My mother, Carmen Ewalaniki'eki'e Juarez Oliveira, was the genealogist of our family. She compiled the following genealogical information in a 28-page document for her University of Hawaii History 399 class for D. Johnson in 1978. Spanish families
sailed into new livesREADER REMEMBRANCE
Frank Gregory Oliveira / Special to the Star-Bulletin
The document is now at Bishop Museum, where our family is presented in the Spanish Family display on the second floor of the Great Hall.
What follows is our family's story, as told in excerpts from my mother's paper:
"On April 26, 1907, the first contingent of 2,287 Spanish immigrants arrived in Hawaii aboard the sailing ship Heliopolis. They were mostly from Malaga and Granada, Spain. On board were my grandparents, Gabriel and Carmen Juarez, with their six children. My father, Gabriel Juarez, was only one year old and one of the youngest arrivals.
"The Hawaiian government invited the Spanish to Hawaii because Hawaii needed their skills.
"My family was here to start a new life as skilled workers on the sugar plantation as many had done in southern Spain, where sugar cane was cultivated. My grandparents were on a one-year contract and received $24 each per month, free housing, transportation, lights and fuel for wood stoves.
"I once asked my grandmother how she managed on the long trip from Spain. She said, 'At the beginning of the trip, the 2-year-old twins were always clinging to the long skirts I wore and most of the time I had to carry your father, because he was a frisky child.
" 'So I assigned the older girls, Josefa and Soleda, to care for the twins. They were 16 and 13. Consuelo, who was 8, helped me with your father. I was afraid he would fall overboard and the ship was very crowded.'
"The arrival of these first Spanish immigrants must have been eventful because the newspapers called them 'The Dons.' They were described as 'a better looking and more contented lot of immigrants.'
"My grandmother described the ship this way: 'One of the happiest moments of my life was stepping off the ship. We knelt down and prayed in thanksgiving for arriving safely. Touching earth again was heavenly.'
"My family was one of those who went to Koloa Plantation on Kauai. Plantation life was too restrictive and the family hated the compartmentalized society. By 1914, the family had learned to speak English and so it left for Honolulu.
"As a daughter of a Spanish immigrant, I feel that although much assimilation has taken place, I still retain a great deal of Spanish influence I have received through my childhood. I am proud of my family and especially of my grandmother who had such a tremendous influence upon my life. I feel fortunate to be a descendant of a beloved Spanish immigrant."
On Aug. 27, 1978, eight months after writing this story, my mother died in a car accident on Kauai.