NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

After my third child Lulai was born in 2021, I had a month of paternity leave from working at the Guam Museum.  During this time, I would usually take Lulai at night for around four or five hours, to give her mother Desiree a chance to sleep or relax or do anything undisturbed for a while.  I would sing to her, rock her, hold her while she slept. It gave me time to think, to reflect, to watch things, to read. One of the things that I thought alot about at the time was Chamoru music and its future.  I never really made the jump to digital music platforms like Spotify, but I do listen to music on YouTube.  While I would be watching Lulai I would want to sing to her different Chamoru songs and I would look for them on YouTube and not be able to find the songs. I was frustrated because I had the songs on tapes or on CDs or on vinyl records, but my hands were full with a child, or the physical copies were packed away in boxes in storage somewhere and it would take forever...

In the 20th century, the fate of the Chamoru language depended heavily on the development of a contemporary Chamoru music industry. This is something that is scarcely discussed both in historical terms, but sadly even less so in terms of what it may take to revitalize or sustain the language in the future.   As the Chamoru language was rapidly losing relevance in society following World War II, with the language being used less and less, especially among younger generations, the creation of Chamoru music was essential in creating new and contemporary possibility for the language. It wouldn't be chained to the past, something to just disappear and fade away. It was something tied to the current moment, something that could gain new sounds and new life.   But with the decline of Chamoru music in the past two decades, as fewer and fewer artists are releasing songs or albums in the Chamoru language, means that this source of vitality has disappeared as well. Compared to ...

Typhoon Mawar was the first major typhoon for all of my children. My two older children who are in their teens, had experienced Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 and Typhoon Dolphin in 2015. Both of these typhoons were damaging to Guam, but not in the same way that Mawar was last month. For my two smaller children, Lulai and Makåhna, this was their first typhoon of any type. And what a first typhoon it was for both of them. Lulai who will be turning 2 in a few months and Makåhna who wasn’t yet 3 weeks old when the storm hit. I am grateful that we weathered the typhoon well, no major injuries other than diaper and heat rashes. Two weeks later we still didn't have electricity and our cellphone service and data remains intermittent. But thankfully we had water albeit low at times, throughout. My partner Desiree and I have both been through major typhoons, with catastrophic destruction and disruption. Mawar was our first as parents. Looking back, it was a dramatically different expe...

  As is the tradition for the Guam Bevacqua family, we put together our family bilen this month.    Each member of the family gets their own figure in the bilen representing them.    This year’s bilen is different however, since part of my gifts for everyone was to get Desiree, Sumåhi, Akli’e’ and Chuguangguang (Lulai) each a nesting doll.    Each was made in Ukraine and was purchased to support Ukrainian small businesses and artists.    Sumåhi is the Pokémon, Akli’e’ is the Star Wars, Desiree is the Dracula and Chuguangguang is the Neni na Yoda.    I forgot to buy one for myself though, so I chose the cassette tape for the Chamoru album by the DPW Singing Bus Drivers to represent me.    The background for our family bilen is the two disc vinyl album from Johnny Sablan “A Chamorro Christmas.”    Si Yu’os Ma’åse to Lulai’s nina Isa for the wooden name tags that came with our gifts this year.    The bilen...

Ever since I first began learning Chamoru my interest in Chamoru music has continually grown.  I grew up sometimes hearing Chamoru music, but couldn't understand it and didn't really connect with it.  But from the first time that I sat down with my grandmother at the dining room table and had her help me translate the CD "Chamorro Yu'" from Johnny Sablan, kinenne' yu'. I have been hooked.  To this end I have been collecting Chamoru music, whether in CD, cassette or vinyl form.  I've collected whatever I can from newspapers, magazines and scholarly sources related to Chamoru music.   I have also been fortunate enough to sit down with many musicians and talk to them about their experiences and why in a world where English dominates, they chose to record and release music in Chamoru. Last month I was very very luck, gof suettettette, to be able to pick up the album "Ai Saun Diroga" by Chamolinian II while searching for Chamoru music online.   Fr...