NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  My grandfather, the late Joaquin Flores Lujan or Tun Jack, dedicated half of his life to displaying, demonstrating and teaching about Chamoru blacksmithing. He taught more than a dozen apprentices and presented a hundreds of fairs and schools. He was recognized as a Master of Chamoru Culture for his dedication to the trade that he was taught by his father from the age of 9, and received many awards for his work in promoting it.   For years I would take grandpa to the Chamorro Village where he had a shop to display and sell his tools. He had on the walls photos, certificates, newspaper articles about himself. He also had tools from his father and examples of the tools a blacksmith uses and the stages different tools go through in their creation. He also had his many awards. On shelves and tables he had the several Governor's Art Awards, which later became the Maga'låhi Art Awards that he had received during the tenures of Governors Ada and Gutierrez.    For about 20...

After spending a week listening to the stories of Native Americans in Albuquerque and at the Indigenous Comic Con, my mind kept straying back to the story of one Native American woman, Elouise Cobell. As you can see from the articles below, she was a champion in recent Native American struggles to get redress and develop themselves economically after centuries of both abuse and neglect by the United States. She was just awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom although she passed away in 2011. I would have liked to have met her once and sat down and talked to her. What she and others accomplished in terms of suing the US Federal Government was inspirational on so many levels and largely unknown by the wider United States. ********************* Tester Announces Elouise Cobell Honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom November 16, 2016 Press Release (U.S. Senate)-Senator Jon Tester today announced that Elouise Cobell has been recognized with the Presidential Medal of Freedom....

My students often ask me, "Who is the most famous Chamorro?" Meaning which Chamorro has achieved the most, has achieved fame or stardom? Which Chamorro is a household name, not just in Guam or the Marianas, but in the world? Are they any Chamorros out there who can represent the island, the culture and the people to the billions of people who aren't Chamorro and don't even know what Guam or a Chamorro is? There are lots of Chamorro musicians, some of whom have achieved minor fame outside of the Pacific, such as Johnny Sablan and Pia Mia. There are Chamorro athletes, many of whom are baseball players, but with the rise of fighting culture on Guam, we have seen some Chamorros truly shine in that regard. There are even a few Chamorro actors and filmmakers out there, although it can be hard to miss them when they appear in the periphery of major films. There are even Chamorros that have won Grammy Awards and Pulitzer Prizes. But who should receive the honor as the m...

National Endowment for the Arts For Immediate Release March 23, 2015 It is with great sadness that the National Endowment for the Arts acknowledges the passing of 1996 National Heritage Fellow Joaquin Flores Lujan, a blacksmith who helped to preserve Guam's blacksmithing past, an aspect of the island's Chamorro culture that combines Spanish colonial and local influences. Joaquin "Jack" Flores Lujan was born March 20, 1920, in Guam. He was the only child to learn the art of blacksmithing from his father, who in turn had learned the skills from his uncle. He mastered the graceful lines and fine finishes of the short Guamanian machete with inlaid buffalo horn or imported Philippine hardwood handles; the preferred angle and bevel of the fosino (hoe); and the practical applications of the other tools. As late as the World War II era, blacksmithing played an essential role in Guam. But the time-consuming work of learning the craft and th...

2014 Inachá’igen Fino’ CHamoru Chamorro Language Competition March 10 and 11, 2014 University of Guam Theme/Tema: I Fino’ CHamoru: Didok, Fehman yan Tai Chi! (The Chamorro Language: Deep, Profound and Infinite!) List of Winners I. Eskuelan Elementario/Elementary Schools A.     K-2 Dinilitreha/Spelling 1 st Place:         Myra K. Chinen, Wettengel 2 nd Place:         Imajin Trinidad, Mt. Carmel 3 rd Place:         Kaden Apiag, C. L. Taitano B.     3-5 Dinilitreha/Spelling 1 st Place:        Harley Meeks, C. L. Taitano 2 nd Place:        Chanse Trinidad, Mt. Carmel 3 rd Place:        Alliyah Ducay, Ordot-Chalan Pago C.      3-5 Umestoriha/Storytelling 1 st Place:...

Friday, February 14, 2014 by Common Dreams Now Presenting.... The Activist Awards by Ralph Nader     The Kodak Theater in Los Angeles where the Academy Award ceremonies are held. (File) The annual Academy Awards GALA, viewed by one billion people worldwide, is scheduled for the evening of March 2, 2014. Motion pictures and the people who act in and produce them are center stage. Apart from the documentaries, this is a glittering evening of “make-believe” and “make business.” Now suppose our country had another Academy Awards GALA for citizen heroes – those tiny numbers of Americans who are working successfully full-time in nonprofit groups to advance access to justice, general operations of our faltering democratic society, and the health, safety, and economic well-being of all citizens. This must sound unexciting in comparison with the intensity of the world of film. Until you se...