20th CENTURY

It was a profitable business to bring the Chinese to the island despite the restricting laws. The complicity of some officials provided thousands of Chinese to enter the country under the qualification of merchant or student. During the US domination in Cuba, by a decree of the military Governor Leonard Wood, issued in 1902, the immigration of all Chinese to Cuba was banned. Even though, the ban remained in effect in the US until World War II, the ban was set aside for five years in Cuba in 1917, when the US entered the World War I. The number of the Chinese laborers in Cuba had fallen to 15.000 by the end of the 19th century due to the Cuban independence war that lasted for 30 years, Spanish repression, famine and diseases, and for the US the increase in wartime sugar production came first. Thus, during the second decade of the 20th century, the island faced the last wave of the Chinese that brought about 5.000 Chinese to the island, so that the Chinese community in the island reached about 24.000. Some of these immigrants were dissidents, escaping the authorities in China.

Some wealthy Chinese, also called as Californianos, organized gangs, constituting of the former coolies, called cuadrillas. They started to work as contracted agricultural laborers, stevedores, construction workers, or whatever was demanded. Certain Chinese made a pile by exploiting their compatriots that were urged to gambling and drug smuggling, particularly opium. The most prominent figures of the Chinese society showed maximum effort to win the favor in the eyes of the Cuban authorities usually by getting in touch with representatives of the government of the time, particularly with the President Gerardo Machado and his acolytes. On the other hand, renowned politicians and lawyers of the time didn’t abstained to maintain their close ties with the wealthy Chinese, even though the press was accusing them of getting richer by whitewashing the shady businesses of the Chinese.

With the urban growth of Havana, the localization of Chinatown, became more important from commercial point of view, even though it was occupying a small area. The number of the circulating newspapers increased to three by the addition of the commercial newspaper Wah Man Sion Pro.

There were many active mutual aid associations, the so-called huiguans (guilds) that were established initially to provide assistance to Chinese in Cuba, such as orientation, bureaucratic and legal aid, translation services, help with letter writing, temporary lodging, credit and mutual aid, and emergency funds. Among these huiguans, the Chee Kung Tong and the extreme nationalist Kuomintang had the highest number of members. The controversy between the Chee Kung Tong and the Kuomintang often led to violent bloodshed, carried out by both sides. Despite the political and ideological differences, the main goal was to take over the leadership of the Chinese community and took possession of the enormous large income obtained from immigrant traffic and prohibited gambling and opium sales.

On the other hand, the serenity of the Chinatown began to be disturbed by some Chinese traders that were working under the "honorable merchant" mask, but they were no different from the real bandits. Andrés Chin Lion was one of these unscrupulous Chinese merchants that supposedly earned his money by food trade, but he seized the power by opium sales and by defeating his competitors, if need be, by assassins. He had a strong link with the Kuomintang. His murder led to large wave of protests, accusing the Chee Kung Tong, particularly its armed wing, the Tong or Cuadrillas de la Muerte (Gangs of Death) of committing the murder. It was speculating that the Chee Kung Tong had prepared a blacklist of Chinese people that would be killed. Thus, the leaders of the Kuomingtang asked the authorities to take measures to abolish the threat directed to them by the Chee Kung Tong, supported by the republicans.

The sharpening of the class battles all over the world, including China, where the workers and the peasants were fighting against the bourgeois dictatorship, led by the Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang, was affecting the Cuban Chinese also. The outstanding Chinese-Cuban leader José Wong (Huang Taobai) together with Julio Antonio Mella founded the Cuban Anti-Imperialist League in 1925, and soon joined the newly formed Communist Party of Cuba. In 1927 he helped in establishing the Revolutionary Alliance for the Protection of Chinese Workers and Peasants in Cuba, founded on a platform of opposition to the dictatorships of both Machado and Chiang Kai-shek, and became the first editor of its paper, the Gunnun Hushen (Workers and Peasants’ Voice). In 1930 he was arrested and killed on Machado’s order in the prison of the Castillo del Príncipe.

In 1926, the principal directors of Chung Wah Casino decided to send money to the revolutionary troops in China that were fighting against the Peking government. However, the nationalist Kuomintang that was controlling the Chinese community in Havana, was supporting the Peking government of the time. When the conflict between the two groups increased, the police took several measures to avoid any armed fight. The representations of the Chee Kung Tong in the capital and in different provinces were closed and the police began to move on the opium trade and the illegal games. Some Chinese criminals were deported from the island and the immigration officials were warned against the complicity in the entry of Chinese immigrants. The xenophobia, commoved by the local press, made a peak at that time. Even though, the local press was calling for the dissolution of the Chinatown, closure of the societies and deportation of the Asians, the ambitions hidden behind the negative propaganda have not achieved its purpose by virtue of the common sense of the Cuban people, so that the Chinatown in Havana continued to be an integral part of the capital. The Cuban people differentiated the criminals from the honest and industrious Chinese majority that were serving to the country since the 19th century.

In 1930s the Chinatown stood out as an important center of commerce of Havana. According to the study of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, carried out in 1932, nearly 4.000 Chinese owned a business in Cuba, such as restaurants, groceries, bakeries, laundries, hotels, fruit stands and vegetable gardens. By 1932 the Chinese population in the island that once had grown substantially, reached nearly 25.000.  In 1930s, a significant increase occurred in Chinese cultural and artistic activities. The social life in the Chinatown was very active by means of frequent music performances, theater, Cantonese opera and the lion dance. The Chinese in the Chinatown were living virtually self-sufficient with their societies, schools, banks, clinics, pharmacies, newspapers, brothels and funeral homes and a lot of shops.