Race, Nation, and U.S. Imperialism: Understanding the History of Chinese Immigration and Exclusion in Latin America, 1890s-1940s

All students, faculty, and staff are welcome to attend this presentation hosted by the Latin American Studies Program. The talk will include observations about the experience of the Chinese in Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama, as well as the role of the U.S. in influencing Chinese immigration and adaptation.  Benjamin Narváez can include commentary about the consequences of what happened (and how the Chinese responded) for the social realities of today.  The talk will last a maximum of 50 minutes and will be followed by a brief period for questions and comments.

The presentation is part of the recognition of the 50 years of Latin American Studies at St. Olaf.

Benjamin Narvaez is Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Morris, where he serves as coordinator (i.e., chair) of the History program. He also served as coordinator of the Latin American Area Studies program from 2015-2023.  He is the former president of the North Central Council of Latin Americanists (NCCLA) , the association for Latin Americanists in the upper Midwest.  He will be the president of the NCCLA for a second time starting in September.  Benjamin taught Latin American history at our college during the 2008-2009 academic year.

His research focuses on the history of Chinese migration to Latin America, especially Chinese indentured labor in nineteenth-century Cuba and Peru and Chinese immigration in early twentieth-century Costa Rica. His work has appeared in various journals, including the Journal of Social History, The Americas, and the New West Indian Guide, as well as in edited volumes.

He has spoken at numerous conferences here and abroad (China, Cuba, Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, Canada, Colombia and Spain).  His work has the advantage of encouraging interaction between us in Latin American Studies and those in Asian Studies.  He has given presentations at Asian American Studies conferences –most recently at the Association of Asian American Studies in Seattle, WA in April of this year — and given talks to groups of Chinese descent.

His topic has to do with the national and transnational dimensions of Chinese exclusion in the 19th and 20th centuries.  What were the attempts to exclude the Chinese as migrants and citizens and how did they respond?  This is ‘a human rights story’, a story of resistance and adaptation by a racial and ethnic minority.