Twice a week, when Robert Castro heads to Waipahu to volunteer at Hawai‘i’s Plantation Village (HPV), he feels like he’s going home. That’s not far — literally — from the truth. From 1948 to 1961, he grew up across the street from the outdoor museum, which spotlights the people who came from faraway lands to work on Island sugar plantations.
Castro’s paternal grandfather emigrated to Hawai‘i from Madeira in 1879 when he was six months old. His maternal grandfather came from San Miguel island in the Azores in the 1880s when he was about five. As young men, they began working on plantations, his maternal grandfather initially at Kīlauea Sugar Company on Kaua‘i and his paternal grandfather at Kahuku Sugar Plantation and/or Waialua Agricultural Company on O‘ahu’s north shore. Both wound up on the payroll of O‘ahu Sugar Company (OSC) in Waipahu, as did Castro’s father.
“Dad started as a fireman in 1924, at age 17,” Castro said. “The firemen were the guys who shoveled coal into the firebox of trains to burn and create steam power. Later, he became a locomotive engineer, driving the trains that hauled cane from the fields to the mill.”
In the early 1950s, trucks began replacing OSC’s aged trains because they were more efficient, reliable and cost-effective. For one thing, they weren’t limited to a fixed network of tracks; they could go anywhere there was asphalt. Moreover, it was easier and cheaper to modify trucking routes than to build new rail lines, which came with high construction and maintenance costs.
“When the plantation stopped using trains, Dad became a water luna [supervisor],” Castro said. “He managed ‘gangs’ or crews that kept the irrigation ditches clear of weeds and debris.”
At the time, Castro, his sister, parents and maternal grandparents were living in a three-bedroom cottage on the plantation. Monkeypod trees towered over a row of those modest houses, all of which were torn down in the mid-1980s to make way for light industrial businesses.
The monkeypods, however, still stand. “The tree in front of our house was so big, its branches extended over our porch,” Castro said. “Every time I drive past that tree, it reminds me of small kid time on the plantation.”
He spent many happy hours playing marbles, riding bikes and gabbing with his cousins as they cooled their feet in the irrigation ditches. Meals were usually quick and easy since Castro’s mom worked full time as a janitor at Waipahu Elementary School. For dinner, there would be dishes such as chop suey, tuna patties and corned beef stew, always with rice. His family bought a TV in 1954, which introduced a whole new world of entertainment. “Wagon Train” and “The Lone Ranger” were among Castro’s favorite shows.
In 1961, the year he graduated from Waipahu High School, Castro and his family moved off the plantation into a larger house in Pearl City, where he now lives. Six years later, his father retired from OSC, which had supported him and his ‘ohana for 43 years.
Meanwhile, Castro was forging his own career path. At 18, he enlisted in the Navy, which took him to Australia, Guam, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Antarctica and the Philippines. He also completed two tours of duty in Hawai‘i before retiring with 29 years of service.
Settled back on O‘ahu, Castro worked as a member of the American Lung Association’s administrative support staff for two years before deciding he wanted to earn a college degree. He graduated from the University of Hawai‘i-West O‘ahu with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1999.
“Instead of writing a research paper for my final project, I chose to do a practicum, which required me to volunteer at a historic site,” Castro said. “I had taken a class on sugar plantation life, and it got me thinking about my family. I thought Hawai‘i’s Plantation Village would be perfect for my practicum.”
Castro started volunteering at HPV in the fall of 1998 and never stopped. Although he resigned as a docent last fall and as a board member in March (serving 26 and 23 years, respectively), he’s still at HPV on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, doing various other tasks. They include watering the yards; helping to plan special events; and chatting with visitors in the exhibit room, which chronicles Hawai‘i’s sugar plantation era, mid-1800s to mid-1900s, through maps, photos and displays.
Opened in 1992, HPV features a village of 25 buildings representing the major immigrant groups—Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Okinawan, Portuguese and Puerto Rican. Only the Japanese Inari (Shinto) shrine and the foundation of the Chinese cookhouse are original. The rest of the structures—including a store, infirmary, barbershop and cottages—are replicas, faithfully built according to measurements of actual plantation buildings on O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i island.
The Filipino house represents the year 1935, the “modern era”; thus, it’s the only building in the village that’s equipped with electricity and a telephone. “The other houses reflect an earlier period,” Castro said. “Filipinos started arriving in Hawai‘i in 1906; they were the last immigrant group to come. When O‘ahu Sugar Company closed in 1995, two years shy of its 100th anniversary, its workers were primarily Filipino. Waipahu is still predominantly a Filipino community.”
The artifacts in the cottages were donated by plantation families. They run the gamut, from cookware, furniture and religious items to stoves, musical instruments and ceramic crockery.
“My tours always stopped at the forno [brick oven] in back of the Portuguese house,” Castro said. “That’s where I told visitors about the forno at my family’s plantation home. Today you can buy sweet bread any time, but when I was a boy, the only time we had sweet bread was when Grandma baked it in our forno for Christmas. We ate it with my mother’s vinha d’alhos [pickled pork], usually after midnight mass.”
Castro enjoys sharing personal anecdotes and little-known tidbits gleaned from years of research. “It’s important to keep our plantation history alive; it’s the reason why Hawai‘i is a vibrant melting pot today,” he said. “Many kamaʻāina are here because of the courage and dreams of their immigrant ancestors.”
Visiting Hawai‘i's Plantation Village
Hawai‘i’s Plantation Village (hawaiiplantationvillage.org) is open daily except Sunday. Reservations for guided 90-minute tours should be made in advance by calling (808) 677-0110 or emailing waipahu.hpv@gmail.com.
HPV hosts three annual events: a New Year’s celebration in February, an Obon celebration in June and a Harvest Moon Festival in September. In addition, it is the location for special events organized by other entities throughout the year. Among them is Haunted Plantation, set this year for October 10-12, 17-19, 24-26 and 31. Visit hawaiihauntedplantation.com for details.
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