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The Koreans that became Mayans

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The Koreans that became Mayans

During the 19th century, many Koreans arrived in Mexico under near slavery conditions. They were to sign contracts to give several years of their lives before obtaining full freedom. They would work long hours in mines and fields and be fed the bare minimum to not die. What little wage they received was paid in a currency that could only be used in the same places they worked in. The plantation and mining company owners had canned foods available for them to buy with coins they themselves minted.

As the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship grew unpopular, xenophobia also grew. This is because Díaz tried to fill Mexico with foreign nationals. He invited German engineers, British industrialists, French architects, and Asian (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and some Southeast Asians) laborers (to fill the vast uninhabited north). As many of the Asians arrived in these conditions, but found ways to do business and create wealth, many accused them of being special collaborators of the Díaz regime. They spread rumors that they had special privileges and did not pay taxes.

A revolution broke out and Díaz went into exile in France. The revolutionaries first began massacring descendants of the Chinese. Then, they began rounding up and isolating descendants of the Japanese. So, the Koreans, seeing the writing on the wall, did two things. Urban Korean-Mexicans began creating isolated communities in big buildings they would collectively buy. Inside, they had apartments, stores, offices, restaurants, churches, and schools, on the outside, they made it look like a rundown building with nothing attractive inside. Curiously, with the boom of popularity in Kpop and Kdramas in the past few years, these buildings have opened up to young people obsessed with this type of media, where they can sit and eat hotpot, sing karaoke in private lounges, and buy Korean candy and other products.

Rural Korean-Mexicans however went to another marginalized group, the Mayans of Yucatan. The Mayans knew that even though the revolutionary speeches and propaganda were aimed to people like them, that movements have come and gone and have always left them on the sidelines. There was a racial war (and not like the racial conflicts in USA, Europe, and other places) but an actual declared war based on racial roots in which they were suppressed and submitted. Korean descendants asked that amidst all the anti-Asian violence spreading throughout the country, that they could hide amongst the Mayans. Many Mayans who developed good relations with Koreans in the fields immediately accepted. Koreans learned the Mayan language, began using Mayan clothes, took on Mayan surnames, and certain similar physical features they had in common had anti-Asian revolutionaries who only looked at the surface, keep moving along.

Years later, a combined culture has emerged in many places with traditional Mexican foods combined with kimchi and continued mixing between the Mayan and Korean peoples of Mexico.

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