I've been hearing people in Maui speaking Tagalog and Ilocano, and I recalled that the Filipino population is large in Hawaii. I wasn't sure what the numbers are, so I looked it up and found an article by Belinda A. Aquino and Federico V. Magdalena that says:
"According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 15 percent of the Hawaii state population – or 170,635 – identified themselves as "Filipino" (see Figure 1). However, the Census allowed citizens to opt for more than one ethnicity ("mixed race"), and another 105,728 identified themselves as "part-Filipino." Taken together, Filipinos and part-Filipinos constitute 275,728 or nearly 23 percent of the state population, slightly more than the Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian population. About 70 percent of the Filipino population live on the island of Oahu. While they are a minority population in the state, they form the majority (at least 60%) in Lanai island, Maui county."
This is an old U.S. Census and I'm sure the 23% count has gone up.
The history of Filipinos in Hawaii dates back to 1906 when 15 sugar cane workers were recruted by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association to work on the sugar cane plantations in Hawaii. A hundred years later, Filipino American Governor Ben Cayetano oversaw the centennial observance of the event.
Ben Cayetano, 5th Governor of Hawaii, photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Filipinos are the fasting growing ethnic minority in Hawaii primarily because of migration.
Tune in for more updates on my visit to Maui, dear Readers.
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Tags: travel, Filipinos, Hawaiians, Hawaii, Maui, Filipino population
This is all for now,
Cecilia
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