https://twitter.com/NBCLatino/status/1285345864563798021
“Spaniards definitely were not considered white by average American standards in the 19th century. But this is also contextual,” he told NBC News. “When we study Spanish migration to Hawaii in 1907, they are considered white when compared with Native Hawaiians and Asians—but non-white when compared with others.”
Americans wanted to get Spanish immigrants to Hawaii because they wanted to “whiten the islands," said Fernández. By comparison, he said, Puerto Ricans who had also been recruited to work in Hawaii at the beginning of the 20th century were considered “white enough” when compared with Asians.
“Compared with Filipinos or Japanese or Chinese or Koreans, who were the main workers in Hawaii then, Spaniards [and Puerto Ricans] were white,” Fernández said. “But in another context, those same Spaniards were not white, depending on who you compared them with.”
