NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

In response to the confusion and anxiety on the island following Donald Trump's electoral college victory over Hillary Clinton last month, I decided to organize Teach-In on what Trump's reign might mean for Guam. I was expecting a small crowd of maybe 20 or 30 students. In truth, we had more than 70 people attend, with most of them staying almost an hour past the end time to keep asking questions and discussing their concerns. The Teach-In was so successful that I would like to have a monthly teach-in based on relevant issues in the community. The next one that I'm planning is on war reparations scheduled tentatively for January 5th. Stay tuned for more information. *************************** Trump Teach-In at UOG Calls for Independent Political Status by Bruce Lloyd The Pacific Island Times December 6, 2016 In the spirit of the anti-Vietnam War teach-ins that informed opposition to that war in the 1960s, members of the Guam Commission on Decolonization Tuesd...

Independent Guåhan invites the public to attend its fifth General Assembly on Thursday, December 22 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. at the main pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. The meeting will focus on water and what Guåhan can do as an independent country to preserve this precious resource. Water is an essential element for human life across the Pacific and around the world. Hånom is one of the six elements that are invoked each day by thousands across the island when reciting the Inifresi. At present, our access to clean and safe water sources is complicated by the U.S. Navy’s ownership of Fena Lake in the south and the potential damage to the northern aquifer outlined in the Record of Decision should the U.S. continue to increase its military presence on Guåhan. As an independent country, we would be able to control access and use of these resources to ensure that future generations have clean and reliable water. Next week’s General Assembly will focus on policies ...

Several years ago this poem was used in the Inacha'igen Fino' CHamoru at the University of Guam as part of the poetry recitation category. This is a Middle School category where students have to memorize and then recite a poem written in the Chamorro language. I was honored that year when the other Chamorro teachers, who were and continue to be far more versed than I am in the Chamorro language, asked me if I would be so kind as to submit something. I had written this poem years earlier, while I was in grad school and working my way through a few books by Indian poets and authors such as Rabindranath Tagore. At that point I was fluent in Chamorro, but constantly feeling alone in the language as I was staying in San Diego and couldn't always make it out to the Guam Club in National City for the senior lunches or the nobenas. During that period I ended up translating hundreds of poems and songs, some of which you can find archived on this blog, in an effort to keep my min...

Earlier this year I heard about the film Loving, but I wasn't necessarily in any hurry to watch it. However since Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote last month, I have found myself re-evaluating a great many things. Part of the reason I wasn't in a hurry to watch this film earlier is because this types of films can both inspire, but also erase or simplify things. It can also give the impression that progress doesn't happen because of communities who organize or activists who agitate and animate, but rather because power recognizes previously illegitimate bodies or identities and finds ways to incorporate them into state structures of acceptability. But after Trump won, I want to watch this, if only to remember that things can get better. That it is possible for the arc of history to move against the forces of racism and hate. Ti libianu este. Sen mappot este.  Lao gi este na tiempo, annai sen homhom i langhet. Ya-hu este na dikike' na puti...

One of the most irritating things about life on Guam is that the island is incredibly multilingual as well as multicultural, but because of our colonial past and present, we tend to force everything into very unfortunate monolingual frameworks. It is important to be able to see past the colonial examples presented by the United States and look at the rest of the world, especially where small language communities, who are in similar situations as Chamorros, are struggling to promote and preserve their indigenous tongues. Here are some articles to consider in this regard. *************************** Bilingual Street Signs Herald a New Era of Language Revitalization by Frank Hopper 2/29/16 Indian Country Today Media Network In 1990, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe estimates only eight people knew how to speak the Klallam language. Now they’re putting it on street signs. Earlier this month, the city of Port Angeles, on the north end of Washington State’s Olympic...

  I first wrote an article "Happy US Imperialism Day Guam!" about 13 years ago. It was published in Minagahet Zine and later on this blog when I began it soon after. The writing of this article originally was a very formative experience. Part of it eventually became my Masters Thesis in Micronesian Studies. But I also wrote it at a time when I was first trying to find a way to become more public about my critiques and writing letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News and creating websites/blogs were some of the obvious choices.  This article was written when the second Iraq War was only eight months old and the War in Afghanistan was over two years old. It was written at a time when I was feeling frustrated over the deaths of the first few Chamorros in Iraq, Christopher Rivera Wesley being the first.  As I said, it was also written at a time when I was first working on developing a critical consciousness and a public voice in terms of writi...

I felt like I've written a hundred press releases this year, most of them for the Independence for Guåhan Task Force, but plenty of others for the Chamorro Studies Program at UOG. I've been meaning to post them here just to easily archive them, especially for when I apply for promotion to UOG in the coming year. It is intriguing, because what made me think of this tonight, was a column written today by Paul Zerzan in the Guam Daily Post. It discusses how the Chamorro language is a dead language. It isn't very well-written and its argument is incredibly poor on almost all possible levels. Part of it hinges on him describing an anecdote whereby a Chamorro cultural event planned in 1993 was attended by only himself, therefore clearly proving the language being dead. What struck me as bewildering about this particular portion of his argument, was that on a regular basis I attend and organize (ko'lo'lo'ña gi UOG) Chamorro events that hundreds of people att...