Nikkei Community in Mexico: Preserving Japanese Heritage

A mixture of pride between the country where they were born and raised and the Japanese roots instilled by their parents and adopted by themselves distinguishes the Nikkei community in Mexico, a term that names the descendants of Japanese immigrants who have settled in different parts of the world.

“I feel very proud to be Mexican by birth, by heart, and to have Japanese origin,” María Teresa Kasuga Osaka, 77, tells CNN.

The toy industry businesswoman was born in Mexico. His father Tsutomu Kasuga arrived in San Luis Potosí, in the north-central part of the country, in 1930, from the Nagano prefecture, due to the complicated economic situation that Japan was going through at the time.

“For me, Mexico is number one, but I love and am very proud of my Japanese roots,” says Francisco Kobayashi, president of the Mexican Japanese Association of Guadalajara, whose grandfather arrived in the Jalisco capital around 1915 out of economic necessity. “My dad told us that Japan was in a time of great need and that was what made him come,” he details.

Like them, it is estimated that in Mexico there are more than 79.000 personas Nikkei, a community that is not only growing in number but also in diversity and has settled from the north to the south of the country.

The history of Japanese migration to Mexico dates back to 1897, when more than 30 young Japanese arrived in the state of Chiapas, in the southeast of Mexico, through an agreement signed during the government of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911) with the aim of building a coffee farm. according to the historian specialized in Japanese studies, Sergio Hernández.

He points out that “they came to Mexico due to the offer of better salaries and working conditions that were not offered in Japan” and that they settled mainly in Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Coahuila, Jalisco, Sonora and Sinaloa.

But it was in Chiapas, in the municipality of Acacoyagua, Soconusco region, where the pioneer migrants consolidated their most emblematic community. Although their goal of growing coffee failed, other crops prospered and over the years established the services necessary for their continuity and growth through new generations.

Since the arrival of the first Japanese, there have been seven waves of migration to Mexico, which began with peasant migrants and those from other industries and those who arrived as a result of the Second World War and have continued with the children and grandchildren of those migrants, Ruth Hernández, founder of the organization “Nikkei Women of Mexico.”

The different generations of Japanese—from immigrants born in Japan and their children born outside the country, to the immigrants’ great-grandchildren—have different names: issei for the first generation; nissei for the second, sansei for the third, and yonsei for the fourth.

Kasuga—second generation—remembers that his parents adopted Mexican names to better adapt to life in the country they had arrived to. Their father, Tsutomu Kasuga, was named Carlos and their mother, Mitsuko Osaka, was named Esperanza.

He says he had a bicultural childhood. His parents taught him to speak Japanese, but at school he learned Spanish and his mother prepared Japanese food and learned to make Mexican dishes.

“My mother decided that only Japanese would be spoken at home, at that time there was no Japanese food anywhere, but she made everything completely: soy paste, miso soup, pickled vegetables, tsukemono“She did everything at home,” he details.

In addition, he learned traditional Mexican recipes. “We would go to the market and I would ask other women how to make something, then I would prepare it at home and return with the food to ask them if it was good,” she remembers.

She also attended classical Japanese dance classes and the tea ceremony, a spiritual ritual based on Zen Buddhism where the host prepares and serves green tea in an atmosphere of harmony, respect and tranquility. A tradition that, he says, he continues to cultivate today.

Over the years, Kasuga has combined Japanese traditions with Mexican ones. He Oshogatsu -as the Japanese New Year is known- is its celebration par excellence. It begins in mid-December with deep cleaning of the house, and ends on December 31 with a family gathering in which special and symbolic dishes and foods are eaten.

He also talks about Hatsuhinode, which consists of witnessing the first sunrise of the year on January 1, which symbolizes a beginning full of hope, prosperity and good fortune. “We got up at 4:30 in the morning, freezing to death, and went out to look for a high place to see the first lightning bolt of the first day of the year,” he details.

The case of Francisco Kobayashi—third generation—was different since, having a father of Japanese descent and a Mexican mother, there were not many Japanese-style celebrations at home, but there were when they attended the activities of the Mexican Japanese Association in Guadalajara, where he learned the language and traditional Japanese festivals.

He remembers that when he was little he went with his family to a port in Mexico to see the arrival of ships from the Japan Self-Defense Force Training Squadron every year.

“Since I was a child we went to the ship, we entered the engine room, they showed us everything, the missiles, missile launchers, we greeted the sailors, we ate there, it was very nice,” he says.

Now, one of the Japanese holidays that Kobayashi gives the greatest weight to is the oven, their tradition to honor ancestors, similar to the Day of the Dead, when spirits are believed to return home. They celebrate it in mid-August with a ceremony, cleaning of graves, food and traditional dances.

Yayoi Guadalupe Koasicha Martínez, 26, was born in San Luis Potosí and her entire upbringing was based on Mexican culture. It was until a few years ago when she and her family got closer to their roots.

“Our family is not from the culture or language of Japan. We only knew about our origin through our last name, but about five years ago my sister did some research and that’s how we had more context,” he tells CNN.

Koasicha’s great-grandfather arrived from Okinawa Prefecture to the state of Oaxaca in the early 1900s, in one of the first waves of immigrants. He then traveled to the state of Veracruz and married a Mexican woman, but they never instilled anything in their offspring. “He was very closed with his past and we [mi familia] We have been digging to know our origin well,” says the fourth-generation young woman.

But growing up far from her roots hasn’t stopped Koasicha from being a true Nikkei.
Now he has joined Japanese associations in Mexico, lives with other descendants and has adopted some of the traditions of the country where his great-grandfather was born.

The student from the Faculty of Music of the Universidad Veracruzana indicates that she did research on Okinawan music in Mexico that resulted in a greater rapprochement with the culture and people of the Mexican Japanese Association, based in Mexico City.

“It has been a nice discovery, finding a sense of belonging and knowing that there are ways to connect and recover that past and the culture that did not come to us through associations,” he adds and says that he wants to learn the language, travel to Japan: “It is something that I would not want to let go of,” he concludes.

María Teresa Kasuga says that preserving traditions in her grandchildren and her grandchildren’s children is difficult. “We try to maintain the culture, the songs, the traditions, but it is not that simple anymore,” he acknowledges, but affirms that it is worth maintaining the efforts so that nothing is lost.

From the association he heads, Kobayashi leads efforts to preserve Japanese culture and language in his native Guadalajara. “Sometimes it is difficult with young people, I think it has to do with life, responsibilities […] But our goal is to continue with the roots, the culture of Japan and all the folklore,” he says.

The-CNN-Wire
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