Chinese Cubans

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers were brought in from Qing China, British Hong Kong, Portuguese Macau, and Taiwan during the following decades to replace and/or work alongside African and mixed-ancestry slaves.

After completing eight-year contracts or otherwise obtaining their freedom, some Chinese immigrants settled permanently in Cuba, although most longed for repatriation to their homeland.

Another, albeit smaller wave of Chinese immigrants, also arrived during the 20th century, some as supporters of the communist cause during the Cuban revolution and others as dissidents escaping the authorities in China.

[4] In the 1920s, an additional 30,000 Cantonese and small groups of Japanese also arrived; both immigrations were exclusively male and there was rapid intermarriage with white, black and mulatto populations.

[5] In a study of genetic origins, admixture, and asymmetry in maternal and paternal human lineages in Cuba, thirty-five Y-chromosome SNPs were typed in the 132 male individuals of the Cuban sample.

[9] Of the Chinese who stayed after the start of Fidel Castro's rule in 1961, the vast majority were of mixed descent with the local population.

[1] Once among the largest Chinatowns in Latin America, the Barrio Chino de La Habana is now the world's smallest and is primarily concentrated in a small alleyway dominated by Chinese restaurants.