NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

A friend of mine, Ginger on her blog recently posted three pictures of herself over the past three years to show the signs of her aging. It seemed like an interesting exercise of self-reflection, self-loathing and self-confrontation, so I thought I'd try it out too. A note for those faint of heart: the photos I chose would probably not be my first choices to represent these years. They are sadly, the only ones I have on my laptop right now. 1996: Me working in the pineapple fields of Del Monte in Kunai Hawai'i. Its a long story, but a spent two summers in Hawai'i picking pineapples, packing pineapples and weeding pineapple fields 1999: Me at the opening of my first solo art exhibit on Guam at the Two Lover's Point/KAHA gallery. The name of the was Typhoon: An I sl and's Intensity. The suit is not mine, it was borrowed from the brother of my girlfriend at the time. Otro fino'-ta, ti manggo'te yu' setbesa, Asam Black Tea ayu. You can find a few of the pie...

What is life like in the colonies? I can't speak for other colonies with more visibility and more tangible natural resources that the colonizer desires or need, but in Guam, due to its distance, smallness and its persistant conflict with the bedtime stories that America tells about itself (we don't like colonization), it means that the truth of your existence (whether political, imaginary or otherwise) will often appear, in fiction rather than fact. Or in some instances, a mistake in political terminology or historical accuracy will accidentally reveal the truth of Guam's current situation. Several months ago for example, people on Guam, whether they knew it or not, were stabbed in the face with one such truthful mistake. In June of this year, the United States military pulled off one of its grandest military practice exercises ever, called Operation Valiant Shield, involving 30 ships, 3 aircraft carriers, 22,000 troops and 280 aircraft. In an MSNBC article covering these w...

Ever since purchasing Vampire Hunter D and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust , from Ebay , I’ve been mulling over this post. After watching them years ago and enjoying them very much, I re-rented them from Blockbuster and decided to see what a difference a few years, several dozen books on psychoanalysis and poststructuralist theory and vanquishing both runs of Cowboy Bopeep/ Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion: Neon Genesis would make. It made a very interesting difference. First of all, I became convinced after watching the trials, struggles and victories of D, that the figure of the lone, isolated bounty hunter is ideal for discussing the type of Lacanian lone-wolf, assassin/mercenary psychoanalysis that Zizek espouses. For those of you unfamiliar with the anime, D is a dunpeal or damphir, a half human/half vampire, who works as a vampire hunter for hire. In this world, much of humanity as been destroyed by nuclear war, and vampires have become the world’s new rulers or “aristocracy” as they a...

Time for another Chamorro Public Service Post. My last great effort to assist the Chamorros of the world in their moves towards language revitalization, critical creative expression and cultural comprehension was the listing of the words to the infamous J.D. Crutch song Apu Magi. Today's Chamorro Public Service post will be on the comic strip Juan Malimanga. For those of you who aren't familiar with Si Tun Juan, he can be found six times a week on the comics pages of The Pacific Daily News. Juan was born out of the efforts of I Difunta Tan Ding Castro Gould and an artist for the Chamorro studies program at DOE Ronald(?) Faustino. ( Despensa lao ti hu gof hahasso hafa mismo i na'an-na Si Faustino). Juan Malimanga is a comic strip that details the adventures of Si Juan Malimanga and ambiguously related friends Tan Kika and Nano'. The sources of inspiration for the character of Juan Malimanga are numerous. The most discussed source is the stories of Juan Mala, a Chamorro t...

Published on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 by the Christian Science Monitor Democracy in the Workplace by Traci Fenton Business leaders who want to retain and leverage talent and position yourselves for success in the new business landscape, listen up. More workers want to be fully engaged, and they want a new model through which they can express themselves while making a contribution that matters. This demand for engagement is driven by five trends that are dramatically reshaping the business context: • Technology, the Internet, and a "flat" world. Myspace.com made us somebodies; Wikipedia.com made us experts; Zimbio.com made us collaborators; Blogs and podcasts gave us voices. • Enron backlash. People are disgusted with the greedy model of business epitomized by the rise and fall of companies such as Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, and others. • The victory of political democracy. With two-thirds of the world considered politically democratic, businesses need a system more compa...

News from the GUAM Team Campaign Anigua, GU www.voteguam2006.com Sunday, September 3, 2006 UA HQ: 477-8206/ 472-8206 Change Train Picks up Steam as Voters Say "Yes!" to Guam Anigua-At their campaign headquarters in Anigua, Robert Underwood and Frank Aguon celebrated with their families and supporters after the results of yesterday\'s primary election were released. The message from Guam\'s voters today was clear: Guam needs change. From Yigo to Merizo, voters expressed their concern over the status quo and the current direction of our island. Its clear that the momentum for change is growing, and that the change train is picking up steam. "Frank and I are humbled by the support our movement for change received today from Guam\'s voters. In listening to our people in their homes and villages for the last several months, we\'ve heard the voice for change growing louder everyday. People really are tired of having to worry about whether their chi...

I'm leaving Guam in three hours and so I just thought I'd share the last painting I did on Guam this summer. Sen triste yu' na bai hu dingu Guahan, taya' palabras sina kubre i siniente-ku, puede ha' un komprende yanggen un atan i pilan gi i pinenta-ku.

When I first began writing my most recent master's thesis, I toyed around with using the term "act of decolonization." I was at that point reading way too much Zizek and was engrossed in his conception of authentic political act or the Act. Although I didn't end up running with the notion of "act of decolonization" because it became too cumbersome to define and demarcate what exactly it meant, but you can still find traces of it in the way I discuss how to break the decolonial deadlock in my last chapter. Throughout the writing of this thesis, people often asked me the obvious question which I can answer anecdotally, conversationally and everyday prescriptively, but not theoretically in any systemic way and that is "why is an act of decolonization." What I mean by this is that in writing out my ideas about decolonization in an academic text, it was too too easy to second guess myself and perform my own unproductively self-deconstruction page after ...

SINANGAN I CHAMORRO INFORMATION ACTIVISTS SUMOPOPOTTE I PEACE YAN JUSTICE PETITION NU GUAHAN: Gi I Tiempon Chapones, i Amerikånu siha, ma sumai hit gi hafa mismo i geran-ñiha, ya todu i Chamorro siha (kontodu I Chamorron I San Lagu na Islas Siha) mamådesi. Yanggen un atan i kinalamten i US yan Valiant Shield, ma pepega hit ta’lo gi piligro, ma guaguahi ta’lo i guafin gera! Ya håyi pau tachuyi hit? Håyi siña tachuyi hit giya Washington D.C.? Tåya’! Taotao-hu, annok na esta måkpo’ i tiempo na ta atan i US para todu. Yanggen un atan i finitme gi i Tinige’ Ginagao Put Pas Yan Hustisia Para Guahan, meggai manmåtto ginnen i US lao meggai matto ginnen otro na tåno’, otro na nasion siha lokkue. I mafana’gue-ta ginnen i Tiempon Chapones, na yanggen ta hagu’i i US ha’, manmaisa hit ya taibos! Debi di ta hagu’i yan aligao i allies-ta gi i otro na isla siha, i otro na nasion siha ni’ manmesmesngon mo’ña lokku kontra colonialism, kontra militarization, ya manmumuyi justice! Meggai pau sangåni hamy...

Para hamyo ni' malago tumungo' hayi bei suppote gi i mamaila na botasion, bai hu pega guini i na'an-na ya buente bai hu na'chetton lokkue sa' hafa este siha i gayu-hu siha. Maga'lahi Robert Underwood yan Frank Aguon (tres na rason na gof ya-hu Si Unda'ut yan Si Aguon. Fine'nina, mampos malate Si Unda'ut yan i tinige'-na gi i 1970's yan 1980's, muna'masmenhallom put i estao i taotao-ta. Yanggen en taitai i bibliography-niha todu i tinige'-hu siha, fihu Si Unda'ut i mas ma gaige guihi. Sen manopble hit put i kottura-ta yan i lenguahi-ta yanggen taya' bida-na Si Unda'ut ya ti sumaonao gui' gi i meggai na kinalamten Chamoru. Mina'dos, i tihu-hu Si Unda'ut, primumu yan si nana-hu. Ti brodie yu' taiguihi ayu na sumasangan na debi di u taigue parientes gi politics. Todu i tiempo sinangan-hu na yanggen i parientes-hu i mas anggokuyon pat i mas kapas, pues siempre bai hu bota ya suppote gui'! Mina'tres, ...

I was supposed to finish up my master's thesis for my program in San Diego over the summer while I'm in Guam, but for reasons why were completely expected, I've barely worked on it. There are too many important things to do on Guam to worry about finishing up a silly master's thesis whose only direct effect on people will most likely be paper cuts. There is injustice to fight, dominant narratives to contest, consciousness to build and yes absolutely, errands to run, relatives to kiss or visit (or in my case paint things for) and put i matan i eriyan i gima'n i grandparents-hu, there is plenty of weeds pull and trees to trim. As my summer winds down, I am looking more frantically at the lists I always make for myself, and seeing the many things I have crossed off already as esta munhayan, as well as the things, which are less in number, but nonetheless insist more persistently that are trabiha munhayan. The thesis is by far the largest and most cumbersome ti munhayan...

A few weeks ago I emailed out a list that me and i ga'chong-hu Nicole had put together a few years ago and had intended to mass distribute as a leaflet or flyer of some sort. Our intentions however were never materialized. There's actually an interesting story about how it never materialized, but its also a bit embarrassing. Most learning experiences are. The list was ten points that we should all who are Chamorro and who are on Guam should remember every July. Although it was made two years ago, it still has the same impact this July and most likely several more to come, since it is the same lame rhetoric of freedom and liberation that is trotted out for us to consume. You can find the list here ... Its an important list because these are the points of justice and the sites that when forgotten produce silent injustices and the memories that foster dependency without end for us on Guam. Forgetting injustice is actually not an easy thing to do, it takes alot of work, as g...

Recently the Marines on Guam decided to practice detonation tactics in Tamuning! For those of you who don't know Guam, Tamuning is hardly the place that you would commonly associate with military training exercises, its an urban area right beside Guam's tourist district Tumon. After hearing the explosions echo from nearby the old Guam Memorial Hospital, which is near the current Guam Memorial Hospital, a member of I Nasion Chamoru had this to say: At around 3:00 PM or a little after, my watch, today August 13, Sunday, there was a tremendous explosion coming from the direction of Tumon Bay. I was at the Harmon Cliffline. I was about a mile away from the explosion, but it was loud. I can imagine the noise it made at the GMH with all the people at the hospital. I understand the explosive training by the Marines was to take place at the old GMH area with all those old buildings still there in disrepair. My question is who in the hell permitted the Marines explosive training to take...

I wrote a week ago briefly about Jose Camacho Farfan. He was truly an interesting person in Guam's history, but sadly one which has been largely forgotten as a larger than life figure in Guam's history. I was first introduced to him in an article from the Guam Daily News in the 1970's, which discussed his meticulous note-taking about historical events and village happenings. Later I found an article, pieces of which I will share today, that he wrote for the Guam Tribune insert Panorama, published in the 1980's under the editorship of Chriz Perez Howard. In his article titled "Guam Notes and Remembrances of Wartime" Farfan provides one of the most clearest and well balanced accounts of the pre-war and war periods on Guam. When I say clear and well-balanced, I mean that the ridiculous patriotism that often fogs the lens of everyday history in Guam is largely absent. This does not mean that Farfan is a raging anti-American communist, although this is precisely wh...

Ever since I came back to Guam I've been painting landscapes. Its a very strange feeling, since for years as an artist on Guam I loathed landscapes. Mampos ti ya-hu sa' puru ha' tourist art ayu. My art was primarily abstract or expressionistic, and that sort of stuff sells poorly on Guam, where the sensibilites of both tourists and locals tends to desire historical representative work or charmingly inoffensive tropical landscape art. So for years I basically survived off students loans, constant extensions on my work study contract and by flirting with middle aged gay men to get them to buy some of my work. I'm not a household name by any means, but I do take some small pleasure in the fact that you can find my work hung in hundreds of homes on Guam (or maybe they are tucked away hidden in closests, or forgotten fallen behind couches). Even though I never could have survived on my art alone, I still do cherish those years when I was actively producing work and actively ...

Here is the text from a radio interview I did at KPRG for students in Peter Onedera's Chamoru 102 class. The topic was something I know very little about, but I was a last minute replacement for the students, the reunification of the Marianas Islands. Sorry, to those that can actually read and understand the questions, my MS Word spell check messed up alot of my sentences, by turning Chamorro words into similarly spelled English words. What does reunification mean? Mandañata’lo, pat agondumaña kumekeilek-na na I islas Marianas u marikohi gi pappa’ un gobietno yan un politiku. Yanggen maloffan este na kinalamten, u na’magahet I guinefin meggai na Chamorro gi meggai na tiempo siha. Explain the Government of the Marianas Islands before the separation. Antes di manhalom I Espanot, manggaige I Chamoru gi todu I isles Marianas, ya achokka’ unu ha I lenguahin-niha yan hinnggen-niha, taya’ kapitat, taya’ sagan I maga’lahi para todu I islas yan todu I sengong. Manmacha’gue I political power...