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Recovering Anti-Chinese Violence in the Spanish Pacific World. Archival Challenges and Apology Politics
Fri, February 18, 8:00 to 9:30am, Virtual Building, VR108Session Submission Type: Roundtable
Abstract
In May 2021, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered a formal apology for the 1911 massacre that saw revolutionary troops murder over 300 Chinese people in the city of Torreón. This apology marked a turning point in how acts of mass violence against Chinese migrants and their descendants in Mexico and the Spanish Pacific are remembered and commemorated. Today, public recognition of historical anti-Chinese violence in former Spanish colonies varies dramatically, and in many cases, there is continued silence. Chaired by Professor Evelyn Hu-DeHart (Brown University), this workshop brings together historians researching and writing about the experiences of Chinese migrants and their descendants in the Spanish Pacific world from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, including Kristie Flannery (ACU, Melbourne), Jely Galang (University of the Philippines Diliman), Adrian Masters (University of Tübingen), and Julia María Schiavone Camacho (Goshen College). We critically consider the methodological challenges of recovering historical acts of anti-Chinese violence in the Philippines and Mexico. We also examine recent efforts by governments, community groups, and scholars in Mexico and the Philippines to recover and commemorate histories of anti-Chinese violence that occurred in these former Spanish colonies over the long dureé. Looking forward, we discuss how collaborative research partnerships might advance efforts to recognize this violence moving forward.