Adios Tun George Estaquio

In October 2017, I traveled with Independent Guåhan, and joined the largest delegation ever from Guam to testify at the United Nation. This was a time when North Korea threats were bring new attention to Guam, and President Trump’s rhetoric of “fire and fury” was increasing the temperature in the region. We were joined by Governor of Guam Eddie Calvo and several Guam Senators who also testified about the situation in the island. It was an important moment.

After spending a few days in New York, where we spoke at different universities, talking about Chamoru history, culture, militarization in the Marianas, the history of decolonization, I rented a car and drive down south to Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland to conduct research on a variety of topics. I attended a Chamorro Night celebration organized by the Guam Society of America, met members of Håle' Para Agupa' for the first time and conducted some interviews with manåmko' that were living in the diaspora.

The real goal for my trip was to interview people who had experience working with the US territories, especially within the US federal government. Earlier that year I had interview Tony Babauta who had one of the highest Congressionally confirmed Chamorus to work in the federal government, when he was the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs during the Obama Administration. He had given me some names, made some important connections for me and introduced me to others, and also let me stay at his place while I did some of my interviews.

Over the course of a week I met with some current federal officials and also many former federal officials. Some had worked in Congress for the delegates from the territories, others for those who had been considered allies of the territories or who were powerful on committees that oversaw the territories. I also spent time with some people who had worked on territorial issues in the Department of Defense and the Department of Interior. My goal was to find out what insights people had about navigating the federal labyrinth from the territorial perspective and what possibilities existed for things like greater self-government, self-determination and decolonization.

It was an immensely enlightening trip. One of the highlights of the trip was the day that I spent visiting with Siñot George Castro Estaquio who passed away in March at the age of 95 years ago.

Siñot Estaquio had been a teen during World War II, a US Army veteran after the war, and involved in Guam politics and then worked in the federal government and most notably in the office of Guam Delegate Tony Won Pat. More recently he had been lending his insights to letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News. 

Siñot Estaquio had been working in Congress when many of the things we take for granted that Guam and other territories can receive from the federal government were first being allowed, because of relationships formed between delegates such as Won Pat and Congressional leaders. He had many stories to tell, and many important truths to share, some of which are easily lost in the static of our territorial status and our always shifting relationship to the United States.

One of the things that he emphasized repeatedly when I interviewed him is that when it comes to the territories, the US Congress has the ability to make a constitutional law unconstitutional and an unconstitutional law constitutional. He also phrased it that Congress has the power to make a legal law illegal and an illegal law legal.

What he meant by this is that when we are looking at our situation in the territories, we shouldn't take the status quo at face value. Heavy on his mind were things like Commonwealth, the Dave Davis case, political status change, and how people argued this was against federal law or this was against the constitution. He wanted me to understand that things that are against federal law or the constitution happen all the time in the territories. This is not the end of the conversation, but can you get beyond this and get to a solution that helps the territories? Getting Congress to act on something when there is little to no political will and something possibly being against the constitution are two different things, and each require a different strategy if those are the odds you are up against.

When I visited him in 2017 in his home in Maryland, I also interviewed him about his time in the Young Men's League of Guam and he also showed me the machete he had which was made by my grandfather, the late Chamoru Master Blacksmith Tun Jack Lujan.

I last saw Siñot Estaquio in 2021 when he was visiting island and he took me to breakfast so that we could catch up and he could congratulate me on becoming curator for the Guam Museum. Looking back, I am grateful for the time that I got to spend with him and the stories and wisdom that he shared.

Adios Siñot Estaquio, hu agradesi i tinemtom yan tiningo' un apåtte. Un såga gi minahgong