The First Asians in the Americas

This is a unique dive into a formative period of Asian and North American history, tracing Asian migration to North America from its roots in the Spanish colony of the Philippines to its holdings in the Americas in the 17th century. Luis shows how the colonial experience in Asia influenced the way that both Asian immigrants (many of whom were enslaved) and the Spanish treated Asians in the New World and how it challenged legal and social conceptions of race at the time. He also demonstrates how Asian immigrants became deeply entwined with essentially every community in Mexico, contextualizing the much later Asian immigration waves of the 19th century to the US. Highly recommend