NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

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...

For the past few months I've been holding livestreams on behalf of the Guam Museum called "Faisen I Guam Museum" or "Ask the Guam Museum." Gi minagahet, I love these livestreams, sen ya-hu siha. Because they give me a chance to answer questions people might have about things related to Guam/Marianas History, Chamoru language and culture. This takes me back to when I was a graduate student at UOG in Micronesian Studies, spending half the day in the MARC archives and the other half doing oral history. I was always brimming with information, things I had learned or come across, and was always looking for ways to share it with others. At that time I was spending alot of time too shadowing my grandparents, being their driver or chaperone. Taking grandpa to the Chamorro Village or to present about Chamoru tools. Taking my grandmother to funerals and other events. I used to not particularly enjoy being their driver and following them around since, they tended to talk t...

I have done so many interviews with older Chamorus that sometimes I lose track. Some interviews stay with me and I remember for the most part very clearly, others blend together. I have tapes. I have digital video. I have thousands of pages of notes in notebooks, in legal pads, in the margins of books and random scraps of paper. I have lost exact count of how many of these oral history interviews I have done, but it is well over 400 at this point.  In addition to these interviews that I've done personally, I also for many years had my students do simple interviews with elders. I have hundreds of these interviews as well, one of which I've included below from a student that I had for Elementary Chamoru 1, who interviewed her grandmother. Sometimes the Chamoru sayings or phrases that I share with my students or on social media come from these interviews.  I have so much in terms of raw material for these interviews, this cache of oral history, but I scarcely have time to do anyt...

For those interested in listening to Chamoru stories in the Chamoru language, please come join the Chamorro Studies Majors and Minors at UOG for this special event: "Na'haspok na Estoria" on April 28 from 12-3 pm at SBPA 131 at UOG. The name "Na'haspok na Estoria" means "stories that fill you up" as the word "håspok" means sated or filled up as in your stomach being full. The event should be very interesting as most of the presenters are around the age of 40 or less, but still fluent in the Chamoru language. Alot of events that I am organizing or participating in lately seem to have this sort of theme, where those of us who are younger learners of Chamoru and often times second-language learners, nai ti mandångkolo' gi halom i mismo fino'-ta, are nonetheless attempting to take up the kulo' for language vitality.

Ti Guahu tumuge' este. I sodda' este gi internet lao ya-hu muna'famta este guini gi iyo-ku blog. Sa' ti meggai na kabåles na tinige' taiguini gi Fino' Chamorro sodda'on gi internet. Gof impottånte este na estoria gi kotturan Chamorro. Gi inaligao-hu put i estoria-ta, esta hu interview fa'na'an mas ki dos siento na manåmko'. I meggaiña manininterview hu faisen este na finaisen "gi dumangkolo'-mu, håfa i lihenden pat estoria na'manman sina un huhungok ginen i mañainå-mu pat i manacha'amko'-mu?" Kalang kada unu sumångan este na estoria put si Sirena. ********************** Estorian Sirena Åntes na tiempo, guåha un familia mañasaga giya Hagåtña . Guåha lokkue' un bunitan palao'an gi familia ni na'an-ña si Sirena . Gus ya-ña si Sirena ñumangu, espesiatmente gi halom i saddok Hagåtña. I nånan Sirena ha sangani gue' na kalan guihan gue' gi halom hånom. Un diha, tinago...

If you were to ask me what type of music is my favorite, I will always say Chamorro music. It isn't really that I like every single Chamorro song, but I will purchase every single Chamorro CD or record I can get my hands on, in order to support one of the main ways that the Chamorro language persisted even during the generations which were quietly trying to silence it by not teaching it to their children. Chamorro musicians deserve far more support and credit than most people give them. They are, within recent Chamorro history, the ones who played the most significant, but unheralded role in keeping the language spoken and alive. While most families did not speak it to their children, collections of singers decided to keep using the language to make music, despite immense pressure to simply sing in English and Americanize the way everything else seemed to be going. Within that collection of musicians a few names stand out more than others. There are those who had their names on t...

Last week I wrote my column in the Guam Daily Post about the comfort women issue in South Korea and how the governments of Japan and South Korea are working towards a process of restitution over the use of South Korean women as sex slaves during World War II. The issue of the comfort women extends far beyond just South Korea, and is something that affected cultures across Asia and the Pacific. I have been talking more intensely about the comfort women issue over the past year as i nobia-hu Dr. Isa Kelley Bowman has been conducting research into it. It has been difficult for her, as the issue is one shrouded in so many different forms of silence. The lack of writing around the issue in Guam is often thought to be simply a matter of stigma and social shame, with women and their families seeking to keep the issue quiet and not be reminded of what happened. But it is far more complicated than that, and it can be frustrating, how people will accept one level of silence as being the truth...