T he academic study of Latin America and the Caribbean has focused on three racial-ethnic groups—Europeans or whites, Africans or blacks, and the indigenous. Curiously, although Columbus was looking for a new route to Las Indias, Asia was quickly forgotten in the construction of New World history, perhaps because it soon became obvious that Columbus missed his mark and reached lands previously unknown to his compatriots in Europe. But Columbus persisted in his illusion that he had indeed reached Asia, and gave the native peoples he encountered the enduring misnomer of “Indians”—a constant reminder, it would seem, that the idea of Asia in the invention of America was fixed at America’s inception. Furthermore, Columbus’s failure only spurred on the Spaniards to find that connection to Asia, which they accomplished with the 250-year-long global trade system between Europe and Asia that went through Acapulco in Spanish Mexico and Manila in Spanish Philippines. It was in Manila, the Spanish outpost in the far Pacific, that Spaniards found the vibrant global marketplace and cultural intersection that connected all corners of the known world, as captured in the words of Jesuit Father Colín, who visited in 1663: Manila is the equal of any other emporium of our monarchy, for it is the center to which flow the riches of the Orient and the Occident, the silver of Peru and New Spain; the pearls and precious stones of India; the diamonds of Narsinga and Goa; the rubies, sapphires and topazes, and the cinnamon of Ceylon; the pepper of Sumatra and the Javas; the cloves, nutmegs and other spices of the Moluccas and Banda; the fine Persian silks and wool and carpets from Ormuz and Malabar; rich hangings and bed coverings of Bengal; fine camphor of Borneo; balsam and ivory of Abada and Cambodia, [. . .] and from Great China silks of all kinds, raw and woven in velvets and figured damasks, taffetas and other cloths of every texture, design and colors, linens and cotton fabrics, gilt-decorated articles, embroideries and porcelains, and other riches and curiosities of great value and esteem; from Japan, amber, varicolored silks, writing desks, boxes and tables of precious woods, lacquered and with curious decorations; and very fine silverware. (Schurz 50) Similarly, the Portuguese seaborne empire stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific and across the Indian Ocean, linking Europe to Brazil to Asia and Africa (Boxer). INTRODUCTION Afro-Hispanic Review  Volume 27, Number 1  Spring 2008 ~ 9 Asian Diasporas in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Historical Overview EVELYN HU-DEHART BROWN UNIVERSITY K ATHLEEN LÓPEZ LEHMAN COLLEGE, CUNY