NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The play Pagat, that I co-wrote with Victoria Leon Guerrero was performed several weeks ago at the UOG Fine Arts Theater and was a huge success. Although it was performed six nights total, the last three nights were not only sold out, but hundreds of people were turned away. It was amazing to see an original local play sell out its tickets within fifteen minutes of opening the box office, and that people started to line up to get tickets two hours before the box office even opened. On the last two nights, the playwrights and the director, we all gave up our seats in order to make room for those who wanted to see the play. I’ve never been so elated to lose my seat before. On three of the nights there were talk backs, or discussions where the audience could ask questions to the crew and the cast. The conversations were very important to me, because I got a sense of what people were seeing and feeling about the play, and how closely or not so closely their inte...

This BBC article connects so many different things, I am tempted to write three pages linking everything together, but I also feel that the disparate parts also speak for themselves. How poetic is it that things like climate change, global warming and the rising tides in the Pacific become the means through which things long buried and denied like Japanese imperialism and American nuclear atrocities are brought to the surface? ************************** June 2014 Last updated at 01:59 Climate change helps seas disturb Japanese war dead By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News     Rising sea levels have disturbed the skeletons of soldiers killed on the Marshall Islands during World War Two.  Speaking at UN climate talks in Bonn, the Island's foreign minister said that high tides had exposed one grave with 26 dead. The minister said the bones were most likely those of J...

It is the summer, but my schedule is still packed. The Pacific Islands Bilingual Bicultural Association (PIBBA) is having their annual conference this month in the island of Luta (Rota). Gos malago' yu' mohon na bai hu hanaogue, lao chatsaga' yu'. The PIBBA Conference falls at the same time as the opening of the Guam Humanities Council exhibit "Sindalu: Chamorro Journey Stories in the US Military." I worked as the writer and researcher for this project and so I have to be on island for when it begins. But if it wasn't for this I would submit an abstract and go to Luta for sure. As I often say, any excuse to travel to Rota is a good excuse. Sen gefpago na tano'. Achokka' dikike' i mineddong-na sen dangkolu' i ginefpago-na. Below is the call for papers with other info on the conference. If you are interested please submit an abstract or at least just attend. **************** --> I Lingguåhi, I Kuttura, I Halige...

It's been a while since I've taught World History I at UOG. I'm teaching it again this semester and it looks to be both frustrating and fun. World History I covers a huge amount of time, much of which rarely entices students. Students who love Gladiator or Spartacus won't necessarily love learning about Marcus Aurelius or the real servile revolts. The students who liked the third Mummy movie starring Jet Li or the movie Hero starring Jet Li, don't necessarily want to learn about the actual Qin Shi Huangdi.  As I regularly tell students, tv shows like Game of Thrones don't really interest me because history itself is just as screwed up, bloody and terrifying. Should I for some reason retreat into the realm of fantasy to imagine that the horrors of the world dance and prance about simply for the enjoyment of my gaze? Nope, what use is that? People who enjoy history in the form of tv shows like that or Netflix or History Channel documentaries want history tamed f...

Gefpago i tano'-ta yan i tasi-ta giya Guahan. Mansuette hit ni' manasaga' guini. I taotao sanhiyong sina mangguife put este na klasin langhet. Lao i taotao guini, sina ma li'e' este na langhet kada diha. Taiprisu este.

For "Sindalu" the Guam Humanities Council Exhibit that I am working on, one of the tasks I did was to collect as many of the articles about Chamorros that have died in Afghanistan and Iraq as possible. Part of the problem with collecting these articles is that many of the Chamorro soldiers who have died lived elsewhere and were recruited outside of the Marianas. Sometimes these soldiers will show up in lists of dead from the Marianas, sometimes they don't. These lists are also more complicated by the fact that some of them will include the deaths of soldiers who were deployed but not killed in combat and others will exclude them. What makes it even more convoluted is that the metrics for counting the dead has changed as well. During Vietnam, the number was strictly Chamorros, even though there were a handful of soldiers from other islands in Micronesia who did serve. But in the Wars on Terror, the fights in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, more and more non-C...

Next week I'll be starting my Chamorro summer classes, and so those who are on Guam and interested in attending need to get in contact with me to learn the meetings dates and times. I've had these Chamorro classes for four years now, and they are alot of fun for me, and a good way to test out things that I eventually use when I teach Chamorro in a more formal setting. Below is a narrative I put together to shed light on how the classes evolved. ************************* I did not grow up speaking Chamorro. I am what is referred to as a “non-native” Chamorro language speaker. I only learned to speak Chamorro after taking classes at the University of Guam and also convincing my grandparents to speak to me in Chamorro. My experience in learning Chamorro was difficult. While I was supported by some, too many others were not supportive and were very counter-productive in my learning. The Chamorro language has come to the point where it is not quite dead...

Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 by Common Dreams From Jeju and Afghanistan, an Asia Peace Pivot by Hakim   Mi Ryang, standing with Gangjeong Village Association members and Gangjeong’s mayor, outside the Jeju Courts, to refuse paying fines for protests against the U.S. naval base construction. (Courtesy of the author) “Don’t you touch me!” declared Mi Ryang. South Korean police were clamping down on a villager who was resisting the construction of a Korean/U.S. naval base at her village.  Mi Ryang managed to turn the police away by taking off her blouse and, clad in her bra, walking toward them with her clear warning.  Hands off!  Mi Ryang is fondly referred to as “Gangjeong’s daughter” by villagers who highly regard her as the feisty descendant of legendary women sea divers.  Her mother and grandmother were Haenyo divers who supported their families every day by d...