by Rose Churma
Fortunato Teho’s Hawaii Gardens and Plants of Hawaii–How To Grow Them are two books that need to be reviewed together in celebration of October’s Filipino History Month.
Released in 2011, the first book was written by Fortunato Teho’s granddaughter Corrine Villa-Riese and her spouse, Ted Riese.
The second book was authored by Fortunato Teho himself, and its revised edition was published in 1992 and reissued four times, with the 4th printing in April 1997.
Fortunato Teho was the first immigrant of Filipino ancestry to become a naturalized American citizen in Hawaii and the first Filipino to graduate from the University of Hawai’i.
A horticulturist by training, he offered gardening advice via print media (books and newspapers), radio, and television. His book Plants Of Hawaii—How To Grow Them was a best seller and popular with the gardeners of Hawai’i.
Fortunato Teho was born in Manila in 1908 at the height of the cholera epidemic. His other siblings succumbed to the disease and as the surviving child, his mother carried her son to her parish church’s altar and prayed to the Virgin Mary to spare her child.
When he did survive, his mother named him Fortunato, her lucky son. As a young boy, he was bright and precocious. His parents wanted him to get educational opportunities not found in the Philippines, and relocated to Hawai’i.
Fortunato and his mother arrived in Honolulu in 1911 and he attended grade school in Kapaa, Kauai where he skipped two grades. He was then offered a scholarship to Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu. In 1927, at the age of 19, he graduated from the University of Hawaii (UH) with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sugar technology—the first of Filipino ancestry to graduate from the university.
After graduation, he was employed as an agriculturist at Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company until 1934. At the height of the Great Depression in 1934, the Teho family relocated to Manila but returned to the Territory of Hawaii within three months. After a brief stint as an insurance counselor, he worked in various sugar plantations until 1946.
His writing career started when he wrote an article for the Naalehu Storm. He also served as liaison agent on board the Maunawili that brought plantation workers from the Philippines to Hawai’i in 1946, and was named as Filipino Labor Coordinator by the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association (HSPA).
In May 1948, Teho became the first Filipino in Hawaii to become a naturalized American citizen, and that same year, he was hired as a publicist by the UH’s College of Tropical Agriculture. Soon after, he started writing for the Honolulu Star Bulletin and Hawaii Advertiser on Filipino issues and agricultural topics.
By 1956, he created and produced the only agricultural radio program in Hawaii and two years later he broadcasted his program via television.
Prior to retiring from the UH in June 1973, he released his book Plants Of Hawaii—How To Grow Them in July 1971—an easy-to-use guide for the home gardener.
The book contained concise information on the propagation, culture and pest control of both ornamental and food plants common to gardens in Hawai’i.
In the book, 25 plants are featured, starting with anthuriums to ti and tree ferns—covering the most popular and common plants favored by Hawai’i gardeners.
The information contained in the book was first compiled in the early 1960s and a revised edition was published in 1992, with a fourth printing in 1997.
While rummaging through her grandfather’s papers, Teho’s granddaughter, Corrine, came upon documents that indicate Teho’s plan for a new gardening book.
The working title was “Making the Most of Your Hawaii Yard: How to Cultivate Food and Flowers in Your Living Space” with a section dedicated to plants for food and medicine.
Although the introduction that Teho planned for this book was nostalgic of the simpler times during the plantation days in rural Hawai’i, the proposed book was ahead of its times.
It called for a sustainable horticulture for Hawai’i, more than two decades when the word “sustainable” came into use. Teho proposed growing local food and expressed a yearning for subsistence yards that flourished in the plantation towns.
A sampler of his writings are included in his granddaughter’s book to give the contemporary reader an idea of what his proposed book may contain and was not edited or revised to reflect current trends, especially in the use of weed and pest control.
For the most part, Hawaii Gardens is an ode to Fortunato Teho who was loved and revered by his family and the public-at-large.
Teho was profiled in November 1967 as a successful Filipino immigrant in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Filipinos in Hawaii.
In September 1974 he was honored as Naturalized Citizen of the Year, and in March 1975, Mid-Pacific Institute named him Alumni Man of the Year and as UH’s distinguished graduate in May 1977—among his many awards.
He continued to receive accolades even after he passed away in July 1986. During the 2006 Centennial Celebrations of the Filipino sakada’s arrival in Hawai’i, the story of Fortunato Teho as a young immigrant boy was featured in the Bishop Museum’s exhibit on the commemoration of 100 years of Filipinos in Hawai’i.
Old timers in Hawai’i who loved to garden may still be familiar with the name Fortunato Teho. His newspaper columns and his radio and television programs were followed closely by plant lovers throughout Hawai’i in the late 1940s until his death in 1986.
Unfortunately the younger generation may not be familiar with his contributions “to keep Hawai’i beautiful and productive.” May this article trigger interest in uncovering the contributions of other Filipino Americans who made Hawai’i a desirable place to call home.
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