Origins of Pidgin

In 1979, she was a recipient of the Rotary Post Graduate Fellowship for International Understanding. In 1980 she studied Brazilian Folk Music Traditions and classical voice at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Escola de Música (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro’s School of Music), after receiving her BA in the Ethnomusicology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Manoa native and Roosevelt High School alumna, Sandy began studying Spanish at age 15, studied in Guadalajara, Mexico, and continued at UH where she picked up Portuguese after hearing bossa nova tunes on a jazz program.  She worked in the local visitor industry as a Spanish and Portuguese-speaking tour escort before embarking on the life-changing, Rotary-sponsored study abroad in Brazil. In the three years spent living in Rio de Janeiro, she was able to meet and associate with the who’s who of its vibrant and varied, musical scene. Sandy also evolved as a solo vocalist, performing regularly in the piano bar of a well-known, posh restaurant.

Returning home in 1983, she continued working in tourism and demonstrated Brazilian music to elementary students in the Artists in the Schools program, when she was offered a Spanish-teaching position with the DOE.  Her career in public school education lasted through 2015, teaching Music, Japanese, Spanish and Special Education at the middle and high school levels.  During her time as a teacher, Sandy studied at the UH Center for Interpretation and Translation Studies.  Presently, along with the weekly radio show, she is a freelance vocalist and works as an interpreter of Spanish & Portuguese for medical, social services as well as State and Federal judiciary.

Sandy enjoys raising various animals, gardening and educating about the Portuguese language influence on Hawaii Pidgin English.