1483  Chinese tango and Railroads

Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2003 15:56:11 -0400
From: Sergio <cachafaz@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject: Chinese tango and Railroads

">>I wonder if the link is the railway the British built in Argentina.
That's what brought the influx of male immigrants to Buenos Aries at the
end of the 1800s/early 1900s. I don't know enough about the history of
the railroad in Argentina to know if there large numbers of Chinese
labourers as there were in North America. Makes you wonder though."

The railroads of Argentina were largely built by the British to connect the
productive areas of the interior to the ports of Buenos Aires and Rosario.
The construction started in 1857. It became one of the most extensive
railroads of the world with a total of 44,000 Km.(26,400 miles).

The constitution allows anybody in the world to apply for immigration
without discrimination, but the general policy was to attract catholic,
Caucasian populations from Europe. This determined that between 95 and 98%
of the population is Caucasian and catholic. Despite of that Buenos Aires
had the second largest Jewish population (500,000) after New York. There are
small but growing groups of protestants and Moslems.

The first Chinese and Koreans (same as Indians, Pakistanis) started to
migrate to Argentina during the last ten years.

In summary the Chinese were not involved in the construction of the
Argentinean Railroads.
They were mostly built by Natives, Italians, Spaniards, Russians, Polish,
Arabs, etc.

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 19:56:20 -0300
From: Rubén Carlos Terbalca <rubenmilonga@SINECTIS.COM.AR>
Subject: Re: Chinese tango and Railroads

Sergio,
We have not in Argentina references or documents about this community
(Chinese) in
this business. (I never talk about exceptions).
The Inmigration Service , and the Railway Historians don't mention that.
We have a lot of information about all the other foreign communities, and
foreign railroad workers.-
Ruben Terbalca
Historian and Tango Teacher


----- Original Message -----

Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 4:56 PM
Subject: [TANGO-L] Chinese tango and Railroads

> ">>I wonder if the link is the railway the British built in Argentina.
> That's what brought the influx of male immigrants to Buenos Aries at the
> end of the 1800s/early 1900s. I don't know enough about the history of
> the railroad in Argentina to know if there large numbers of Chinese
> labourers as there were in North America. Makes you wonder though."
>
> The railroads of Argentina were largely built by the British to connect

the

> productive areas of the interior to the ports of Buenos Aires and Rosario.
> The construction started in 1857. It became one of the most extensive
> railroads of the world with a total of 44,000 Km.(26,400 miles).
>
> The constitution allows anybody in the world to apply for immigration
> without discrimination, but the general policy was to attract catholic,
> Caucasian populations from Europe. This determined that between 95 and 98%
> of the population is Caucasian and catholic. Despite of that Buenos Aires
> had the second largest Jewish population (500,000) after New York. There

are

> small but growing groups of protestants and Moslems.
>
> The first Chinese and Koreans (same as Indians, Pakistanis) started to
> migrate to Argentina during the last ten years.
>
> In summary the Chinese were not involved in the construction of the
> Argentinean Railroads.
> They were mostly built by Natives, Italians, Spaniards, Russians, Polish,
> Arabs, etc.
>