Bill Garcia Paniolo
Talk Story April 12, 2012
by Jan Wizinowich
Kuʽulei Keakealani When Kuʽulei Keakealani calls, they come. They come with their hearts open, offering the gift of their stories to add another dimension to the history of this `āina. Bill Garcia was one of those who graced the April 12 Paniolo Talk story at Pukalani Stables to share his story through song. Bill Garcia strides to the stage, guitar in hand and signature black Stetson on his head. Like many who have lived the paniolo life-style, Bill has that look of peaceful wisdom that comes from a life well lived.
Bill Garcia “I am honored to be here tonight. Every time Kuʽulei asks me to do something I feel very honored because there are so many people to choose from in this community that are absolutely very talented in so many respects. Not only are they paniolo but they can do anything including sing and play.”
Most of Bill's early years were lived with his Aunt Lydia Toledo and Uncle George Keoki Simeon Vierra in Waimea, where he was immersed in farming, ranching and Hawaiian Language.
“I was very privileged to grow up here with my aunt and uncle. My aunt was a second grade school teacher. I came up here to live with them at six years of age and I spent a lot of time with my Hawaiian uncle. I learned a lot from him, an awful lot. Back in the day that I was growing up it was sad because people were told not to speak Hawaiian Language. My aunt who was a school teacher, who understood Hawaiian fluently, understood it completely, very rarely, if ever spoke it. When Uncle Keoki used to speak it to me, no, no, no, no, you got to speak English to this boy. Where the language was perpetuated was when we worked cattle. People like Jiro Yamaguchi, Frank Vierra, Adam Quintal. Francis Spencer used to come up and that’s all they spoke. It was wonderful growing up; it was one of the most wonderful times of my life.”
Someone else he learned from was Jimmy Dowsett.
“I see Uncle Jimmy Dowsett in the audience (applause). I used to ride nana `āina (look at the land), nana pa (fence line)and nana wai (water) down at the Mahiki area down where the golf course is. The main road cuts that golf course from mauka land, but that mauka land was all one land going down. Every Saturday, six years of age on my horse, I’d be waiting for Uncle Jimmy to show up at the second gate so we could go together and nana `āina. That was a special time Uncle Jimmy.” (The time period spoken of here was from 1955 to 1956. Jimmy Dowsett was a foreman of the 2nd gate area of Parker Ranch and every Saturday he would make his weekend rounds on the lands he oversaw in what was and still is referred to as the Second gate section of Parker Ranch.)
Bill’s paternal grandparents immigrated from Spain, but his father Joe was born on Maui. Joe started working in the Hawaii sugar industry as an agriculturist with the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) and then went to work in that capacity with the former Hakalau Sugar Plantation on the Hāmākua coast. After a time, he then became the Industrial Relations Superintendant. He is well known for that work and the many years he served in the House of Representatives in the Hawai'i Territorial government and then as a representative in the State of Hawai'i legislature. He was known as a fair man who cared about the makaʽāinana. Bill grew up with strong connections to the land and an awareness of the socio-political environment, which is reflected in the first song he shared.
Most of Bill's early years were lived with his Aunt Lydia Toledo and Uncle George Keoki Simeon Vierra in Waimea, where he was immersed in farming, ranching and Hawaiian Language.
“I was very privileged to grow up here with my aunt and uncle. My aunt was a second grade school teacher. I came up here to live with them at six years of age and I spent a lot of time with my Hawaiian uncle. I learned a lot from him, an awful lot. Back in the day that I was growing up it was sad because people were told not to speak Hawaiian Language. My aunt who was a school teacher, who understood Hawaiian fluently, understood it completely, very rarely, if ever spoke it. When Uncle Keoki used to speak it to me, no, no, no, no, you got to speak English to this boy. Where the language was perpetuated was when we worked cattle. People like Jiro Yamaguchi, Frank Vierra, Adam Quintal. Francis Spencer used to come up and that’s all they spoke. It was wonderful growing up; it was one of the most wonderful times of my life.”
Someone else he learned from was Jimmy Dowsett.
“I see Uncle Jimmy Dowsett in the audience (applause). I used to ride nana `āina (look at the land), nana pa (fence line)and nana wai (water) down at the Mahiki area down where the golf course is. The main road cuts that golf course from mauka land, but that mauka land was all one land going down. Every Saturday, six years of age on my horse, I’d be waiting for Uncle Jimmy to show up at the second gate so we could go together and nana `āina. That was a special time Uncle Jimmy.” (The time period spoken of here was from 1955 to 1956. Jimmy Dowsett was a foreman of the 2nd gate area of Parker Ranch and every Saturday he would make his weekend rounds on the lands he oversaw in what was and still is referred to as the Second gate section of Parker Ranch.)
Bill’s paternal grandparents immigrated from Spain, but his father Joe was born on Maui. Joe started working in the Hawaii sugar industry as an agriculturist with the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) and then went to work in that capacity with the former Hakalau Sugar Plantation on the Hāmākua coast. After a time, he then became the Industrial Relations Superintendant. He is well known for that work and the many years he served in the House of Representatives in the Hawai'i Territorial government and then as a representative in the State of Hawai'i legislature. He was known as a fair man who cared about the makaʽāinana. Bill grew up with strong connections to the land and an awareness of the socio-political environment, which is reflected in the first song he shared.
Pua Case “When Kuʽulei asked me to come she said Pua Case had one request and she wanted me to sing Kaulana Nā Pua. I don’t know if all of you know what is behind that song, but Kaulana Nā Pua is the annexation song, a song in protest of what would become the annexation of the Kingdom of Hawai'i. It was composed in January of 1893 by Ellen Wright Prendergast at her father ‘s Kapalama mansion on Oʽahu after a social gathering of which included all but two or three of the Royal Hawaiian band members that were on strike and they were protesting to her about what was going on. In essence they basically told her,
‘We’re loyal to Liliuokalani, we’re loyal to our land and we’re not going to sign, nobody should sign the palapala agreement that the United States government is putting forth. Don’t affix your signature to that because it takes away the civil rights of our people. Regardless of the money, we’re not turned on by the money the government is offering because we would rather eat rocks.’ In fact the initial title of the song was Mele ai Pohaku; the eat stone song. It eventually became Kaulana Nā Pua and that’s what it means and I’ll sing it for you. Pua where are you? “I’m right here Uncle.”
‘We’re loyal to Liliuokalani, we’re loyal to our land and we’re not going to sign, nobody should sign the palapala agreement that the United States government is putting forth. Don’t affix your signature to that because it takes away the civil rights of our people. Regardless of the money, we’re not turned on by the money the government is offering because we would rather eat rocks.’ In fact the initial title of the song was Mele ai Pohaku; the eat stone song. It eventually became Kaulana Nā Pua and that’s what it means and I’ll sing it for you. Pua where are you? “I’m right here Uncle.”
Ellen Keho`ohiwaokalani Wright Prendergast
Kaulana Nâ Pua (Famous Are The Flowers)
| Kaulana nâ pua a`o Hawai`i Kûpa`a ma hope o ka `âina Hiki mai ka `elele o ka loko `ino Palapala `ânunu me ka pâkaha Pane mai Hawai`i moku o Keawe Kôkua nâ Hono a`o Pi`ilani Kâko`o mai Kaua`i o Mano Pa`apû me ke one Kâkuhihewa `A`ole a`e kau i ka pûlima Ma luna o ka pepa o ka `ênemi Ho`ohui `âina kû`ai hewa I ka pono sivila a`o ke kanaka `A`ole mâkou a`e minamina I ka pu`u kâlâ o ke aupuni Ua lawa mâkou i ka pôhaku I ka `ai kamaha`o o ka `âina Ma hope mâkou o Lili`ulani A loa`a ê ka pono o ka `âina *(A kau hou `ia e ke kalaunu) Ha`ina `ia mai ana ka puana Ka po`e i aloha i ka `âina *Alternate Stanza | Famous are the children of Hawai`i Ever loyal to the land When the evil-hearted messenger comes With his greedy document of extortion Hawai`i, land of Keawe answers Pi`ilani's bays help Mano's Kaua`i lends support And so do the sands of Kakuhihewa No one will fix a signature To the paper of the enemy With its sin of annexation And sale of native civil rights We do not value The government's sums of money We are satisfied with the stones Astonishing food of the land We back Lili`ulani Who has won the rights of the land *(She will be crowned again) Tell the story Of the people who love their land *Alternate Stanza |
The song resonates from Bill’s heart and his voice transports us to that late evening gathering that inspired Ellen Keho`ohiwaokalani Wright Prendergast to write Kaulana Nā Pua and tells us something about Bill’s manaʽo.
“ That last verse, ‘Ma hope mākou o Liliʽulani’, what that is basically saying is that we stand behind, that we support Liliʽuokalani; we’re loyal to her. She’s the one that earned the right to the land. So tell the story of the people who love the land. That’s what that means and you know what there are people today, whether it be for land or principle that have done exactly what this song means. I’ve been a part and been privileged to have experienced that myself in this very community. And maybe one day the story will come out.”
Bill’s next song, Wahine Ilikea, takes us to Molokaʽi where he and his wife Chris began their married life together. “The area that we were in and where I built the ranch house is a place called Kamalo. Kamalo is in essence the heart of Moloka’i. It’s almost equidistant, Kamalo to Maunaloa on the West side, Kamalo to Puʽu o Hoku on the East side. We were considered more on the East end. Below Puʽu o Hoku Ranch was the valley of Hālawa and this particular song that I’m going to sing references Hālawa being the home of the visitor, a lush land and Puʽu o Hoku land is very much like Waimea land.
"I spent a lot of time on Puʽu o Hoku Ranch, on my off days hunting, in fact in the first months of my married life my wife and I ate only venison and wild goat… When I first got there, I had $50 in my pocket. They had 2 markets in town, Misaki Market and the Friendly Market. So we walk into Misaki and walk out of there with no money in my pocket and 2 brown grocery bags and not a lick of meat. So she tells me, she says, “What are we going to do?” I said don’t worry, I’ll take care of this.
After using his credit card to purchase a chest freezer, he went hunting and came home with two deer. “I asked my wife to bring out the old sheets and wrapped the venison in the sheets and let em cool over night. About 6:00 in the morning I shake her and say, ‘Hey, come on get up.’ She says, ‘Ah, it’s Saturday.’ ‘I know get up, we got work to do. We got to butcher these animals.’ She says, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’ I said, ‘I do, so you get up, you hold, I cut, you wrap and you write what I tell you on the bag, on the wrapping.’ So that’s what we did.”
The inspiration for Wahine Ilikea (White-skinned Woman) was a water source on Molokaʽi close to the ranch where Bill and Chris lived. “If you look straight up to the mountains there’s 3 water sources up there and always there were white clouds that surrounded that particular area. It was pretty far up. When I was looking for a water source, I went up there with my workmen, and we hiked all the way up. It was an all-day deal then. This song was written by Dennis Kamakahi ; he wrote this in 1975, the year we left Molokaʽi to go to Oʽahu where I went to law school. For him, the white clouds represented the fair skinned woman that was overlooking the source of life, the 3 water sources there in the bosom of Molokaʽi and I sing this because my wife and I started our married life there and whenever I sing this song I think of her.”
Wahine `Ilikea - by Dennis Kamakahi
| Hui: Pua kalaunu ma ke kai `O Honouliwai Wahine `ilikea i ka poli `o Moloka`i Nö ka heke Nani wale nö nä wailele `uka `O Hina `o Hähä `o Mo`oloa Nä wai `ekolu i ka uluwehiwehi `O Kamalö i ka mälie Nani wale no ka `äina Hälawa Home ho`okipa a ka malihini `Äina uluwehi i ka noe ahiahi Ua lawe mai ka makani Ho`olua | Chorus: Crown flower by the shore Of Honouliwai Fair skinned woman in the bosom of Moloka`i Is the best Beautiful waterfalls of the upland Hina, Hähä and Mo`oloa The three waters in the verdant overgrowth Of Kamalö, in the calm Beautiful is the land, Halawa Hospitable home to the visitors Land verdant, in the evening mist Brought by the wind of Ho`olua |
Bill and Chris are embarking on a new adventure and will be moving to Montana.
“With my grandchildren on the mainland and everything, my wife and I have decided we are leaving Hawai'i. I had thought about moving to other places on the mainland because Montana had been taken completely out of my dreams and spirit. When I was 17 my father asked me where I wanted to go to school, I said University of Montana, if I can’t go there, University of South Dakota, if I can’t go there, University of North Dakota. And he didn’t like that idea at all.” (Bill's dad had dreams of Bill going to the University of San Francisco to study law, a school his father always talked about and had dreams of attending. While that never did come to fruition for his father, Bill attended USF and eventually became a lawyer).
Another factor in wanting Bill to matriculate at USF was the fact that St. Joseph High School in Hilo had previously sent two athletes to play baseball at USF under scholarship. The first was in 1958, the second in 1962. Because of Bill's capabilities as a baseball player, St. Joseph's baseball coach and athletic director were working with USF to send Bill there under scholarship to play baseball. As a result, Bill became the last of 3 athletes from St. Joseph High School to attend USF, play baseball and graduate.
“Forty years later (from the year he told his father that he wanted to go to the University of Montana, my younger boy decides that he wants to go to Montana State in Bozeman, Montana. I told him when he asked me if it would be o.k., ‘You go boy’ and he did.” He played football and graduated in May 2011. When Bill and Chris took their son to Bozeman, “… I saw Montana and I said, ‘This is the place for me.’
This song I’m going to sing relates to our going away from Hawai'i. When I was graduating from college I had Hawaiian ʽohana in San Francisco and the surrounding areas (late 1960’s and 1970’s). Uncle George and Aunty Alice Moore (Hawaiian ʽohana to Bill’s mother) used to ask me to come to the house every so often and bring my own drink and bring my guitar over and when I got to the place there were Hawaii people all over the place. When I graduated school they took me to a Hawaiian Civic club lū`au in the San Jose convention center. There must have been 3000 people there. I was 22 years of age and it made an impression on me but I didn’t give it much thought at the time, but all the Hawai'i people in the place, everybody welcomed everybody because in spite of the fact that there were 3000 people in that room, there was a warmth because we were from Hawai'i. They might not have koko Hawai'i, Hawaiian blood but if you were from Hawai'i, you were Hawaiian. There was a specialness about that and I see that today, (among the Hawaii people, especially) on the mainland.
“This song I’m going to sing, He Hawaii Au, I am an Hawaiian, was written, was collaborated on by three different people. Ron Rosha, who I don’t know anything about except he (could) have a connection with the Rocha family in Kohala; Peter Moon you’ve probably heard of, he used to be with the Sunday Manoa and then it was the Peter Moon band, and he has, as I understand it zero koko Hawai'i. And Aunty Alice Nāmakelua. Now Aunty Alice Nāmakelua was my great aunt; she was my (maternal) grandmother’s younger half-sister. My Tūtū Ma and the siblings in that family were seven children produced by a lady named Caroline Kanakaoluna, who was a court dancer in King Kalākaua's court. Caroline Kanakaoluna only spoke Hawaiian; she didn’t speak any English.
“I say all this with respect to the song. Regardless of where any one of us goes, whether we move to the mainland or wherever we go, home is in the heart. Growing up here and the things I’ve learned, the things my children have learned, regardless, we’re Hawaiian.”
“With my grandchildren on the mainland and everything, my wife and I have decided we are leaving Hawai'i. I had thought about moving to other places on the mainland because Montana had been taken completely out of my dreams and spirit. When I was 17 my father asked me where I wanted to go to school, I said University of Montana, if I can’t go there, University of South Dakota, if I can’t go there, University of North Dakota. And he didn’t like that idea at all.” (Bill's dad had dreams of Bill going to the University of San Francisco to study law, a school his father always talked about and had dreams of attending. While that never did come to fruition for his father, Bill attended USF and eventually became a lawyer).
Another factor in wanting Bill to matriculate at USF was the fact that St. Joseph High School in Hilo had previously sent two athletes to play baseball at USF under scholarship. The first was in 1958, the second in 1962. Because of Bill's capabilities as a baseball player, St. Joseph's baseball coach and athletic director were working with USF to send Bill there under scholarship to play baseball. As a result, Bill became the last of 3 athletes from St. Joseph High School to attend USF, play baseball and graduate.
“Forty years later (from the year he told his father that he wanted to go to the University of Montana, my younger boy decides that he wants to go to Montana State in Bozeman, Montana. I told him when he asked me if it would be o.k., ‘You go boy’ and he did.” He played football and graduated in May 2011. When Bill and Chris took their son to Bozeman, “… I saw Montana and I said, ‘This is the place for me.’
This song I’m going to sing relates to our going away from Hawai'i. When I was graduating from college I had Hawaiian ʽohana in San Francisco and the surrounding areas (late 1960’s and 1970’s). Uncle George and Aunty Alice Moore (Hawaiian ʽohana to Bill’s mother) used to ask me to come to the house every so often and bring my own drink and bring my guitar over and when I got to the place there were Hawaii people all over the place. When I graduated school they took me to a Hawaiian Civic club lū`au in the San Jose convention center. There must have been 3000 people there. I was 22 years of age and it made an impression on me but I didn’t give it much thought at the time, but all the Hawai'i people in the place, everybody welcomed everybody because in spite of the fact that there were 3000 people in that room, there was a warmth because we were from Hawai'i. They might not have koko Hawai'i, Hawaiian blood but if you were from Hawai'i, you were Hawaiian. There was a specialness about that and I see that today, (among the Hawaii people, especially) on the mainland.
“This song I’m going to sing, He Hawaii Au, I am an Hawaiian, was written, was collaborated on by three different people. Ron Rosha, who I don’t know anything about except he (could) have a connection with the Rocha family in Kohala; Peter Moon you’ve probably heard of, he used to be with the Sunday Manoa and then it was the Peter Moon band, and he has, as I understand it zero koko Hawai'i. And Aunty Alice Nāmakelua. Now Aunty Alice Nāmakelua was my great aunt; she was my (maternal) grandmother’s younger half-sister. My Tūtū Ma and the siblings in that family were seven children produced by a lady named Caroline Kanakaoluna, who was a court dancer in King Kalākaua's court. Caroline Kanakaoluna only spoke Hawaiian; she didn’t speak any English.
“I say all this with respect to the song. Regardless of where any one of us goes, whether we move to the mainland or wherever we go, home is in the heart. Growing up here and the things I’ve learned, the things my children have learned, regardless, we’re Hawaiian.”
He Hawai`i Au
Words by Ron Rosha & Peter Moon (translation: Alice Nāmakelua)
Music by Peter Moon
Words by Ron Rosha & Peter Moon (translation: Alice Nāmakelua)
Music by Peter Moon
| I kêia pô eia au me `oe Kêia pô ua ho`i mai au He loa ka helena ma ke ala hele E huli i wahi ma kêia ao Maopopo a ua `ike ho`i Ka home i loko o ku`u pu`uwai Ua ho`i mai au, ke `ike nei au `A`ole au e `auana hou Ke maopopo he Hawai`i au | Tonight I am here with you Tonight, I have returned Long was my journey on the path To seek a place in this world I now clearly see and understand The home within my heart I returned when I realized this I will not wander again For I understand, I am Hawaiian |
“What He Hawai'i Au, stands for and says is tonight I have returned; this night I am here with you. Long has been my journey searching for a place in the world but I understand and know that home is in the heart. I have returned and I will not wander again, for I understand that I am Hawaiian. This is the song that I will take with me.
A Hui Hou Bill and Chris.
A Hui Hou Bill and Chris.
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