1. Latin America in Asia-Pacific Perspective
1.1. In point face, from Mexico to Peru, and across the South American continent to Brazil , there has been a long and continuos historical connection between this large region of first Iberian, and later Latin, America and Asias.
1.1.1. Asias established small communities in Mexico at beginning of 17th century.
1.2. Spanish America and the Initial Formation of the Pacific
1.2.1. 1513 the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa's discovery of the Mar del Sur (Southern Sea) the first European name for the Pacific Ocean, set in motion Spain's "discovery" and exploration of the Pacific coast of South America.
1.2.2. Spanish conquistadores conquered the Inca empire, renaming it the colony of New Castille, or Peru.
1.2.3. Hernán Cortés arrived on the Atlantic coast of Mexico near present day Veracruz, sailing not directly from Spain but from the Spanish foothold in Santiago de Cuba.
1.2.4. 1540 Spanish Crown sent its first viceroy to New Spain that extended from today's U.S. Southwest to Central America.
1.2.5. By the end of 16th century Spain established the Manila galleon trade that lasted three centuries.
1.2.5.1. China, Japan via the Philippines to Europe is an exchange of Mexican silver for Oriental luxury goods.
1.2.5.2. Manila trade was established, and then first Asian colony in Americas appeared.
1.3. Asian Labor in Latin America
1.3.1. In early 19th century after Mexico and Peru's independence from Spain the reality of Spanish-Pacific interrupted by the cessation of the Manila galleon trade in late 18th century.
1.3.2. Creation of "Latin American-Pacific" both 19th and 20th centuries material trade continued.
1.3.3. Chinese labor initially prominent in these population movements. Chinese labor joined Japanese labor by the 20th century.
1.3.4. Peru labor took lead in attracting Japanese labor with largest number of Japanese immigrants in Latin America.
1.4. Chinese Coolie Labor in Cuba and Peru
1.4.1. Peru became independent of Spain and Cuba in middle of 19th century.
1.4.1.1. A spanish colony remained and promoted importation of Chinese coolies or contract laborers to work on sugar plantations.
1.4.1.2. The plantations were known in Spanish as la grata amarilla (yellow trade)
1.4.2. 1847-1874 about 250,000 Chinese coolies under eight-year contracts were sent to Peru and Cuba.
1.4.2.1. About 80% or more destined for the plantations.
1.4.3. 1870s escaped coolies and free Chinese were among the pioneers who penetrated the Peruvian Amazon
1.4.4. The British were the first to experiment with the exporting of Chinese, then East Indian, laborers under contract to their overseas colonies.
1.4.4.1. 1806 the British ended the slave trade more than 200 hundred Chinese were sent to Trinidad.
1.4.5. The transformation of Cuban society was not only economic phenomenon but social as well.
1.4.6. From 1839-1851 the Peruvian Government paid about 450,000 pesos in premiums to encourage transportation of foreign labor for the sugar plantations.
1.4.7. Cubans initiated the Chinese coolie trade
1.4.7.1. Peruvian planters emulated their Cuban counterparts
1.4.8. Peruvian Government suspended the trade in 1856
1.4.8.1. Chinese exclusive labor force on the plantations, Peru had no slaves and few forms of labor.
1.4.8.2. The coolie labor was significant factor in the growing success of sugar production.
1.4.9. When coolie trade was cut off to Cuba and Peru had mechanisms that were put in place to extend the service by forcing or enticing the Chinese to work on plantations.
1.4.9.1. Coolie system was slavery.
1.4.10. The new contracting system involved a free Chinese operating as an enganchador (labor contractor or broken) who engaged and organized fellow free Chinese into cuadrillas or gangs.
1.4.10.1. The enganche system in Peru gave way entirely to a free, or wage labor system involving many Chinese until these died or moved out of agriculture into commerce and other urban occupations.
1.5. Chinese Immigrants in Mexico
1.5.1. After coolie trade, some Chinese continued to go to Peru and Cuba, now as free immigrants, but a much larger number voluntarily migrated to Mexico.
1.5.2. Most of Chinese immigrants were young males who arrived in Mexico without any money.
1.5.3. Chinese immigrants mostly males came from the west coast of Mexico in 1876.
1.5.4. Immigration accelerated the passage of Chinese Exclusion Act in the U.S.
1.5.5. Where did the expelled Chinese go?
1.5.5.1. It is hard to trace their steps. Some tried to enter the U.S. while some returned to China, and others resettled in parts of Baja California Norte, Mexico.
1.6. Other Asia-Pacific Labor in Latin America
1.6.1. Chinese Labor, the emigration of Japanese labor into Latin America into U.S. was much more closely regulated and supervised by Japanese government.
1.6.2. Majority of Japanese immigrants to Latin America arrived initially as contract laborers on coffee plantations in Brazil, sugar plantations in Peru, and rubber plantations in Bolivia.
1.7. Latin America and the Asia- Pacific
1.7.1. The coolie labor of the 19th century must be distinguished from slavery, that Chinese laborers were imported to Cuba and Peru to substitute for African labor that was lost with the abolition of slavery.
2. The Cultural Politics of Blackness in Colombia
2.1. Introduction
2.1.1. Equality and or racial and cultural fusion are official and often popular representations.
2.1.2. Blackness and Indian's are not ignored but have long histories and often form part of national representations.
2.2. Early organization in Columbia
2.2.1. Columbia has one of the largest black populations in the Latin America.
2.2.2. Blackness as a concept in Columbia predates the Spanish conquest since black Africans, slave and free were part of liberian populations before 1492.
2.2.2.1. A number of small and often transient movements appeared during seventies.
2.2.2.2. Two organizations the Center for the Investigation and Development of Black Culture, and Cimarrón Moement for Human Rights.
2.2.3. Both Cimarron and Smith Cordobas organization have had a limited impact they never involved the mass of people who might be classified as blacks.
2.2.4. Blackness resonated poorly with the Columbian situation among many blacks. Since the time of Columbian Independence
2.2.4.1. The development of ideology cimarronismo by the organization Cimarron.
2.2.4.1.1. Cimarron means "feral" and applied to domesticated like cattle.
2.2.4.2. Cimarronismo constructed a history of Columbian palenques that is somewhat at odds with that decipherable from historical sources.
2.3. recent developments in black organization
2.3.1. 1980s different current of organization began to develop rapidly
2.3.2. To understand the developments two areas of background need to be sketched in.
2.4. The pacific: a new dimension for Columbia
2.4.1. Geopolitical dominance is reportedly shifting from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Columbia to take full advantage.
2.4.2. Between blacks and indigenous people has been tenuous but significant.
2.4.2.1. Indians have different place than blacks in the social order of Columbia.
2.4.2.2. Columbia is officially a mestizo nation,
2.5. Political reform
2.5.1. Columbias political system has been defined by two-party since independence.
2.6. Process of Constitutional reform
2.6.1. Process of reform consisted of the deliberations of a constituent Assembly elected in December.
2.6.2. During the deliberations of the constituent assembly the weakness of the ethnic alliance between people organization with indianness and around blacks became obvious as the subcommision document was ignored by Lorenzo Muelas.
2.7. After the New Constitution
2.7.1. The ratification of the new constitution the political organization in the pacific region intensified the main aims were to publicize the article and to get representatives from the regions.
2.7.2. Process of the commission was uneven some confrontation.
2.7.3. The representation of the black culture mirrors in many ways as an image of the constituent elements of native american society in Columbia.
2.8. Conclusion
2.8.1. Blacks are no longer invisible.
2.8.2. The emphasis on political context is helpful because some of the efficacy of these constructions seems precisely in their tendency to essentialize and even naturalize.
3. Rethinking Race in Brazil*
3.1. May 13 1988 was the 100th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Brazil
3.1.1. They celebrated and made commemorations of the centenário that was organized by the Brazilian government.
3.1.2. Afro-Brazilian groups staged actions and marches that issued denunciations and organized cultural events repudiating the "face of abolition".
3.1.3. New racial patterns and processes are political, cultural, economic, psychological and social that are emerging while racial inequalities.
3.2. The main point of this article was the theories of race in Brazil that are critically reviewed in the light of contemporary racial politics. Mainly in Postwar Brazilian racial theory, starting with pioneering UNESCO studies.
3.3. Theoretical perspectives: the debate thus far
3.3.1. Brazil was a country with comparatively pattern of race relations.
3.3.2. 1950s when UNESCO sponsored a series of studies like the Bahia and São Paulo when they did the traditional theoretical approaches that focused on "racial democracy"
3.3.2.1. UNESCO research set new terms for debate, constituting (not without some disagreements) a new racial 'revisionism'
3.3.2.2. Racial revisionism was a full insights into Brazilian racial dynamics but significant limitations.
3.3.2.3. Among the Chief there was a tendency to reduce race to class, depriving racial dynamics of their own, autonomous significance.
3.3.3. Florestan Fernandes' view Brazil's racial dilemma' as a result of survivals from the days of slavery which came in conflict with capitalist development and be liquidated by a transition to modernity
3.3.3.1. Fernandes work remained the most comprehensive sociology of race relations in Brazil. His work lies in recognition of the centrality of race in Brazil's development, not only in the past or even the present, but also in the future.
3.3.3.2. Race remeins a problem to the resolution of which will signify socio-political maturity.
3.3.3.3. Fernandes recognized the continuing presence and significance of race.
3.3.4. The UNESCO studies offered an unprecedented wealth of empirical detail about Brazilian racil dynamics
3.3.4.1. The racial theory they employed was less innovative.
3.3.4.2. Majority of studies, race was interpreted in terms of class.
3.3.4.3. Racial dynamics was seen as supports for (or outcomes of) the process of capitalist development in Brazil.
3.3.5. The success at exposing racial inequalities in Brazil and thus destroying the "racial democracy" myth, the revisionist approaches encountered difficulties when they had to explain transformations in racial dynamics after slavery and persistence of racial inequality in developing capitalist society.
3.3.6. 1970s a post-revisionist or structuralist approach to race in Brazil began to emerge
3.3.7. Racial formation theory seems particularly well suited to deal with the complexities of Brazilian racial dynamics.