Antichinismo and the Birth of Modern Mexico

Oshinsky, Ryan Joseph

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Antichinismo and the Birth of Modern Mexico Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/8s45qb54z

Abstract

Around the turn of the 20th century, a young man named Wong Fang traveled from Guangdong Province to San Francisco with his uncle. His uncle settled in California, but Wong Fang opted to press on across the southern border to Mexico, eventually taking up root in Pueblo Viejo, Sonora. Upon arrival, Wong Fang became “Alfonso Wong Fang,” taking a Mexican first name and using his full Chinese name as a surname. Taking a local first name was a common adaptive practice among Chinese migrants to Latin America; as “Alfonso,” he would begin the process of acculturation, learning Spanish, attending school, and working alongside locals in town.1 Alfonso’s uncle had made inroads with the owners of Ching Chong y Compañía, a sprawling Chinese-operated retail business in Nogales, a larger city near Pueblo Viejo. Through his uncle’s connections, Wong Fang became an associate with the small commerce giant, often traveling to the neighboring state of Sinaloa for business. Later, Wong Fang opened an ice cream and candy shop in Nogales. He would go on to marry one of his employees, a Nogales local named Dolores Campoy Rivera. They named their first child Alfonso Wong Campoy; in traditional Mexican fashion, he took his father’s first name, followed by his father’s surname, followed by his mother’s paternal surname.2 In the subsequent years, the couple had two more children: María del Carmen Irma Wong Campoy, born in Hermosillo, Sonora, and Héctor Manuel Wong Campoy, born in Culiacán, Sinaloa. Wong Fang flourished in Mexico, eagerly adopting the local language and customs, making the transition from laborer to businessman, marrying a Mexican wife, and fathering three children whose names and citizenships testify to his successful assimilation.

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