiu.edu/library/find/agla.cfm
paper clothes
Mexicali, Mexico has a huge Chinese population with folk culture tales of underground cities like La Chinesca...I lived there for many years and my godmother's name is Mejiam Wong...She has three daughters..Mejiam, who looks Mexican, Meilen, who looks mixed and Meyok who looks completely Chinese..Their family owned a laundry cleaning business downtown and the city is dotted with Chinese restaurants, some say with the best Chinese food anywhere...Wong, Mah and Quan are as common as Garcia or Lopez...Their ancestors ended up in Mexico after finishing construction on the railroad...Studying the history of the railroad, Chinese contributions to Western economy and settlement on both sides of the border will surely be of interest to any student....
Cuba too has had a large influence of Chinese immigration.
Chinese immigration to Cuba started in 1847 when Cantonese contract workers were brought to work in the sugar fields, some Chinese immigrants settled permanently in Cuba. Chinatown in Havana is known as el Barrio Chino de La Habana is one of the oldest and largest Chinatowns in Latin America.
Some 5,000 immigrants from the U.S. also came to Cuba during the late 1800s to escape discrimination. Many of these Chinese fought on the Cuban side for independence; this includes the Ten Years' War and the Cuban war of independence. After the Cuban revolution many fled to the US.
Speaking of Asian influence, I have several Latino students who tell me that they are regular viewers of Korean mini drama series on TV with subtitles. They say they like these dramas because they're not about "sex" (can you believe this is actually coming from the teenagers!) like the American soap operas. They also listen to Korean music and know the names of the hottest bands!! Definitelyglobal connection is here a lot closer htan we think.
I think the link between Tagalog and Spanish proves to be an interesting study, as many students come into my classroom thinking that Mexico is the only place where Spanish is spoken, and don't have reference point on which to analyze the realization that Spanish is spoken by many different people all over the world.
I had a student two years ago who was of Chinese descent, but who's parents were born and raised in Brazil. Students were shocked at his link between Spanish and Portuguese and were able to blend their "stereotyping" of what they think a Spanish-speaking person must look like.
Similiarly, I have a student this year who is Filipino and recognizes many similar words from English to Tagalog. Students seem to accept her knowledge of Spanish more readily, maybe because of how she looks?
My students also make ofrendas during our Dia de los Muertos celebration. There are many Chinese, Korean and Japanese students in my class that honor loved ones during this time.
I recently read that in the Chinese tradition, the seventh month in the Chinese calendar is called the Ghost Month, in which ghosts and spirits come out from the under world to visit earth. The Ghost Festival is the climax of a series of the Ghost Month celebrations. Activities at the festival include preparing ritualistic offering food, and burning hell money to please the visiting ghosts and spirits, as well as deities and ancestors. Other activities include, burying and releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies "giving directions to the lost ghosts." This is very similiar to the Mexican Day of the Dead.
Japan's Obon festival falls in either July or August between the 13th and the 15th. In Korea, the parallel August observance is called Chusok. In Chinese Buddhist as well as Taoist practice, the holiday is known by various names including Chung Yuan or Yue Laan (in Hong Kong) and fell on August 12 of the year 2003. There is a precise formula for determining when the holiday is held, which is the 15th day of the 7th lunar month. On this day, Hungry Ghosts roam the earth for 24 hours under their terrifying king, Taai Si Wong. There's a reason why the Hungry Ghosts are hungry, for these are spirits who have no family members honoring them and caring for their needs in the afterlife. So, they must be given a general yearly appeasement. In China and Vietnam, so-called hell money - special high-denomination "banknotes" are burned as offerings of wealth, as are other symbolic gifts of paper." Imagine that?!? Burning money as an offering to the dead!! That's very interesting. My students are amazed at the fact that on the Day of the Dead the food that's offered to the deceased is then thrown away because the spirits have "absorbed" the taste of the food. China also offers their spirits food, I wonder if they also throw it away at the end of the night? Are poor people expected to burn their money as well?
You guys are all right. Joe and I were talking the other day about the huge influence Asians have had in Latin America. Like Joe mentioned, there is a big Chinese cimmunity in Cuba, I also found out that the the first Asian Latin Americans were Filipinos who made their way to Latin America (particularly Mexico) in the 16th century, as sailors, crews, slaves, prisoners, adventurers and soldiers during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. For two and a half centuries (between 1565 and 1815) many Filipinos sailed on the Manila-Acapulco Galleons, assisting in the Spanish Empire's monopoly in trade. Some of these sailors never returned to the Philippines, and many of their descendants can be found in small communities around Baja California, Sonora, Mexico City, and others.
Chinese, Japanese, or Korean descent. Japanese migration mostly came to a halt after World War II (with the exception of Japanese settlement in the Dominican Republic), while Korean migration mostly came to an end by the 1980s (though it still continues in Guatemala) and Chinese migration remains ongoing in a number of countries.
Settlement of war refugees has been significant as well with a few dozen ex-North Korean soldiers that went to Argentina and Chile after the Korean War.
Although it says that they are no longer migrating to Latin America there are many Asian descendants and influences present in these communities.
I believe that recognition of the Asian influence in Latin America helps to smudge racial and ethnic lines. I think it would seem strange to most of my students to hear an Asian person speaking Spanish. I have incorporated internet videos with people who don't look stereotypically "Hispanic" speaking Spanish. I think that when they see people of Asian descent speaking Spanish, it opens their horizons to possibilities and the realization that things aren't defined as neatly as they once thought.
I concur. We have a number of Vietnamese students in the French class, which has a historical background. But our Filipino, Chinese and Japanese and Korean students seem to prefer Spanish. I mention this as I use French, Spanish, German, Russian and poorly pronounced Chinese in my English classroom.
The more we act as though there are no borders, just avenues of communication, the more we may able to positively influence future generations.
Definitely. To say that Chinese is "on the rise" as far as language learning goes in our school district, would be an understatement. I would dare say that Chinese learning is becoming as popular, if not more so, than Spanish learning.
My students often look at people and assume things about the way they will learn Spanish (i.e. that they will have a "bad" accent).
As students with a variety of ethnic background come into my class, which include many Asian students who speak Spanish, these expectations aren't so clearly defined. I also have many Asian students who learned English as a second language, and have thus been redesignated English proficient within our school district's language program. I have found, that for whatever reason, these students tend to do very well in my class.
Thanks for posting the link to papel picado, as representing a similar tradition in China. I also think that they way that Asians believe that they have influence on the direction and fate of the souls of their loved ones is very similar to the Day of the Dead tradtions and how the souls are said to return as something joyful and positive.
Upon learning about Korea this week, I learned that there are Buddhist "shrines" set up in Korean homes to honor the birthdays of loved ones. It is thought to be a celebration, much like El Dia de Los Muertos. The ideas are similar, that food is left as an offering to the returning of the souls of the departed. In Korea, they cut the top of the food (mainly fruit, it seems), as this seems to be a more efficient way for the departed to obtain the offerings.