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richmx2

Mar 14, 2010, 1:09 PM

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Sihks in Mexico?

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Another of those interminable Sierra Madre hillbilly feuds -- and the impressive body count (eight dead) -- had our local snowbirds chattering away on the usual message boards. I am not particularly interested in getting into that chatter, but I did read the local newspaper's coverage, and what struck me was the names of the victims -- including "Raúl Arturo Singh Zazueta, Aarón Singh Castro and Pakar Singh Zamora". Here in Sinaloa, and the rest of Northwest Mexico, Asian ancestry, and Asian names (Hispanicized or otherwise) are relatively common, but most Asian immigration was from the Philippines, China, Korea (and later Japan). I wouldn't be surprised if there were immigrants from India, but this is the first time I've seen an obviously Indian family name, and one that identifies the family as Sikh.

I know there is a small Sikh community in Mexico City, but most of those Sikhs are recent immigrants, from the professional and business class. thought I was pretty up on the multi-culturalism of Mexico (and have written about it elsewhere), but this is a new one on me: the only noteworthy Indian immigrant (and I've forgotten his name) being the founder of the Mexican Communist Party.

I'm familiar with the so-called "Mexican Hindus" of California... who are descended from Sikh farmers who emigrated from the Punjab in the early 20th century. Because of U.S. immigration quotas on Asian immigrants which made it nearly impossible for Asian immigrants to bring their families or send for brides, and the illegality of "interracial" marriages at the time, the immigrant Sikhs in California married into Mexican-American families (both being "brown" according to the California marriage code at the time). And their descended misidentified as "Mexican Hindus."

I'm wondering if there are Mexican "Mexican Hindus".

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