Sublime

Commodified Hawaiian culture—the “luau,” the “hula girl,” and “aloha”—became part of the American vernacular and everyday life.

As ambassadors of aloha, Hawaiian women have been susceptible to the eroticization of their bodies and the insistent commodification of their aloha.

When

The Makioka Sisters,

Called “natural-born musicians,” Hawaiians were considered critical to military success.19

dancers

Hawaiians' authenticity as an autochthonous people was and is often tied to their relationship to land and ocean.

bracero

For them, the song was more than a tourist melody that satisfied American audiences—it reminded them of living as family on the road.