All in the Family
Over the summer, my family had a dongkalu na gupot giya Guahan for my grandparents, Elizbeth De Leon Flores Lujan (familian Kabesa/Kotla/Badu) and Joaquin Flores Lujan (familian Bittot/Katson). The rationale behind the gathering was to celebrate their 56th Wedding Anniversary.
The event was huge and so much fun. More than 300 people attended and dozens of family from offisland flew in. The Cruz Family played, the Westin Hotel in Tumon provided the food and the venue. Me and my cousins and my siblings provided the entertainment. Si Grandma yan Si Grandpa ma chule' halom i mas bunitu na rason para ta fandana.
On ocassions such as this it is customary for some sort of singing to take place by family members, and hopefully those who are doing the singing are somewhat skilled. Those of us who were responsible for the entertainment however could best be defined by those "who couldn't pay or plan" and therefore had to sing. All of us with the exception of i prima-hu Hope were not very good at singing, and the two short songs that I planned to sing were in Chamorro (Hagu i Flores and Nobia Kahulo'), and I was the only grandchild or great-grandchild who could speak the language.
With my poor leadership abilities, I knew that it would be futile to try to train ourselves to be better singers in just a few days, so my emphasis became not to sing good, but to instead sing cute.
To achieve this desired response, I prefaced our performance with a little warning that, although our family is very artistic, we are not really so in the singing or musical sense. The combination of this warning with the median age of the singers being like eight helped produce the cute atmosphere I was hoping for.
In order to take advantage of the artistic talents of our family, we set up another piece of entertainment, one dealing with paintings and trivia. Before the party, me and my brothers Jack and Cyrus as well as our nephew Dylan painted about a half dozen pieces which would be the prizes for a trivia game dealing with the lives of grandma and grandpa. Me being a sort of historian for the family I was able to come up with some interesting and very obscure questions.
Just for fun, I'll post a few of them here, alongside photographs of us painting the artworks we gave away. For those of you who don't know the history of my grandparents as intricately as I do, I will graciously provide you with the answers as well (umessitan ha' yu').
What was the name of the night club that grandma and grandpa owned in the 1950's?
Hafa na’ån-ña i nightclub ni’ eståba gaiiya si grandpa yan si grandma gi I 1950’s?
(The Sleepy Lagoon)
What was the name of the store grandma and grandpa had at the Gibson's Shopping Center?
Hafa na’ån-ña i tendan-ñiha grandma yan grandpa eståba giya i Gibson’s Shopping Center?
(Chamorro Land)
Where after the war did grandma and grandpa first meet?
Manu i fine’nina na lugat nai umasodda’ si grandpa yan si grandma despues di i Tiempon Chapoñes?
(at Grandma's brother's Bill's store in Tamuning, Bilmar Store, where grandma was working as a cashier)
It dawned on me the other day however that although the lack of musical talents might work in my case, there are several others in my family who are musically talented. Three of these talented beautiful people just happen to be my brothers. I was cruising around myspace today, checking out their pages as well as my other friends, and since all of them are in the early stages of their musical careers, having started both their pages and their bands either this year or the last, I thought it might be a good idea to help support them by posting their links on my blog.
If you're in the mood for some Ska, some Rap or some Indie Pop click on any of them below to check them out.
Pump Fake Nation
Eloise
Freedom Fries
The event was huge and so much fun. More than 300 people attended and dozens of family from offisland flew in. The Cruz Family played, the Westin Hotel in Tumon provided the food and the venue. Me and my cousins and my siblings provided the entertainment. Si Grandma yan Si Grandpa ma chule' halom i mas bunitu na rason para ta fandana. On ocassions such as this it is customary for some sort of singing to take place by family members, and hopefully those who are doing the singing are somewhat skilled. Those of us who were responsible for the entertainment however could best be defined by those "who couldn't pay or plan" and therefore had to sing. All of us with the exception of i prima-hu Hope were not very good at singing, and the two short songs that I planned to sing were in Chamorro (Hagu i Flores and Nobia Kahulo'), and I was the only grandchild or great-grandchild who could speak the language.
With my poor leadership abilities, I knew that it would be futile to try to train ourselves to be better singers in just a few days, so my emphasis became not to sing good, but to instead sing cute.
To achieve this desired response, I prefaced our performance with a little warning that, although our family is very artistic, we are not really so in the singing or musical sense. The combination of this warning with the median age of the singers being like eight helped produce the cute atmosphere I was hoping for.
In order to take advantage of the artistic talents of our family, we set up another piece of entertainment, one dealing with paintings and trivia. Before the party, me and my brothers Jack and Cyrus as well as our nephew Dylan painted about a half dozen pieces which would be the prizes for a trivia game dealing with the lives of grandma and grandpa. Me being a sort of historian for the family I was able to come up with some interesting and very obscure questions.Just for fun, I'll post a few of them here, alongside photographs of us painting the artworks we gave away. For those of you who don't know the history of my grandparents as intricately as I do, I will graciously provide you with the answers as well (umessitan ha' yu').
What was the name of the night club that grandma and grandpa owned in the 1950's?
Hafa na’ån-ña i nightclub ni’ eståba gaiiya si grandpa yan si grandma gi I 1950’s?
(The Sleepy Lagoon)
What was the name of the store grandma and grandpa had at the Gibson's Shopping Center?
Hafa na’ån-ña i tendan-ñiha grandma yan grandpa eståba giya i Gibson’s Shopping Center?
(Chamorro Land)
Where after the war did grandma and grandpa first meet?
Manu i fine’nina na lugat nai umasodda’ si grandpa yan si grandma despues di i Tiempon Chapoñes?
(at Grandma's brother's Bill's store in Tamuning, Bilmar Store, where grandma was working as a cashier)
It dawned on me the other day however that although the lack of musical talents might work in my case, there are several others in my family who are musically talented. Three of these talented beautiful people just happen to be my brothers. I was cruising around myspace today, checking out their pages as well as my other friends, and since all of them are in the early stages of their musical careers, having started both their pages and their bands either this year or the last, I thought it might be a good idea to help support them by posting their links on my blog.If you're in the mood for some Ska, some Rap or some Indie Pop click on any of them below to check them out.
Pump Fake Nation
Eloise
Freedom Fries
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