El Barrio Chino de la Habana, Havana’s Chinatown, is the oldest Chinatown in the Caribbean. It spans over approximately 45 blocks, consisting of living quarters, restaurants, shops and Chinese associations just south of the Capitolio. A rectangular concrete arch with a pagoda-inspired roof on the intersection of the Amistad and the Dragones streets marks the entrance of the neighborhood. Its upper arches and the structure of its roof are made of enameled gold-colored ceramics. The portico has not any historical value, as it was constructed in 1999. It was financed by the People's Republic of China and all the materials were brought from China.

Although, the Chinatown of Havana was the largest one in the Caribbean for a long period, it is not so anymore. Once you cross this portico, you expect to see a Chinese crowd and numerous Chinese shops, but the absence of the Chinese people should be not a surprise for you as they were long since dissolved into the racial melting pot. Even so, the inhabitants of the Chinatown that were the descendants of Chinese still preserve many customs, buildings, societies and institutions, inherited from this culture that settled in Cuba.

The quarter is made up of five small streets, the Dragones and the Cuchillo streets being the most important ones. You will find many shops, beauty parlors, small groceries, restaurants that serve both traditional Chinese food and comida criolla, Cuban creole cuisine, inns and little backstreet food markets, composed mostly of simple fruit and vegetable stalls. There is also a Chinese cinema showing movies in original versions, as well as a Chinese traditional pharmacy.

By the 19th century, the sugar cane cultivation areas on the island became the most important source of sugar production on the world thanks to tens of thousands of Africans employed as slaves in these cultivation areas. The Spanish Cubans relied entirely on African slaves who were brought to the island for the cultivation of fertile land, but in 1807 an important development occurred and the United Kingdom and the US which had recently gained independence from the United Kingdom, banned the slave trade in the Atlantic Ocean. Although the slavery was banned in the United Kingdom, it continued until 1833.

The period between 1850 and 1860 witnessed the social and economic reform demands of farmers and business owners from the Spanish Crown. The slave trade had been banned, but due to the lack of supervision, the slave trade to Cuba peaked in the period from 1850 to 1860. Only in the 4-year period between 1856 and 1860, the number of slaves brought to the island illegally was 90.000. While the slave entry to the island increased continuously, the increase in costs especially in the agricultural areas on the east of the island, and the introduction of new techniques and methods that operate sugar cane with fewer people, eliminated the need for slaves and even created a strong demand for the prohibition of slave trade on the island to stop the increasing African population. to read more >>>