(Cuba) (Indentured Labor) (China) (Yucatan) Five Registers of Chinese and Yucatecan Workers.

Documents of colonial labor management and control, these demographic registers are invaluable for understanding the parallel histories of Chinese and indigenous Yucatecan populations in Cuba. The registers highlight the existence of Mayan labor, an often overlooked aspect of the indentureship policies that sustained the island's plantations in the decades lead-up to the abolition of slavery in 1886. Though a small percentage of the total laboring population, Mayan presence in Cuban plantations was the result of forced migration by Mexican authorities from the volatile Yucatan region in an attempt to diffuse an ongoing rebellion of unassimilated Mayan people against Hispanic rule (the Caste War). Mayans were enslaved and sold in Cuba, although their presence in these lists suggests that at least some of them shared the legal status of Chinese workers.

Data includes nationality, names (both original and enforced Spanish ones ‘nombre especial’ sometimes ‘nombre cristiano’), sex, age, personal status (single, married, or widowed), the length of their contract, and occupation. One of the final fields tracks naturalization, a status rarely achieved and that provided almost no improvement to the conditions of their contracts.

We find only two examples of this style of work registry in the James and Ana Melikian Collection, both in somewhat different format or state of completion, and one sheet at FIU. None appear to include Yucatecans in their counts.

Included in this collection are five examples from four jurisdictions, two complete. All oblong, near 31.5 x 39.5 cm, partially printed recto and verso and completed in manuscript ink in Spanish. Most examples with relevant administrative stamps and signatures.

1. Register from San Antonio de los Baños, 1862: complete in 18 pp.. Sewn binding intact. 482 persons including 3 Yucatan. 

2. Register from Camarones (?), 1865: Complete partido. Two leaves partially printed recto and verso, filled in manuscript ink on three sides. Second leaf with some small tape repairs in the central fold. 

3. Register from Cabecera (?), n.d., 186?: one leaf, partially printed recto and verso, filled in manuscript ink, incomplete but the final leaf, with total counts for the partido.

4.  Register from Macurijes, n.d., 186?: two leaves partially printed recto and verso, filled in manuscript ink on four sides, incomplete. Individual counts numbered from 1189-1244.

5. Register from Macurijes, n.d., 186?: three leaves, partially printed recto and verso, filled in manuscript ink on six sides, incomplete. The first leaf individuals numbered 108-168; the second and third are consecutive, from 587-693. 

[Registro general que demuestra el número de trabajadores Chinos y Yucatecos existentes deducidas las bajas, clasificado según se previene en el Real Decreto de 7 de Julio de 1860]. Cabecera(of?), Camarones(?), Macurijes, San Antonio del los Baños: 1860-1869. All with fragile central folds, some with separations opening along the fold; toned throughout and lightly frayed at edges. Item no. 1 in particularly good condition with the exception of some edgewear.  Item no. 4 with more significant darkening, wormholes, and splitting.