Chinese and Korean migrated to Yucatan by the hundreds in the XIX Century.
The great migrations to Yucatecan soil of the 19th century were of Chinese, Koreans and Lebanese, it even reached the point that the Chinese language was the second most spoken in Yucatan, after the Mayan language. There was even a Chinatown behind the large market of Mérida, today Lucas de Gálvez, near the now abandoned citadel of San Benito.
In Yucatán, the immigration of Chinese to the state occurred in the 19th century and that of Koreans in 1905 and currently many Yucatecans have roots from those nations.
The Chinese came as henequen workers, many married Mayan peasant women, the Mayan culture absorbed them.
There was a similarity in physiognomic features and Chinese and Mayan words.
For example, some Chinese with the surname Chang dropped the final g to become Mayan Chan.
We owe the Chinese the salty Chinese and to eat the sweet orange, china orange, like them, peeled and sucked.
They dedicated themselves to vegetables, because they did not like to eat tortillas or bread and they consumed little meat, which was also very expensive.
In Yucatán, they learned first Mayan then Spanish.
Some changed their surnames from So to Sosa and Yang to Yáñez, surnames that still prevail in Yucatecan territory today.
Source.- El Mr Chelo
