NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  I have been around and involved in movements and organizations that do work around language and culture for more than 25 years now. Sometimes I think of my start in these discussions as beginning when I started to learn Chamoru 25 years ago while a senior at the University of Guam. But in truth, it started in small ways a few years earlier while I was helping my grandfather sell his blacksmith tools at this shop at the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña and at different cultural fairs. While I was by no means an expert and often times could care less about the conversations around me, because I was my grandfather's driver and his helper, I ended up participating in cultural politics years before I became passionate about them. Sometimes as I look back, given how involved I've been it is easy to feel that things have changed or things are different because I am so familiar with the issues that what might seem inconsequential to some or minor to others, seems major or significant to m...

This Saturday, September 20th, Independent Guåhan will be holding a Teach-In at Senator Angel Santos Memorial Latte Stone Park from 2 - 4 pm titled "From Hurao to Fanohge: 350 Years of Chamoru Resistance." This event is free and open to anyone. The title comes from two key events in understanding Chamoru history and resistance to colonialism in its different forms across time.   In September 1670/1671, Maga’låhi Hurao who had been gathering families who were frustrated with the new Spanish presence in the Marianas and forming a coalition to oppose their interference, was arrested by Spanish soldiers and taken prisoner in the church. Hurao's speech is meant to be an example of the rhetoric that he was using that was inspiring so many families to come forth and offer their spears and slingstones in support of his cause.   An estimated 2,000 warriors surrounded the church, which had been hastily transformed into a fort, to demand his release and the surrender of the ...