The Filipinos at Koloa started their own claims to FIRSTS.

1.  Of the Filipinos included in The Filipinos of Koloa (2017), Domingo Racelo (1880 – 1968), who arrived in July 1910, was one of the first Sakadas at Koloa Plantation, and the only one whose arrival at Koloa in 1910 could be documented.  He and his wife, Josefa Castro Racelo (1890 -1956), the first Ilocano-Tagalog couple of Koloa, perhaps of Kaua`i and the Territory of Hawai`i, settled in Koloa to raise their six sons and two daughters and begot four generations of descendants at this writing.

2.  The Reverend Jose Cuaresma Alba (1873 – 1926) was the first Filipino Protestant minister in Hawai`i.  The manager of a sugar plantation in Negros Occidental, in the western Visayas in the Philippines, he became a Baptist preacher.  He wanted to come to Hawai`i to attend to the spiritual needs of plantation workers. Having no church sponsorship, he sailed to Hawai`i as a Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association contract laborer.  He came with his wife, Maria Pasco Golez Alba (1879? – 1976), four children ranging in age from infant to 15 years old, three relatives, a manservant and a maidservant, and several graduates of the Baptist Trade School of Iloilo. The entourage arrived in December 1910 and was assigned to Makaweli Plantation.

Pastor Alba did not last long in the sugarcane fields of Makaweli.  He experienced fainting spells from sunstroke.  He received medical attention and the kind attention of the “camp boss.”  In April 1911,  the Rev. John Lydgate (1854 – 1922),  pastor of Lihu`e Union Church who was in charge of the Congregation Churches on Kaua`i, persuaded Pastor Alba to move to Koloa to minister to the Filipinos, as well as to Spanish-speaking laborers, Pastor Alba being fluent in Spanish.

3.  Pastor Alba’s grandson, Welcome Alba Albao (1912 -1997), was the first baby born in Koloa to Filipino parents.  Dr. Herbert Waterhouse (1877 – 1948), Koloa Plantation doctor from 1907 to 1933, attended to the baby’s birth.  The mother, Manuela Alba Albao (1895 – 1978), wanted to name the baby Bienvenido. The kind doctor told the mother that the name was too long and the child would have a hard time writing his name when he started school.  He suggested Welcome instead, the English translation of Bienvenido.  So, Koloa had a son named Welcome Albao, whom many on Kaua`i remember to this day. For example, Rose Urgel Semana (1924 – ) worked under Mr. Albao when he was controller of Kaua`i Stores, a position from which he retired.   He and his wife, Harriet Ahana Albao (1915 – 2008), served Kaua`i well in various community activities.  Harriet was news editor of The Garden Island in the 1930s and was with the Selective Service System, which many of us know as the draft.

Alan Albao (1939 -1998), the eldest son of Welcome and Harriet, was the manager of First Hawaiian Bank, and father and son held the Filipino banner with Rizalina Rose Asuncion Liberato (1927 – 2003), chair of the Filipino Committee for the Sesquicentennial Celebration, at the beginning of the Filipino walking unit at the first Koloa Plantation Days Parade on Saturday, July 27, 1985.  A picture of the three is the lower half of the front cover of The Filipinos of Koloa (2017).

4.  Moreover, the Albao Family was a family of firsts.  Cipriano Albao (1892 -1953) and Manuela Alba Albao (1895 – 1978) were the first Filipinos on Kaua`i to become naturalized American Citizens.  Manuela, who lived to be 83, was the first woman on Kaua`i of Filipino ancestry to get a driver’s license.  And the Albaos’ eldest daughter, Mary Sabate (1917 – 2003) had the distinction of being the first local born Filipino to become a social worker.

5.  The first mayor of Filipino ancestry in the United States was Eduardo Malapit (1933 – 2007), who was mayor of the County of Kaua`i and Ni`ihau from 1974 to 1982.  Malapit was born and grew up in Hanapepe and graduated from Waimea High School. He attended the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, where he earned a degree is economics.  He furthered his education at the University of Notre Dame Law School in Indiana and received a jurisprudence degree in 1962. He returned to Kauai and practiced law before he entered politics.  He married a daughter of Koloa, Elizabeth Amoroso (1937 –  ) and the family made their home across historic Koloa Landing.

See Also Page on “Three Mayors of Kauai” CLICK HERE

6.  The first Kaua`i County supervisor — now called councilman — of Filipino ancestry was George Pascua (1932 – 2016), who served three two-year terms from 1961 to 1966, with “Local Boy Who Understands Problems” as his campaign slogan.

George was born in Puhi but grew up in Koloa.  He enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1951 after graduating from Kauai High School and was sent to Georgia for basic training, after which he was assigned to Fort Huachuca Army Base in Cochise, Arizona.  He was subsequently sent to Beale Air Force Base near Marysville, CA, where he served in communications.  He was discharged as staff sergeant in 1954.  With that said, George was a veteran of the Korean War, which broke out on June 25, 1950, and ended on July 27, 1953.

George served the public as an employee of Hale Kauai and of Amfac as sales representative for many years before serving the public as Kauai County Housing Agency coordinator for nine years.

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 © 2017.  COPYRIGHT Catherine Pascual Lo