Chamorro at the UN

This image is of me in 2007, the first and only time that I've testified before the Fourth Committee of the United Nations. I am excited that next week, I along with more than a dozen others will be back at the United Nations to testify.

In 2007, only three of us went, myself, Rima Miles and Marie Auyong. It was an incredibly exciting albeit frustrating experience, to testify in a room filled with the world's representatives, who aren't really paying attention to you because you come from a far-away colony of the world's most powerful country. I ended up incorporating my UN-experience into one of the chapters of my dissertation. We only had less than five minutes to testify and make our case to the world. Despite the short amount of time, it is common for people to still being and end their testimonies in their native language, while the bulk of it is in English. 

Chamorro scholar Tiara Na'puti wrote about this in her own dissertation. This was the same for me, as my first paragraph was in Chamorro, giving my thanks for the chance to inform everyone about the Chamorro people in Guam. It is something I have continued to do even when I have testified before the Committee of 24 at their regional seminars. I look forward to once again using Chamorro at the United Nations next week.

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