We Won't Be Bullied Anymore: Chinese-Mexican Relations and the Chinese Community in Mexico, 1931-1971

After the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States in 1882, tens of thousands of Chinese merchants and laborers settled south of the U.S.-Mexico border, believing Mexico to be their land of opportunity. In 1931, however, in the midst of an economic depression, an anti-Chinese movement ripped throughout Mexico, leading to the forced exodus of four-fifths of the country's Chinese population. The violence against Chinese families proved to be a lasting trauma for the community, even for those who remained in the country or were unaffected by the anti-Chinese movement.;"We Won't Be Bullied Anymore" is a political and diplomatic history of the Chinese who remained in Mexico, from the end of the anti-Chinese movement to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mexico and People's Republic of China in 1972. The dissertation argues that diplomatic relations between the Republic of China and Mexico had a profound effect on the status of the Chinese community in Mexico. Using written primary sources in English, Spanish, and Chinese, the dissertation uncovers the close relationship between Chinese associations in Mexico and diplomats from the Republic of China. Chinese associations grew closer to the Chinese diplomatic corps during the anti-Chinese movement, when diplomats tried to save Chinese homes and businesses from nativist aggression. While Chinese diplomats and community leaders helped safeguard against a second expulsion, they also negotiated with Mexican officials in search of an immigration provision allowing for the reentry of Chinese workers and the reunification of scattered transpacific families. As the profile of the Republic of China grew during the Second World War and the Cold War, diplomats invited prominent Mexican Chinese to public events, elevating the status of the Mexican Chinese community. At the same time, diplomats encouraged community members to support the policies of the Republic of China and contribute to both the Second World War and the Cold War.;"We Won't Be Bullied Anymore" is also one of the first projects on the Chinese community in Mexico to understand the internal dynamics of the Chinese community, analyzing the longstanding rivalry between the Guomindang and the Zhigongtang (later called the Hongmen Minzhidang), the two largest Chinese associations in the country. This project argues that the enmity between the two factions was driven by transpacific politics, but exploited by anti-Chinese activists to present a negative image of the Chinese community. During the Second World War, the differences between the two groups explain the reluctance of the Zhigongtang to participate in activities supporting the War of Resistance against Japan. During the Cold War, some members of the Minzhidang supported the Chinese communists, to the great dismay of the Chinese diplomatic corps. As the Guomindang in Mexico was not powerful enough to punish or silence the Minzhidang, achieving the objectives of the diplomatic corps of the Republic of China often required a negotiation between these two factions.;Finally, the dissertation tracks the development of Chinese-Mexican diplomatic relations to understand why, only a few years after the anti-Chinese movement, there were members of the community who predicted that it would never happen again. Decades before the emergence of a strong People's Republic of China, many were thrilled by the diplomatic successes of the Republic of China and believed that China had begun to overcome its century of humiliation after the Opium Wars.