Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

    Hello everyone!

    We will be visiting this March and August and was wondering if anyone knew of any public resources where we could explore the history of Puerto Ricans in Hawai'i. I have gotten my hands on many of the books that discuss the history, but would love to take the opportunity of our visit to explore a little bit more.

    Mahalo!
    Puerto Rican in Seattle. My life is a bad sitcom.

  • #2
    Re: Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

    Definitely check out Plantation Village in Waipahu!
    .
    .

    That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

      Welcome to Hawai'i Threads, Marisol.

      According to some timelines I've seen, the first Puerto Rican immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1900, along with the Okinawans.

      Here's a Wikipedia description of Puerto Ricans in Hawai'i. You can also write to the United Puerto Rican Association of Hawaii for information about cultural sites and activities of significance to Puerto Ricans.

      Miulang
      "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

        Originally posted by Miulang
        Welcome to Hawai'i Threads, Marisol.

        According to some timelines I've seen, the first Puerto Rican immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1900, along with the Okinawans.

        Here's a Wikipedia description of Puerto Ricans in Hawai'i. You can also write to the United Puerto Rican Association of Hawaii for information about cultural sites and activities of significance to Puerto Ricans.

        Miulang
        My greatgreatgrand parents migrated here from Potorico in the late 1800's! Settled in the Lawai Stable in Kalaheo, Kauai.

        Auntie Lynn
        Be AKAMAI ~ KOKUA Hawai`i!
        Philippians 4:13 --- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

          Here's another interesting little story published in the LA Times 1901 about the condition of the Puerto Rican laborers who immigrated to Hawai'i:

          "...“They were a miserable lot when they arrived on the plantations,” said Mr. Von Holt yesterday, “but they had been starving in their own country for years, and are utterly unfit to care for themselves....

          "...“The islands need a class of immigrants who will become hard-working citizens, and not a class of paupers.

          “It is very hard to find, however, a white man of he farming class who will work long with his own hands under the conditions that exist there. Asiatic labor — principally Japanese at present —has been and, it seems, will have to continue to be, the dependence of the country.

          A white man will not work beside an Asiatic. A white farmer buys a farm and commences to work it with his own hands, as he does on the continent; soon he realizes that he can hire Asiatic labor to till the land so cheaply that he can better afford to engage his own laborers and hire himself out as an overseer on some plantation than to farm on his own account.

          “There is no climatic reason why white men should not work in the cane fields of the Hawaiian islands as well as Asiatics. The conditions are healthful.

          “The islands are very prosperous under the present order of things. Since the coming of the American government [in 1898] everybody feels more secure and all values have become more solid.”

          Hmmm...

          Miulang
          "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

            Thanks for the link! Doesn't surprise me at all. Kind of mild considering most of the newspaper reports at the time. Since we were simple, irresponsible children who couldn't take care of ourselves, we had to be kept in the territorial status which persists to this day. Seems par for the course with most colonialist tendencies and I assume it was like the reasoning used to justify actions in Hawai'i as well.

            When the U.S. won Puerto Rico in a battle of imperialist chess in 1898, Puerto Rico was considered to be the poorest island in the Caribbean, dubious honor it maintained for more than 40 years afterwards. Puerto Rico suffered two hurricanes in 1899, San Ciriaco (winds 110-140) and another one two weeks later, which killed more than 3,300 people, dumped rain on the island for 27 days, and decimated what little agricultural infrastructure we had. When the big Hawaiian sugar companies came a-knocking, they had their pick of people so desperate to eat that most of them did not know where they were going, were misled into thinking they were going elsewhere, or had little reason to care. They were literally starved and abused on the long railway trip to Los Angeles, split up amongst plantations on different islands when they reached Hawai'i (wives from husbands, children from parents), and forced to work. Honestly, I would have used my first paycheck to pay for some food and happiness myself!
            Puerto Rican in Seattle. My life is a bad sitcom.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

              Marisol: If you go to Maui, make sure you take a side trip to the Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum in Puunene. It sits next to the last working sugar refinery on Maui and is housed in an old "luna" (boss) house. It's crammed full of old photos and household goods and gives visitors are very good idea of what plantation camp life was like for the new immigrants to Hawai'i. Pu'unene is between Kahului (where the airport is) and Kihei and Wailea, so if you're staying in South Maui, it would be a really quick detour.

              Miulang
              "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Puerto Rico & Hawai'i?

                Hey, Marisol.

                I lived at Roosevelt Roads 1954-1955. Went to a Spanish-language kindergarten there.
                http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/

                Comment

                Working...
                X