NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

  When I first listened to this song more than 20 years ago, gi hinasso-ku gof na'chalek, lao ti hu komprende i tinahdong-ña gi kostumbren Chamoru. I was not aware when I first listened and translated to it, how much deeper the meaning is beyond the silly things described in the lyrics.   This song "Aye na Påtgon" from Johnny Sablan's album "My Marianas" describes a father taking his son to the ranch to try to teach him some basic life skills.  But for everything that he tells his son to do, his son does something different and sometimes nonsensically, as well as all around gago'.   For instance he tells his son to boil the papaya and the coconut and instead his son goes to pick berries.   He tells his son to go collect firewood but he doesn't actually come back until all the cooking is done.  The lyrics are silly and more about sounding fun or funny than actually depicting something real. But when I was younger I never connected this song to...

LEARN MORE ABOUT RECENT THREATS TO CHAMORRO RIGHTS AT INDPENDENT GUÅHAN’S MARCH GENERAL ASSEMBLY THURSDAY Educational Presentations will focus on the Davis vs. Guam case, the Chamorro Land Trust and moving forward towards self-determination For Immediate Release, March 20, 2017 – Independent Guåhan invites the public to its monthly General Assembly (GA) on Thursday, March 23rd from 6 – 7:30 p.m. at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. This month’s educational presentations will focus on the need to respect the Chamorro people in their quest to self-determination in light of current actions on behalf of the US Federal Government deeming the decolonization plebiscite and Chamorro Land Trust, “race-based discrimination”. In honor of Mes Chamoru, the meeting will be bilingual in both English and Chamorro. Eartlier this month, Federal Justice France Tydingco-Gatewood ruled that a non-binding decolonization vote for Guam’s native inhabi...

Each month Independent Guåhan honors a Maga'taotao or an elite, pioneering or noble person, who has fought hard in some way for the rights of the Chamorro people, especially in terms of self-determination. This month we are honoring the late Clotilde "Ding" Castro Gould who was a war-survivor, an educator, author, song-writer and a master story-teller. She is best known for her creation of the Chamorro language comic strip Juan Malimanga, which appears in the Pacific Daily News six times a week and her role in helping develop the bilingual and bicultural education program in Guam’s public school system. Tan Gould was also a member of PARA (People's Alliance for Responsible Alternatives) and OPI-R (Organization of People for Indigenous Rights), and as a political activist fought hard for the right to self-determination of the Chamorro people.  Para Guahu, there is an extra dimension to this honor, as I, through my work in the Chamorro Studies Program...

Last month I spent an afternoon working with Sinot Louie Wabol, un ma'estron Chamoru giya Guahan and a major in the Chamorro Studies program at UOG. Over the Christmas break we worked on a project together titled "Ossitan Chamorro Marianas" and with the help of my TA Nathan Topasna, we recorded two hours of Chamorro jokes and humorous stories. ( I nobia-hu Isa provided hanom yan fina'mames na sinapotte). At first I tried my best to keep myself from cracking up after each joke, but eventually gave up as his performance d eserved a laugh track. In all he shared more than 50 jokes, some of which I'll be using in future research. For now, though I'm glad one joke that he included is the Juan Malimanga standard about public urination. (Juan Malimanga is peeing against the wall in an alley) Polisia: Hoi! Para! Kao un tungo' na kontra i lai enao i bidada-mu? Juan: Ahe', ti kontra i lai Sinot! Kontra i liga! *************** Esta mas ki 40 n...

This past year I was fortunate enough to help Dr. Kelly Marsh-Taitano and Tyrone Taitano with the annual island review for Guam to be published in The Contemporary Pacific. I've been reading these annual reviews for years now and they are always a wonderful resource for people who are trying to trace trends or movements in the island. These reviews sometimes have a good way of highlighting certain things that the mainstream media in Guam ignores or doesn't give much attention. For this year's review I focused on the section dealing with the Commission on Decolonization. This is one thing which the reviews often times draw alot of attention to, even if the island community in general isn't paying attention or doesn't care. I'm pasting below the Guam review from 2003, written by Chamorro Studies and History professor from the University of Guam Anne Perez Hattori: ******************** Guam - Island Review by Anne Perez Hattori The Contemporary Pacific 200...

It has dawned on me more than ever before, the dire straits in which the Chamorro language exists in today. The death of my grandmother last year started forcing me to recognize this fact. I speak Chamorro on a daily basis, but one of the people I enjoyed speaking it with the most was now gone. The one who instilled in me a passion for the language is now gone. I worked on so many projects regarding the language with her at my side. Ti sina hu eksplika i minalingu hu siesiente pa'go put i tinague-na. When I look to my students, my family, my friends, there is just no one who can take the place of my grandmother in terms of speaking Chamorro. It is also something that has hurt my children and their ability to speak Chamorro. When we would visit grandma and grandpa before, grandma was always very diligent about speaking Chamorro to them, even if sometimes I would have to remind her to do it. Grandpa however, likes to through in a Chamorro word here or there, but has never gotten ...