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 ...

George Estaquio has written letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News for quite a few years.  I don't always agree with what he writes, but I welcome his perspective. Estaquio is one of the last few of his generation of Chamoru leaders. He was born prior to World War II and came of age during he Japanese occupation of Guam. He attended college in the US and then returned to Guam to work with the local government.  He was part of that postwar generation that saw their island and people worthy of something more than just the handouts from Uncle Sam. They were patriotic to Uncle Sam and didn't want to step outside or beyond his borders, but this didn't stop them from asserting that Guam should be treated better.  If the conditions had been different, they might have imagined something more than being just a territory of the US, but we are all limited and constricted by the prevailing historical context of our time.  Estaquio went on to work as the Chief of Staff f...

The one the reasons why so many scholars, activists and often times community members feel the need to rethink or rearticulate or reimagine "Liberation Day" is because of a recognition of hope integral it is or has been to our relationship to the US. World War II changed dramatically the relationship between the Chamorus of Guam and the US. It changed it somewhat from the US perspective, but it was dramatically altered from the Chamoru side of the equation. Chamorus who felt a clear distance to their colonizer, even if some were eager to be patriotic, prior to the war, emerged from the war eager to find whatever way possible to express their loyalty, their newfound attachment to America. But as I've written many times before, what Liberation Day does as the basis for Chamoru identity in an American context, is create the Chamoru as a subordinate subject, a minor footnote, that must always be superpatriotic for fear that America will withdraw funds, support, recognition an...