Latinos In Hawaiian History

A totally unexpected and educative story from the Honolulu Weekly this week shows that Latinos have a long history in that state.

The story starts off talking about Don Francisco de Paula Marin’s arrival there as a 20 year-old Spanish sailor in 1794, moves on to discuss Latino demographics in Hawaii. In 2009 the Census Bureau reported 112,300 Latino residents in Hawaii, about 8.7% of the population there, with each island containing a population about 8% Latino.

There’s also discuss about a controversy in 2008 when a Honolulu city councilman made reference to “undocumented wetbacks” that served as a stimulus to get local Latinos organized. They launched a newspaper, Hawaii Hispanic News. Overall, a really interesting story, read more here.