Asian Diaspora in Latin America
Session Coordinator: Debbie Lee-DiStefano
Humanities Division
Seton Hill University
Box 464F Seton Hill Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601
dlee@setonhill.edu

Pedro de Zulen and the Pro-Indigenist Movement

Pedro de Zulen (1889-1925) is a literary, philosophical, and activist figure of early 20 th century Peru whose body of work can shed light onto the Chinese-Peruvian communities and the role that members of the Asian diaspora have played in the cultural development of Latin America. A contemporary of José Carlos Mariátegui and Manuel González Prada, Pedro de Zulen engaged in the pro-Indigenous debates, serving as one of the founders of the Asociación Pro-Indígena. His speeches, essays, treatises and poetry all contribute to the construction of a philosophy concerning the rights of man and the importance of incorporating all members of society into the national framework. Zulen was an accomplished scholar who studied at both the University of San Marcos in Peru and Harvard. His activism was cut short when he contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of thirty-six. Zulen is an intriguing figure whose life proves the dynamic role that the Asian diaspora has played in the shaping of Latin America. Their contributions to society, art and history are often eclipsed by groups with a greater chronological presence. This study strives to explore the historical points of Zulen’s work.

Debbie Lee-DiStefano
Seton Hill University
dlee@setonhill.edu

MIRRHA-CATARINA DE SAN JUAN 1612-1688
Slave-Visionary-La China Poblana
The woman "the land of the Mughals gave to the world
And the city of Puebla de los Angeles gave to heaven"

The long-standing presence and the wide variety of experiences of people from Asia within the multiple narratives of Mexico could begin with the written narratives (maybe the earliest extensive narratives about a person from Asia in the Americas), the legends and the symbolism surrounding the seventeenth century woman Mirrha-Catarina de San Juan. Mirrha was kidnapped by Portuguese pirates from her home in India, baptized as Catarina de San Juan in Cochin and brought to New Spain as a slave on the Manila Galleon in 1621. Mirrha-Catarina (1612-1688) continues to be the focus of discussions regarding her status as one of the most important visionaries of seventeenth century New Spain and as the possible origin of the historical and symbolic China Poblanas of Puebla.

The narratives surrounding Mirrha-Catarina will be explored as strategies used by Mirrha-Catarina herself and her biographers-17 th century to the present-to create and recreate her history into a series of dramatic legends.

Roshni Rustomji-Kerns
Professor Emerita. Sonoma State University, CA
Visiting Scholar. The Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University, CA
roshni55@hotmail.com

Why and How to Include Cristina Garcia's Monkey Hunting in the Spanish Curriculum and Classroom

Cristina Garcia's 2003 novel Monkey Hunting can and should be appropriately placed within university programs of study for Spanish majors and minors in order to introduce students to the Asian component of Latin American, specifically Cuban, history. This paper will begin by outlining the dearth of attention that Spanish curricula typically pay to Asian heritage in Latin American society. The paper will continue by addressing how Garcia's exploration of Chinese arrival, integration and assimilation, and longing for homeland and ancestral culture, can be discussed in comparison and contrast to other "minority" or "ethnic" experiences in Latin American history and contemporary society.

Sheridan Wigginton
University of Missouri-St. Louis
wiggintons@msx.umsl.edu