"Chino": African-Indigenous, or Asian? Two scholars, two records (New Spain, 1600s–1700s)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1600 · Places: Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, Africa
SUMMARY"Chino": African-Indigenous, or Asian? Two scholars, two records (New Spain, 1600s–1700s) [Connections: Latin America & Caribbean, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDMarco Polo Hernández Cuevas ("The Mexican Colonial Term 'Chino' Is a Referent of Afrodescendant," Journal of Pan African Studies 5:5, June 2012) argues chino usually meant African-Indigenous people and that the "Chinese" reading spread from a translation of Humboldt. He quotes Humboldt: "The descendants of negroes and Indian women bear at Mexico, Lima and even at the Havannah the strange name of chino," Aguirre Beltrán that in Puebla "Mulatto and chino were synonyms," and an 1827 British account: "Zambos or chinos, descendants of negroes and Indians." Tatiana Seijas (Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indians, Cambridge, 2014) documents Asian slaves called chinos who, after 1672, were treated in law as Indians and so could no longer be held as slaves. Wikipedia cites a Mexico City Inquisition bigamy case in which one woman was labeled china, loba and parda (Vinson 2018)
DISPUTEDBoth meanings existed; which one a given record means must be read case by case
PATTERNOne word could make a person African-Indigenous, Asian, or "Indian," and the label decided whether they could be enslaved
LENS (WW9)A single woman was three colors in one court file. That is the paper renaming in miniature
OPENHernández Cuevas relies mostly on secondary citations; Seijas's archival cases should be checked against his argument