NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I islå-ta siha giya Marianas i fine’nana entre todu i islas Pasifuku ni’ masagåyi. I manmofo’na na mangguelo-ta mantekngo’ put båtko yan i tasi ya maasusuma na manmanaliligao nuebu na lugåt ni’ para u ma sagåyi anai manmåtto mågi.   Annai ma tutuhon i mangguelo-ta manmañaga guini, ma usa todu klåsen rikesa gI isla para u ma få’tinas i ramientan-ñiha para i gualo’ yan peska, yan lokkue’ ma få’tinas åtmas siha para u maprutehi i guinahan-ñiha.   Guihi na tiempo, duru machalapon siha gi todu isla ya maestablisa songsong siha giya interu Marianas.   Yanggen guaha ira komu påkyo pat tiempon fañomak’an guaha na ma dingu i lugåt-ñiha para otro na isla para nengkanno' yan liheng. Mit años tåtte guaha matulaika gi hagas payon-ta, i hinalom fama’åyan yan i acho’ latte.   Uniku i gima’latte giya Marianas tiot guihi na tiempo annai guaha dångkolo na tinilaika yan hinanao taotao.   I latte un simbilon i menhalom-ta. Komo i haligi para gima’ mangguelo-ta, ha repr...

 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...

  The Yokoi Museum is closing in Japan, created in the house of the Japanese straggler following his death has closed down. It was opened by Yokoi's widow in 2006, but closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. Mihoko, Yokoi's widow passed away during the pandemic and the family has been unable to find support from the prefecture or city to keep it open and so has chosen to close it.  In the Guam Museum, we have several items from Yokoi and 28 years hiding in Guam's jungles. But for me personally, I would love to obtain items from the collection of his museum in Japan, even though many of the items, at least from the reporting, seem to be recreations once he was back in Japan.     ************************ Memorial museum for ex-Japanese soldier who lived for 28 yrs in Guam's jungle closes  September 6, 2022 (Mainichi Japan) NAGOYA -- The memorial museum here for the late Shoichi Yokoi, a former Japanese soldier who lived in the mountains of Guam for 28 years wit...

In recent years my research and scholarly work has become heavily focused on Chamoru music.  Part of this stems from the fact that my own journey in starting to learn the Chamoru language, more than 20 years ago, was heavily aided by Chamoru music, listening to songs and trying to translate songs with my grandmother.  Party of it also stems from the fact that when you go through Guam's history, even from the perspective of outsiders, music was an essential part of life, and one of the most important ways that Chamorus expressed themselves. This is something that the Spanish smartly focused on in their colonization of the Chamoru people in the 17th century. Using Chamoru and focusing on teaching the new religion through songs. Here is an account from Le Gobien in 1700, At first the natives shyly held back upon the arrival of the ships and did not want to come aboard. San Vitores, however, encouraged them to sing the litany of the Virgin and soon they approached...

 This coming week's episode of Fanachu! will feature an interview with Saina Donald Mendiola, a yo'åmti and CNMI Cultural Icon. I'm excited about this episode, where I'll get to learn more about Saina Donald's journey to becoming a healer, and also the recent recognition he has received in both Guam and the CNMI for his work in the community and in schools. Below is an article from June in the CNMI. ******************** Senate resolution honors traditional healer, educator  by K-Andrea Evarose Limol Jun 21, 2022 Updated Jun 21, 2022 Marianas Variety THE Senate on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution honoring traditional healer and educator Donald Benavente Mendiola. Authored by Sen. Edith Deleon Guerrero, S.R. 22-24 acknowledges and honors Mendiola for his long-lasting contributions to the CNMI. Mendiola has been practicing Chamorro medicine for around 47 years. He was 8 when he began navigating the practice of being a “suruhuånu” or “yo’åmti” under his ...

 One thing that I enjoy about being a researcher is that I get to search for things and come across things that others may not have the time, resources or privileges to find.  But the question is, what do you do with all of these things that you are able to gather? That was always a things that bothered me being part of academia. Is that so much of what I spent time working on was to be funneled into particular forums or formats, where it may not reach many people (scholars included). I remember talking to a Chamoru who has been at a university in the states for many years now about this issue. He in his time in archives across the US and the Pacific, had collected so much incredible research from Chamoru history.  He maintained that he was serving his islands back home and the Chamoru people in general by publishing his work into books and articles. I can understand that, but I had to be honest and remind him that I've never met an actual person back home who has read yo...

For the entire month of July, I'll be in Hawai'i at the East West Center for the first ever Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Museum Institute. This is an incredible opportunity for me to work with museum professionals and scholars from across the Pacific and network with people from museums, galleries, arts councils and cultural centers from a dozen different island communities.We just finished the first week and it has already been amazing on so many levels. I'm sure I'll be writing more about my experiences over the course of the month Here is the full list of all of those who are attending.  Roldy Ablao, Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum, California Archie Ajoste, Northern Mariana Islands Museum, Saipan Pamela Alconcel, Lānaʻi Heritage Center, Hawaiʻi Wilbert Alik, RMI Ministry of Culture and Internal Affairs, Marshall Islands Meked Besebes, Internal Affairs, Palau Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Guam Museum, Guam Mina Elison, Donkey Mill Arts Center, Hawaiʻi Ailini Eteuati, ...

 Earlier this year, for the website I Sakman I Fino'-ta , I began writing a semi-weekly creative story in the Chamoru language. I've always wanted to try writing a romance story in Chamoru, and this was my first mixed attempt at doing so. I have enjoyed it, but I've found myself struggling with how I've read hundreds of romance stories in English, but none in Chamoru and this affects everything from the plot, to the metaphors, to the culture involved. It has been a struggle at times gi minagahet. I am up to part 11 at present. Head to the site itself to read them all as well as articles in Chamoru from a wide variety of speakers/writers. But for now, here is the first installment. ******************* HACHA   “Nobia kahulo’ Ya fa’gåsi i matå-mu Sa’ u fåtto i nobio-mu Ya lini’e’ ni churå-mu”   Ginen i mames na guinife-ña, si Maria ha hungok este na kånta gi bos nanå-ña.   Gi guinife-ña, umasodda’ siha yan i guinaiyå-ña gi halom un g...

  Last month, Tun Adriano Baza Pangelinan, a pioneering Chamoru artist and former professor at UOG passed away. I met Tun Adriano many times over the years, primarily when I was an art major at UOG. Tun Adriano was always an intimidating figure. My art professors such as the late Joe Babauta and Ric Castro, were both confident and outspoken, but became very circumspect and respectful when Tun Adriano was around. He wasn't the first Chamoru to paint or draw in a modern sense, but he was one of the first Chamoru artists to blend artistic styles from famous European movements like Fauvism and Impressionism with local culture and life. That blending and refusal to accept binary choices was pioneering. It wasn't too long ago that Chamorus felt that in order to achieve anything in life they need to give up their culture, their heritage, their island. This was part of how the United States entered into Guam, filling the island with demoralizing ideas in that wha...

My testimony give last week to the United Nations Committee of 24 Regional Seminar on Decolonization held in St. Lucia. ***************** A Growing Foundation, but still an Uncertain Future for Guam’s Quest for Decolonization Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Ph.D. Co-Chair, Independent Guåhan Curator, Guam Museum   Si Yu’os Ma’åse na makombibida yu’ mågi ta’lo para bai hu saonao gi este matua na dinanña’. Gi tinestigu-hu på’go, bai hu sangåni hamyo put i halacha na hiniyong gi islå-ku yan i kinalamten-måmi para in gi’ot i direchon-måmi komo taotao.    Your Excellency Chairwoman Keisha McGuire, distinguished delegates, representatives and experts from fellow Non-Self-Governing Territories, I am honored to be here again speaking before you on the topic of Guam and its continuing quest for decolonization. I also want to thank the government and people of Saint Lucia for hosting us on their beautiful island.    In my statements today, I want to provide updates on important w...

  From 2014-2015 I spent a year in Atåte in the village of Malesso’. Not in a physical sense mind you, but in an intellectual and scholarly sense. During that time I was a professor in the Chamorro Studies Program at the University of Guam, and I worked with the late Jose Måta Torres to publish his memoirs “Massacre at Atåte” through the University of Guam. I was so thankful that we were able to see his book to completion in 2015, as he would pass away later that year.   In addition to being the memoirs of a young man, coming of age in Japanese-occupied Guam, the book also provides a first-hand account of the uprising of the people from Malesso'. After the people of the village learned that the Japanese had attempted to massacre 60 of their friends and family at Tinta and Faha, most felt that it is only a matter of time before the rest were slaughtered. On the eve of the US invasion, a group of men led by Jose "Tonko" Reyes, surprised the Japanese, killing most of them an...

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...

I came across this protest sign in the archives of the Nieves Flores Guam Public Library in Hagåtña, while doing research on Guam's two previous Constitutional Conventions (1969-70 and 1977). Written in Chamoru, it translates to "I don't want the constitution."   A few months ago for Fanchu! I spoke to former Senator Hope Cristobal who was part of the campaign to defeat the draft constitution in 1979. The notable figures who organized against the constitution include Robert Underwood, Marilyn Manibusan, the late Tony Leon Guerrero, the late Tan Clotilde Gould, Rosa Palomo, and the late Dr. Benit Dungca. As Underwood writes in his wonderful article "Dies Mitt: The Origin and End of Chamrro Self-Determination," the constitutional opponents "coalesced around the billboard “Munga ma’apreba i konstetusion ya ta mantieni i derecho-ta komo taotao Guam. Bota NO!” In English, this read “do no approve the constitution and maintain our rights as the people of Guam...