In Cuba in 1847, indentured Chinese laborers began arriving in Cuba. Because of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act put into place in the United States, and an additional 5,000 Chinese emigrated from the U.S. in order to avoid it. These were mostly single men, who made a very difficult journey to Cuba in order to find work in the agriculture sector. They stayed in the countryside for eight years and then returned to Havana and formed a Chinese community. In 1872, the estimation is that there were 58,000 men and 32 women of Chinese descent in Cuba. This migration of Chinese people involved slavery-like conditions, particularly for women. “One such advertisement indicated the sale of a ‘Chinese woman of twenty one years’ and another announced the sale of ‘a Chinese girl.’” A Havana based newspaper also included an advertisement which read: “For sale: A Chinese girl with two daughters, one of 12–13 years [of age] and the other of 5–6, useful for whatever you may desire. Also one mule.” This trafficking of Chinese girls was apparent in many periods of Cuban history but was not found or recorded in official records.Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. “Chinese Contract Labor in the Wake of the Abolition of Slavery in the Americas: A New Form of Slavery or Transition to Free Labor in the Case of Cuba?” Amerasia Journal, vol. 45, no. 1, Apr. 2019, pp. 6–26. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00447471.2019.1623628.
