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Excerpts from
2007
BOOK AWARD WINNER
CHINESE
HEART OF TEXAS
The San Antonio Community
1875-1975 by
Mel Brown |
| | To
order:
Contact Mr. Mel Brown at 512-288-7354
or email at melbjr@earthlink.net
| | |
"JOHN CHINAMAN IS
HERE." A simple four word declaration heralds April 5th, 1875 as that day on which
the Chinese first came to the rustic and rowdy town of San
Antonio, Texas. Did he remain there for a while, start a business or just
look around and leave? Why was he drawn to this oddly cosmopolitan frontier city
where so many strange languages were spoken around each corner and in every shop?
Ten years after the American Civil War, traveling there from any other town in
the state, like Dallas or Houston, required a journey of several days by stage
coach. The first railroad did not reach San Antonio until 1877, so that meant
a dusty, bone jarring ride for seemingly endless hours and miles.
A few
years later San Antonio became home to a number of other Chinese men who had been
brought to Texas to complete the Southern Pacific railroad line that ran from
Florida to California. When the railroad project was finished, most Chinese migrated
back to the West coast and many returned home to Guangdong. Others decided to
remain, so San Antonio's small Asian population soon began to grow along with
the prosperous city. The Daily Express reported on March 2, 1883 that "... a fresh
delegation of washee-washee Chinese has just arrived." Many of these men had skills
learned while working on the great railway but they opened hand laundries so as
not to compete for jobs with the local work force. By 1887, the number of Chinese
laundries was twenty-five as the colony had grown to over fifty men and one woman. |
Sue Lee may
have been San Antonio's first Chinese female resident but that was a secret which
she desperately wanted to keep. This unusual oriental tale comes from an August,
1887 newspaper story under the droll heading "IN BREECHES AND BOOTS". The colorful
account informed its curious readers that in a certain Chinese cafe "very popular
with the local Celestials, one of the waiters is certainly a woman, dressed as
a man." Loyal patrons of the "chop shop" on W. Commerce St. near City Hall helped
Sue Lee maintain her subterfuge. Many of them adamantly swore that she was a "real
man", in spite of her obvious feminine features and girlish mannerisms. Maybe
the poorly fitting trousers and brogans gave her away. An apparently beguiled
newspaperman wrote that at times she affected "...a bewitching look through the
long black lashes of her almond eyes."
We trust that Sue Lee did not
let her guard down as consequences could be terrible. Readers were informed that
this "celestial masquerade" was necessary because Sue was a runaway slave. The
article explained that Cantonese girls were regularly indentured to rich Chinese
masters by a syndicate in San Francisco. This fugitive woman had escaped a keeper
who might have paid as much as $3,000 for her, depending upon her age and physical
appearance. " Poor Sue, doubtless to gain her liberty, has broken away from her
masters and in the garb of a man is keeping her identity and whereabouts concealed
from her owners."
The ardent reporter ended by adding that her charade
might be undone by the police, if they enforced a local ban on women appearing
publicly in men's garb. Sue Lee's uncertain fate remains concealed to those of
us looking back to her day; hopefully, she lived her life as a free woman, one
way or another. Thousands of long suffering Chinese girls and women were exploited
and abused during this period of legal prostitution while many others died as
a result of disease and neglect. Sexual slavery was the frontier reality of nineteenth
century America due in part to the bigoted strictures on immigration of Chinese
women." |
It
was about this time that the U. S. Congress passed an "Exclusion Law" promoted
chiefly by organized labor and west coast politicians. It specifically banned
Chinese immigration into America beginning in 1882. That in turn compelled the
next generation of Cantonese laborers and merchants to enter Mexico instead where
they were at first welcomed to help stimulate that nation's northern states economies.
Like they did everywhere else, the Chinese prospered by hard work and frugal living.
Within a mere twenty years they dominated local economies as commercial farmers,
merchants, laundry men and even in light manufacturing. By the beginning of the
1910 Mexican Revolution, they were being scapegoated to the point of social then
legal persecution which eventually turned violent.
"The worst incident
occurred in the Chinatown of Torreón, Coahuila in May of 1911. A violent rampaging
throng of three to four thousand Mexicans attacked the approximately 1,400 Chinese
there. In a period of four hours on May 15th, 1911 over 300 Chinese men, women
and children were murdered. Forty of their grocery stores were demolished, along
with five restaurants. Four hand laundries were ransacked as were dozens of smaller
shops. The productive commercial farms and gardens nearby were also destroyed.
As rioting raged, employees, wives or children who got caught, were killed or
beaten. Five Japanese residents, mistaken for Chinese were also murdered. Dead
were buried in a large pit which was hastily prepared as a mass grave outside
the municipal cemetery."
A few years later in March 1916 the Mexican
bandit-general Pancho Villa attacked and pillaged Columbus, New Mexico killing
several civilians and a number of U.S. Army troops posted there. Gen. "Black Jack"
Pershing led a large American military force into Mexico known as the Punitive
Expedition to capture or kill Villa. He was unsuccessful and was recalled in early
1917 to prepare the army for war in Europe. Because of the ongoing persecution
of Chinese in Mexico he was given permission to bring over 500 of them to the
U. S. who had aided the Expeditionary force. Just over 400 of them ended up in
San Antonio at Fort Sam Houston
and became known as the "Pershing Chinese." Overnight that city's Chinese
population jumped from nearly 100 to nearly 500. Soon there were families with
children born as Texans as the Alamo City became home to the largest Asian population
in the state. |
| | Fred
Wu stands by his delivery truck, in front of Alamo Grocery at 217 S. Alamo about
1946. Fred bough the successful market from his uncle, Ted Wu, then ran it until
1964 when he relocated due to HEMISFAIR in 1968. Fred became a founding member
and first president of the Chinese American Optimists Club of San Antonio in 1953.
Photo courtesy Virginia Wong | |
|
The
1920s and '30s were the Golden Age for San Antonio's Chinese community when more
families settled down there, raised kids and established businesses. The majority
of them owned and operated "mom & pop" grocery stores that were scattered in and
around the downtown area. There was never a Chinatown as such in SATX because
the market families assimilated fairly quickly into the already remarkably diverse
ethnic patchwork that San Antonio had been since the 1850s. Germans, Irish, Jews,
Italians, French, Black, English and of course Mexican populations had been living
together for years by the time the Chinese arrived.
For various historical
reason, the majority of the Chinese coming to America from the 1870s onward came
from Kwangtung, now Guangdong province near Canton. As a result of this trend
the original American Chinese were a mostly homogenous group in terms of dialect,
tradition, attitude and behavior. This was equally true of those coming into San
Antonio's multicultural milieu.
So the Chinese entered into the midst
of this colorful quilt as neither white nor black. This enabled them to live wherever
they chose, have businesses in any sector and send their kids to the nearest school
regardless of its racial makeup. Their many, family run markets and numerous cafes
became familiar sights nearly everywhere in town. ABCs or American Born Chinese
were growing up as Texans and along with their "paper son" siblings were also
building the homogenous community. Paper sons were those young men born to American
fathers who visited wives in China who could not immigrate because of the Exclusion
Laws. |
 |
| The
All-Chinese American 555th Air Service Squadron members pose next to one of the
P-40s belonging to the Chinese American Composite Wing of the 14th Air Force under
Gen. Claire Chennault. Their mascot Stevie(an orphan) kneels next to San Antonian
Sgt. John Leung during a lull in activity. Photo courtesy Dora Leung |
Finally
the old Exclusion Laws were undone in 1943 as WW II raged across Asia and thousands
of Chinese Americans joined the U. S. armed forces. A number of San Antonio's
ABC's and those so called "paper sons" also enlisted. Along with Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek, Gen. Claire Chennault requested that an Army unit be established
entirely of Chinese Americans to be sent to China for the war effort. The 14th
Air Service Group was formed and arrived there in late summer 1944 then got busy
using their training in different ways to ensure that the American and Chinese
air forces were as effective as possible against the large and powerful Japanese
army. - "The 14th Air Service Group was made up of nine technical support units.
Each of these performed some specialty such as the various quartermaster functions
as well as transportation and communications, etc. They were responsible for supplying
everything from tooth paste and fresh uniforms to the fuel, spare parts, ammunition
and bombs needed for air operations. The 14th also managed level three of aircraft
maintenance and repair. Keeping aircraft operational was the 14th ASG's most important
task and was provided by the well trained 407th Squadron mechanics and technicians."
They did everything from day to day maintenance to recovery and repair
of crashed airplanes. Salvage of unrepairable aircraft was another of their jobs;
it meant removal of all reusable parts or components. That included everything
from radios, to tires, instruments, wings, and armament which could be reused
on other aircraft. This duty and service would prove, in the long run, quite beneficial
to the men themselves as they later would use Veteran's benefits to buy homes
or start businesses back in Texas. At the war's end, many of these men were allowed
time to return to their ancestral villages and areas to look for wives. It proved
to be a good policy as many of them eventually brought women to the States for
marriage and to begin families.
"Many
other Chinese American citizens served their nation in World War II. Just over
13,000 of them enlisted or were drafted into the various branches of the Army
and Navy after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Added to the number of those already
in military service since 1940, that number climbs closer to 16,000. They saw
duty in overseas areas including almost all of Europe, plus North Africa and the
Mediterranean. Many thousands more served in the Merchant Marine throughout the
vast conflict. During WW II, 214 Chinese Americans died while serving in all the
branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, either in combat, in accidents or from illness."
|
| | "Civilian
Pilot Training instructor Frank Eng awaits his next student on the wing of a Fairchild
PT-19A at a base near Ballantine in East Texas. The Army paid private contractors
all over Texas to teach basic flite skills to thousands of young recruits during
WW II because of the shortage of military instructors."
Photo courtesy
Virginia Wong | |
|
"As
the 1950s began though, another challenge to full acceptance of Chinese Americans
as "real Americans" emerged. A new wave of racism arose in the country which was
fed as much by fear of communism as it was by xenophobia. From June, 1950 the
United States' dominant role during the Korean conflict meant, in effect, an undeclared
war with China. That was due to Beijing's alliance with North Korea's marxist
regime. This produced much suspicion in America as to the loyalties of its Chinese
citizens. It came at the time when many Chinese Americans were finally beginning
to overcome old prejudices and fears in their hometowns."
"Complicating
matters, the FBI began covert surveillance and intelligence gathering programs
in many cities. Those programs had larger Chinatowns pitting their citizens against
each other over issues of loyalty. The sadly contentious period passed but left
many victims in its wake as personal and political vendettas surfaced, leaving
communities with permanent scars. For the most part, these differences never became
disruptive for San Antonio's modest Chinese American community, long noted for
its conservatism and loyalty."
"However,
for one particular family this was indeed an issue and one which permanently affected
its children. By the mid-1950s, Mr. Hong Fat Lee became known in town as
being sympathetic toward Chairman Mao's mainland or "Red" China regime. His views
ran contrary to the convictions of most San Antonio Chinese at the time who favored
the Taiwan based Nationalist government of the Kuomintang's Chiang Kai-shek. Beyond
the day to day friction it caused him within the community, it also made the grocery
man suspect to the authorities as well. A good American and staunch believer in
personal freedoms, the well read Mr. Lee was also somewhat outspoken in his political
opinions. This eventually led to disruptive visits from the FBI which was then
known to harass citizens it perceived as disloyal to America."
"So it
was that late one night twelve year old Tom Lee was awakened by loud knocking
on the front door of the family home on Texas Street. Opening the door, he was
confronted by a G-man who demanded to speak with his father immediately. Sleepy
and now grumpy, Tom told the agent that his parents had already retired after
a long day of work at the family store. He added that if the man wanted to discuss
something with Mr. Lee, he could find him any day of the week at the nearby HONG
LEE Market. Tom then slammed the door in the agent's face and went back to bed."
"Tom could also have told the FBI man that his father was a strong supporter
of Congressman Henry B. Gonzales (Texas' first Hispanic U. S. representative),
always voted Democratic and instructed the Lee children in the particulars of
the U. S. Constitution. That young Tom Lee would eventually become a political
activist who participated in early and very unpopular civil rights demonstrations
while attending The University of Texas at Austin. It was there on campus in 1961
that he shook hands with Dr. Martin Luther King. In doing so, Tom expressed his
own heartfelt beliefs and honored his dad's unique style of Americanism." |
Mary
Eng or "Auntie Mary" to hundreds of family and friends, is one of the most
remarkable citizens San Antonio has ever known. She was born in Shreveport, Louisiana
where her father operated one of the largest laundry businesses in that state.
Mary lived in China for three years, receiving the traditional education which
her father required, and graduated from high school there. She later married a
San Antonio merchant named Joseph Eng, raised four children, organized youth clubs,
led China Relief drives, worked in the family's markets, taught English to war
brides, was a Civil Defense worker, captained a women's bowling team, baked countless
almond cookies and made egg rolls for annual charity functions in her spare time.
"Perhaps the most colorful media account regarding Mary Eng was the result
of a notorious robbery at JOSEPH's Foodliner in the spring of 1973. Two bad guys
named Jones and Perez entered the market with larceny in their hearts. This was
their second holdup of the afternoon, as Mr. Jones cornered Joseph and Mr. Perez
concentrated on Mrs. Eng. Short little Mary saw a pistol pointed at her and emptied
the cash register as instructed. That set off an automatic alarm, which spooked
the two desperadoes who fled with $1700 of hard earned Eng cash in a stolen 1967
Mustang. The two might have gotten away if they hadn't run a stop sign in front
of a police car just a few blocks away."
"Thereon followed a 100 mile
per hour running gun battle up I-35 to New
Braunfels. The chase involved forty police, sheriff and constable's cars,
a helicopter and a TV news crew who happened to be nearby. After running two roadblocks,
the desperate duo was stopped in a lethal hail of gunfire from peace officers.
Both outlaws died and JOSEPH's Foodliner was open for business the next day. Mary
Eng was at the cash register as usual, though still a bit shaky but planning her
next club committee meeting."
Now at age 90, Aunty Mary Eng epitomizes
the historic San Antonio Chinese community and embodies its spirit of the American
"can do" attitude and a Texan's love of place. The old Alamo City turned put to
be the perfect choice of a home that early Chinese pioneers could have made to
live in a hundred and thirty odd years ago. Modern immigration into the bustling
city of Saint Anthony has widened to include many others from the wider Asian
continent and Pacific Rim nations now as history continues to be made there. Chinese
Heart of Texas is only the beginning of a history long overdue in the telling
and hopefully much appreciated for its ongoing chapters now in the making.
Copyright Mel
Brown |
| | "Wan
Lee and her sister Shirley sharing a summertime bike ride past their home on Texas
Ave. about 1950. The two Lee girls along with their seven siblings grew up helping
in their parent's store the Kong Lee Market on nearby Zarzamora Street."
Photo courtesy Dr. Washington Tom Lee | |
|
| | Five
year old Washington Tom Lee shows off his official Roy Rogers cowboy outfit and
six-shooter cap pistol at his Texas Avenue home in San Antonio about 1952. This
youngster has become one of the city's most respected physicians while his brother
and a sister are also MDs, one in Cal. the other in NYC.
Photo courtesy
Dr. Washington Tom Lee | |
|
| Order
Books by Mel Brown |
Order
Information:
Order "Chinese Heart of Texas" and his other books
by contacting Mr. Mel Brown directly at 512-288-7354 or by email at melbjr@earthlink.net
Books ordered from Mr. Mel Brown are autographed and may have a personalized
dedication added upon request
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| San
Antonio in Vintage Postcards | |
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