While doing research on Cuban food, I kept on finding references to a Chinese population on the island as an explanation of why the food was distinct from the other islands.
While this is from this wikipedia page on Cuban food, "A small but noteworthy Chinese influence can also be accounted for, mainly in the Havana area" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_cuisine - it is a claim made in another articles.
So, do any of you know what years this took place in? Are there any books on what other impact these Chinese people may have had on Cuban culture?
Cuba has had a large Chinese population since the late 19th century. Slavery was being slowly abolished in Cuba, and sugar plantations chose to use indentured servants to make up for the shortfall. From 1847 to 1874, about a 125,000 Chinese intentured servants were brought to Puerto Rico. Indentured servants are not slaves. But the dividing line between slavery and intentured servitude were thin. It wasn't uncommon for recruiters in China to convince desperately poor farmers to sign up to go to go to Cuba on a combination of lies and force. Once in China, intentured servants were treated little different than the slaves were for the eight years of their contract. For example, a white technician at a sugar boiling and purging plant would earn 30 pesos a month, a Chinese 4 pesos, and even that is much better than what the slaves received. Often, indentured servants would be forced to recontract under highly exploitative conditions.
That said, many did finish their contracts, and choose to stay in Cuba rather than return to China. After recieving freedom they tended to migrate to urban areas, and become small businessmen. The overwhelming majority of the indentured servants were male and many married local women. The Chinese population has largely assimilated into the larger Cuban society, and little of the once over 100,000 strong community remains.
Chinese Coolie Labor in Cuba in the Nineteenth Century: Free Labor of Neoslavery, Evelyn Hu-Dehar