Islanders in the Empire: Filipino and Puerto Rican Laborers in Hawai'i (Asian American Experience)

This was my first book on the topic of Puerto Rican labor migration to Hawaii. I have been very interested on this subject for some time and have read what can be found on the internet. I am Puerto Rican with an interest in the history of my people and have no ties whatsoever to PR Hawaiians. I was looking forward to this book, especially due to the broader investigation into Filipino laborers (a good point of comparison I thought). Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the book (to be fair, maybe my expectations were high since my interest in this topic). Maybe I expected the high cost of this book to be reflective of its content.The book is very repetitive in the points it tries to make, sometimes even repeating the same sentences (or so it seemed). So repetitive that the conclusion sections at the end of each chapter were really not needed to get the message. Also, there is a strong bias from the author that is very present during the whole book and in the points made. Finally, without the substantial reading on the subject matter I did on the internet, a lot of the book content would have been lost. For example, there is mention of the Lunas and issues between laborers and Lunas yet there is no significant description of the role of a Luna, were the Lunas of the same ethnic background as the laborers (or from other ethnic groups or Anglo-Americans), what was the agenda for the Luna in his daily work (just to make the laborers work harder or were there work quotas to be met by the Luna or was there some pre-disposition to be racist against some ethnic groups)?The beginning could have been expanded some to describe the details of the labor contract offered vs. what was actually done. A comparison of the offers made to Puerto Ricans and Filipinos to those of the Japanese, Korean and Chinese contracts would have been nice. It could have painted a better picture of whether these laborers (in particular the Puerto Ricans) were better off having gone to Hawaii vs. staying in the island. How did the people who stayed in Adjuntas, for example, fare in comparison to those who left for Hawaii? Basically, did the ends justify the means for those who made the life-changing voyage to Hawaii?It would have also been nice to paint a picture of daily life at the plantation for Puerto Ricans. Maybe some information on how hard was it to adapt to this new place and how they coped. Maybe explain a bit about the cultural issues that they brought with them (explaining the concept of "Respeto" might have helped the reader understand why they were so predisposed to fights in the camps). It would have also helped to describe the situation of the descendants of those Puerto Rican (of Filipino) laborers in Hawaii today. Did they eventually inter-marry or is there still a Puerto Rican Hawaiian subculture in the istand? Did they improve the lots of their descendants or did they remain on the low end of the economic spectrum (much like many of the Puerto Rican migrants to places like New York have remained economically challenged in the later generations)? Once again, was it all worth it... did the ends justify the means?Finally, the last chapter trying to bridge current issues with Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico and Filipinos in the Philippines seems a bit out of topic and a stretch. For example, the author tries to somehow bridge the current relationship between the US Government and Puerto Ricans/Filipinos with the previous relationship of a US Company/Corporation with Puerto Ricans/Filipinos. How can you compare a corporate relationship in Hawaii (clearly one where the companty is taking advantage of the laborer for profit) with current political issues away from Hawaii? Well, to me it seemed off topic.I did enjoyed all of the factual information and especially the descriptions of people like Souza and Minvielle.