Weaving with Spanish Threads - an Immigrant's Tale

"...it was almost like hearing [my grandfather] speak again."
                                                                          --Cathy Continente, descendant of immigrants

"...unravels the rich experience...usually neglect[ed]...in an area...sorely understudied ....[helps] uncover the histories of labor contracts....accessible and fascinating..."  
                                                                           --Maddalena Marinari, PhD, History Dept., 
                                                                              St. Bonaventura Univ., New York, USA    
                                                                              (For full review, click on tab at bottom right.)

"...a 'must see' for any serious student of immigration, plantation life, and the nature of historical storytelling in Hawai'i and points abroad."
                                                                           --John P. Rosa, PhD, History Dept.
                                                                             Univ. of Hawai'i at Manoa
                                                                             (For full review, click on tab at bottom right.)


When we met Francisco Pérez, we knew we had a story.  Here was this 98-year old man, full of life and full of memories... 

...of his childhood in Spain;  followed by the long, long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, around the tip of South America, up the Pacific coast and then on to Hawaii. where he and his family and thousands of other immigrants from Spain worked in the sugar cane fields and pineapple plantations.  And after that, California....

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the early 1900s, tens of thousands of people from southern Spain left their homeland.  At the time, Spain was impoverished.  Many people did not have enough to eat.  The emigrants hoped that by leaving their homeland to work hard in other parts of the world, they would be able to support themselves and their families.

countryside in southern Spain

Several thousands of these people went to the islands of Hawaii to work on the sugar cane and pineapple plantations.  Most of them never returned.  Instead, when their labor contracts ended after three years, they moved to California where they settled permanently.

Our documentary tells this story, primarily as seen through the eyes of Francisco Pérez, our 98-year old immigrant.  He concluded the interview by showing us the fine fruit and vegetables he was growing in his back yard, and the nets he wove with which he went ocean fishing, nets he learned how to make from the Japanese and Filipinos he knew in Hawaii.

By the way, as a fisherman, he was pretty successful...and had a freezer stocked full of fish!

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NOTE:  We recently revised this documentary, improving the sound, adding some music, adding a little more footage and smoothing out the editing.  We will make it available to the public again on May 15, 2015.  Thanks for your patience.