Barrio Chino de La Habana哈瓦那唐人街

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Cuba · Havana Province · Havana · Centered on the streets of Zanja, Dragones, Salud, and Rayo, spanning about forty-five city blocks

First built

Formed in the mid-nineteenth century · Some 141,000 indentured Chinese laborers were trafficked to Cuba between 1847 and 1874; the community's most flourishing period ran from the 1940s to the late 1950s

Overview

The Barrio Chino de La Habana is the oldest Chinatown in the Caribbean, at its height spanning some forty-five city blocks and combining residences, businesses, association halls, and restaurants. It arose from the trade in indentured Chinese laborers (popularly called “piglets”): the abolition of slavery in Cuba created a labor shortage on the sugar plantations, and between 1847 and 1874 some 141,000 Chinese were trafficked here from Qing China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, most under eight-year contracts, gaining freedom only upon their expiration — the great majority never managed to return home for the rest of their lives. The community's most flourishing period ran from the 1940s to the late 1950s, when association halls, clan associations, Hongmen lodges, and altars proliferated. After the 1959 revolution, large numbers of Chinese emigrated, and around 1967 the various associations were for a time forced underground, later re-emerging as government-registered civic and cultural organizations. It must honestly be noted that Chinese religious life in the Chinatown is carried on through altars housed within association halls; no independent Daoist temple building has been documented, and today the community is highly aged.

Highlights

• The oldest Chinatown in the Caribbean
• About 141,000 indentured Chinese laborers arrived in Cuba between 1847 and 1874
• Its most flourishing period ran from the 1940s to the late 1950s
• Religious life is carried on through altars in association halls, with no independent temple
• The associations were for a time forced underground after 1967