Michael Vince Kim

美國

人物肖像 系列報導 第一名

幾位年輕的韓國-瑪雅混血兒在泳池中嬉戲,今天是他們的親戚——一位第二代墨籍韓僑的九十歲生日派對。

1905年,大約一千名韓國人搭乘SS Ilford汽船來到墨西哥。他們在瓦哈卡州的薩利納克魯斯市下船,接著搭乘汽艇來到猶加敦半島的普羅格雷索。這群韓國人被應許了光輝富裕的未來,但卻註定成為契約勞工。這些移民原本就被安排好要在赫納昆劍麻農園裡工作。多數勞工原本都希望能夠回到家鄉,但在1910年時,韓國被日本帝國併吞,所以許多人轉而選擇留在墨西哥。第一次世界大戰後,隨著赫納昆劍麻的需求量日益減少,許多韓國人繼續在墨西哥的其他地方以及古巴找工作。這些韓國移民大多數是男性,許多人進而和當地的馬雅女性結婚。

Michael Vince Kim

USA

People 1st Prize Stories

Young Korean-Mayans play around in the pool at the 90th birthday party of a second-generation relative.

In 1905, around 1,000 Koreans arrived in Mexico aboard the SS Ilford. They alighted in Salina Cruz in the state of Oaxaca, and then traveled by steamboat to Progreso, on the Yucatán Peninsula. The Koreans had been promised a prosperous future, but were destined instead to be indentured laborers. The immigrants were set to work on henequen plantations. Most laborers expected to return to their homeland, but by 1910 Korea had been incorporated into the Japanese Empire, and so many decided to stay in Mexico. With the decline in demand for henequen after World War I, a number of Koreans went on to seek work elsewhere in Mexico and in Cuba. Most of the original Korean immigrants were men, and many went on to marry local Mayan women.