Editing Demographics of Mexico (section)

===Asian Mexicans===
{{main|Asian Mexicans}}
[[File:Kavka_Shishido_at_MTV_VMAJ_2014.jpg|left|200px|thumb|[[Kavka Shishido]], drummer and vocalist.]]

Although Asian Mexicans make up less than 1% of the total population of modern Mexico, they are nonetheless a notable minority. Due to the historical and contemporary perception in Mexican society of what constitutes Asian culture (associated with the Far East rather than the [[Near East]]), Asian Mexicans typically refers to those of [[East Asian]] descent, and may also include those of [[South Asian|South]] and [[Southeast Asian]] descent while Mexicans of [[West Asian]] descent are referred to as [[#Arab Mexicans|Arab Mexicans]].

Asian immigration began with the arrival of [[Filipinos]] to Mexico during the colonial period. For two and a half centuries, between 1565 and 1815, many Filipinos and Mexicans sailed back and forth between Mexico and the Philippines as crews, prisoners, adventurers and soldiers in the [[Manila-Acapulco Galleon]] assisting Spain in its trade between Asia and the Americas. Also, on these voyages, thousands of Asian individuals (mostly males) were brought to Mexico as slaves and were called "Chino",<ref name="Seijas">{{cite book|author= Tatiana Seijas| title= Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico: From Chinos to Indian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCWjAwAAQBAJ&q=Asians+in+Mexico&pg=PA21 | date= 2014|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=9781107063129 | page=21}}</ref> which means Chinese, although in reality they were of diverse origins, including Koreans, Japanese, Malays, Filipinos, Javanese, Cambodians, Timorese, and people from Bengal, India, Ceylon, Makassar, Tidore, Terenate, and China.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=1984|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhNfVshMw64C&q=slaves+acapulco+chinese+filipinos+japanese+malays&pg=PA21|volume=2 of The Cambridge History of Latin America: Colonial Latin America. I-II|page=21|title=The Cambridge History of Latin America|isbn=978-0521245166|edition=illustrated, reprint|author=Leslie Bethell|editor=Leslie Bethell}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[University of Arizona Press]]|year=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mMY4-ffumwUC&q=slaves+acapulco+chinese+japanese&pg=PA134|page=134|title=The Affinity of the Eye: Writing Nikkei in Peru|isbn=978-0816599875|author=Ignacio López-Calvo|others=Fernando Iwasaki}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|year=2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1PDVdU4YZWgC&q=slaves+manila+chinese+japanese+acapulco&pg=PA200|page=200|title=Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium|isbn=978-0822384076|author=Dirk Hoerder|others=Andrew Gordon, Alexander Keyssar, Daniel James|access-date=October 4, 2020|archive-date=February 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225183853/https://books.google.com/books?id=1PDVdU4YZWgC&q=slaves+manila+chinese+japanese+acapulco&pg=PA200#v=snippet&q=slaves%20manila%20chinese%20japanese%20acapulco&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> A notable example is the story of [[Catarina de San Juan]] (Mirra), an Indian girl captured by the Portuguese and sold into slavery in Manila. She arrived in [[New Spain]] and eventually she gave rise to the "[[China Poblana]]".

[[File:Luis_Nishizawa_(crop).jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Luis Nishizawa]] was a Mexican artist.]]
These early individuals are not very apparent in modern Mexico for two main reasons: the widespread ''[[mestizaje]]'' of Mexico during the Spanish period and the common practice of ''Chino'' slaves to "[[Passing (racial identity)|pass]]" as ''Indios'' (the indigenous people of Mexico) to attain freedom. As had occurred with a large portion of Mexico's black population, over generations the Asian populace was absorbed into the general [[Mestizo]] population. Facilitating this [[miscegenation]] was the assimilation of Asians into the indigenous population. The indigenous people were legally protected from [[chattel slavery]], and by being recognized as part of this group, Asian slaves could claim they were wrongly enslaved.

Asians, predominantly Chinese, became Mexico's fastest-growing immigrant group from the 1880s to the 1920s, exploding from about 1,500 in 1895 to more than 20,000 in 1910.<ref name="Buchenau">{{cite journal |last1=Buchenau |first1=Jürgen |title=Small Numbers, Great Impact: Mexico and Its Immigrants, 1821–1973 |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |year=2001 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=23–49 |doi=10.2307/27502710 |pmid=17605190 |jstor=27502710 |s2cid=29111441 }}</ref>