New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. XIV, 282 p., il. Cambridge Latin American Studies; 100. (ISBN 9781107635777). The book of a researcher from the University of Miami (Ohio, USA) Tatiana Seijas "Asian slaves in colonial Mexico. From Chinos to Indians " is one of those rare books directly or indirectly related to China and the Chinese, which tell the reader a lot of unknown, surprising facts and circumstances. In the 16th century in Mexico as Chinos ("Chinese") officially registered all arrivals to New Spain from Asia. Those who were brought from Africa were recorded as "negros" - "black" or " cafres "(toponym). Chinos in common Latin American Spanish are still called Indians, this is a very ambiguous word for descendants of people of different races, as well as servants and all people of low social status. If in the 16th century "chinos" and "negros" were slaves from Asia and Africa, respectively, and "indio" was the entire indigenous population, then in the 17th century the phrase "indios chinos" appeared in reference to personally free Filipinos who settled in Mexico. Slaves of Asian origin were never called so, because, according to Spanish law, the entire indigenous population of New Spain was free, i.e. an Indian could not be a slave. In the 18th century, "chinos" were already people of mixed Indian and African bloodlines. T. Seijas notes that even in serious historical studies, the terms "indios chinos" and simply "chinos" are often confused (p.6). As far as can be judged, T. Seijas 'book is the first serious study that traces where the "Chinese" came from, reconstructs their life in Mexico; we have an extraordinary story of the transformation of slaves of Asian origin into personally free "Indians". T. Seijas studied the archives of the Philippines and colonial Mexico, the results of archival work are placed in a single, a well-thought-out scheme. The number of records left by slaves and slaveholders is surprising, they formed the basis of the book, ... Read more