[Cuba]. [China]

[Certificado de Nacionalidad from the Chinese Consulate in Cuba]

Havana: September 8, 1880. Partially-printed broadside, 6.5 x 8.25 inches, completed in manuscript in Spanish and Chinese. Small marginal wormhole, mild edge wear, light toning. Ink stamp of the Consulado General at bottom-center. Very good. Item #2592

A scarce certificate issued in 1880 by the Chinese Consulate in Havana, authenticating the registration and details of a Chinese laborer in Cuba. The printed form is completed in manuscript with the name of the recipient, his age, place of origin, occupation, and place of residence. The present examples were completed for a sixty-year-old laborer from Canton being called Pedro Pulido, who was going to work and/or live at 48 Calle Figueroa in Havana. The printed text states that, "El Cónsul General de China en la Habana, certifica que [blank] ha hecho constar en este Consulado General ser súbdito de S.M. el Emperador de la China, y como tal se halla inscrito en el Registro de dicho Consulado General, segun número y filiacion anotados al márgen." The certificate is dated September 8, 1880, and is stamped with the seal of the consulate in red and with the rubberstamped signature of the Consul General Lin Liang Yuan. The form are also bears two ink signatures in Chinese in the left margin, a rare occurrence. An excellent document of the bureaucracy surrounding imported Chinese labor to Cuba in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Price: $750.00