NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Last year I gave a presentation to a high school class here on Guam about the way we can understand Guam history, its trends, its tendencies, its cycles through various Chamorro sayings. For some reason, today I have that presentation on my mind.

I undertake a similar activity in my World History and Guam History courses. In order to understand what history as a concept is, I don't give students definitions per se, instead I give them 28 - 30 quotes that people have said about history and its characteristics, its importance or its irrelevance. No single quote is meant to encapsulate everything or explain and cover everything, but rather they each provide some texture to aspects, some structural understanding or descriptions to tendencies. History in the mind of one scholar is an essential part of human activity, for another it is an illusion, a means of trying to imagine control over things you have no control over. I find the complicated mess that the quotes creat…

"HITA: Maisa, the Chamoru Girl who saves Guåhan" Trailer 2 from Twiddle Productions Inc. on Vimeo.

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Buenas yan Hafa Adai,


The Guam Department of Education (GDOE), Chamoru Studies Division is inviting you to the premiere showing of   "Maisa, The Chamoru Girl Who Saves Guåhan", an animated movie in the Chamorro language, on Monday December 7, 2015 at the Tango Theater located in the Agana Shopping Center, show time will be at 7:00 p.m. The film is produced by the GDOE Chamorro Studies and Special Projects Division, and Twiddle Production.  It is 100% federally funded by US Department of Education Consolidated Grant,Title V (Prugråman Giha Mås Mona). 
Please call 300-5048 or email to confirm your attendance by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, December 4, 2015.

Si Yu'os Ma'ase',
Angela F. Weger Administrative Secretary I GDOE Chamoru Studies & Special Projects Division 192 Dero Road Ordot, Guam 96910 Tel: 300-5048

I've been lost in Power Point presentations for the past few days.

I'll be teaching for the next month at Kobe University in Japan. My course is an accelerated one and so I'm teaching a month-long course in just a week. I don't normally prepare Power Points for any of my lectures in Guam, but since my students here in Japan will be primarily those who did not learn English as a first language, the visuals and potential outline skeleton it provides will help keep them engaged. My course focuses on US militarization in the Asia-Pacific Region, and it will link together US strategic interests from Okinawa, to the Philippines, to Guam, to the Marshall Islands and Hawai'i, while also linking together the popular movements for demilitarization or decolonization against those bases. For me, este kalang un guinife-hu mumagahet. I am been working on this issue as an activist and an academic for many years. In 2011 I published my article "The Gift of Imagination: Solid…

The exhibit Sindalu: Chamorro Journey Stories in the US Military is still on display at the Agana Shopping Center. At the end of this month it will move to its next location in the Isla Center for the Arts at UOG.

Although the creation of an exhibit like this can be so stressful, especially when you have a very tight timeline for completion, the experiences after the exhibit is open can be so rewarding. I was so worried that more people would complain about the exhibit and why their family stories weren't covered, which is what I often hear in the community about projects like this. But very few people have approached me personally about that, and many of the conversations I have had both while visiting the exhibit and also just out and about have given me a sense of how interesting and engaging people found the narrative.

So many people appreciated the way it deepened their own understanding of the experiences of their fathers, cousins, sisters and grand parents in the US militar…

MARC. Colonial studies Working Group  PRESS RELEASE The Garrido Manuscript: A Unique Glimpse of the Chamorro Language in 1798 by Dr. Carlos Madrid and Jeremy Cepeda.
University of Guam, CLASS Lecture Hall Thursday, March 27, 2014 – 6 pm. Expected duration of the event: 1 hour. A one-of-a-kind document written in the Chamorro language of the 18th Century is being brought to light as a result of research recently conducted at the Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam. The Micronesian Area Research Center and the Chamorro Studies Program are presenting a translation of this document to the community and offering a rare look into what the Chamorro language looked and sounded like more than 200 years ago. In 1798, Manuel Garrido, a Chamorro and official of the Spanish Government of the Mariana Islands was asked to translate into Chamorro news received from Manila regarding the victory of Spanish and Filipino soldiers against British ship attacking Zamboanga, in Mindanao…

This coming year looks so exciting for me in terms of the many projects that I will be organizing or be involved in. For the next few months I will literally have three full time jobs. I will be teaching Chamorro language and culture classes at UOG. I will be leading the writing team for the Guam Museum. Finally I will be coordinating a 3 year grant, totaling more than $600,000 to create a standardized text for teaching Chamorro at the college level. This is in addition to all the other many activities that I will be continuing. I may find it hard to even find time to play any SC2 before the end of the year.

One thing that has unfortunately suffered as I become more and more busy is my painting. For years I would have every couple of months marathon painting sessions, where I would paint for hours and cover the entire floors of apartments with paintings and often times paint splatters. I have a CAHA grant that I received to paint an image that combines the experiences of both Chamorr…

I'm up late trying to finish my talk for tomorrow at the Marianas History Conference at UOG.

The title of my talk is "Jumping the Fence" and it is an evaluation of the impact that Nasion Chamoru and its first Maga'lahi Angel Santos has had on contemporary Guam. I outline a number of changes that they helped to facilitate in terms of culture and politics.

Jumping the fence is a metaphor for decolonization and it refers to the infamous incident when Angel Santos, Ed Benavente and several others jumped the fence at former Naval Air Station, or what is today known as "Tiyan." They did this right in front of media and military police, and when they were arrested Santos spat in the face of one of his captors. It was a moment that defined Nasion Chamoru for many people in a negative sense, but can also play a big role in helping us understand just how much they changed the island with their activism.

My favorite line thus far in my presentation is as follows:

&qu;…

On August 30th I'll be presenting at the 2nd Annual Marianas History Conference at UOG. Here is the schedule thus far for those who might be interested in attending. The website to find more information is:

http://marianashistory.guampedia.com/

And here is a video of two of the organizers Dr. Anne Hattori (from UOG) and Rita Nauta from Guampedia giving an interview on KUAM News Extra:




Tentative Conference ScheduleThursday, August 29
5:30 pm Welcoming Reception: Paseo, Hagåtña Friday, August 30
8:30-9:30 am Keynote Address, Dr. Keith L. Camacho, CLASS Lecture Hall, UOG 9:30-10 am Break 10 – 11:30 am Session 1 (A and B) Session 1A: Chamorro Agency in the Spanish Marianas David Atienza: The Mariana Islands Militia and the Establishment of the “Pueblos de Indios”: Indigenous Agency in Guam from 1668 to 1758Carlos Madrid: 1800´s in the Marianas: A Nation in the MakingMariana Sanders, Francine Clement and Carla Smith: Social Realities and Legal Regulations – A Snapshot of Guam in 1886 as …

I invite you to tune in to Beyond the Fence which airs every Friday at noon on Public Radio Guam-KPRG 89.3 FM, immediately following Democracy Now.  This one hour locally produced program features interviews with diverse individuals and coverage of public events offering analysis and personal perspectives on the local impacts of US global militarism in the Asia-Pacific, especially in Guam and the Northern Marianas.  It provides accounts of different forms of resistance, decolonization and sovereignty  struggles, and the challenges of building community beyond the fence.  Audio podcasts of most episodes are available for free and may be downloaded within five days of the original broadcast by going to www.kprgfm.com and clicking on the link to Beyond the Fence or by going directly to http://kprg.podbean.com/
Ep. 154 “Minagahet yan Dinagi Siha: The Revitalization of the Chamorro Language” (hosted by Rosa Salas Palomo with production assistance of Joy White ) was recorded by …

I haven't posted for the past few days because I've been so busy with my trip to Okinawa.

Here is the symposium that I participated in yesterday. I'll be writing much more about it later, but for now I need to pack and head back to Guam.

“Okinawan Independence”
Michael Lujan Bevacqua
April 10, 2013
The Marianas Variety

Professor Yasukatsu Matsushima is a strong, but polite voice for Okinawa's Independence. I first met him last year while he was in Guam doing research. I ended up taking him on a hike to Pagat. Later he invited me to come to Okinawa and speak at several conferences on decolonization. On my most recent trip to Okinawa, I was fortunate enough to hear him give a lecture at Okinawa International University on “The Myths of Okinawan Independence.” Although the topic of Okinawa’s independence is very new and somewhat taboo, his talk was crowded with people wanting to know more. 

Professor Matsushima may seem assuming at first, but make no mistake he is resolute in his belief that Okinawa should be an independent country. This advocacy has made him somewhat notorious. In both Okinawa and Guam independence is something considered taboo, impossible or anti-Japanese/American. Because of this it can be difficult t…

In my endless quest to make sure that I always have too many things to do and not enough time to do them in, I've started working with the office of Senator Frank Blas Jr. on an event to be held on December 8th to commemorate the invasion of Guam in 1941 by the Japanese. Each year there is a Paka-level-strength-typhoon of memorialized and commemorating for the reoccupation of the island by US force, known as Liberation Day, but very little takes place to remember the island was first cast into the fire of war. This event will feature a photo exhibit at the Cathedral Gallery in Hagatna, a mass on December 8th as well as a war storytelling event to take place after the mass. This project is the most recent part of Senator Blas' push to get war reparations for Chamorros. If you want more information on that issue then they have created a website devoted to it called Guam War Survivor Story.
I'm pasting information on the project below, the photo exhibit and also some info on …

This Friday, July 16th my most recent art show, "Before the Storm, After the Fire," at I.P. Coffee in Mangilao, will be coming down. In its place a new exhibit by artist and editor of the Marianas Variety Mar-Vic Cagurangan, called "Naked Truth" will be opening. So Friday night from 6-8 pm we'll be having an opening/closing party, where you can meet both artists, enjoy some good food and wine and also try to pick up some of my pieces before they get stored in the trunk of my car.

For this last show I divided my artwork up into different themes. When I paint things, even abstract imagery, they tend to follow a set of regular themes. So even though the artwork is abstract and open to interpretation, when I paint it and when I title it, I often end up coming back to the same sorts of themes: movies, song lyrics, puns, Guam history and so on. So when I was figuring out how to hang my show, I decided to divide them up into groups based on shared imagery or names. The…

My art show at I.P. Coffee is still up for those who are interested in seeing my latest pieces. Email me at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com if you have any questions.

The week before last I typed up an artist statement basically explaining to those who were interested, where the notion for the show and its title "Before the Storm, After the Fire" came from.

In explaining myself, I ended up using the old Quantum Physics paradox/experiment famously known as "Schrodinger's Cat." Except my version, as you'll read in the first paragraph, is localized to become "Schrodinger's Karabao." I would have given this a completely different name, like "Tun Sakati's Karabao," but since most people already have no idea what this means, I decided not to make it even more obscure.

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BEFORE THE STORM, AFTER THE FIRE
Michael Lujan Bevacqua - Artist’s Statement

Put fabot, imahina na guaha un kuåto, ya gaige gi este na kuåto, un potta, u…

In 1999, I had my first ever one-man exhibition of my paintings. It was a show of about 40 small abstract pieces that I had made while I was an undergraduate at UOG. The title of the show as Typhoon: An Island’s Intensity, because of the sheer intensity and fury that some noticed in what were otherwise very tiny images. Fihu annai i manamko’ siha, ma atan i pinenta-ku (taiguihi gi i fine’nina na fina’nu’i-hu), ma alok na “atmario” enao.

In 2001, I had my second one-man show titled “Matan I Kuttura-ta Siha” or The Faces of Our Culture. This show featured 30 or so, large “abstract portraits.” They were portraits of famous figures from Guam history, and all painted in a Jackson Polluck drip style of painting, where the paint isn’t so much applied delicately with brushes, but rather splashed, splattered and dripped onto the canvas. The result is usually very abstract, but in the case of this show, I used that technique to try and portray different pioneers amongst the Chamorro people.

Then …