Accomplices in this Crime

KOREAN IMMIGRANTS AND RACISM​

 

Koreants were treated differently from mixed-raced Mexicans and indigenous people from the beginning.  (...) The "meztizo" (people of European and Indigenous mixed-race) nationalism was anti-asian and excluded Koreans (...) Anti-asian racism was more subtle in the Korean domestic sphere.  On plantations, food rations consisted of corn, not rice.  Corn was not appropriate nourishment (...) it caused intestinal problems in Koreans.  This led to the latter protesting, demanding rice and basic medicine.  When they realized the deplorable conditions in which Koreans were living, the plantation administrations ordered rice to be sold in the hacienda store.  Pac tells an anecdote to illustrate the difficult this new life was for Koreans in Mexico, even in terms of nourishment.  The women had trouble finding ingredients to make kimchi.  The cabbage was planted exclusively for decorative purposes on many plantations and the person in charge of the orchard would cut them and get rid of the "ugly" pieces.  The Korean women would use these discarded pieces to make kimchi.  The plantations would sometimes distribute meat to the workers.  The Korean women would gather the tails, heads, feet and intestines because they could use them for cooking.  This is why Korean women were derrogatively called "bitches".

 

 

EDUCATION & THE REASON WHY OUR SECOND GENERATION ANCESTORS WERE NOT TAUGHT TO SPEAK KOREAN

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Despite continuing their culinary traditions, the immigrants did not transmit their linguistic traditions.  In a documentary that includes an interview with descendant Genny Song, she says that Yucatecos and Mexicans constantly harrassed Koreans (she is the one who makes this distinction) because they could not speak Spanish, so they made it a point to teach their children that it was better to learn Spanish, instead.  Apparently, there were remnants of the persistence and ability to adapt, as Ana Maria Song can attest to as she speaks using food-related terms in Korean.

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(...) At home, smaller put equally impactful choices were made, choices that reproduced a Korean sub-group.  A combination of traditions was transmitted generationally that reflect a "Koreanness" through these adaptations (...) The need to eat rice instead of corn was a dividing factor among Koreans and other populations in Yucatan.  ​The language barriers hindered Koreans from having greater access and assimilation to Mexico.  However, these same challenges created opportunities to join a Korean immigrant community in its organization for the liberation of Korea.

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(...) They did not only live in conditions of poverty under contracts that they considered they had been tricked into signing, they also had to face racism.  The status of Koreans in Mexico was marginal and subject to Mexican exclusion of those who did not belong to the "mestizo" model (...)  Whether maintaining a deep sense of patriotism towards Mexico played an important role in Korean's choice to obtain citizenship is questionable.  After all, they had suffered anti-asian racism and exclusion from the mestizo state.  But what other choice did these immigrants have?  Acquiring Mexican citizenship enabled Koreans to access an larger International community of Korean expatriates who were fighting for Korean Liberation.  Besides, continuing without legal residence in Mexico would make mobility, employment and access to state services even more difficult.  In the end, intense pressure both from the Korean state and the Mexican state, probably compelled them to become a part of the Mexican state in order to support the Korean Nation.

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Another political/legal method through which Korean immigrants in Mexico formed a unique community was through their collection of funds for the Korean liberation.  Pac mentions a communal commitment by the Korean immigrants regarding fund raising.  The intimate ties between the immigrant and the fact that sharing the little money the had for the liberation of Korea, although notable, was not solely a patriotic effort.  Through their "national mandatory fee", the immigrants sent half of the funds collected to the independence movement, while the other half was used for local association activities; each member paid one peso per month.

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(...) Pac tells that the Association had about 900 active members, in other words, a total of 900 pesos was collected and approximately 450 pesos were their collaboration to the Pan-Korean Association and the promotion of the revolution for independence (...) the Association was a sort of government for the Koreans.  This perespective explains how membership to the association for a Korean immigrant was not only a way of belonging to a community, but a kind of citizenship and a sense of belonging to a nation.

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(...) Korean productivity in Mexico was valuable both for the Mexican economy and for the liberation movement (...) I suggest that this productivity, accompanied by exclusion, led to further separation from a sense of belonging to Mexico.

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Oral history from the descendants speaks of a strong cultural tradition among the immigrants, as well as diligent efforts to make clear their ethnic identity as Korean, not Chinese, not Japanese, nor Filipino.  Pac shares an anecdote in which he asked for work at a restaurant in Villa Hermosa and the owner asked if he was Filipino.  Pac replied: "I was born in Mexico but I am Korean."  It is clear that Korean immigrants maintained a sense of belonging to the Korean Nation.  Even though they had obtained access to the Mexican state, culturally they cultivated their Korean ethnic identity.

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(...) Intergenerationally, knowledge was lost and was subject to the distortions of time and memory.  Environmental influences surrounding the Koreans also made preservation of Korean heritage difficult in Mexico.

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The Korean Association of Yucatan established an ​Ohakgina on May 26, 1913.  The first of several schools built to teach "minjok awareness" (awareness of Korean ethnicity and nationalism).  Pac details his educational experience on an henequen plantation.  Korean immigrants established a board of education within the Korean Association of Yucatan with the purpose of educating illiterate adults and the children.  The Association faced several challenges: 1) there was no formal teacher for Korean language classes and 2) parents would be further burdened economically (teachers had to be paid).  It was decided that they would name a temporary teacher, Changi Cho, and that his post would be concurrent with his role as secretary of the Korean Association of Merida.

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The educational system was based on the Korean system, with Korean language and Hangul writing at the core, as well as hanmun.  Usually, a Korean school on a plantation had two teachers, one for arithmetic and another for Hangul.  The program also included lessons on support for the homeland, history, the four hierarchy system (samin, yangban, etc.), physical education and hymns.

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The system on the plantations made students and teachers have classes between 2 and 4 in the morning and, again, at around six in the afternoon for two hours.  Pac also remembers the corporal punishment received if one did not learn as expected.  This schedule meant that students had to combine long and arduous days of work with school homework, which often led to them not being able to finish their assignments.

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The Sungmu Military School

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Kunyong Lee created a Suk-Mu Kak Kyo on November 14, 1910.  It was based on the reaction in Korea to the Japanese colonization and the National Enlightenment Movement that used Sungmu Awareness to illustrate the people (...) the National Enlightenment Movement held that the reason for the fall of Korea was partly due to the reverence (of the imperial government) for the military force of the great world powers, while suppressing/controlling the Korean military.

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Sungmuism spread to other Korean communities abroad, including Merida.  Men who had been soldiers in the Kwangmu Army were part of the community of Korean immigrants in Mexico, approximately 200 of them.  When the tendency towards Sungmuism arrived at the Yucatan Peninsula, men who had been in the military met in three places in order to discuss the fall of their homeland and prepare volunteer martyrs to fight for Korean liberation.  In order to train these men, they would have daily practice for 1 or 2 hours in military strategy and gymnastics during their rest time.

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José Sánchez Pac also mentions that 25 young Koreans, under the leadership of Kŭnyŏng Lee, participated in the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

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