Here is something I did not realize, Cuba has its own Korean diaspora:
Korean Cubans, descendants of Korean indentured laborers who migrated in search for a better life, are taking a renewed interest in their identity, according to a Korean American filmmaker who is exploring the diaspora. Photo courtesy of Joseph Juhn/Team Jeronimo
When Joseph Juhn first traveled to Cuba in 2015, the driver who was waiting for him at the airport in Havana expected to pick up a Canadian national.
Juhn, a Korean American lawyer who was flying in from Montreal, was also taken by surprise by the woman in the driver’s seat: a fourth-generation Korean Cuban.
Patricia Lim was the descendant of Korean indentured laborers who first migrated to Mexico, then to Cuba in 1921.
Juhn, who is currently producing a documentary on the Korean diaspora in Cuba, said Thursday he learned the experiences of Korean Cubans have intertwined with the history of a divided peninsula.
Not only did Korean Cubans take to the streets of Havana to celebrate Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, they were deeply affected by the division of the peninsula.
“While we were still enjoying our emancipation, something happened that should have never happened,” wrote Patricia’s grandfather Lim Cheon-taek, in a letter he wrote to his children.
Juhn, who reads the letter in the film’s voice-over, interviewed dozens of Korean Cubans, including Lim’s many descendants, some of who recently visited South Korea where Lim is honored and buried at the Korean National Cemetery in Daejeon. [UPI]
