Sergio Hernández Galindo

The end of the war between Japan and the United States in August 1945 did not bring peace and freedom to the thousands of Japanese immigrants who lived in various countries in Latin America. This was particularly true for those who had been forcibly relocated to concentration camps in the United States and remained incarcerated. The war was over and their future was still uncertain, as they didn’t know if they would be repatriated to Japan or if they could return to the countries where they had lived most of their lives and where their children had been born ...

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On December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbor. Although the tension between Japan and the United States catalyzed the imminence of war, the attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii surprised everyone.

The news spread like wildfire in Ensenada. The fishermen were on the dock that afternoon when their colleagues rushed to tell them, “War broke out, war broke out! Japan bombed Pearl Harbor!” Their initial reaction was one of great pride at knowing that the attack had been a success; however, at the same time, the news overwhelmed them with uneasiness restlessness ...

Two brothers named Totaro and Kazuma Nishikawa formed part of an important wave of Japanese fishermen who settled in Ensenada in the early 1930s. Twenty years before, however, the first Japanese fishermen had already arrived in Baja California, when the Porfirio Díaz administration granted Aurelio Sandoval a fishing permit that Masaharu Kondo, an expert in fishing technology, would subsequently approve upon realizing the fruitfulness of the waters of Baja California.

The fishing industry in the peninsula would enjoy a boom from 1930 until the beginning of World War II, thanks to the permits and investments that various business entities ...

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Julio Mizzumi Guerrero Kojima is an acclaimed musician of the son jarocho and fandango movement. To achieve this recognition, this Nikkei musician, who plays the jarana (similar to a guitar), has traveled a long road to understanding that the music and traditions of his people are a part of his identity, an inner essence that gradually flourished and found expression. This process occurred while he was also searching for his Japanese roots and the legacy of Japanese immigrants in the Sotavento region of Veracruz.

Julio Mizzumi heard son jarocho, as the folk music unique to Veracruz is ...

Julio Mizzumi Guerrero Kojima is a folk musician and preschool teacher of Nikkei origin, who was born in a small village in Veracruz on the shores of the Papaloapan River, also known as “river of the butterflies,” in 1970. The village of Otatitlán (which means “place of the bamboo” in the Náhuatl language) where Julio grew up is part of an incredibly rich microcosm in the region called Sotavento (“place of high winds”). The many different cultures flourishing here have intersected in this region of Veracruz for thousands of years.

Adding to an already diverse range of cultures ...