NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Recently the Guam Cultural Repository, which is located on the campus of the University of Guam, officially became a part of the Guam Museum and the Department of CHamoru Affairs. We have been preparing for this transition for a while, and despite some bumps in the road, it remains exciting in terms of what it will means for the museum and also allowing the many collections and artifacts from our island's past to be rediscovered and researched anew. Last month, we welcomed one such collection to the Guam Museum that really exemplified this.       On June 2, 1690, the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza y Santiago sank in the lagoon near Cocos Island, off the coast of Malesso’. All on board survived, and despite some conflicting accounts, nearly all the treasure on board, which included perhaps 2 million silver coins, was assumed lost.   In 1991, a salvage operation began, seeking to recover the galleon’s lost treasure and any artifacts...

 If anyone knows how I can contact Rodrigue Levesque, please let me know.  He researched, translated and published the History of Micronesia series, which is an amazing set of primary source documents dealing with Micronesia. It is a collection of information that has yet to be fully incorporated into how we tell the history of our islands.  The books, when they were published were gof guaguan, very expensive, at least $100 each. But they were massive. When I was a graduate student at UOG, spending time at the University of Guam Micronesian Area Research Center, I loved reading through the lepblon Levesque siha.  They featured completely different perspectives from the traditional or canonical history of the Marianas, but using not just the official histories or accounts of events, but also letters by priests, government officials, soldiers and sailors, that he was able to collect in his research.  A few years ago Levesque finished his History of Micronesia seri...

Independent Guåhan will honor the legacy of Richard Flores Taitano and discuss reforming local government in June GA Independent Guåhan (IG) invites the public to attend their June General Assembly (GA) on Thursday, June 28, from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. The educational focus for the evening will be on how Guåhan’s government can be radically reformed in an effort to provide more checks and balances and participation for the island’s residents. Media coverage and social media chatter provide regular reminders of Government of Guam corruption and malfeasance. Many feel that the levels of corruption are so high that they provide an obstacle to ever achieving independence. In this month’s GA, Independent Guåhan will discuss ways that the government of a decolonized Guåhan could be reformed to reduce corruption and also provide more means by which people can participate in the functioning of their democracy. Models from other Pac...

I have spent untold hours in the collection of the Micronesian Area Research center going through stacks upon stacks of newspapers looking at ads of those running for political office in Guam. Although I don't mention it much, when I began my masters thesis at the University of Guam in Micronesian Studies, my initial topics was actually political campaigns in Guam and analyzing Chamoru discourse in campaigns. I conducted around 50 interviews over several months, with a wide range of people. My intent was to reveal what role Chamoru "culture" or "language" or "identity" played in the organizing of political campaigns, the outreach, the strategizing or rationale. My own motivation for taking on this project was tied to the 2002 Guam gubernatorial campaign. I was a young Chamoru grad student, who had started learning speaking Chamoru the year prior and was functionally, albeit awkwardly fluent in Chamoru. I was spending most of my free time in MARC ...

After World War II, Chamorros launched into a period of aggressive Americanization, which you could argue is still going on until today. This Americanization had many levels and dimensions to it. There were clear desires amongst most Chamorros take on the material and consumer comforts America seemed to offer. There were also clear moves by some to ensure that there children were properly or at least passably Americanized, most notably through the refusal to use the Chamorro language with them. There were frameworks of economic, social and political dependency that were created and eventually celebrated by Chamorros themselves. There were also dramatic shifts in lifestyle due to land loss and trauma from the war, which made things such as cultural maintenance difficult because occupations and life-ways were changing so quickly. Alot of these shifts could not be helped, but simply came about because the US is so much larger than Guam, and it produces ideological content and material...

Jose Mata Torres, who I've spent the past two years working with, passed away earlier this week. I worked with him for more than a year in getting his memoir "Massacre at Atate" published. We held a book launch in February of this year and more than 200 people showed up to hear the story of how the people of Malesso' suffered during World War II, and when faced with possible annihilation at the hands of the Japanese, decided to fight back. We had begun work on another project and I am hoping that I can finish it in his honor. We would meet regularly sometimes three or four times a month and I will miss those meetings so much. Below is a list of accomplishments and other bio-data for Mr. Torres. ************************** Jose Mata Torres was born November 26, 1926 and died September 28, 2015. He was born in the village of Malesso’ and was a lifelong resident of the village. He married Carmen Lizama Torres and they had two daught...

For the past year I have been assisting one of the men who fought the Japanese at Atate, Jose Mata Torres with the publication of his memoirs, “The Massacre at Atate.” Torres was a young man at the time who and wasn’t a main organizer for the attack but he said that he had never felt more inspired or exciting in his life, than to see the men from his village rise up and in order to defend their families and their lives, face off against their violent occupiers. On February 24th at 6:30 in the CLASS Lecture Hall at UOG, the book “Massacre at Atate” is being released. There will be a reading by Jose Torres and then a panel discussion afterwards. Please come and join us for this important step for Chamorro Studies, but also just the remembering of Chamorro history and in turn Chamorro possibility. As I come near to the end of this project it reminds me of something I posted earlier, last year titled "Three Massacres." It was originally posted on this blo...

BOOK LAUNCH AND BOOK SIGNING “The Massacre at Atate” by Jose M. Torres This memoir tells the story of the courageous people of the village of Malesso’, who under Japanese occupation, fought and killed their captors, and liberated themselves. Published by the Micronesia Area Research Center Thursday February 26, 2015 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm UOG CLASS Lecture Hall The evening will feature a reading by the author, a panel discussion about the events in Malesso’ during World War II and a chance to meet the author and buy copies of the book. Refreshments will be provided. For more information contact Professor Michael Lujan Bevacqua At 735-2800 or mlbasquiat@hotmail.com

At the start of the month I was interviewed by the Marianas Variety on the topic of NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I have participated in this since 2012 and it is the highlight of the later part of the year for  me. The goal is to make it to 50,000 words from November 1st to November 30th. I've done it for the past two years, and I'm struggling to make it this time as well. I lost several days due to curriculum writing (I've already written about 50,000 words in terms of curriculum writing this month). I'm supposed to be at 25,000 words by now, but I'm only at 22,000. I will complete my goal however as the story "The Legend of the Chamurai" that I have been working on for the past three years has to be written and it is exciting to see it take shape each year.  Here is my interview below. ***************** 1. How many years have you participated in NaNoWriMo? This is my third year, I hit the 50,000 mark in...

"Translating the Garrido Manuscript" Michael Lujan Bevacqua Marianas Variety 3/26/14 This Thursday, March 27 a very special presentation will be held at the University of Guam and titled “The Garrido Manuscript: A Unique Glimpse of the Chamorro Language in 1798.” The public is invited to come and learn about the translation of the oldest document known written in the Chamorro language, from 1798, more than 200 years ago. The presentation will begin at 6 pm and take place in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Lecture Hall at UOG. This presentation is sponsored by the Micronesia Area Research Center and the Chamorro Studies Program. Dr. Carlos Madrid, a research associate at MARC has spearheaded the project with essential assistance from Jeremy Cepeda, a Chamorro teacher at Simon Sanchez. Lenoard Iriarte from I Fanlalai’an Oral History Project, Pale’ Eric Forbes, Rosa Palomo from the Micronesian Language Institute and myself also a...