The Importance of Chamoru Music

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, mixed with the Spaniards and sang with them. Upon entrance into the villages, “Christ’s Message” was sung, which had been translated by San Vitores into Chamorro verses. All came and listened because they loved the singing. During their festivities, twelve or thirteen richly decorated women form a circle. Without moving from their place, they sing the songs of their poets with grace and schooling which would please even in Europe. In the hands, they have small shells resembling castanets. All onlookers, however, are charmed by the expressive bearing and movements which accompany the singing. The men also entertained themselves with dancing and competitions. In jumping, running and wrestling they proved their strength. They recounted the adventures of their forefathers and recited the songs of their poets. With their subjugation, these pagan customs disappeared and spiritual songs resounded in place of the impure secular singing.

But another reason why I am focusing more on Chamoru music, analyzing it, documenting it, teaching others about it, is because it has been the primary for the Chamoru language has been sustained and supported in recent generations. 

While many families stopped using Chamoru across generations, they still played Chamoru music in the background. Hundreds of musicians in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s recorded songs and put them on vinyl records, cassette tapes and CDs. A small number are still putting them out in digital form today. 

Music has been an integral way of keeping Chamoru language and a sense of Chamoru identity alive. We shall see though, if it will remain this way.