NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Every week I host the podcast Fanachu. In the past my role was something in the background with others such as Manny Cruz, Lawrence "Siguenzama" Lizama or Albert Toves and Hannah Rebadullah taking the lead.  Since the pandemic, I've been the primary producer and host for Fanachu, and it has been tough at times trying to put out an episode kada simåna, with so many other things constantly going on in my life. I've been grateful for a handful of other creators who have come along to help produce content for Fanachu and give me some breathing rooms some weeks.  Recently Monaeka Flores from Prutehi Litekyan and Independent Guåhan has been great in terms of hosting and helping organize guests related to current protest movements on Guam. I'm excited that next year Tori Manley, a young up and coming Chamoru activist with Replenish Earth will be taking on regular episodes.  One of the most consistent people in the past two years in terms of helping produce content is Ann...

 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...

ISSUE 18: Sustainable Islands While sustainability is often associated in the mainstream with the practice of “going green,” for island communities, it means much more. Sustainability includes a multi-tiered system of people, resources, legends, heirlooms, land, traditions, and practices. In this 18th issue of  Storyboard , writers and artists are invited to draw inspiration from all elements of what sustainability means to islands and island peoples. Possible topics to explore include, but are not limited to: •Traditions • Land Ownership • Land Development • Ocean Practices • Fishing • Planting •Money/Currency • Health • Religion • Resources • Recycling • Reusing • Materialism  •Legends • Stories • Degradation • Consumption • Balance • Inheritance • Ancestral Connections  •Traditional Healing Storyboard: A Journal of Pacific Imagery  is accepting submissions of previously unpublished work from the original writer or artist for  Issue 18  until ...

2000 was the last time that Guam had a significant and focused conversation around political status. There had been campaigns, big and small, around commonwealth or constitutions. Each time there were discussions, community events and also sometime of plebiscite. 2000 was the last time that there was a big community push around the issue, as that was the year a plebiscite was scheduled and some funds made available for public education. This came after commonwealth had died or stalled in the US Congress, and it was decided to start the process over by having a new plebiscite to help determine the direction of future political status negotiations. This new start to the process never really came. The 2000 plebiscite was delayed several times and never took place. I recently went through more than a year of the Pacific Daily News to get a sense of that time, and came across dozens of letters to the editor and articles dealing with the plebiscite and the three sta...

For those of you who don’t know, my dissertation in Ethnic Studies dealt with sovereignty, most specifically Guam’s role in producing America’s sovereignty, or what role its invisibility or nothingness plays in producing America as sovereign. This may sound confusing, but what makes it difficult for most to wrap their heads around, is the simple fact of saying that something which has been for hundreds of years produced discursively as being “small” or “faraway” or “faint” or “owned by the US” as somehow creating something as great and grand and mighty as the United States of America. One frustrating aspect of writing my dissertation was the preparing of a literature review, which is a sometimes helpful, sometimes useless review of what others have written about your topic of choice and how you will either use and build on them or defy them. If you are familiar with the bulk of work on sovereignty it all basically says the same thing nowadays, drawing mildly different c...

The book Micronesian Blues is supposed to be made into a show for Cinemax. Given the articles below, it has nothing to do with Governor of Guam Eddie Calvo's recent "deportation" of criminals from the FSM. I wonder what a show titled Chamorro Blues would focus on or look like? Would it focus on the drama in the Catholic church? I halacha na yinaoyao gi halom i gima'yu'os Katoliko? Or perhaps it would focus on the drama between Chamorro dance groups? Hekkua' ti hu tungo' I wonder, even more so, what a show like Guamanian Blues would be? Båsta, mungga yu' tumungo'. ********************** Cop's memoir 'Micronesian Blues' to be adapted into Cinemax show by Amanda Pampuro Guam Daily Post 10/23/16 “It was slam down and flaps up, braking all the way. We landed so hard the oxygen masks fell down and several of the overhead storage compartments popped open. Babies squalled, while most of the adults just sat there in stunned sil...

The issue of Governor Calvo "deporting" people (primarily) from the FSM has been one of those issues that I wish I was following more closely, but haven't been able to. I've collected some articles here offering basic timelines and info over the past few months. I look forward at some point in the future writing more about this, as it goes right to the heart of Guam's status as a continuing colony, whereas the other islands in Micronesia have been able to move towards a greater sense of self-government. This exasperates and complexifies the long-standing problem of whether or not Chamorros and others on Guam identify as being Micronesian, being part of Micronesia or being anything other than Pacific Islander Americans. Gaige iya Guahan giya Micronesia. Lao atan i sinangån-ta yan i kustumbre-ta? Kao ta na'magågahet este na ideha? Lao achokka' siña ta sångan na gaige hit gi halom este na hinekkan isla, ti mamparehu hit gi pulitikat na bånda. Manggaipodet s...