Herlinda Wong Chew

Herlinda Wong Chew, born on July 23, 1895, in Guadalajara, Mexico, was the daughter of Chinese businessman Carlos Wong and Mexican Aztec Native Fráncisca Vasquez. She was fluent in Spanish and Chinese, and learned English at a young age, despite societal sentiments against girls’ education at the time.

In 1910, Herlinda’s family relocated to Ciudad Juarez, where she met Antonio Chew, her future husband.  Antonio, an established figure with a successful grocery store called La Garantia, proposed to Herlinda with a mariachi band, which she accepted much to the dismay of other suitors.

Herlinda was charismatic and fiery, which endeared her to both Chinese Mexicans and Mexicans, including troops of Pancho Villa’s regime. Before the day of the attack in Juarez, some of Pancho Villa’s men, who were also loyal customers of Herlinda’s grocery, came to warn her of the battle. Aside from her role at the grocery store; she facilitated travel arrangements to and from China for Chinese Mexicans.  Because of this, she had good relations with U.S. immigration officials. Through this positive relation with the U.S., she arranged asylum for around 200 Chinese Mexicans in El Paso, earning her the title “Queen of the Chinese” in newspaper coverage.

Amidst the Mexican violence, Herlinda and Antonio returned to Canton, but traditional family dynamics clashed with her independent spirit. Rejecting the subservient role expected of her, she fled to Canton, taking up a teaching position at a mission school and later tutoring the daughters of a wealthy banker. After three years, she returned to Juarez.

In 1920, Herlinda immersed herself in studying U.S. Immigration Law. Known as “The Travel Agent,” she navigated the complexities of immigration, and her linguistic skills proved invaluable. Discovering a loophole in the Chinese Exclusion Act, she successfully immigrated her family to the U.S. as merchants in 1922, settling in El Paso.

The Chew family faced the challenges of U.S. Prohibition, establishing the New China Grocery at 211 Stanton Street, now a J.C. Penny. Their fifth child, Yee Kam Shew, born in El Paso on June 10, 1923, marked the beginning of their American journey. Antonio and Herlinda, parents of eight children in total, played a pivotal role in shaping the history and culture of the Chinese community in El Paso.