I have been asked to post my entire article on Spanish immigration to Hawaii and to California in the early 1900s that was published on an online magazine back in 2004. I have already posted the link on this page to that entire article. Here I will start to post my article in sections. Thank you for your interest: Spanish Immigrants in Hawaii in the Early 1900s and their Descendants by Jaime Cader © 2003 During the early 1900s over 8000 Spaniards emigrated to the Hawaiian Islands to work mostly in the sugar cane plantations. From Spain they embarked on ships that traveled through the Straight of Magellan and then continued on towards Hawaii. After four or five years, the great majority of these individuals left Hawaii to reside in California. There were various reasons why they left Spain, however most emigrated because of the poor economic conditions in their homeland. A smaller percentage left in order to escape the fate of their sons’ eventual recruitment to fight in Spain’s war in Morocco. Different reasons also existed for the later emigration to California. Many had Spanish friends and family members who had preceded them to the Golden State. Those in California encouraged their counterparts in Hawaii to leave the islands so that they could take part in the good living conditions of a state that resembled Spain. Some Spaniards abandoned Hawaii after seeing or hearing about the brutal putting down of a Russian rebellion. There were different immigrant groups in Hawaii, and the Russians rose up against their poor treatment in their work camp. Upon learning about that incident, some Spaniards decided that it was best to stay quiet and to then just sneak off to California. In order to write this article, I referred to two written works: 1) the book Memories of Spain, first published in 1994 by Anne Santucci for the Club Espanol of Rocklin (California), and 2) a written paper entitled Vida y Desventura de Ocho Mil Españoles en Hawai Durante las Primeras Decadas del Siglo XX by German Rueda Hernanz of the University of Valladolid’s Contemporary History Department. I have also interviewed seven individuals who are children, grandchildren, or spouses of Spaniards that had a Hawaiian connection. The information from these interviews will be presented in this article. I hope that I have not gotten too sidetracked as I relate some of their experiences as I was also told about circumstances during the Spanish Civil War, etc. The persons that I interviewed told me their stories as they knew or experienced the events. It is possible that other Spanish-Hawaiians and their descendants recall the events differently. Finally I will include information about ‘Spanish-Hawaiian’ families taken from obituaries and other printed sources, such as programs from Spanish associations’ celebrations, etc. Before presenting all of this, I want to mention that my first major encounter with this subject took place almost twenty years ago when I often had conversations with a Mrs. Pilar Lopez who worked in the same public school office building as I did. Lopez, whose parents were from the provinces of Salamanca and Soria, Spain respectively, said that in the mid 1920s many Andalusians lived around what was referred to as la loma in San Francisco, California. These Andalusians had lived in Hawaii. La loma included all of the streets leading up to Koit Tower. It comprised of the hill area of Vallejo and Green Streets (and Kearny Street in the same area). The location started from Columbus and Grant Avenues, -and Stockton and Union Streets also had sections in this area. Many Spaniard’s also lived in San Francisco’s Mission District during that same period. Lopez had some friendships among the residents of la loma and she has always been a good and generous source of information. Lopez was a child when she and her family attended the inauguration of the Club Iberico in San Leandro in the early 1930s. In reference to the publications mentioned previously, note should be taken that while Santucci’s book lists seven trips on ships that brought Spaniards to Hawaii starting in 1907, it does not report a ship called the Victoria which left the port of Vigo (in Galicia), Spain in 1900 with 300 Spaniards which is listed in Rueda Hernanz’s write-up. Rueda Hernanz, for his part, does not list the ship Kumeric which is listed in the previously mentioned book and which arrived in Hawaii in in 1907 with a total of 1114 passengers. The Interviews The interview of Blanca Crovetto Avancena was conducted in her office in Walnut Creek, California on September 19, 2003. It was the second of two interviews that were done in Spanish. Crovetto Avancena is originally from Madrid, Spain. She works as a counselor for women who have cancer. The connection that Crovetto Avancena has to the Hawaiian episode is that she is a descendant of Don Carlos Crovetto, who worked in immigration matters and assisted many Spaniards in doing the paper work for them to emigrate to Hawaii. A flyer (which is printed in Santucci’s book) was put up in many places in Spain that advertises the need for workers in Hawaii. On the bottom of that flyer it says For more information …: Don Carlos Crovetto, person in charge of revision … Malaga (Spain). According to Crovetto Avancena, Don Carlos Crovetto had an Italian origin, making her a descendant of a General Crovetto, whose statue is to be found in Genova, Italy.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 03:28:14 +0000