Official apology to the Chinese Mexican community for the 1911 Torreón Massacre

This Tuesday, May 17, 2021, and throughout the month of May, Mexico honors the broader Mexican and North American Asian community and formally apologizes to the Chinese Mexican community for the tragic events of May 1911, when 303 Chinese were massacred by revolutionary forces in Torreón. To rectify this history and silenced past, the Mexican Cultural Institute proudly joins the Federal Government’s formal apology to the Chinese Mexican community.

The date set for the formal apology in Mexico coincides with current events in the United States. May in the United States celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and North America’s rich, multicultural, and diverse history. May 2021 is particularly important because the Asian Pacific American community has been singled out since the pandemic began. Racism, violence, and sustained attacks against the community have greatly increased. Together we believe, in Mexico and the United States, that it is our shared responsibility to condemn racism and hatred, past and present.

Dr. Mónica Cinco Basurto has a P.h.D in Anthropology at the Universidad Autónoma de México (UAM-I). She was director of Institutions and Programs and currently serves as Executive Director of EDUCA, México. She is of Chinese descent and has been an active member of the Mexican Chinese community.

Dr. Evelyn Hu-Dehart is Professor of History, and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown. She joined Brown from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she was Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies and Director of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America. She has also taught at the City University of New York system, New York University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Arizona and University of Michigan, as well as lectured at universities and research institutes in Mexico, Peru, Cuba, France, Hongkong, Taiwan, and China. She was Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA), 2002-14. Director, Brown-in-Cuba Program, Havana, Cuba, 2014-15; 2019 Visiting Professor, History Programme, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2015-16. Visiting Professor, Consortium for Advanced Study Abroad (CASA), Barcelona, Spain, Spring 2018. ACLS Centennial Fellow in the Dynamics of Place, 2018-19. Currently she served as International Member, Mexican Academy of History [Academia Mexicana de la Historia], 2019-