City Museum recalls Korean immigration

The City Museum is hosting a month-long exhibit on the history of Korean immigration in Yucatan. Source: City Museum
The City Museum is hosting a month-long exhibit on the history of Korean immigration in Yucatan. Source: City Museum

Mérida, Yucatán — It has been 110 years since the first henequén stalk was cut by a Korean farm worker, but the memory of Korean immigration to Yucatán is preserved in a new exhibit at the Museum of the City.

This is a collection made up of several publications on the subject, books of historical value, a selection of images of farms and Korean workers, all in the Pedro Guerra Photo Library at  UADY, plus a screening  of the Korean film “Henequén” (1994 ), and a photographic chronicle of the celebrations for the centenary of immigration, held a decade ago.

It was May 15, 1905 when just over a thousand Asian workers arrived in Mérida to work on sisal plantations.

They left their homeland in the midst of conflicts with the ideal of returning at the end of four years with a better financial position to help their families, but far his dream was the reality they faced.

The extreme climate change, the language barrier, customs and culture, and even food, as working 12 hours a day under the hot and humid climate of the field all worked against them. Many of them endured and escaped from their workplaces, but as they were in a foreign country were caught easily by the police and handed over to the farmers, the exhibit points out.

The show includes books with great historical value, such as “Memoirs of the life and work of Koreans in Mexico from Yucatán,” the first book written in Spanish and published by a Korean immigrant in Mexico.

The exhibition “110 Years of Korean Immigration to the Yucatan” is presented at the initiative of Lic. Javier Armando Corona Baeza, who is part of the fourth generation of Korean descendants in Mexico. The exhibit runs until the end of the month. Museum hours are Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m.-6. p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 9-2 p.m. Admission is free.

The City Museum is located in the former post office building, opposite the park Eulogio Rosado (Calle 56, between 65 and 65A, Centro.

Source: Press Release

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