Catalan Migrants in the Timber Trade from Laguna de Términos (Late 18th Century-19th Century)

Abstract

With the opening of the ports to Atlantic trade, the possibility of Campeche trading with Barcelona and other points along the Catalan coast was expanded. Between 1784 and 1796, Barcelona was the second port —after Cadiz— to receive logwood from Campeche, Veracruz and Havana. This prompted the arrival of migrants from Catalan coastal towns who entered the booming forestry extractive economy in that period in the basin of Laguna de Términos (Carmen district, Campeche). Unlike those who returned and invested their fortunes in their territories of origin —the Indianos—, the presence of Catalans who stayed in Campeche and became part of the elite, settling in both Villa del Carmen and San Francisco de Campeche, is notorious. This article aims to investigate the trajectories and strategies of this migratory group, as well as its presence in the conformation of regional colonial imaginaries.