Looking For My Roots

In one of the many genealogy groups I belong to, there was a discussion about finding their Puerto Rican ancestors in Hawaii.

I always knew about the migration to Hawaii for sugar cane workers. My maternal grandfather grew sugar cane in Rincon, Puerto Rico, so I have been always interested how sugar cane affected the lives of my ancestors, but I now I was curious as to what documentation was available as to the cause and the journey of the Hawaiian Puerto Rican experience.

I have come to learn that the migration of Puerto Ricans to Hawaii was a result of several factors.

1. American invasion of the Island,
2. 1899 San Ciriaco Hurricane. U.S. Army Major Albert L. Myer described the hurricane as “more disruptive to Puerto Rican society than was the American invasion.”^[10] The San Ciriaco hurricane was described as the first major storm in Puerto Rico since the 1876 San Felipe hurricane.

• At the time it was the worst tropical cyclone in Puerto Rico.
• Approximately 250,000 people were left without food and shelter. 
  Note that in the 1899 Puerto Rican census, the island population was 953,243( Wikipedia – 1899 Puerto Rican Census). So over a quarter of the island’s population was affected.
• Overall, damage totaled approximately $35.8 million, with over half were losses inflicted on crops, particularly coffee.
• At the time, it was the costliest and worst tropical cyclone in Puerto Rico.
• The number of fatalities ranged from 3,100 to 3,400, with the official estimate being 3,369.

More Hurricanes

Two years later in 1901, Tropical Storm San Vicente hit the island.

The center of this tropical storm moved over the north coast of Puerto Rico in a westerly direction with estimated sustained winds of 60 mph during the night of September 11th and early morning of September 12th 1. The wind report from San Juan was of 52 mph and a pressure of 29.89 (1012 mb). The storm affected all the crops in Puerto Rico, specially the citrus.

• Hurricanes and Tropical Storms in Puerto Rico from 1900 to 1979
• NOA: Notes on the Tropical Cyclones of Puerto RIco 1508-1970 – Orlando Perez

The following are some articles I found educational on the Puerto Rican Migration to Hawaii

• 150 Newspaper Articles from the Maui, Hawaiian and California-related Newspapers on Puerto Rican Immigration to Hawaii, 1900- 1925 by Daniel M. Lopez

• Stuart B. Schwartz (1992). The Hurricane of San Ciriaco: Disaster, Politics, Society in Puerto Rico, 1899–1901 (PDF). Latin American Studies (Report). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
• Centro for Puerto Rican Studies: How The First Puerto Ricans Arrived On Hawai’i Island
• Wikipedia: 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane
• Trabajo y Tristeza—”Work and Sorrow”: The Puerto Ricans of Hawaii 1900-1902
• Wikipedia: Puerto Rican immigration to Hawaii
• Redalyc.Borinki identity in Hawai`i: present and future
• https://www.newyorklatinculture.com/aloha-boricua/

Happy reading and researching!