NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Duru manhasso yu’ Put i orå-ta på’go na puengi  Anai umapacha hit put kånnai, lassas, labios I patten hågu ti manmaleffåyon Gi asson-hu guini anai esta ma’pos hao Gagaige ha’ hao gi fi’on-hu Hu nginge’ hao, hu siente hao  Ti siña maleffa yu’ i minaipe-mu gi hinagong-mu gi matå-hu Este todu muna’mongmongmong i korason-hu Ya muna’kakai ha’ i minaigo’-hu

For my intermediate Chamoru coffeeshop classes, which during the current lockdown, have been moved online, we translate a Chamoru song into English each week. We listen to the song twice, go over the lyrics, sometimes talk about the cultural dimensions of the song or the metaphors and history that it invokes. It is one of my favorite ways to teach the language, since it involves not only teaching the language itself, but also making connections across generations and sometimes using the nostalgia that people have to encourage further learning. My lyrics are often from just listening since few Chamoru albums include lyrics. This means that sometimes my lyrics are slightly to noticeably off. But even years after doing this regular assignment, I still learn new things from this exercise, even for myself. Sometimes I hear lyrics in a new way and realize I was singing them wrong for years. Last week, at the request of one of my students, we translated the song "An Mo'na Hao...

I once had the experience of being in a short, intense and confusing relationship with someone for a single month. Desde gualafon asta gualafon. From full moon to full moon, we fell in love and then I watched as she, following the phases of the moon, disappeared into the darkness of the sky and rapidly fell out of love. It was a strange experience because it felt deep and felt real, but then disappeared, out of my grasp like trying to catch the moon or its light between finger-lengths.  At the end of that bewildering experience, I wrote this poem, trying to take stock of what had happened, but also somehow hoping that with the changing of the moon again, she might come back, and the light that lit up her face and the sky might return. It did not.  *********************** Pulan Kada puengi  Anai hu atan hulo’ gi langhet Ya hu li’e’ i pilan Bai hu hahasso hao Ya bai hu na’hasson mamaisa yu’ Na hunggan i pilan yanggen tumaigu...

When relationships end, people may fight over pets, fight over furniture, collections, kids. One thing that has always struck me, for certain, but not all relationship apocalypses is songs. Music where affection and attachment were forged and welded together with tunes and lyrics from particular artists. It provides the rhythm to togetherness, to grooves of the “us.” When a relationship ends, the rhythm of togetherness sometimes sours, turns grimly bitter. What once caused joy, now feels like it creates bone cancer. Songs or artists that I shared with someone and used to make me smile, now make me retch, make the skies insidiously darken in the space between beats. The muscles remember, even what the mind or heart wishes it could forget. For one particularly tough relationship, the music of Tegan and Sara was part of the soundtrack of us. For years I enjoyed it alongside her. For my girlfriend at the time, she was a twin and adored the duo, and introduced me to their music...

The issue of lockdowns, checkpoints, roadblocks, civil liberties and rights has been prominent lately in Guam (and in other places as well). I was looking at my bookshelf for different books and discussions on this sort of issue, wanting to just put some structure to the ways that people were talking about stricter measures to save lives, but others trying forcefully to argue that their rights wer e more important than the public health concerns. There were alot of ways to approach something like this, since it brings in philosophy, political science/theory, sociology, legal theory, etc. As I was scanning my bookshelf though, I saw a book I hadn't read in a while, but has one passage which I thought of as being relevant in the sort of "looking awry" way I like my critical analysis, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain. In it, there is the passage on the two "Reigns of Terror."  "There were two "Reigns of Terror...

I left the University of Guam in January, after teaching there for more than 10 years and probably teaching more than a 1000 students during my time there. Some students I can definitely say I had an impact on because they have told me as much and I've seen them blossom into professional careers. A few of my former students have become elected officials in Guam and some have PhDs of their own now. For some, maybe the impact was less obvious or pronounced, but there may have been something. Something said. An assignment required. Something gleaned. Who knows what, but somewhere in my scattered approach to how I would hold a class, something stuck with them. Sometimes I find students, who years later refer to something I said, or a space I created and how it really changed their view of certain things. One thing that former students from UOG would regularly tell me is that they liked that I seemed to care about the island. This, according to them, was a contrast with most of th...

As Pandemic Lockdown Continues on Island, Independent Guåhan will focus its April ONLINE General Assembly on the Importance of Sovereignty and honor Chamoru health care pioneer Amanda Guzman Shelton For Immediate Release, April 26, 2020 -  Independent Guåhan (IG) invites the public to attend its April General Assembly (GA), which will take place ONLINE through the group’s Facebook page on Thursday, April 30 th  from 4:00 – 5:30 pm.  The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the world, with to date, more than 2 million sick. From Guam, we have seen a variety of responses to this crisis, from countries that have both effectively combated and contained the virus, and others where the virus has spread and resulted in a significant loss of life. In a crisis such as this, we on Guam are reminded of the importance of sovereignty, or the basic ability to self-govern and seek to dictate our place in the world and relationships to others.  As the world wait...

Throughout the year, Independent Guåhan organizes "Håle'-ta Hikes," aimed at bringing the community into the island's historic and culturally sacred sites, in hopes of helping them understand the need to protect them. The last hike happened earlier this year to Litekyan. We had a huge crowd of people show up. Here are some of my pictures from the day. Gefpågo na ha'åni, esta gof annok gi litråtu siha.  *************************************

Despite the social distancing lockdown and remote work for my office over the past month, it has been difficult to find the mental brain space needed to write regularly. I mean this in terms of creative writing, but also political writing. So much of my brain space has been taken up by worrying about so many different things, I've found it hard at times to focus or give myself the space to take on the many other writing projects I have waiting for me. Thankfully I have been able to work through some of the thoughts I have on the COVID-19 pandemic and Guam's political status in my weekly column for the  Pacific Daily News. This hasn't gotten me many new fans, in fact the columns that I published for three weeks at the start of the lockdown phase have been some of my most hated since I started writing for the newspaper a few years ago. I won't get into way people seem to take particularly gleeful hate in my columns lately, but I felt compelled to share them here. Afte...

In his uneven, albeit interesting book "The Fire and the Tale (2017)," Italian political theorist Giorgio Agamben provides an anecdote from the history of Judaism that struck an chord for me in terms of debates over Chamoru authenticity in culture, the issue of contemporary Chamoru cultural dance, and our relationship to our past. Here is the anecdote, which is the source of the title for this book on aesthetics.  “When Baal Schem, the founder of Hasidism, had a difficult task before him, he would go to a certain place in the woods, light a fire and meditate in prayer; and what he had set out to perform was done. When a generation later, the Maggid of Meseritz was faced with the same task, he would go to the same place in the woods, and say: “We can no longer light a fire, but we can pray.” And everything happened according to his will. When another generation had passed, Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov was faced with the same task, and he would to the same place in t...

Every week I get at least one request for an interview, several requests each week for information related to Guam history or the Chamoru language. Sometimes the requests can become a bit much, as I'm not able to get back to everyone. And sometimes I've responded to people close to a year later (ai lokkue'). But if I had more time I would respond to everyone I could, since the knowledge that I have or have access to, is useless unless there are ways it can get out to others.  After I gave a guest lecture in an English rhetoric class last year, one of the students contacted me asking for some help on understanding Hagåtña and its contemporary and historical place in Guam. I appreciated her wanting to know more about a village that most everyone takes for granted nowadays on Guam. So I wrote up responses to her 8 questions. Here they are below. ******************** 1. What makes Hagatna unique from other villages?  What makes Hagåtña unique is that because...

Next Friday,  February  21st, from 4:00 - 5:30 pm, Senators Kelly Marsh-Taitano and Jose "Pedo" Terlaje will be holding the first of their public safety roundtable series called "Håle' Kumunidåt: Social Science Solutions to Drugs, Crime and Other Problems."  Over the past year, the senators have attended many public safety forums and hearings and there has always been a consistent theme from police officers, social workers and others; these issues are complex and have deep roots. To tackle them the island has to use multi-prong well-informed approaches, and the Håle' Kumunidåt roundtable series hopes to provide a space for developing somme of those ideas.  The first roundtable will focus the questions, "How did we get here? What what can we do next?" and we'll be hearing from historians, social workers, political scientists and mental health specialists. The public is invited to attend at the Public Hearing Room of the Guam Congress Buil...