In 1847, when more than 300 Chinese peasants who had been hired as farm laborers boarded the Oquendo frigate in the port of Amoy in China. As the ship sailed away from their homeland, they imagined themselves returning after eight years, when their contracts were completed, covered in glory and loaded with money to relieve the abject poverty of their families. The destination of those “coolies” was Cuba, a warm Spanish colony in the Caribbean Sea, a chimera where coins poured into the pockets of those who were willing to work. And they wanted to work.