Adios Uncle Filamore
This month Filamore Palomo Alcon, artist, art teacher and owner of the Guam Gallery of Art at the Chamoru Village and an uncle of my through the Lujan extended clan network, passed away. He had been struggling with health issues for some time and his gallery was closed by some of his friends earlier this year after being open for almost three decades. For this reason, he had become less active in recent years as an artist and promoter of local arts, but it is painful is still painful to imagine that someone who was such a fixture in the Guam art scene and so influential in the movement develop Chamoru artistic consciousness has left us. When my grandfather, Tun Jack Lujan had a blacksmith shop at the Chamoru Village, the Fil’s gallery was a regular stop for me or for grandpa to check in with Fil on art, on Chamoru Village business, on cultural politics on island. Sometimes I would go visit him while grandpa would watch the shop and sometimes, I would go visit him while grandpa stayed...