Maria CALDEIRA (1882-1924)

Maria Caldeira

Birth and Early Childhood in Madeira

Maria CALDEIRA was born in August of 1882 in Funchal on the island of Madeira, Portugal. She was the eldest child of Augusto CALDEIRA and Maria Felisberta de Jesus PESTANA. Nothing is known of her childhood while living in Madeira.

Immigration

Maria arrived in Hawaii with her parents and two brothers, Jose and Frank, on 13 April 1888. They sailed on the Thomas Bell. The voyage from Madeira to Hawaii lasted 156 days. 

Honolulu Harbor, 1888. The view that 5-year-old Maria must have seen upon arrival.

Later Childhood in Hawaii

I have found no record that tells us where the Caldeira family went after they arrived. We know that the Portuguese were brought over to work on the sugar plantations. The Caldeira family may have been shipped to a plantation on the island of Maui, perhaps in the Wailuku-Paia vicinity. Family tradition says that Maria's future husband sent for her from Paia. What we do know is that her father Augusto was dead by 1900 and her mother Maria Felisberta was widowed and living in Waialua on the island of O'ahu with five of her six children.

Marriage and Family

Maria CALDEIRA married Manuel Ignacio SOUZA Sr. in 1900 in Waialua, Hawaii. She was 17 or 18 at the time of her marriage. Being a devout Catholic, Maria had her first child, Lucia, in 1901, followed by Manuel Jr. in 1902, John in 1904, Joseph in 1906, Mary in 1908, Antone in 1910, Alfred in 1912, Frank in 1915, and Helen in 1917.

Manuel treated Maria poorly and often beat her. He was also known to be fooling around with other women throughout their marriage. 

Maria CALDEIRA (1882-1924)

Huntington's Disease

Around the year 1908 at the age of 25, Maria began showing signs of Huntington's disease, believed to have been inherited from her father. Manuel continued to beat Maria, even after she was already showing signs of the disease (shaking and progressive madness).

By 1909, her eldest daughter, Lucy, was taken out of the second grade and given the responsibility of running the home and taking care of the younger children, as Maria was already physically and mentally incapable of doing so. 

In 1917, Manuel and Maria's youngest son Frank died at the age of two of diarrhea. Manuel blamed his oldest daughter, Lucy, for Frank's death. Lucy would put flowers on Frank's grave at the old Catholic Mission Cemetery near Thompson's Corner in Waialua every year for over 25 years.

By 1920, Maria's daughter Lucy was married and a widow by the name of Emily Bento was living with the family and taking care of the housework and the children for Maria.

Because Huntington's disease causes the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and leads to mental and behavioral problems, Maria was "put away" in the Oahu Insane Asylum sometime after 1920. Her daughter Lucy visited her at the asylum in Palama on All Soul's Day (November 2) every year. Lucy, now with a family of her own, would bring her eldest daughter Alice with her to visit "vovo" (Portuguese for grandmother). They would bring pie, as Maria loved pie. Lucy said that her mother would wolf the pie down, using only her hands, and ate until it was all gone.

Oahu Insane Asylum, 1888. Photo from the Hawaii State Archives.

The living conditions at the asylum in Palama in the quarters where Maria lived were described as being absolutely plain, no beds, bare floors, and a single pillow. The living conditions and the pathetic state of Maria in her final years must have been difficult for Lucy to witness.

Death

On 7 January 1924, at the young age of 41, Maria died at the asylum. Her body was brought home to Waialua and laid to rest at Puuiki Cemetery.