Centennial of Korean immigration celebrated, links to motherland strong
Centennial of Korean immigration celebrated, links to motherland strong
On April 4, 1905, 1,033 Koreans boarded a ship in Jaemulpo Port, Incheon and headed towards an unfamiliar land across the Pacific Ocean in search of better jobs.
After an arduous voyage, during which two adults and one child died, they arrived in Merida, southeastern Mexico, marking the beginning of Korea’s first immigration into the Central American country.
Children and adults were immediately put under into forced labor at farms producing henequen, a plant used to make ropes, hammocks, and twine for baling hay.
By overcoming many hardships and a lack of guidance and support from the Korean government, the first Koreans in Mexico engendered generations of Korean Mexicans, to successfully sprout their own roots here.
Now after 100 years, their descendents have expanded to around 300,000 in population and work in various fields ranging from self-owned businesses to lawyers.
“It is our goal to uphold the patriotism maintained by our ancestors despite their destitute situation,” David Kim, grandson of the first-generation immigrant Kim Ik-chu, said in an interview with The Korea Herald at the President Intercontinental Hotel in Mexico City.
David, 67, is president of the Association of Mexican Koreans, and a successful accountant and husband to a Mexican wife with two daughters.
David Kim’s late grandfather Kim Ik-chu was a renowned painter and an independence fighter, who was decorated 44 years after his death in 1955 for patriotic works which included collecting funds to support the interim Korean government in Shanghai after it gained independence from Japan’s colonial rule in 1945.
“My grandfather and grandmother constantly reminded me of my origins, which led me to become a proud Korean with 100 percent Korean blood, despite the fact that I was born and grew up here,” David Kim said.
Living true to his grandfather’s spirit, David Kim is currently the president of the association of Korean Mexicans, a group of ethnic Koreans.
“I have never felt that I was any less of a Korean, thanks to my grandparents and my parents, and also because I do most of my work with Korean companies that have advanced into Mexico,” said Kim.
Explaining that his Mexican wife cooks Korean food such as Kimchi and Jangjorim (beef marinated in soy sauce) at least three or four times a day, Kim said he constantly tells his daughters, who are now aged 30 and 22, the importance of learning the roots and language of their father.
“Not only from a cultural perspective, but also in regard to business, the roles Korean Mexicans can play are tremendous as more trade exchanges are happening between the two countries,” Kim said.
Korea-Mexico relations on both political and economic aspects took a great step forward last week when Korean President Roh Moo-hyun visited for three days, meeting with Mexican President Vincente Fox and Mexican conglomerates. Roh also hosted a dinner for ethnic Koreans to commemorate the centennial of Korean’s first immigration on Friday.
Roh’s visit marked a new opening of trade relations with Mexico, an important export channel linking other countries to the North American market, by signing a strategic complementary trade agreement with Mexican President Viincente Fox on Saturday.
David Kim, who attended the presidential dinner, said he requested that the president pay close attention to Korean Mexicans here and provide wider job opportunities for them in Korea.
“It is really interesting how 100 years ago, Koreans came to Mexico in search of jobs, and the complete opposite is happening now.”
His group, the “Asociacion Mexico Coreana” in Spanish, was resurrected last year after 12 years of temporary closing, and is now preparing a number of projects to keep Korean culture alive among the Korean descendents here.
Kim said he is pushing to establish a Korean Center that can become the hub of Korean culture and a channel linking Korea with Mexico.
“The centennial celebration has contributed a great deal in reminding Koreans here their roots and the deep connection that is still strong.”
Although there are language and cultural barriers between ethnic Koreans and recent Korean immigrants, Kim said their common goal of preserving a sense of Korea will bring them closer together.
“I am very proud to have both cultures within me, as a pure Korean living in Mexico,” Kim said, adding he will continue to pass on such fortitude to his own descendents.
Source: koreaherald.co.kr
