Rod Ohira's People
Family ties stay strong through five generations
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| The Bunda family held its first family reunion at Waialua sugar plantation in 1986 and has held one every five years since then. The close-knit family includes 234 members in Hawai'i and on the Mainland.
Dennis Bunda photo |
Shane Bunda left home in 1997 to chase a dream, just as his great-grandfather did nearly 80 years ago.
A Mid-Pacific Institute and Western Washington University graduate, Bunda was 22 years old when he moved from Hawai'i to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. His great-grandfather, the late Mauricio Bunda, was only two years older at 24 when he came to Hawai'i from the Philippines with his wife — the former Restituta Dacoscos — and three young children in September 1922, also seeking a career opportunity.
"I'm starting fresh just like he did," Bunda said by telephone from his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home. "All I ever heard about (my great-grandfather) was that he worked hard. I'm on my own and working hard, too."
The son of Santiago "Sandy" Bunda Jr. and the former Susan Houlette, Shane can be seen in the FOX Network TV pilot "Love and Rejection," which will be aired in October. He's also completed a yet-to-be-aired History Channel special. "I'm happy to be doing something I love," he said. "There are hundreds of actors competing for every part. To be an actor, you have to believe there's no one else like you but it's hard when you go to audition for a part and see a room full of guys that look like you."
The young actor, who manages a French restaurant to support himself, is part of a group that's trying to buy the eatery. "I have Bunda blood so I'm not afraid to work hard," he said of the business opportunity.
Shane Bunda is among 234 members of a prominent O'ahu-based family with deep roots in Waialua and Wahiawa.
The late Mauricio and Restituta Bunda had 14 children, 11 of whom are still living. They are brothers Manuel, 80; Santiago "Sandy" Sr., 74; Frank, 72; Alberto, 70; Alfredo, 65; Federico, 63; Carlos, 61, and Douglas, 59, and sisters Estrella Bayne, 77; Abelina Salado, 76, and Carmen Salvador, 67. From the Bunda siblings, there are 62 children.
The fourth generation — children of the grandchildren — numbers 110 and includes Shane Bunda. There's also a fifth generation of 48 members.
Notable family members include "Sandy" Bunda Sr., awarded a Bronze Star for valor in the Korean War, and his son, State Senate President Robert Bunda; the Rev. Roland Bunda, a Catholic priest and former St. Louis School principal, and brothers Carlos and Douglas Bunda, kajukenbo martial arts professors in California.
The Bundas were also good athletes.
"My father, Manuel Bunda, and his brother Frank were Army boxing champions in World War II," said Dennis Bunda, a hotel broker and management executive. "And in (the late 1960s), Carlos was an International karate champion. He once fought Chuck Norris."
Despite its size, the family has held reunions every five years since 1986. The gatherings include family members of Restituta Bunda's two sisters — the late Petra Dacoscos Izon and Sotera Eai Dacoscos Daroag, a Virginia resident who died Aug. 15 after celebrating her 101st birthday in July.
"We had 286 at our (July) reunion this year," said Diane "Ah Lin" Santos, whose 77-year-old mother Estrella was Mauricio and Restituta Bunda's first Hawai'i-born child. "As big as our family is, we're still close. One-half to three-quarters of the Bundas and Izons are in Hawai'i. The cousins and their kids are talking about doing another reunion next year, they don't want to wait five years, because the third generation is now all over 50 years old."
Mauricio Bunda, who died in July 1977 at age 80, worked his way up from sugar plantation laborer earning $1 a day to prominence as a community leader in Waialua. To set an example for his children and better his life, he went to school at night to earn a high school diploma.
"When my grandfather went back to school to get his diploma, it sent the message that if he could do it, why can't you," Santos said.
Mauricio Bunda founded the North Central Senior Citizens Club, served as an ILWU union leader and president of the Waialua High School PTA, and was appointed to the Commission on Aging by the late Gov. John Burns.
"My grandfather was a shaker and mover," Dennis Bunda said. "He really liked to help people. I think he had a vision and saw that he could implement it through his kids. In our family, all of us know what it is to work. Through that, we've gained the confidence to try things. He was a people person. It didn't matter to him whether you were Chinese, Filipino or Japanese."
The late Restituta Bunda, meanwhile, complemented her husband's work in the community by keeping order in their home. "She was the silent partner," Santos says in the 2 1/2-inch thick family memory book she compiled for the 2001 reunion.
Family is a valued part of Hawai'i's lifestyle. But tight bonding into five generations is something special because it says a lot about the kind of people Mauricio and Restituta Bunda were.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
