An example blank contract outlining the homesteading terms between a Hawaiian fruit company and an agricultural laborer. Presumably, the Ponces and Anayas signed similar contracts.
View Sample Hawaiian Fruit Company Contract »
Spanish translation by Liz Castro
View Spanish Flyer for Free Passage to Hawaii »
When the sugar cane and fruit companies needed laborers to work their plantations in Hawaii, they turned to indentured servitude. In return for 3 years' work on the plantation, a company would pay for the laborer's transportation to Hawaii and provide housing. My great-great-uncle, Francisco Peres Salado, arrived in just that manner. You can see…
View S.S. Heliopolis Manifest: Spain to Hawaii »The Anayas and Ponces, like many farmers from southern Spain, left from Malaga, Spain, on the Spanish vessel SS Heliopolis, arriving in Hawaii on 1907 April 26. Based on excerpts from Memories of Spain, by Anne Aguilar Santucci for Club Espanol of Rocklin, CA, Charles David and Gail Elizabeth (Salado) Eyster put together the context…
View From Spain to Hawaii »
As told to daughter Carmen Ponce Sforzini and grand-daughter Charlotte Sforzini Arton, May 27 & 31, 1972.
View Maria Anaya Ponce’s Life Story »As told to Sharon Sforzini Grant
View Carmen Ponce Sforzini’s Life Story »
Many of my Spanish ancestors were granted free passage from Spain to Hawaii in return for laboring in the sugar cane fields or fruit plantations. My great-grandmother Maria Anaya (later Maria Ponce) journeyed on the SS Heliopolis in 1907.
View Anaya-Ponce »