The past, present and future intertwined for 120 members of the Curammeng ohana as they gathered for a family reunion at Niumalu Park. Family members “talked story” and paid homage to the family “patriarch” who made it possible for all
The past, present and future intertwined for 120 members of the Curammeng ohana as they gathered for a family reunion at Niumalu Park.
Family members “talked story” and paid homage to the family “patriarch” who made it possible for all of them to be in Hawai‘i.
Marcos Curammeng came to Kaua‘i from the Philippines in 1922 to fulfill a three-year contract as a laborer with the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association.
Immigrating to Hawai‘i allowed him to build a better life than the one he left behind in the Philippines, and he laid the foundation for four generations of Curammengs in Hawai‘i to come.
Curammeng left his legacy for them – that of the need to value family and to work hard and persevere in life, said his son, William Curammeng, a 71-year-old Lihu‘e resident and a retired educator with the state Department of Education.
Although the elder Curammeng had only a second-grade education, he urged his three children to seize every opportunity that came their way. Like his brother William, Alfredo is a retired teacher, and their sister, Leonora Curammeng Albayalde, became a radio personality and a journalist on Kaua‘i and O‘ahu, and a civic leader.
She worked on the campaigns for former Gov. George Ariyoshi, and sat on state commissions.
Other Curammengs have served Kaua‘i and in other places as doctors, nurses, nurses and servicemen, said William Curammeng, whose son William Lagazo Curammeng, a 20-veteran of the U.S. Navy, served on the USS Missouri.
William Curammeng’s uncle, Melchor Lagazo, also served aboard the battleship, but in a different era.
The reunion aimed a strengthening family ties as more and more of the Curammengs are moving off Kaua‘i for better educational and employment opportunities. We are reminding “them of who we are, what our family is all about,” William Curammeng said in an interview with the Garden Island. “If we had not sought out information from people who are alive, we would have a difficult time producing the family tree for our children to see.”
Most of the Curammengs attending the reunion came from Kaua‘i, with some others coming from Alaska, Colorado and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Information, including photos and life histories of Curammengs, was passed out at the reunion, for which planning was begun in February.
Helping to make the gathering a success were co-chairpersons Joycelyn Curammeng Iwata, of Lihu‘e, and Mercy Curammeng Fujimura, of ‘Ele‘ele.
The experiences of Marcos Curammeng typify those of the thousands of Filipinos who came to Hawai‘i for a better life during the early part of the 20th century, William Curammeng said.
His father was among 48,000 Filipinos, mostly men, who were recruited between 1906 and 1924 to work in Hawaii’s sugar industry.
Most of the Filipinos who came were Visayans from the southern and central parts of the Philippines and Ilocanos from the northern part of the country.
Marcos Curammeng, the son of Juan Curammeng, hailed from Pasuquin province, located north of Luzon in the Philippine Islands.
Life began hard for Marcos Curammeng. As the oldest of 11 children, he left his home to work odd jobs in Manila, sending money home to support his family, William Curammeng said.
As a young man, his father operated seven rice parcels in the Philippines, but he wanted to improve himself yet.
The opportunity arose in1922, when he decided to leave the Philippines and go to Hawai‘i. He signed a three-year contract with the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association to work as a laborer in the sugar fields of Hawai‘i. He was given free housing, free medical care and free passage to Hawai‘i.
Because the contract didn’t cover the costs to move his family as well, Curammeng was forced to leave his wife, Ana Lagazo Curammeng, Leonora and another daughter in the Philippines, so he could try to make his fortune in Hawai‘i, according to a journal Sana P. Daliva had written of Leonora Albayalde. The journal was passed out during the reunion.
Marcos Curammeng’s goal was to return to the Philippines after he made his money.
Once in Hawai‘i, he was assigned to work for the Koloa Sugar Plantation on Kaua‘i.
A contract worker was eligible for free passage back home after his contract had been fulfilled.
But Curammeng saw opportunity beyond those that were offered in his homeland, and decided to stay in Hawai‘i. In 1930, sent for his family.
The family settled in Koloa, and while Leonora Curammeng attended Koloa Elementary School, her mother gave birth to Alfredo Curammeng on July 6, 1931 and William Curammeng n Feb. 8, 1933.
Both boys were delivered by the grandmother of Kaua‘i County Councilman Daryl Kaneshiro. She served as a mid-wife.
In subsequent years, as his daughter, Leonora, grew up, Marcos Curammeng became very protective of her, wanting her not to marry too young and to have her education completed.
In 1937, he took his wife, two sons and daughter, Leonora, back to the Philippine Islands.
Leonora excelled in school, but her father had to return to Hawai‘i to keep his contract with the sugar plantations.
Marcos Curammeng later moved from Koloa to Makaweli to live near his sister because he was homesick and missed his family.
In 1938, Leonora, her mother and her sons returned to Kaua‘i. Marcos Curammeng saw opportunity in Hawai‘i, and put aside the notion of returning to live in the Philippines one day, William Curammeng said.
His father had owned seven parcels of rice in the Philippines, but eventually sold the operations to relatives.
“After World War II, he really saw Hawai‘i as the place of opportunity,” William Curammeng said.
After his time with Koloa Plantation ended, Marcos Curammeng worked for Gay & Robinson from 1939 to 1979, when he retired.
Although Marcos Curammeng worked as a laborer during his entire career in Hawai‘i’s sugar industry, he saw a much brighter future for his children, William Curammeng said.
“My dad felt that knowledge was power, and he emphasized to us (him, his brother and sister) the need to go to college,” William Curammeng said.
Curammeng, a 1951 graduate of Kaua‘i High School, and his brother, Alfredo, a 1950 Kaua‘i High School graduate, both went to the University of Hawaii.
Alfredo Curammeng graduated from the university in 1954, and went on to become a teacher.
William Curammeng also enrolled at the University of Hawai‘i, but his career goals were a little different.
“I liked math when I was high school, and so I wanted to become an engineer,” he said.
Curammeng was a sophomore at the university when a war in a distant land – the Korean Conflict — temporarily sidetrack his career goals.
Instead of waiting to be drafted, he enlisted, wanting to serve his country.
Alfredo Curammeng graduated from the university in 1954 and joined the Army.
When William Curammeng returned home, he decided to take advantage of the G.I. bill, and enrolled at Colorado State University, a “teacher’s college,” now known as the Northwestern University of Colorado.
Curammeng said he wasn’t sure teaching would be his calling, but the idea of becoming a teacher grew on him as he took more courses and he liked them.
The idea of helping to guide the young minds appealed to him. Curammeng’s first job was at the old Hanama‘ulu School, from 1960 to 1962.
Starting in 1962, William Curammeng taught fourth, fifth and six-grade students at Wilcox Elementary School and retired in 1989. For a while, he worked under school principal Ernest Dela Cruz, who is now retired.
Curammeng, who is married to Gloria Aguinaldo, has seven children, all grown, and 13 grandchildren.
Leonora Curammeng also took to heart her father’s message to strive to be the best.
Between the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, Leonora worked as a news reporter for the Garden Isle. During that time, she worked as a radio announcer and news reporter for Charles Fern.
Fern founded and owned at one time KTOH, the island’s first radio station, and was a former editor of the Garden Island.
Through a newscast during the war years, Leonora delivered the news in Ilokano and English to Filipinos on Kaua‘i.
She married Abraham Albayalde in 1943, and two years, later the couple, started publishing the “Filipino News and Kauai News.
In 1957 and 1958, she learned how to campaign for public office when her husband ran for a seat in the Territorial Legislature.
In her journal, she said she and her husband were vigilant in watching out for the welfare of their countrymen, and felt that Filipinos had a better chance of getting ahead with the help of other Filipinos.
Leonora eventually moved to O‘ahu, where she helped edit and produce a weekly newspaper for the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union and worked as a radio announcer for KOH0, a Japanese radio station.
In later years, Leonora campaigned for William Quinn and Ben Dillingham, Republican candidates for public offices in the early 1960s.
A fifth reunion is planned for the Curammeng clan in San Francisco in 2007.
Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
