José Manuel Cordeiro was the first of my ancestors to immigrate from the Azores to Hawaiʻi. José, his wife Maria Isabel and their five children left from São Miguel via the S.S. Abergeldie in 1883. They followed José’s younger brother, Manuel who emigrated to Hawaiʻi in 1881. After José’s arrival in the Islands, he and his brother had a falling out, with José and his children taking Pinho as their last name. I trace my Luso-Hawaiian ancestry to José’s son António.
In looking into my family’s history I did not know about this rupture between the brothers until I started digging. I interviewed my grandmother decades removed from the Island, but he stone-walled my every question shrugging her shoulders and changing the topic. Although Hawaiʻi is a state of the Union, it is very much a foreign country. Taken in this light, my grandmother was an immigrant – the first from the Islands to escape to the Mainland to make a new life – thus, her not wishing to speak of origins is understandable. Many immigrants do not look back after having forged a new life. She has since passed away, and with her have gone all her secrets and knowledge of the world she willfully left behind. Nevertheless, as a child I was told by relatives we were Pinos. For a time I thought it was Pinto and giggled at it the word being slang for penis in Azorean Portuguese. It was only after going through death and birth certificates did I learn of Pinho – our true name – or so I thought. I was intrigued and learned of the rift and once being Cordeiro. Did the brothers fight about religion as Portuguese families often do – Cordeiro meaning lamb and Pinho, pine – both very Catholic and potentially Crypto-Christian. However, Pinho as surname did not appear sui-generis and nor was an expression of faith; it was merely José Manuel’s mother’s maiden name. But the change in name seemed to be a part of a greater pattern – rifts and deep clefts often appear in the fabric of my family’s narrative.
We also have our legends, the most interesting being my Uncle telling me were French. The Azores were visited by Normans and other sailing folk, and some stayed. In looking at genealogies, I have no proof or disproof of my uncle’s assertation. Instead, I have found nobility and settler sons of somebody. Then again, the germ of Azorean and Madeiran society came from these lesser sons and peasant stock who accompanied them. He told me many stories, my Uncle Tony.
My Luso-Hawaiian family was one of strong women. The men in my branch of Cordeiro-Pinhos died young, early, and often. The women raised the children alone, and even took in the young, unwed, and even abandoned women – as was the case of my great-grandmother. Yet, they proudly carried the last name of their husbands. If we look at the families along uxorial lines, we were not Azorian Cordeiro Pinhos, but Madeiran de Câmaras. With de Câmaras are the themes of flight and abandonment: the first de Câmara was a foundling.
These are my Luso-Hawaiian roots. In leaving our old Island home, we managed to forget our names. These pages will attempt to correct that.
CENSUS: 1910 May 13 – Honoka’a Mill, Hamakua Twp., Hawaii Co., Territory of Hawaii, ED#132, sheet 43A, lines 15-20, Joe Pino aged 65, b. San Miguel, Azores, married once (32 yrs), arrv’d Hawaii 1886, an alien; his wife, Maria, aged 51, b. San Miguel, Azores, married once (32 yrs), arrv’d Hawaii 1886, mother of nine children, eight are living, their issue: Victor aged 20, single, b. Hawaii; Annie aged 18, single, b. Hawaii; Mary aged 23, b. Hawaii, married once, no children, and her husband, George Stanton aged 26, b. New Zealand, married once, no children, arrv’d Hawaii 1909.