Chinatowns in Latin America
In the 19th century, many Chinese migrated to several Latin American countries as contract laborers (i.e., indentured servants) in the agricultural and fishing industries. Most Chinese came from Guangdong Province. The rest came from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. They often times did not return to China. Hence, Latin American Chinatowns may include the descendants of original migrants—often of mixed Chinese and Hispanic parentage—and some recent immigrants.
However, unlike the Chinatowns of North America and Europe, the numbers of pure-blood Chinese is relatively few due to generally low levels of Chinese immigration to Latin America. Residents of Latin American Chinatowns tend to speak a mishmash of Chinese and Spanish. Some Latin American Chinatowns (Spanish plural: barrios chinos) include those in Mexico City, Havana, and Buenos Aires. These Chinatowns mainly serve as tourist attractions, rather than servicing any extant local Chinese-speaking population.
Argentina
The Belgrano district of Buenos Aires, Argentina, contains the largest and most active barrio chino in Latin America. Its location is on Calle Arribeños, Calle Mendoza and Calle Montañeses. Large numbers of recent Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese immigrants have settled in the area. Also included are ethnic Chinese from other parts of Latin America. (barrio chino is somewhat a misnomer as other non-Chinese Asian immigrants such as ethnic Koreans and Vietnamese have also settled in the area, but the term is appropriate to other Asian citizens of Chinese descent.)
Cuba
Unlike Argentina, the Chinese-speaking population of Cuba was once large, but the now-diminished Chinese Cuban population is now clustered around the largely dying barrio chino of Havana. After the successful revolution of Fidel Castro in 1959, many Chinese Cuban entrepreneurs fled the country and entered the United States. Nowadays, Cuba has only one Chinese-language newspaper, named Kwong Wah Po.
Dominican Republic
A new bustling Chinatown of the Dominican Republic is in the capital city of Santo Domingo on Avenida Duarte. While serving the local ethnic community, it is also promoted as a tourist attraction. The first Chinese, including other Spanish-speaking Chinese, came from other Carribean islands. Other Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong and Macao in 1980's.
Peru
The main Peruvian Chinatown is located in Lima and is called the Barrio Chino de Lima; it is one of the two earliest Chinatowns in the Western Hemisphere, along with Havana. In contrast to Cuba, although Peru has also experienced problems — including the dictatorial rule of Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975), which forced many of his Chinese Peruvian opponents to flee (mainly to United States) — large numbers of Chinese Peruvians still remain. Historical Chinese immigration to the Amazonian region of Peru is intriguingly documented in a small village named Chino several miles outside of Iquitos which according to local memory was settled by Chinese. Though its inhabitants are clearly native Amazonians, many of them have markedly smoother facial structure, stereotypically Asian eyes, and straighter hair. This may mark the existence of a community of Chinese immigrants in the 19th or 20th century who intermarried and vanished, as mysteriously as they came, into the local majority.
Venezuela
Venezuela is also home to one of the largest concentrations of ethnic Chinese. The lively Barrio chino is on Avenida Principal El Bosque in the El Bosque district of Caracas. Cantonese Chinese is widely spoken among Chinese Venezuelans, but there has been recent Taiwanese immigration.