NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

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 ...

After finishing up an online  lecture  series last week for the Guam Museum and the cultural diasporic group Håle' Para Agupa', one of the attendees in zoom asked me where I get all this information from, is it in books, are there movies or documentaries. I responded that there are a fair amount of books out there and some documentaries, especially if you are looking for World War II history in Guam. There are many more books out there than in the past, and what is nice is that more of them are written by Chamorus or at least people who have ties to Guam, but who may not be ethnically Chamoru.  I do my best to read whatever I can out there that is connected to Guam, to the Marianas and to Chamoru issues in anyway, and this doesn't only mean things formally published. I enjoy going through documents, archives, newspaper and magazine articles, transcripts from interviews that others have conducted. But one great source of in...

Back in September, I spent an afternoon with Håle’ Para Agupa’, a Chamoru cultural group based in the Washington D.C. area. It was an enriching and energizing afternoon. The fafa’na’gue of the group Teresita Guevara Smith organized a gathering of young and old, and I gave a presentation about Chamoru language and culture, and even a short language lesson.  Wherever I go, in Guam, the CNMi or even the diaspora, I am always encouraged to see Chamorus wanting to learn more about who they are as a people and want to do more to keep culture and language alive. After all, for a group that numbers perhaps only 200,000 in the world, we always have to ask ourselves, “anggen ti hita, pues håyi?” When it comes to preservation and revitalization of our heritage, if we won’t do it, who else will? This is an issue that Chamorus have to confront sooner rather than later, especially in light of the fact that more Chamorus now live outside of the Marianas. The realities of cultural maint...