Joseph Lopez Lopez wrote his memoirs by hand on lined notebook paper in 1978. These pages were bound into a gray folder. Copies were given to each of his children and grandchildren. These memoirs encompass Joseph L. Lopez’ recollections of his life from the early 1900’s through the time of his putting pen to paper in 1978.

Joseph L. Lopez’s parents moved their family to Hawaii from the Andalucia region of Spain in 1907.

Six ships, from 1907 to 1913, brought over 8000 men, women and children from Spain to the sugar cane fields of Hawaii. Most of these Spaniards subsequently immigrated to California.

Joseph L. Lopez’s memoirs allow his descendants, and the descendants of other Hawaiian Spaniards to have the history of his immigration story. Joseph L. Lopez’s memoirs provide others a glimpse into the life of a Spanish immigrant family, from 1900 through 1978. These Spaniards courageously left their impoverished ancestral home in the Andalucia region of Spain, traveled by ship to Hawaii, and eventually immigrated permanently to California.

Joseph and his family worked the land in Hawaii and in California; just as they did in Spain. They did whatever was necessary to support one another, to survive, and to thrive through perseverance and resiliency. Eventually, Joseph became a business owner, a land owner, and an entrepreneur.

Two people, looking through the same window, but from opposite sides, see two different perspectives. One sees an outdoor scene, another sees a kitchen. Both are correct…just a different perspective. It is only when we take the time to come around to the other side of the window that we can see another’s perspective.

Joseph L. Lopez’s gives us his perspective; the nuances of what it means to immigrate, to assimilate to a new life. We don’t have to become a ‘melting pot’ where we lose our identities…we can be the ‘tossed salad’ where we maintain our own distinct flavors and at the same time become an integral part of the whole America.

This melting pot vs. tossed salad concept exemplifies a wider perspective of the varied immigrant heritage of the United States.

Let us each be encouraged to delve into our own family’s immigration story. It is perhaps not as clear as we thought it was. We are all from somewhere else; …no matter how far back that may be.