NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

"HITA: Maisa, the Chamoru Girl who saves Guåhan" Trailer 2 from Twiddle Productions Inc. on Vimeo . ************* Buenas yan Hafa Adai, The Guam Department of Education (GDOE), Chamoru Studies Division is inviting you to the premiere showing of    "Maisa, The Chamoru Girl Who Saves Guåhan", an animated movie in the Chamorro language, on Monday December 7, 2015 at the Tango Theater located in the Agana Shopping Center, show time will be at 7:00 p.m.  The film is produced by the GDOE Chamorro Studies and Special Projects Division, and Twiddle Production.  It is 100% federally funded by US Department of Education Consolidated Grant,Title V (Prugråman Giha Mås Mona).  Please call 300-5048 or email to confirm your attendance by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, December 4, 2015. Si Yu'os Ma'ase', Angela F. Weger Administrative Secretary I GDOE  Chamoru Studies & Special Projects Division 192 Dero Road Ordot, Guam 96910 Tel:...

Estaba guaha tres na manga ni' hu gof tataitai yan hu tattitiyi kada simana pat kada mes. I fine'nina "Naruto." I mina'dos "Gantz." Yan i uttimo "Berserk." Gi entre este na tres i fine'nina ma tutuhun "Berserk." I yiyinga' tumutuhun ayu gi 1990. Para Naruto matutuhun gi 1999 yan 2000 para Gantz. Lao pa'go Naruto yan Gantz esta munhayan. Makpo' Naruto gi issuen 700 (lao ma fa'tinas ensigidas un nuebu na series) yan makpo' Gantz gi issuen 383 (taya' nuebu na series para este, lao olaha mohon na guaha). Achokka' "Berserk" i mas amko', guiya i mas nateng lokkue'. Gi 25 na sakkan, matto gui' gi issuen 342 ha'. Ya guaha na biahi i yiyingga' ha fa'tinas unu na pat dos na issues gi unu na sakkan. Lao magof yu', sa' gi Fanuchan'an, put fin, ma na'huhuyong regulamente "Berserk" ta'lo. Hu diseseha na sina ma konsigi mo'na taiguini, sa' sen y...

I am currently working on an exciting comic project for a friend of mine. My brothers Jack and Jeremy are joining me in the project (and spearheading it), which will look at Guam's political status in a very new way, through the unlikely narrative of sports. To comic will follow the story of Roque Babauta, a Chamorro basketball player who gets wrapped up in national and international politics. As part of it, I wrote up a concept draft which outlined everything the way I was seeing it. Jeremy has gone on to shake things up and make flow better and add in more realism and details. Part of it is a sequence where a sports commentator is ruminating on the connection between politics and sports. Here is the first draft of it: Too often even we who love sports, dismiss it as a diversion, as an opiate for the masses, a distraction from the world. But sports is the world itself. It is not a diversion, but a reflection, a mirror image. The wars between na...

Everytime Dr. Carlyle Corbin from the US Virgin Islands visit Guam I love listening to his stories of the times when Guam's governors were passionate about political status and decolonization and, at least at the governmental level, there was alot more collaboration and communication. I say this now because Guam's current Governor Eddie Calvo speaks every once in a while on the issue of political status, but doesn't seem to have a real interest or passion for the issue the way some of his predecessors did. Previous Governors invested heavily in the idea of educating people on the issue and working towards making decolonization a reality. This Governor, even now in his second-term where he is no longer running for election or re-election, still doesn't seem to really care about the issue and isn't investing in the process. It is unfortunate, as the longer we wait, the more difficult it becomes.  One reason I really enjoy seeing Carlyle is because he brings me up t...

I've been involved in some form or another with the issue of indigenous fishing rights for Chamorros since 2009. I've attended dozens of meetings, worked on dozens of documents and talked to hundreds about the issue. It has been a largely frustrating endeavor, as the issue is so heavily laden with ideology, that even before you have said anything, people, often with little to no thought or information have already determined their response. What is so strange about Bill 160, is the way it seems to avoid or ignore what progress we've made on the issue of indigenous fishing rights, while creating another layer of government, which could conflict with existing layers of government resource management. I'm supposed to write up a response to Bill 160 and the discussion around it, and so I wanted to share some of the recent articles about it. ***************** Contentious public hearing for fisheries conservation legislation by Sabrina Salas Matanane KUAM November 17...

Fihu manmaleleffa hit na guaha dos na ofisiat na lenguahi para i isla-ta. Unu sen hongga pa'go, sen oppan, ayu i Fino' Ingles. Lao i otro, mas tahdong, mas umaya gui' yan i estorian i isla yan i mismo taotao-na, ayu i Fino' Chamoru. Gi i 1970s, i difunto Paul Bordallo ha chalani i Liheslaturan Guahan para u fama'tinas lai put este na asunto. Sigun ayu na lai, guaha dos na ofisiat na lenguahi. Impottante ayu na bidan-niha, sa' para noskuantos na siklo, i mismo lenguahi-ta ti ma respepeta ni' taotao sanhiyong. Humuyongna, i Chamorro lokkue' (ko'lo'lo'na gi ma'pos na siklo) ti ma agradesi i bali-na i lenguahi, ya despues di i Tiempon Chapones ma yute' i lenguahi, ya ti ma fa'na'gue maolek i halacha na henerasion. Ya-hu este na video, sa' gi un mas kabales na tano'-ta, siempre taiguihi i fina'tinas yan i nina'huyong i Gobetnamento. Para u fama'tinas todu gi i dos na ofisiat na lenguahin Guahan.

Sometimes I get depressed about the state of the Chamorro language. Whenever I am talking to an elderly Chamorro about how our language is dying and the culture is being forgotten and I see them speaking to their grandchildren in English, it makes me want to explode. Everytime I hear elders complain about the young today and how soft and weak and spoiled they are, but who allow their children to be glued to iPads at dinner or in public, it makes me want to run away. When I sit in a meeting where everyone thinks that the solution to the saving of the language lies with an app, or software, but ignores that basic fact that what we really need is just more inter-generational use of Chamorro, the speaking of Chamorro not across a generation, but rather between generations, I want to set something on fire. Whenever I have a conversation with someone who tells me that Chamorro is only supposed to be used like this, or is only meant to talk about this or that, and doesn't want to expan...

I hope to one day be a speaker in the UOG Presidential Lecture Series. It is unlikely to happen though because I'm here and the speakers are usually guests visiting Guam. Olaha mohon na un diha ma'ayek yu' yan i inaligao-hu pat i hinasso-ku siha para este na klasen onra. In the meantime, I'll probably go tonight and attend the lecture by the 28th speaker in the series, Royce Gracie, a MMA champion. Taya' tiningo' put ayu na dibetsion, lao gof annok gi iyo-ku Facebook na i taotao guini gof yan-niha. Este na dibetsion rumepresenta un interesante na enkubukao. Kao ta disisde hafa i kottura-ta put hafa hagas ta cho'cho'gue lao buente ti ta cho'cho'gue pa'go? Pat kao mas presisu hafa mismo ta cho'cho'gue pa'go, achokka' ti gof tradisionat?  ************** Royce Gracie, a pioneer of mixed martial arts (MMA) and UFC Hall of Famer, will be the 28th speaker in the University of Guam’s Presidential Lecture Series. The lecture wi...

I got a copy of the journal of Okinawan Studies a few years ago, and ever since I've had an article in my head. I've been working for years with a growing independence movement in the islands, and I've done countless interviews, attended several conferences and giving several dozen talks to groups both big and small on the topic of decolonization and independence. I've been thinking about what would be the best approach to writing an article on this shift. If we compare it to Hawai'i's sovereignty movement, we can see so many similarities, including the various ways in which independence is articulated, and how its genesis is discussed. For some it is rooted in a previous political epoch and the form of sovereignty at that time. Some in Hawai'i argue in terms of the "Kingdom" and a royal family and the Hawaiian nation-state that was overthrown. In Okinawan you have a similar discourse, where there are those with strong ties to that ...

I came across this article while looking for examples about the way American media frames Okinawa, its history, its relationship to the United States, and the "problem" that it presents to US interests. The usual way in which the United States relates to places where it has bases, is through gratitude or lack of gratitude. If the people support the presence of the bases, then the media represents them as appreciative and understanding about how the US, as the greatest country in the history of the world, has helped protect them, develop them, given them freedom and democracy and capitalism. This is the case, even when those countries were former enemies of the United States and the bases were placed there during or after times of war. Even then, the US media and scholarly class has a way of making it seem as if the people there should appreciate the lesson they were taught about the world and global power. Hami i Yu'us, Hamyo taotao ha'.  But if the governments ar...

Hami, i Taotao Guahan by Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Marianas Variety July 29, 2015   On December 17 th , 1901 a group of more than thirty men, primarily Chamorros gathered in Hagatna. Most prominent on their minds was the political status of their island Guam, which had been taken by the United States during the Spanish American War three years earlier. Since the transfer of power, confusion over Guam’s future hung like dark foreboding clouds. Although the American flag flew over Guam, the United States had not set up a government in which Chamorros would now enjoy the glories of American democracy. They had established a military regime which the US Navy total control over the lives and lands of Chamorros. The group that gathered in Hagåtña represented some of the largest landholders, the wealthiest families and some of the most educated Chamorros of the day. They carried last names familiar to us today, such as Perez, Torres, Dungca, Quitugua, Mart...