For nearly three decades, slave-owning planters had supplemented their enslaved labor force with Chinese indentured servants. However, the use of the term “servant” and the conditions of their contracts proved to be lies. Deceived into traveling to Cuba for what they thought was a commercial or business deal, tens of thousands of mostly Chinese men were treated identically to Africans enslaved on plantations. Even after international outcry and an investigation ended the trade in the 1870s, most Chinese were forced to work out their contracts. Few survived. Thousands of those who did congregate in Sagua la Grande, where they founded this mutual aid and social society in 1880. I found it directly across the street from Afro-Chinese painter Wifredo Lam’s humble home. Sagua la Grande, March 2002.
