An ex-slave’s 40-year-old memoir comes to life

Like their black and Jewish counterparts, some children of the century-old Korean Diaspora are drawn to “coming home” in search of their roots. And their transnational journey often would spring the serendipity of the shared heritage that transcends borders, generations and languages.

In 1973, Oakland teacher Gail Whang became the first third-generation Korean American to trek to the Yucatan in Mexico, home to descendants of the 1905 slave passage.

Upon arrival in Mexico City, by sheer luck, she encountered Yucatan-born former slave Joseph Sanchez Pak, 68, who escorted her family to his birthplace from which he’d had a 40-year absence. He had just published his first-person memoir in Spanish covering the last seven decades.

To her shock and pride, she learned that her great uncle the Rev. Whang Sa-Yong was worshipped among the natives for his 1909 “underground railroading” of destitute former slaves to Hawaii and the mainland United States. Another discovery: 300 of the original slaves set sail in 1921 for Cuba for a better life only to face a harrowing reality on the island.

Fast forward to 2004. New York-based volunteer Aiyoung Choi, acting as interpreter/translator, accompanied her friend and veteran filmmaker Dai-Sil Kim-Gibson to Castro’s Cuba in quest of the Korean Diaspora. The award-winning filmmaker recently completed a documentary film focusing on the pioneer family of Marxist educator Martha Lim Kim.

Born to a patriotic family in Korea, Aiyoung grew up as an overseas Korean in China and Japan. On her journey of self-discovery around the world, each time she heard Korea’s national anthem sung, its words helped to define her heritage. Her great-grandfather the Rev. Choi Byung-Hun authored the anthem.

After Japan’s surrender in 1945, her 5-year-old eyes watched in awe as her home in Shanghai turned into a reception center for streams of conscripted Korean soldiers stranded in the remote China. Her mother composed the rousing Song of Liberation, and her father called out over the Voice of America the names, ages and hometowns of the conscripts he had found for Korean audiences back home.

After schooling she led a successful career as an independent management consultant for many types of organizations in public and private sectors. She speaks several languages, including fluent Spanish.

During the centennial Korean passage to Mexico of 2005, I was looking for a competent Spanish-English translator of the precious Pak memoir. Telepathy was at work between us: Our paths have crossed. Not surprisingly, the indefatigable volunteer has agreed to translate and summarize Pak’s The Life and Work of Koreans in the Yucatan, Mexico for the Lonesome Journey series.

 

MEMORIAS

The Life and Work of Koreans in the Yucatan, Mexico

By Jose Sanchez Pak

Registered with the Mexican Ministry of Public Education, October 29, 1973