CULTURE-CUBA:
Attempted Renaissance of a Caribbean Chinatown
Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Jun 3 (IPS) - There is a place under the Caribbean sun in the Cuban capital where the calendars have 13 moons, where occasionally one hears the sound of an ancient gong, and where a tiger made of paper and silk might be seen making its way down the street.
The Chinese-Cuban community this week celebrates the 7th Festival of Overseas Chinese with traditional dance, exhibitions of martial arts, but especially a showcase of culinary delights prepared by master chefs coming from eight countries.
"Little by little 'Barrio Chino' (Chinatown) is beginning to revive," says Luisa Wong, 75, whose ancestors come from Asia and Africa. Fifteen years ago, she had given up for dead - culturally, at least - this district in the heart of Havana.
Wong's own life story is representative of the lives of many of her neighbours, who are of Asian, African and Spanish ancestry, often from the poorest and most exploited segments of the population.
Since Sunday, chefs from China, Canada, Ecuador, France, Panama, Peru, United States and Vietnam have given a new shine to the menu of what was once the most populous Chinatown in Latin America.
On the decline since the 1960s, in the wake of the social, economic and political changes that accompanied the Castro-led revolution on the island, this community attempted in the 1990s to relaunch itself, particularly through the opening of new small businesses.
"The neighbourhood will never be like it was before, when every kind of shop flourished, even in the tiniest space, with prices so economical it was almost inexplicable how the Chinese could see any profit," says Wong.
In Cuba, the food typical of China is the most visible face of a community that was built by the waves of immigration from 1830 through the first half of the 20th century.
As if guided by the refrain "love enters through the kitchen," the Chinese-Cuban community is now trying to revive the restaurant business with prices that can compete with others of more traditional Cuban fare among the limited options authorised on this socialist-run island.
Wong, who works in one of the Chinese restaurants in the area, says it has been "a challenge of imagination to balance the Chinese menu" with the culinary variations that have become rooted in Cuba, inherited from Spain and, to some extent, from Africa
During this week's festival, a group of chefs from China have provided a taste of the most recent dishes from a country with which the Fidel Castro government is working to strengthen ties.
The local population is being exposed to "something never before seen in Cuba," according to the Havana press, in reference to the sculptures made from vegetables that have been part of the festival, practically a miracle in these times of belt-tightening among Cuban households.
Glazed dates and tiny fruit and cream pastries draw in crowds for a festival that aims to revive Chinatown, with a taste of the Asian country within the means of the limited spending money of most Cubans.
The festival thus reaffirms the image of the neighbourhood of opting for goods and services at economical prices.
One has to sell "cheap but in great quantities," says Wong, recalling the times when she worked in Chinese gardens, laundries and bodegas.
"Younger people know little about what this district once was," she laments, as she gazes down the maze of streets that sits halfway between Old Havana and the capital's modern central district.
She says the Chinese community in Cuba was formed in 1830 by Cantonese who had lived in the Philippines, and spoke Spanish (because Philippines was a colony of Spain), knew Spanish customs and worked as domestics, gardeners and florists.
Later, in January 1847, some 200 coolies, with their broad-cut shirts and pants and their hats of woven bamboo, disembarked in Cuba with the hope of making money in the sugarcane plantations and returning to China.
The Chinese, many brought to the island under slave-like conditions in the 19th century, are remembered for having joined the independence movement against the Spanish colonial government.
"The main cause of the rebellions and escape attempts, which occurred from the beginning, was the application of corporal punishment," says Cuban historian and demographer Juan Pérez de la Riva in a study of the immigrant coolies.
For their courage, the Chinese achieved high ranks in the liberating army in the 1800s. A monument in Havana pays homage with the inscription: "There were no Chinese-Cuban traitors, there were no Chinese-Cuban deserters."
The immigrants and their descendants organised themselves into societies, generally based on their towns of origin, but there were groups centred on surnames, trades, politics, arts and sports - and there were also secret societies.
Not all of them survived. And now it is difficult to find their buildings among the discoloured facades of central Havana, in one of the most depressed districts of the city, where nothing evokes the splendour of bygone days.
But the societies that did persist, and some that have been reactivated, continue to celebrate historic dates that mark the relations between China and Cuba, and other traditional festivals.
A portico that stands four storeys tall, donated in the 1990s by Beijing, marks the district where most of the Chinese community resides. But only 200 of these residents were born in Asia.
The Chinese who came to Cuba in the 20th century from the U.S. state of California are credited with introducing fried rice, perhaps the only popular Chinese dish that has been incorporated into Cuban cuisine, especially for a special dinner.
Wong says that at her house they maintain the tradition of including an abundance of vegetables in the daily diet, and they often set aside forks and knives to eat using chopsticks.
(END/2004)
 |
|
|
