Identity, Rebellion, and Social Justice Among Chinese Contract Workers in Nineteenth-Century Cuba

This essay demonstrates how the social economy of late-nineteenth-century Cuba constructed Chinese identity in expendable terms through law, labour, & sexuality, how several hundred Chinese responded to those terms, & the outcomes of their responses as dictated by the Spanish imperial justice system. The extremely high rate of suicide among Chinese indentured labourers in late-nineteenth-century Cuba is noted, & possible explanations are explored. (47 refs)