The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race

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Seijas, Tatiana. "Asian migrations to Latin America in the Pacific World, 16th–19th centuries." History Compass 14.12 (2016): 573–581. online [ dead link] Latin American Asians have been present in Asia since the 16th century. The timeline of Latin American settlement in Asia mostly occurred from the 1500s to the 19th century when the Spanish used Filipino sailors to bring Latin Americans from across the Pacific to serve as mercenaries and traders either to supplement its Filipino soldiers in the numerous wars the Philippines had with its Muslim or Confucian neighbors which surrounded the Philippines (ensuring a state of constant warfare) [4] [5] or coordinate the Manila Galleon trade between Latin America and Asia. Therein, gems taken from South Asia, spices taken from Southeast Asia and silk and porcelain taken from East Asia were gathered and transshipped from the Philippines across the Pacific Ocean to Latin America in exchange for the products of Mexico in North America (Mainly chocolate and pineapples) and silver taken from the mines of Peru at South America. [6] This trade eventually extended to Europe where the silver mined in Latin America and silk gathered in the Philippines was used by Spain to fund its wars across Europe (mainly against the Ottoman Empire) and to a lesser extent, support the Philippines' many wars against the Sultanate of Brunei and the many sultanates in Mindanao. In a small scale, a few Latin Americans also settled in the ports of Macau in China and Ternate in Indonesia which were secondary trade-nodes to the primary one between Manila and Acapulco. Asides from this historical Latin American settlement into the Philippines, which has now mostly stopped and doesn't operate anymore and the current people merely being Latin American descendants rather than Latin Americans themselves, there is also the modern presence of Brazilians in Japan which form the largest presence of people from the Americas, living in Asia, barring the Philippines.

Hu-Dehart, Evelyn. "The Chinese of Peru, Cuba, and Mexico." in The Cambridge survey of world migration (1995): 220–222. Esa sutil mirada: Sobre estereotipos, prejuicios y racismo hacia la población asiático peruana. | Alerta contra el racismo". Because of the history of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines, there are some who believe that Filipinos should realign their panethnic allegiances toward Latinos. As a result of their shared colonial past, Filipinos and Latinos have cultural commonalities that would enhance such a coalition. 41 Throughout the twentieth century, there have been hints that Filipinos could, under the right circumstances, function within Latino panethnic coalitions. When Latino activists and American bureaucrats became invested in promoting Hispanic panethnic identity, there were debates about who should be included. Some suggested that Spanish surnames or Spanish colonial history should determine panethnic membership, 42 a litmus test that Filipinos would handily pass. Historically, Filipinos have played key roles in some of the most notable Latino social movements in American history. During the same era that Filipino activists were building the foundations of an Asian American coalition, Filipino laborers were helping to establish the United Farmworkers with Chicano civil rights leader César Chávez and other Mexican American agricultural workers. 43 The League of United Latin American Citizens, a national organization dedicated to fighting anti-Hispanic discrimination, at one point had all-Filipino chapters in different parts of the country. 44 Lim, Rachel. "Racial Transmittances: Hemispheric Viralities of Anti-Asian Racism and Resistance in Mexico." Journal of Asian American Studies 23.3 (2020): 441–457.

Analyzing Filipino American experiences of 'looking Asian but having a Spanish last name' or 'looking Mexican but identifying as Asian,' Ocampo shows how the children of Filipino immigrants constantly challenge the prevailing racial mapping rules in America. The Latinos of Asia is groundbreaking, offering an ingenious perspective on racial dynamics and formation."

This figure includes both legal residents (approximately 3.5 million) and undocumented immigrants (approximately 300,000). US Census 2010; Golash Boza, Tanya. Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. Asides from the Philippines the only other country in Asia with a major concentration of immigrants from the Americas is Japan, where there are 250,000 Japanese of Brazilian origin. Because of common language and cultural proximity, a number of Brazilians settled Macau, others in East Timor and Goa.Min Zhou, Tan Lark Sye Chair Professor of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University, and co-Author of The Asian American Achievement Paradox Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and founder of Define American and #EmergingUS Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. "Latin America in Asia-Pacific Perspective Evelyn Hu-DeHart." Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions (2007): 29+. Republic of Colombia: Basic data]. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan . Retrieved 13 November 2016. The Chinese are the most populous Asian Latin Americans. Significant populations of Chinese ancestry are found in Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Costa Rica (where they make up about 1% of the total population; or about 9,000 residents). Nicaragua is home to 14,000 ethnic Chinese; the majority reside in Managua and on the Caribbean coast. Smaller communities of Chinese, numbering just in the hundreds or thousands, are also found in Ecuador and various other Latin American countries. Many Latin American countries are home to barrios chinos (Chinatowns).

I called the study coordinator to set up an appointment for the following Monday, but before I hung up the phone, I mentioned that I was Filipino. This was when everything went downhill. Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. Romero, Robert Chao, and Kevin Escudero. ""Asian Latinos" and the US Census." AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community 10, no. 2 (2012): 119-138. online [ dead link] In this innovative book, Anthony Ocampo brings to light the ambiguities and ambivalences of a racial identity that is always Filipina/o but also contingently Asian, Latina/o, and even Pacific Islander. Brimming with unexpected findings and insightful explanations, The Latinos of Asia underscores the intrinsic instability and enduring power of race."

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Japanese Brazilian immigrants to Japan numbered 250,000 in 2004, constituting Japan's second-largest immigrant population. Their experiences bear similarities to those of Japanese Peruvian immigrants, who are often relegated to low income jobs typically occupied by foreigners. [23] Brazilian and Peruvian settlers in Japan are largely, but not exclusively of Japanese blood. Brazilian settlers to Japan represented the largest number of Portuguese speakers in Asia, greater than those of formerly Portuguese East Timor, Macau and Goa combined. Stephanie Mawson, ‘Between Loyalty and Disobedience: The Limits of Spanish Domination in the Seventeenth Century Pacific’ (Univ. of Sydney M.Phil. thesis, 2014), appendix 3. Jiménez, Tomás. Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, Immigration, and Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010; Warner, Lloyd W., and Leo Srole. The Social Systems of American Ethnic Groups. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1945.