Spanish American War

And one more note about military service.

One of the few papers I have about Antonio Castro Blanco (the head of the Castro clan until his untimely death in 1927) is a curious military document that seems to transfer him from one cuartel to another in 1901. I wrote the Department of Defense in Spain to ask about it and they told me some interesting things. First, military service was required and lasted for TWELVE years in Spain in that era. There were six years of active duty and six years in the reserve. Antonio was recruited in 1897 and Uncle Frank says in his story that both Antonio (Uncle Frank's father) and Antonio's brother (Uncle Frank's uncle) served in the Spanish American War.

I'm very curious about this war. It began in the Spring of 1898. Cuba had been trying to wrest its independence from Spain for more than ten years. From what I've been able to find out, although American intentions were less than pure, it's probably true that the rather decadent Spanish government was mistreating its Cuban colony. The United States joined in on the Cuban side and completely humiliated the Spanish in ten weeks. As a result, the US took its first foreign possessions: Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Phillipines. It was a turning point in history: the end of the Spanish empire and the beginning of the American one.

What I would love to find out is how it must have been for our Antonio in that war. The defeat was taken very bitterly by Spain which finally had to own up to the fact that its glory days were over. And Antonio was right in the middle of it: drafted to fight for the Spanish, went and fought in Cuba, and then as soon as his military service was completed, he emigrated to the United States. I wonder how he felt about it all. Small wonder that he gave Frank a good beating when he tried to enlist for World War I.

Any thoughts?

They served our country

(This is a work in progress. Margaret Castro Dambley and Bob Castro began this story, but Randy Vigallon recently added some more. If anyone else would like to contribute stories about those who served, please let me know and I can add it to this story (or feel free to start a new post. Pause your mouse over the pictures to see who's who. -- Liz)



By Bob Castro
I want to do my part contributing World War II stories and the relatives who served, but I was born in 37 and the war started in 1941. I remember some things towards the end of the war ( 7 by then) but not much. I remember black-outs (where all the lights were turned out and there were black shades on the windows) where we were afraid of an attack.

I remember writing letters (printing) to the uncles over seas, (where ever that was). I remember sitting in our car for hours while my Mother and her sisters stood in line at the hose factory to get their ration of nylon stockings. I remember buying U.S. Savings Stamps and Bonds in school in our classes. I remember that we seldom could get bubble gum, so (although my parents didn't know) we would not throw it away when it was time to, we hid it until the next day for more chewing and blowing bubbles.

I remember playing a game of tops (milk tops came from glass bottles of milk, you through them on top of the others to win them) with my brother Mike and our neighbor friend Earl when we saw a soldier, duffel bag over his shoulder walking toward us from the corner. We lived on Williams Street then in about the middle of the block. When he was about a house away we recognized him. It was Uncle Tony Vigallon, home from the war. We threw all our milk tops down and neighbor Earl took them all. We didn't care, we ran and got my Mother, screaming Uncle Tony's home! Uncle Tony's home!

A few days later there was a knock on the door and it was Uncle Joe Vigallon home from the war. He came in and had my Mother call his wife, Carnie. She came right away and he was hiding behind our dining room table and jumped out and surprised her. In no time the house was full of family coming to welcome him home.

The only sort of war thing was that my Father Mike Castro was handicapped and did not drive a car. My Mother didn't drive either. We would ride with family or take the bus and even the trains to San Francisco, as well as the street-cars. My Father decided that my Mother should drive, and when Uncle Sal Castro got drafted into the marines in 1942 he had to sell his car because his wife Dolores, didn't drive and he had no idea how long he would be gone. My Father bought the car from his Brother Sal, a 1937 Chevrolet and my Mother learned to drive.

Another war story: It was told to me many years ago by my Uncle Tony Sanchez (Antoinette Vigallon's husband). I spoke to Antoinette today to verify the facts. Tony was a staff sergeant and was awarded that I know of, two purple hearts. As told to me by Tony: We had been living in fox holes and dodging bullets for some months. One day we came upon a deserted farm house (in the Phillipines) and as we checked it out to be sure it was empty I found a porcelain cup. After drinking out of canteens for months, this was a prize that is hard to explain if you had not experienced what we just had. I washed it out carefully and made some fresh coffee to pour in it. I took my fresh cup of coffee in this prized porcelain cup and sat under a tree to drink it. Believe it or not, I felt like a million dollars. I took my first sip and heard a gunshot ring out and saw my prized cup go up in a million pieces leaving the cup's dainty ring handle on my finger. It wasn't a hero who got that sniper, it was a very, very, angry, tired soldier.

(This second part was written by Margaret Castro Dambley.)

Being a young teenager during World War II this is all that I can recall. Some of it I heard from the adults in the family.

Uncle Sal Castro

Uncle Sal was drafted into the Marines during World War II. He was married, and had one son. He was a barber at the time. After his training, he was sent to the Island of Saipan. As he was getting off of the ship to get into an LCM, which would take him to the island, an officer called out to him and asked if he had his barber's tools. When he replied "no," the officer made him go back for them, so he had to go on a different LCM. That delay saved his life, as that first LCM was hit and there were no survivors.


Uncle Bill Castro

Uncle Bill joined the Army soon after World War II started. During training, he was unable to use a rifle because of a crippled hand that he had burned when he was a small child, so he was given an honorable discharge. That didn't stop him. He joined the Merchant Marines, and served until the war ended. When he came home, he brought me a compact (for face powder) with my name on it. I still have it.


Uncle George Castro

Uncle George was drafted into the Army during World War II. He was in the artillery, serving under General George C. Patton, in Germany and France. At the time that he went into the Army, he had a dog named Lucky. Abuela said that when George left, the dog would go in and out of George's bedroom, smelling around, and whimpering. One day she found Lucky in the closet, sound asleep, curled around a pair of George's shoes. When he came home, he brought me a bottle of Chanel #5 perfume, from France.

Uncle Tony Vigallon

Uncle Tony was drafted into the Army during World War II. He was in the medical corp, and served in France. While he was in France, he fell in love with a French girl. He wanted to marry her, but the Army tried to discourage him. When that didn't work, the Army just denied the request. When he came home, he showed Marie (Vigallon) and I a picture of the girl. She was very pretty. He also taught us some French phrases. I remember one, but don't know how to write in French.


Cousin Richard Delgado

Richard, son of Josephine Vigallon, served in the Marines during the Vietnam War. He was stationed in Okinawa. He was in the 3rd Batallion, 5th Marines. (hope I got that right) He served for 12 years.


Tony Vigallon Castro

My brother joined the Navy, with a couple of his friends, after they graduated from high school. He served from 1952 to 1956 as a Yeoman. This was during the Korean War. Cousin, Joseph Vigallon, was training at the same boot camp, in San Diego. Tony spent two years on the USS Mt. Baker, an ammunition ship. Most of the time out of Japan. Three months on an oil tanker in Hawaii, and one year on the USS Missouri, in Bremerton, Washington.


Earl Dambley

Earl (husband of Margaret Castro Dambley) was drafted in World War II, at the age of 18, and selected the Navy. He served from 1943 to 1946. He reinlisted in 1950 and served as Commissaryman, First Class (baking and cooking). He was on the USS Princeton CVA37, Task Force 77, for 39 months, during the Korean War. The USS BonHomme Richard CVA 31 for 39 months. The USS Ranger CVA 61 for 4 and a half years, during the Vietnam war, and the USS O'Brian, DD725 for one year. He retired after 20 years of service and then was in the Fleet Reserves for 10 years.



Randy Vigallon

I enlisted in the United States Army in October 1968. I took Basic Training at Fort Lewis Washington and attended the Airframe and Powerplant School plus Helicopter Machine Gunner school at Fort Rucker Alabama. I was sent to Vietnam in May of 1969 and came home in June of 1970. I volunteered to go back to my Unit at Camp Eagle Vietnam (much to my parents dismay) and came back to the United States in November of 1970.

During my time in Vietnam, I served with the A Troop and HHT, 2nd Squadron of the 17th Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. My primary job (day job) was a Crew Chief and Helicopter Machine Gunner. I also served as a Technical Inspector, Turbine Engine and Helicopter Mechanic (night job) and on my second tour I was also assigned as Maintenance Sergeant . During the monsoon season, I would do anything to help make the time go by.

On Christmas day 1969 Bob Hope made it to my unit. As luck would have it, I saw the show just starting from the air as we were leaving. We did get to listen to part of the show live on our aircraft radio system as it was being broadcast on Armed Forces Radio all over Vietnam.

I returned to Fort Hood Texas and finished out my enlistment. I was discharged in October 1971 as a Sergeant E-5. I was already married and we made our home in Fremont, Ca. I re-entered the Grocery Business and remained in the Food Industry until 2001.

Twenty Eight Shots To A Bottle

In 1944, my Father (Mike Castro) and Uncle John Castro made a decision to buy a night-club (bar). The bar was pretty big and was actually in a brick building on the corner of Davis Street and Hayes Street in San Leandro that at one time was the San Leandro Post Office. These were the days when people did business with each other based on their word. Mike and John needed some more money to complete the purchase, so they put out the word to friends and family. Family and friends came by the house and gave Mike and John money and their name and amount was written on a tablet and they were told that as soon as we can we will pay you back with interest. They shook hands and it became a done deal. Until they were paid back they were considered silent partners. In less than two years all friends and family were paid of. Mike and John remained equal partners until 1955 when Mike sold his 50% interest to Uncle John.

When the brothers bought the bar it was named "Pergola." Some years later they renamed it the "Corral Club" and turned it into a Country-Western bar. On Sundays the radio station broadcast came from the Corral Club. Many country-western stars got their start there and went on to be big stars..the only name that comes to mind right now is Rusty Draper. Some of you out there might remember some others.

As kids at that time we enjoyed some of the benefits of our Dad and Uncle owning a bar.........like beef jerky, peanuts, potato-chips, and plenty of soda. But we enjoyed one thing more than anything else. There was a law that when the liquor bottles were emptied, the bottle had to be broken. In those days we lived in a house on Williams Street in San Leandro. We had a big yard and a storage shed. They would bring cases of emptied liquor bottles to be stored in the shed.......and gave us permission to do what we thought was the greatest.

My Brother Mike, Cousin Johnnie, and Cousin Tony and of course, me, had air rifles, (beebee guns). I still have my rifle, a 1947 Red Ryder Daisy Air Rifle. Anyhow, the four of us would spend hours shooting up bottles and becoming sharp shooters. On wine bottles we could pick off that little ring you carry it with.

Did you know that you can pour OUT 28 shots of booze from a fifth size bottle of booze and destroy that same bottle with 28 shots.......amazing.

Three Plus Three Plus Two

This sounds like a bad ryme..Spanish were Clanish, but it was true. Maybe our family was more comfortable with the customs or the language, or maybe they could talk about the old country that they left. Then again, it could have been something as simple as sticking with what they knew and remain in a comfort zone. Whatever it was, it kept Spanish Families socializing with mainly other spanish families.

One of the consequences of the close spanish families to one another is that their children also played and visited each other. You know by now that three Vigallon sisters married three Castro brothers (Margaret's story). It happened again with another Spanish Family.

Uncle Joe Vigallon (the oldest bother) also associated with mainly Spanish Families and met a young Spanish Lady by the name of Carnation Sanchez. She lived in the neighboring town of Oakland in a small township called Elmhurst. After an accepted period of dating, Joe (known as PePe to friends and family) brought Carnation home to meet his parents. The custom for proper courting in those days. What followed was the introduction of his parents to her parents. From then on both families would visit and be invited to each other's parties and celebrations.

In time PePe and Carnie got married and had two children, a boy Joseph Jr. and a Girl, Gloria Jean. The closeness of the Vigallon and Sanchez families continued as another love affair was happening because of the close contact. The second oldest brother of the Vigallon Family, Ralph, spotted another Sanchez, Gloria Sanchez. The
two start dating and soon talked of marriage. Of course there was no need to introduce Gloria to the parents or the families to each other. In typical Spanish Family fashion....everybody knew everybody.

Following a proper courtship Ralph Vigallon married Gloria (Jerri) Sanchez. They had three children, two boys, Jim and Bernard, and a daughter Carol. When these two families met through PePe and Carnie there was a little girl in the Vigallon Family named Antoinette. She tells me she was around eleven or twelves years old at that time. She also told me that her brother Tony Vigallon became good friends with a boy from the Sanchez Family also named Tony. As the families visited and as Tony Sanchez would come by to visit her brother Tony, she ended up visiting with Tony Sanchez pretty often. World War II began and both Tonys were drafted. She wrote letters to both and it was after the war when they both returned that the Tonys once again visited, but this time Tony Sanchez was more interested in Antoinette than his buddy Tony. Antoinette and Tony began dating and married and had three children, two girls, Kathy and Carla, and one boy, Tony Jr. (Spanky).

Again, as I have mentioned, Spanish Families stuck together and the children seemed to meet children from other Spanish Families. Johnny Vigallon, the youngest brother had a friend named Frank Rodriguez. Johnnie would go over to Frank's house to visit and also had the opportunity to talk with Frank's sister, Dolores (Lolly). As is getting repetitious, Johnny dated Lolly, introduced the Families and in time Johnny Vigallon married Dolores (Lolly) Rodriguez and had three children, two girls and one boy named Johnny Jr.. History continued to repeat itself.

When Johnny was over at Frank's house to visit him, he was looking at Lolly, and when Frank came over to visit Johnny, he was talking and looking at the youngest Vigallon sister, Marie. As time went on they, Frank and Marie, became more and more acquainted and began dating. Need I tell you that they eventuall married and has two children, both girls, Janice and Lois.

You do the math......3 Vigallon-Castro marriages plus 3 Vigallon-Sanchez marriages plus 2 Vigallon-Rodriguez marriages. 8 Marriages and 16 People into just 3 Families.

Uncle Frank's Story

Cousin Marge Kuzmicky (Uncle Frank's daughter) sent me this awesome story which (Uncle) Frank told to Sandra Casado Templin, his granddaughter, and titled "The Little Spanish Immigrants". (Note: Some of the details are not quite right, like the duration of the voyage, which I'm pretty sure was 48 days, but I don't think it takes anything away from this pretty incredible story. Also, I added the pictures of the Heliopolis.)

Well, it started this way. I'm the little Spanish immigrant who left Spain at the turn of the century. My father and uncle returned in 1898 from the Spanish American war in Cuba and of course when they got back to Spain my father married my mother. I was born on May 9, 1902 in the province of Seville the town of Estepa. As time went by after every war there are always quite a few of immigrants going to different parts of the world. Finally, my father decided to come to the New World. At that time I was 5 years old and a brother of mine [Tony], my second brother, was 1. There's two of us which we are foreign born.

Finally King Alphonse the 13th of Spain gave permission for the first Spanish immigration to ever leave Europe and travel to the New World. Some of my relatives immigrated to South America. My dad and mama decided to travel to North America, which of course they did not know even where they were going. The first time in her life my mother had seen an ocean because she lived inland. The only water she'd seen was when she went with those vases on her shoulder to pick water from the city well to bring it home. My father left Spain (I'm speaking for my dad now because I was only 5 years old) in the month of January, I do not recall the date [1907]. We went around the horn to South America the straight of Magellan according to my dad's history they almost had a mutiny because they thought they were lost. We had an Englishman who was an interpreter that spoke Spanish and English.

We came in the ship, which is in the records by the name of the Heliopolis. It was a passenger ship; they were bringing about 500 families. When we landed in Honolulu I think it was 7th of March [1907], it took us almost 3 months to travel around South America and finally landed on the island of Oahu which was the capital of the islands territory of Hawaii in those days. They put us all in quarantine. After 3 months aboard ship all the women went in one great big shower and all men in another. They all fumigated us before we landed in the Hawaiian Islands. After being there in Honolulu for 3 days regulating the families for the different islands they picked my dad and family and of course my Godfather and others who came in from the same little town, and they shipped us like cattle. So many families to one island, so many to the other.

They shipped us to the island of Hawaii, which is called today, the big island. We landed in the city of Hilo from there the plantation picked us up in wagons and took us to the OLS [not sure of this name] all this was around 1907. My dad, and all those Spanish immigrants, had made a contract with King Alfonse of Spain for 3 years with the understanding that after 3 years they had the privilege and rights to return back to Spain. And if they didn't desire to retun back to Spain the plantation would give them a certain amount of land so they could raise sugar cane and the plantation would pay them for the sugar cane after the harvest season it would give them after all expenses paid.

We lived on the plantation of Koloa for 2 years, that's where I started to go to school, my American school. The houses were built very high because it rained continuously. We lived right back of the volcano which today is still alive. At night, we could see the flames from our home. We were so used to the earthquakes that we didn't pay any attention to them, but it rained so hard that after 2 years my dad break his contract and decided to move to another island. So my uncle and my dad and some other families they all packed up and they moved to the city of Honolulu on the island of Oahu. There my dad got a job at a lumber mill but that wasn't enough money to support his family, which was getting bigger. One of my brothers, John, he was born at Koloa plantation.

We decided to come to in the island of Oahu to the Eva Mill plantation 18 miles out of the city. Of course they gave him a job and in 1909 we were in the Eva Mill plantation in the island of Oahu and that's where I finished my school up to the 4th grade. We had to travel 3 miles to school and 3 miles back. Although we were only children, we had to go down to the gulches and plantation rivers and cut the grass to bring home for our cows and animals we were self-surviving.

At the age of 12 I do recall my dad went to school and told the principal that I was old enough to go to work and they removed me from school because at the age of 15 you could leave school. I was only on the fourth grade going to the 5th grade. My schoolteacher felt sorry for me by this time my dad had a family of 7 and the family was getting bigger. The wages of my dad were only $24.00 a month if he worked the 26 days. Finally my teacher spoke to my dad and she took me in as a houseboy because she didn't want me to go out and work in the cane fields so young. I worked as a houseboy for my schoolteacher for 1 year.

At the age of 13 they finally sent me to the fields. I worked out in the fields 10 hours a day for 30 cents a day. In other words if I worked the 26 days out of the month. I never forget it, I would have in my envelope one $5.00 gold piece and three silver dollars. We had only gold and silver in those days. Finally the family commence to get bigger and of course my aunt had moved to the mainland and when I was 16 years old (World War I), I wanted to join the Army, which I did go to Schofields (not sure of this name) barracks and 2 other pals of mine, but we were under age and they wouldn't sign us up so my dad brought us home after giving me a good beating because I wanted to go to the war. At that time it was 1918. I was about 17 years old and finally we had accumulated barely enough to pay the fare to come in from the islands to the mainland.

When we landed, we went in the city of Santa Clara in California. When we got off the train my father had 10 children and 2 silver dollars in his pocket. We stayed with my aunt for 3 months. I got myself a job at the Santa Clara lumber company which I was very fortunate being I just came from the islands and after that I told my dad I wanted to come to the Bay Area because there I had more of an opportunity to go to night school. Going to night school I graduated from the 8th grade at Melrose High in the city of Oakland. All this time I was working. Then one depression after another.

In 1926 my dad used to go out to Rio Vista and make a contract in the month of March as migrant workers for the asparagus season. While one of my brothers was driving the car, we had an accident close to the city of Martinez today. The car turned over and my dad broke his back. We got him home and for 13 or 14 months my dad was in and out of hospitals with a broken back and he lived at home on a stretcher. And, finally in 1927, in the month of February, he died in the Highland Hospital.

He left me at the age of 25 with 10 children, a crippled brother, a crippled sister in the hospital with an operation one floor above from where he had died, and my mother sick in bed. With that I got my family together. We were very proud people, always were and we decided all my little brother and I, we would stick together. And the first thing my dad said two weeks before he passed away, "My son, I want you to make sure that you pay all your bills that your dad has accumulated, and the family, because I want your name to be at the top of the list as a Castro."

According to the Spanish custom or the European custom, we might add my father's name was Antonio Castro Blanco. He carried three names. And my mother's name was Remedios Linares Fernandez. We have this in our immigration papers. In this country and in the islands we cut down the name. When we came to the mainland, and we registered we were told that it was too complicated for so many names for any type of business. So, I was asked what name we would carry. I asked my dad and then I decided to carry the name of Castro because it was a simple name and a well-known name and Blanco means white in English and I didn't want to be called "Whitie". So the name in our family has been throughout Frank L. Castro which is my name and all my 10 brothers and sisters who are Antonio (Tony), Juan (John), Miquel (Mike), Manuel, Maria (Mary), Remedio (Margaret), Tomas (Tommy), Salvador (Sal), Guillermo (Bill), and Jorge (George).

So finally we settled down to business my crippled sister came from the hospital and in the meantime by this time it was 1929 and we were just about getting on our feet when we had another depression. I lost my job, my brothers lost their jobs and we commence to struggle the best we could working. I worked for as low, believe it or not, in the Alvarado Swamps in Alameda County cutting spinach for 10 cents an hour as a farm worker. I lost my job during a strike as a cab driver. I can do anything that you can think of except pushing a pencil in an office. I am a mechanic, a machinist by trade, a cab driver, a truck driver by trade, from there on I can't desribe how many odd and end jobs, I washed windows. I got a job with Durant Motors in 1923 or 1924 when they came on the market and I started there to learn my trade as a custodian and a window washer. As time went by I went back driving because Durant Motors went bankrupt. In 1929 we had the stock market crash and when our wonderful president Mr. Roosevelt, God Bless him he came. From that time on I remember that he closed the banks. I had been out of a job at that time. We still had no unions in the cab driving business. When the banks were closed, I was a cab driver in the city of Oakland. After that the union came in and we lost our jobs again. I went back to the farm and worked with the migrant workers for 10 cents and 15 cents an hour.

In 1933, my brother Tom passed away in the Santa Clara valley. As a migrant worker picking prunes he took sick. The doctor gave him the wrong medicine, by mistake of course, and he died within a week.

After that the family decided to go into business for ourselves. I borrowed from the neighborhood, friends and relatives. I accumulated $100.00. A man who owned a service station (through Signal Oil Company) went bankrupt so we took the station over for $100.00. [They bought the station in 1932 and had it until 1935.] At that time I did not know the first thing about service station, not even how to pump gas. We had to pump gas by hand. But I struggled with the help of my little brothers and I operated that station enough to buy milk for my children until 1934.

In 1935 things commence to look pretty good. I sold the station and I sent in an application to General Motors, Fisher Body Division, and they gave me a position in maintenance. I worked there during 1935 and 1936. In 1937, the CIO [Congress of Industrial Organizations, part of AFL-CIO] was coming to earth and we commence to have strikes from back East and finally it hit the state of California. From that time on I had nothing but bad luck, one thing after another. I pulled up another station because I was as we called it in those days "black listed" through the union. Finally I got back on the job after everything was settled and in 1941 after things were going pretty good World War II came along. After that I worked for General Motors, Fisher Body Divison. After the December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, which I have all my papers here to prove it and in in February went through the line being that I was a mechanic the government gave me H4 so that I wouldn't go to the front and I went to the shipyards. I worked at Morris Shipyard for 2 weeks but I did not like my new work because my work was repair work and I worked at Bethlehem Shipyard til 1945 when the war ended. At that time we had another six months of strikes.

Things were going not so good once again, but in the meantime, two of my brothers got married. As the old saying goes, sooner or later you have to get married, and when the war was over, my brothers and I decided to go into the liquor business. And believe it or not, we opened our big cocktail bar. We called it "The Pergola Cafe". We operated that till 1949. We were 5 partners. In the meantime we took up another bar in Hayward, which was called "The Red Elis". I went in with one of the partners. We operated that bar. After that, I decided to go on my own and I came back to San Leandro, and I opened up "Frankie's 977 Club" on East 14th Street where the San Leandro City Hall is standing today. I only operated that bar for one year, but believe it or not, I was working such long hours and working so hard, that I came to a point where I was drinking more than I could sell and the doctor told me that I was on the middle of the line of no return. So, I was forced to sell. My family came first above everything else. I sold the bar and I was back on the streets again without a job. From that time on, I took a rest, cured myself, I didn't do any more drinkingn till today, and I decided to look for another bar 6 months later. But things were changing, and I got myself a job with the San Leandro school district. Once again i started as a custodian. I put in 12 years, retired July 1, 1964.

Calling all Emigrants

I've been looking for this for a long time... it's one of the ads that was circulated in Malaga looking for workers for the Sugar Plantations in Hawaii. I wonder if this is the one that enticed our parents and grandparents to come to this country??

Here's my (loose) translation. And you can click on the image above to see a larger copy.

Emigration with free passage to the state
of Hawaii
(United States of America)
Description of the Hawaii Islands, according to the celebrated traveler, M. C. de Variony

...It's almost impossible to make someone understand, if they haven't enjoyed it themselves, the incomparable wonders of the climate of the Hawaiian Islands. The constant temperature that hovers around 85 degrees Fahrenheit, incredibly clear sky, across which seldomly pass a fresh little cloud or welcome rain, and beautiful countryside, admirably illuminated with a radiant sun are just the most powerful of the features that atract the foreigner and make him prolong his stay in those Islands. The storms are few and far between there, and equally uncommon are hurricanes, which tend to be the scourge of tropical countrys; the nights, above all, are amazingly peaceful, and when the moon shines, surrounding the countryside in its soft and mysterious rays, no-one would be blamed for falling victim to its enchanting illusion. The atmosphere is so pure and clear that at midnight you can read by the light of the moon and the stars. In no other place does the Milky Way extend with more splendor or majesty as there; the constellations that are invisible in Europe light up the sky like brilliant pearls; the sea stretches out along the cost with its fosforescent waves and rocks its gentle dreams with a slow, regular movement...

The Spanish emigrants who want to take advantage of the concessions and benefits that are offered by the Laws of Immigration and Colonization of the State of Hawaii, receive free passage from Malaga to said State, in magnificint, speedy, 12,000 ton Steamships with Spanish food during the trip, prepared by cooks devoted to this purpose.

The Government of said State, under whose guarantee the emigration takes place, is offering to AUTHENTIC FARMERS a future/dream whose advantages are the following:

The males, head of the family
20 American gold dollars, each month, during the first year of work
21 American gold dollars, each month, during the second year
22 American gold dollars, each month, during the third year.

the women, their wives, 12 gold dollars a month
The rest of the members of their families, age 15 and higher, shall receive 13 dollars a month if they are male and 10 if they are female

When they disembark, they will receive a magnificent house (that is worth more than 500 gold pesos) with water and electricity and free schooling, where the younger children will receive lessons (these are obligatory).

After three years of work, with good conduct and during which they have demonstrated that they are good Workers (in particular with respect to Sugar Cane), they will receive completely free and in their own name with no cost whatsoever, the house in which they are living as well as a FANEGA [approx 1.5 acres] of land.

Conditions that prospective emigrants must fulfill:
Emigrants must be farmers in good health, with no vision problems, with no physicial defects and must come with their families which may be made up as follows:
1. Husband and wife without children, the man must be younger than 45 and the woman younger than 40
2. Husband and wife with children, with the head of the family no older than 45 so that there is a useful man between 17 and 45.
3. Widow or widower with children, as long as there is a useful man between 17 and 45.
4. Married man without his wife, but with children as long as there is a useful man between 17 and 45.
5. Married woman without her husband, but with children as long as there is a useful man between 17 and 45.

These types of families may be accompanied by any blood or legal relatives, younger than 40.
Those who are older than 45 do not receive free passage; they will have to pay a fee of 400 pesetas for their passage.

Documents that families who wish to emigrate must present:
1. Personal identification for all those older than 14.
2. The unmarried males and females, up to 23 years of age must have an authorization from their parents or tutors, signed by a Notary Public or the Mayor of their town or neighborhood. This document is not necessary when they are accompanied by their parents, but single women must present a certificate proving they are single.
3. Baptism certificate for all the unmarried males and females.
4. The males between 15 and 20 years of age will not be able to embark without presenting a certificate that proves they have deposited in the Savings Bank the sum of 1.300 pesetas for the results of the [military] draft, as the law requires.
5. The males between 20 and 40 years of age must present an "absolute pass" [licencia absoluta] if they are definitive licensees. Those that are in the reserve or in the class of possible recruits must present a pass from the General Captain of their respective district, which authorizes them to embark on the trip and to be absent from the Peninsula. This document may not be older than 4 months, counting from the day it was issued.
6. The married women that are not accompanied by their husbands must present the authorization from their husband, witnessed by the Mayor of the town or neighborhood, or by a Notary Public if they are in the capital.
7. Married couples must have their marriage certificate.
8. Widows and widowers must have their widowhood certificate.
9. Certificate of good conduct issued by the Mayor's office of their town with their personal data, for everyone older than 14.
10. Certificate that they have not been processed [by a court], issued by the Judge or Court of the town in which they reside, for everyone older than 14, or from the Court if the person resides in the Capital.

Don't trust intermediaries
For more details and to present your documents:
Don Carlos Corvetto, Manager of the "Checking" Department
Calle de Rios Rosas (formerly Cañon), number 3 -- Málaga

Hawaiian Immigration background articles

I found a really neat site about Portuguese Immigration to Hawaii that has a lot of information about what life must have been like (and what the voyage was like) for everyone, including the Spanish:

Child Workers on Hawaiian Plantations

Description of the voyage of the Heliopolis (on which we think the Castro's and Vigallon's (and Sanchez, perhaps?) arrived)

Some more can be found about the Heliopolis and the Spaniards in general in the description of the voyage of the SS Kumeric

Female Workers on Hawaii's Sugar Plantations

Jobs on a Hawaiian Sugar Plantation

The Bango Number System

Male Workers on Hawaiian Sugar Plantations

Register of Ewa Plantation

A picture of the train at Ewa Plantation

Sugar Plantation Work Day and Wages

Example of a Sugar Plantation Contract (original in Portuguese)

Spanish families sailed into new lives

MIND OVER MATTER

My Father, Mike, the third oldest brother lived by this motto. In a family this size it was hard not being able to keep up with the group physically. Mike was handicapped, but not disabled. He walked with a limping gait and couldn"t run. He climbed stairs slowly and with much effort and came back down slowly, If he fell he had a hard time getting back on his feet. Mike learned early in life that the mind and will is what would get him through any problems brought up by his physical problem. He went on to become a barber (on your feet all day) and married Connie Vigallon and they had two sons, Mike and Bob. This was the first half of the twentieth century and medicine had not learned enough to diagnose his condition...the Doctors mumbled something about growing too fast or missing some kind of vitamin or maybe this or maybe that, or,or,or. His younger sister, Mary, (we all called Tita Mary) was physically handicapped like Mike and diagnosed with could be this or that or, or, or. Tita Mary never married and lived with Abuela until Abuela died and Uncle Bill and his wife moved in with her. Sometime later the family home was sold and Tita Mary moved in with her sister Margaret who was married to Angelo Trujillo.

As "luck" would have it Mike's two boys, Mike Jr. and Bob were born with physical problems that were more severe than their Father and Aunt. They were almost five before they walked and then before their teenage years were confined to wheel-chairs.
Mike invented the expression "Tuff Love." He knew he had to raise his two boys with spirit, "guts" and a want to be able to take care of themselves. He was tuff on the boys but loving and their Mom, Connie was all love and no tuff, so it all seem to work out.

Mike Jr. who passed away from a heart attack at 45 years old owned and operated a tobacco shop, a men's accessories and necktie shop and a billiard parlor with his brother Bob. For the last ten years of his life he was the Director of Alameda, Napa-Sonoma, and Contra Costa Counties for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. You just got your clue.

Mike Jr. and Bob were taken to every possible place where help or a diagosis could be found. This included Shriner's Hospital and University of California Medical Center in San Francisco, as well as many Doctors, Specialists, Religious Zealots (touch you and you are cured) fortune tellers, chiropraters, and "Kooks." As I said before, medicine was a little behind in the first half of the 20th. century. In 1955 a week of exams at the University of California in San Francisco and the mystery was finally solved and the diagnosis, as well as the prognosis was learned.

DIAGNOSIS: An inherited disease is in our family...MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY.
PROGNOSIS: A slow deteriaion of the muscles.
CURE: After 50 years of study........No cure yet.
I write this story only because it is so important that our family recognize that this disease is in our blood line and can skip generations and pop up again. Every member of this family and their children and their children's children and so on should mention this to their Doctor and all they have to do is have their urine tested. Sorry for the lecture, but it is with love.

Well, I think my Father succeeded in creating two monsters, maybe making us too independent and strong. In any case I will brag a little. As you read above I was in a number of businesses with my brother Mike and then went out on my own and opened and operated a Private Men's Club called "Man Friday, for five years.
My wife Connie and I decided to move to Southern California in 1971. We lived in Orange County. I received my Certificate of Management from the University of California at Irvine and worked for the University of California Irvine Medical Center. I retired Director of Outpatient Clinics (87 Clinics) for the University Medical Center where I was employed for 23 years.

Through all these years the family supported all four of us in loving and caring ways during a time in history when many "cripple" people were hidden away in their homes and the families did not include them in their lives. It was after World War II when so many men returned without limbs and in wheel chairs that the public began to view less than physically perfect as an acceptable concept.

A story about our family that had to be told and because Mike Sr. Mike Jr. and Tita Mary are gone I felt obligated to write this. I am having and have had a great life, married this July 11 for 40 years, having two children from Connie's 1st, marriage and now retired and living in Las Vegas. So as Dad always said, Mind Over Matter.

The Ties That Bind

The Vigallons and Castros lived within minutes from each other on First Avenue (now called Marina Blvd.) in San Leandro. Joe and Ralph Vigallon were good friends with Tony, John, and Mike Castro. Sometimes my father, Tony, would go over to visit Joe, and they would go out for the evening, but after awhile, it was to visit my mother, Roseline. Now, Mama Concha was the disciplinarian in the family, and when she gave permission for my dad to start dating my mother, Aunt Rose became their chaperone. (She was around 14 years old at the time. )

Well, it wasn't long before Uncle John's visits to see Uncle Ralph, was also a chance to see Aunt Rose. When my parents and Aunt Rose left the house for a date, Uncle John would be at the bus stop waiting to join them. This went on for quite some time, without anyone knowing about these "double dates" until one Sunday afternoon. About 2 stops after the foursome had gotten on the bus, Papa Vigallon got on. He saw them sitting together, but didn't speak to them. A few stops later, he gave them a smile, before he got off the bus. When they got home that night, they just knew that they were going to be in a lot of trouble with their mother, but Mama Concha didn't say anything, because Papa didn't tell her, and he never mentioned the encounter to his daughters, either !

After my parents were married, Uncle John started dating Aunt Rose (officially) and Aunt Connie became their chaperone. Uncle Mike's visits to the Vigallon household soon took on a new meaning, and after Uncle John and Aunt Rose were married, he was the next Castro brother to date a Vigallon sister.

When he and Aunt Connie were dating, Aunt Antoinette was their chaperone. She told me that when they went to the movies, Uncle Mike would buy her a bag of candy and had her sit in the back row of the theater, then he and Aunt Connie would sit further up front, distancing themselves from their chaperone.

After they were married, the three couples remained extremely close. The closeness lasted throughout their life time. Because of this, it was as if I had two extra sets of parents, because my aunts and uncles were wonderful to me. With the same Vigallon and Castro blood flowing through our veins, I have always felt that John, Mike, and Bob were more like my siblings, than cousins, and these are the "ties that bind."

And the band plays on......

The Castro side of the family must have music in their veins. Starting with Uncle Tony and his castanets and ukalele. Mike also played a little uke and even thought he was a drummer at some of the parties. Through the years some of the nephews were also amateurs musicians , as Mike and Bob played the piano and I think Sal Jr. played some accordion. So much for amateurs, the family had quite a number of musicians that went professional. Uncle Manuel played accordion and had his own band and was quite a crooner. He played weekend gigs (jobs) and parades, weddings, and of course the annual Portugeese Holy Ghost. If you ever heard Tennessee Waltz being sung you immediately knew it was Uncle Bill's band you were listening to, who also did casual gigs and clubs as well as any other gig that came up. Bill eventually became an agent for the Musicians Union. Uncle Bill played the drums.

The student band was playing at the San Leandro High School Senior Assembly and the teen-age girls could not see the drummer of the band, so they screamed and screamed until a couple of guys moved the piano over so that they could see Cousin Tony playing the drums. Tony went on making his living with his band and his drums and followed Uncle Manuel in his crooning. The accordion seemed popular in our family. Cousin Johnnie followed Uncle Manuel and had his own band and for a time made his living with his squeeze box. Where as Uncle Manuel learned on his own and as he put it, "I play a lot of songs by ear," Johnnie studied music and is an accomplished musician. He too, made his living for a time performing full time. Following in his father's foot steps, Cousin Manuel also played the accordion and added piano to his accomplishments and played mainly casuals in clubs. Uncle Bill on the drums, and Cousin Tony on the drums and finally Gilbert Trujillo (Margaret Castro Trujillo's son) on the drums. He too played mainly in casual bands. One more drummer, Cousin Donnie Rodriguez(Uncle Tony's grandson, which is Cousin Tony's nephew, which is Margaret Castro Dambley's son) who had his own band and made a living playing full time for quite awhile, and is now a Manager of a chain of Music Stores.

I am sure there are other cousins and second cousins and so on who play or have played an instrument. Even my daughter Susan played in the high school band and marched in their parades and was considered quite a good floutist.

Of all the musicians, except for a short period of time, Cousin Tony is the only professional who spent his life making a living as a full time entertainer and even now occasionly has a gig in Palm Springs where he lives. On a quiet night memories flood into my mind and I hear the sounds........and the band plays on.