UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 39, Page 4
August 15, 1996
Way out west; Hawaiian cowboys are focus of prof's research

     For most Americans, the mention of Hawaii conjures up images of
beautiful beaches, rolling surf, lush tropical forests and the U.S.
Naval Base at Pearl Harbor.
     About the last thing visitors to the Islands expect to find is a
thriving rodeo culture, complete with cowboys, but that is exactly
what a UD faculty member found while visiting her daughter there
recently.
     "While hiking around with my daughter, I heard the sounds of
cattle and saw the cowboys," Alvina E. Quintana, English, said. "Then
my daughter explained to me that these were the 'Paniolos.'"
     As a professor specializing in multicultural studies and
chairperson of the newly created ethnic and cultural studies
concentration in the Department of English, Quintana took an immediate
interest in the "Paniolos," or Hawaiian cowboys.
     According to Quintana, the Paniolos first appeared on the scene
in the 19th century, when Hawaii was still an independent kingdom and
California still belonged to Mexico.
     During that period, one of the last Hawaiian kings was very
interested in the rodeo, and he wanted the people of his kingdom to
learn about rodeos and horsemanship.
     The king's interest in equestrian matters motivated him to
commission about 10 cowboys from Mexico to teach horsemanship and
rodeo skills to the indigenous people of Hawaii.
     "Originally, the natives called these boys 'Hispaniolos,'"
Quintana said. "As time passed, the 'His' was dropped, and the men
were simply referred to as 'Paniolos.'"
     Many of the original group of Mexican cowboys stayed on and
contributed to a Creole subculture that today also includes Portuguese
and Samoan peoples. The members of this Creole culture speak English,
and when not tending cattle on the ranches, they travel the rodeo
circuit, both in Hawaii and on the U.S. mainland.
     Having recently been awarded a University GRU grant to study this
subculture, Quintana has been conducting interviews and doing
preliminary research on the subject at the University Library.
     "One of the things I would like to discover is who the original
Mexicans were," Quintana said. "I am also interested in tracking the
impact of Mexican cultural traditions on the group."
     She views her involvement with the Paniolos as a part of the work
being done by other scholars exploring the interconnections between
the literature and histories of various cultures.
     Quintana is the author of a new book, Home Girls: Chicana
Literary Voices, published by Temple University Press in 1996. In the
text she analyzes the work of Gloria Anzaldua, Ana Castillo, Denise
Chavez, Sandra Cisneros and Cherrie Moraga. Although the book is
primarily concerned with contemporary Chicana literature written in
English, she also has published a number of essays comparing the
literature of Chicana and Asian American women writers.
     In comparing the works of these women, Quintana emphasizes the
cultural and gender similarities between the two groups.
     "Initially, my comparative work represented my attempt to
discover whether or not Eastern and Western cultures intersect in any
significant cultural manner," Quintana said. "In Hawaii with the
Paniolos, I found the historical/cultural connection I was looking
for."
     In addition to conducting interviews and drawing on the expertise
of her colleagues who specialize in Hawaiian history, Quintana plans
to return to Hawaii during an upcoming sabbatical to do further
research.
     Noting that there is a tremendous amount of interest in the
Pacific Rim area, Quintana said she would like to write several
articles on the subject, stressing the multicultural nature of the
Paniolos. Eventually, with the help from the University and,
hopefully, the National Endowment of the Humanities, Quintana plans to
write a book, with a possible working title, Hawaiian Cowboys:
Expanding Our Concept of the American West.
     "I'm very excited about this project," Quintana said. "I'm
definitely going to be doing pioneer work in this area."
                                                         -Jerry Rhodes