Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico
began during the 19th century
Large-scale Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean began during the 19th century. Chinese immigrants had to face different obstacles that prohibited or restricted their entry in Puerto Rico. When Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony, the Spanish government did encourage settlers of non-Hispanic origin. Although the Spanish government changed its policy with the passage of the Royal Decree of Graces (Real Cédula de Gracias) of 1815, the decree was intended to attract non-Hispanic Europeans who were willing to swear their allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church, not non-Christian Asians. Several imprisoned Chinese were brought from Cuba, having been jailed there for acts of vengeance against the Spanish hacendados that did not honor their agreements. Of these, over 350 were brought to the island, beginning on August 1, 1865. For more than ten years a Chinese brigade worked on building the Carretera Central. Others worked on similar construction projects.
Of those that stayed after their sentence, the bulk remained at San Juan, but some dispersed throughout the island. Many worked at the culinary arts, but others mingled in other industries.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.