Manuel Olivieri Sanchez - Manuel Olivieri Sanchez Travels To Hawaii

Manuel Olivieri Sanchez Travels To Hawaii

In 1900, when Olivieri Sanchez was 12 years old, his father died. That same year, the United States passed the Foraker Act establishing the territorial status of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican citizenship in accordance to Section VII. Therefore, Puerto Ricans were not entitled to the same rights that citizens of the United States had, even though the island was governed by that nation. Olivieri Sanchez’s family financial situation worsened and in 1901, he moved to Hawaii with his mother. He became fluent in both English and Spanish and worked as a court interpreter.

At the time both Puerto Rico and Hawaii were territories of the United States however, the passage of the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917, same year that the U.S. entered World War l, granted U.S. citizenship to the Puerto Rican residents in Puerto Rico and excluded those who resided in Hawaii. Even though Puerto Ricans in Hawaii were excluded from U.S. citizenship, they were assigned draft numbers along with those who were citizens.

Plantation owners, like those that comprised the so-called Big Five, had an association called the "Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association" (HSPA), found territorial status convenient, enabling them to continue importing cheap foreign labor, especially from Puerto Rico and Asia. Such immigration was prohibited in various other states of the Union.