NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

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...

If you are looking for articles, essays, poems, and other random things written in Chamoru, about a wide variety of topics, then you should definitely check out "I Sakman i Fino'-ta." It was started in 2022 by Benny Anderson as a means of promoting Chamoru language and writing. Anyone can submit for the website, which is filled at this point with hundreds of short pieces written in Chamoru. The inspiration for the name is that the website is a vessel for the language in the same way the såkman was a vessel for the Chamoru people the past, using it to travel and transport. If we continue to use our language on a daily basis and pass it on to the next generation, it will continue to evolve and grow as we grow. It will stay with us on this journey. The published pieces come from active, current learners of Chamoru, first language speakers of Chamoru and second language learners of Chamoru. They are free to write about whatever they are interested in. You will find plenty of ...

I get asked questions about Guam History all the time.  Almost every day I give an interview to someone who is doing a paper about Guam or Chamoru history, whether it be for middle school, high school or college.  Or it may be someone doing research for a documentary, a TV show, a newspaper or a book.  It could be just someone wanting to know more about their roots.  Or just someone visiting with questions that are bothering them about the contemporary or historical landscape of their temporary home or tourist visit.  Normally I know the answers, or I know where the answers are. Or I know that we don't know the answers. But there are some questions which I'm not quite sure how to answer. It may be because of how they are phrased, often times because whoever is asking the question may be assuming something that isn't in history or in reality, or isn't connected to what is in the facts or the historical data, and so sometimes I can be at a loss as to how to make a...

Since Maga'låhi Kepuha from Hagåtña is the most famous of all Chamorus from ancient times, I get asked about him more than any other figure from that time.  Here are the questions and some answers I gave to a Guam History student recently, who wanted to know more about his legacy as a leader.  ***********************  What made Chief Kepuha a great leader?   Given the time that he lived, you could argue that Kepuha was a great leader because he could better see into the future in terms of how the Spanish would become the new dominant power on Guam, and so being as close and as helpful to them as possible would ensure that his family would benefit the most despite some massive changes. Nearly all Chamorus wanted to trade with the Spanish, but this did not mean that they wanted them to stay in their houses. Or that they wanted them to stay on the island permanently. Kepuha’s claim to fame was that he, was more open to letting them stay personally, even taking responsib...

 I recently gave a lecture talking about the Maga'håga spirit and the matrilineal strain that runs through Chamoru culture. In putting it together, I had to scrounge for different quotes from the early accounts of the Spanish, when they encountered Chamorus in the 16th and 17th centuries. It provides a stark contrast in most ways we see gender relations today, but it must have felt nightmarish at times for a Catholic priest of the time. To see women with this much authority over life and over their husbands, I imagine it would have given San Vitores and others plenty a panic attack.  Here are some of the quotes I used in my presentation: *******************   In each family, the head is the father or older relative, but with limited influence. A son, as he grows up, neither fears or respects his father. In the home it is the woman who rules, and her husband does not dare give an order contrary to her wishes, nor punish the children, for she will turn upon him and beat him...

Last year, Our Islands are Sacred and other local activist groups penned a joint letter to Governor of Guam Eddie Calvo, challenging his support for the US military buildup to Guam. In response to the letter, which made a significant splash on social media, the Governor met with some of the authors of the letter to discuss their concerns. Central to rhetoric invoked in the letter focused on how the Governor had made several statements to the media that he was excited about the military buildup and what it might mean to Guam economically. As the military buildup, even in its reduced form, will most likely negatively Guam's environment, economy, security and cultural properties, the writers of the letter were incredulous that Governor Calvo would speak of the buildup with such excitement when so many negative aspects were involved. One of the suggestions that they made to Governor Calvo was that he invite the Governor of Okinawa to visit Guam with his staff and have a conversatio...

At the funeral for Maga'låhi Ed Benavente today, I got a chance to talk to former Governor of Guam Felix Camacho. When Felix Camacho was first elected the group Nasion Chamoru was in decline in terms of its political power. Angel Santos had been elected into the Guam Legislature years earlier and formally left the group. Nasion itself had continued to fight and gotten a number of reforms implemented around land for the landless and for families that had lost land after World War II to the US military. Felix Camacho, seeking to make a sort of peace with Nasion Chamoru, which had been a notorious thorn in the side of the previous administration, reached out to Ed Benavente and offered him a position in his cabinet. I remember that time well, as I had already started hanging out with members of the Colonized Chamoru Coalition and so I got to listen in while members of Nasion Chamoru discussed whether or not Ed should join with Camacho. I won't describe the deliberations in detai...