El tráfico de culíes a Cuba en El equipaje amarillo, de Marta Rojas

Abstract

Chinese immigration in Cuba has been a literary motive for authors such as José Martí, José Lezama Lima, Severo Sarduy, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Miguel Barnet, Daína Chaviano, and Mayra Montero. However, the corpus of cultural productions dealing with the traffic and exploitation of coolies (laborers) is relatively small. Marta Rojas’ El equipaje amarillo (2009) portraits a fictional reconstruction of Nicolás Tanco Armero’s Viaje de Nueva Granada a China y de China a Francia (1861), most particularly his adventures as a Chinese coolie trader. This article examines the mechanisms and uses of an ambiguity pact that—through the interference between historical and fictional realities—gives voice and agency to subaltern subjectivities in Marta Rojas’ novel. The author pays special attention to the literary representation of Asian immigrants through oppositional strategies to denounce social inequalities imposed by the colonial caste system.