Torreón massacre

Background

Chinese immigration to Torreón grew rapidly from the 1880s onward, drawn by the city's position at the junction of two railroads and its proximity to the Nazas River, which supported cotton agriculture. By 1900, roughly 500 of the city's 14,000 residents were Chinese, and by 1903 Torreón hosted the largest branch in Mexico of the Baohuanghui (Protect the Emperor Society). Chinese merchants built profitable businesses in groceries, laundries, and banking, including investments tied to reformist politician Kang Youwei. This prosperity generated resentment among local Mexican business owners, who in 1907 formed a chamber of commerce citing foreign domination of commerce. Anti-Chinese sentiment intensified in speeches during Mexican Independence Day observances in September 1910, followed by vandalism of Chinese establishments.

Siege and massacre

On May 13, 1911, Maderista revolutionary forces led by Emilio Madero besieged Torreón, which was defended by Federal troops under General Emiliano Lojero. Rebels killed 112 Chinese gardeners on the city's outskirts during the fighting. Federal forces retreated in the early hours of May 15 due to a shortage of ammunition. Before entering the city, rebel leader Jesús C. Flores delivered a speech calling for the extermination of the Chinese community. When rebel forces and an accompanying mob of over 4,000 people entered Torreón, they looted the business district, released prisoners, and then turned on the Chinese district, killing men, women, and children indiscriminately and mutilating bodies. Some residents intervened to shelter Chinese neighbors. The violence lasted roughly ten hours until Emilio Madero arrived and declared the death penalty for further killings of Chinese people.

Casualties and aftermath

The massacre killed 308 Asian residents — 303 Chinese and 5 Japanese — amounting to nearly half of Torreón's Chinese population. Chinese-owned properties suffered an estimated US$849,928.69 in damage, including a bank, groceries, restaurants, and laundries. Madero convened a military tribunal the same day, which found that Maderista soldiers had "committed atrocities," though soldiers claimed self-defense. Relief efforts by the U.S. Consulate and a local committee raised funds for survivors.

Diplomatic response

Qing China demanded reparations of over 30 million pesos and an official apology, and rumors circulated that a Chinese warship might be dispatched to Mexican waters, though this did not occur. An investigation led by American attorney Lebbeus Wilfley and his partner Arthur Bassett concluded the massacre was "an unprovoked massacre... conceived in malice and race hatred" and rejected claims that the Chinese had been armed. In November 1912, the Republic of China and Mexico reached an agreement in which Mexico agreed to pay 3,100,000 pesos in damages and issued an apology, but payment was never completed following Francisco Madero's 1913 assassination and subsequent Mexican economic instability. In 2021, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a further apology on the massacre's 110th anniversary.