Monuments of a Hidden Past: Deconstructing the Historical Narrative of the Chinese in Cuba, 1847-1959

This thesis is an exploration into and deconstruction of the historical narrative of the Chinese in Cuba. This thesis will examine the malleability or rather staticity, of Chinese Cuban collective memory while critiquing the creation and emergence of the Chinese Cuban historical narrative. Their narrative can be boiled down to three plot points: Chinese suffering and enslavement in the 1847 from China to Cuba under contract labor, the transcendence of their suffering through military participation in the Ten Years? War and the Cuban War of Independence, and their eventual acceptance into Cuban society. Ultimately, their narrative is founded their suffering, their transcendence from it, and the valorization of it. The power of the Chinese Cuban narrative lies in its transnational propagation and affective retelling.