Aloha Compadre

Latinxs in Hawai'i

By Rudy P. Guevarra

SERIES: Latinidad: Transnational Cultures in the United States

Rutgers University Press

Aloha Compadre: Latinxs in Hawaiʻi is the first book to examine the collective history and contemporary experiences of the Latinx population of Hawaiʻi. This study reveals that contrary to popular discourse, Latinx migration to Hawaiʻi is not a recent event. In the national memory of the United States, for example, the Latinx population of Hawaiʻi is often portrayed as recent arrivals and not as long-term historical communities with a presence that precedes the formation of statehood itself. Historically speaking, Latinxs have been voyaging to the Hawaiian Islands for over one hundred and ninety years. From the early 1830s to the present, they continue to help shape Hawaiʻi’s history, yet their contributions are often overlooked. Latinxs have been a part of the cultural landscape of Hawaiʻi prior to annexation, territorial status, and statehood in 1959. Aloha Compadre also explores the expanding boundaries of Latinx migration beyond the western hemisphere and into Oceania.

Guevarra situates Hawaiʻi as a centerpiece of the interaction between Asia and Latin America on U.S. soil, from complicating notions of settler colonialism to chronicling the spread of anti-immigrant sentiment in the 'aloha' state to placing cross-racial unions in the broader formation of a 'local' identity. This is a masterpiece in multiracial analysis and writing! George J. Sánchez, author of Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1

You simply will not know the full history and context of Hawai'i without reading Aloha Compadre. Rudy Guevarra has gifted us a must-read book on the lives of Hawai'i’s overlooked Latinx communities, who make up over 10% of the population. Through poignant prose and sharp analysis, Guevarra illuminates the movement of Latinx communities across Oceania as they create a Pacific Latinidad. Nitasha Tamar Sharma, author of Hawai'i Is My Haven: Race and Indigeneity in the Black Pacific

Aloha Compadre sets a new standard for the history of the Latinx diaspora in Hawai’i.’
Luis Alvarez, author of The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II

Guevarra’s Aloha Compadre is a necessary intervention within the conversation of Latinx transnational migration and is relevant for historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and interdisciplinary scholars alike. Ethnic Studies Review

Aloha Compadre feels grounded and approachable in the way it is written and the story it tells about Latinx in Hawai'i. Journal for the Anthropology of North America

RUDY P. GUEVARRA JR. is professor of Asian Pacific American studies in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. He is the author of Becoming Mexipino: Multiethnic Identities and Communities in San Diego (Rutgers University Press), and coeditor of Beyond Ethnicity: New Politics of Race in Hawaiʻi.

Preface
Note on Terminology and Accessibility
Introduction: The Deportation of Andres Magaña Ortiz
1 Vaqueros and Paniolos
2 Boricua Hawaiiana
3 Working Maui Pine
4 “Wetbacks” in Racial Paradise?
5 Mixed Race Identity, Localized Latinxs, and a Pacific Latinidad
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

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