NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Local children's book launches tomorrow
by Andrew Roberto
The Guam Daily Post
December 15, 2017

Local author and activist Michael Lujan Bevacqua, through his publishing group The Guam Bus, hopes his latest project can get young and old readers alike to think more profoundly about Guam's culture.

Titled "The Adventures of Akli'e'," the new bilingual project is one book made up of two stories: In the first story, the titular character spends a day with his great-grandfather, a master blacksmith, and imagines what it would be like to use the tools his great-grandfather forges every day. In the second story, the young Akli'e' listens to his great-grandmother's tales of CHamoru history and legend, bringing the stories to life in his imagination.

Bevacqua said he took inspiration for the tales from his own life. The main character is named after his son, and his own grandfather is master blacksmith Joaquin Flores Lujan. Bevacqua said, growi…

Adios Siñot Torres by Michael Lujan Bevacqua Guam Daily Post October 14, 2015
I spent last week asking several dozen people about the favorite classical musical choices of an eighty-eight-year-old Chamorro man who had just passed away. It was a saddening, sobering, but also inspiring experience.
Jose Mata Torres, a man I’ve spent the last two years working with, passed away on September 28. Through the Chamorro Studies program at UOG, I assisted him with the researching, writing, editing, and eventual publishing of his memoir “Massacre at Atåte.” The book recounts not only his general wartime experiences but also a truly heroic event where he was among a group of men in Malesso’ who rose up and killed or drove off the Japanese in their village in July 1944. I feel privileged to have helped him publish this book, which, he joked, schoolchildren may be forced to read for generations to come.
When I learned of his passing, I immediately felt the need to do something to commemorate him and h…

Jose Mata Torres, who I've spent the past two years working with, passed away earlier this week. I worked with him for more than a year in getting his memoir "Massacre at Atate" published. We held a book launch in February of this year and more than 200 people showed up to hear the story of how the people of Malesso' suffered during World War II, and when faced with possible annihilation at the hands of the Japanese, decided to fight back. We had begun work on another project and I am hoping that I can finish it in his honor.

We would meet regularly sometimes three or four times a month and I will miss those meetings so much.

Below is a list of accomplishments and other bio-data for Mr. Torres.

**************************


Jose Mata Torres was born November 26, 1926 and died September 28, 2015.
He was born in the village of Malesso’ and was a lifelong resident of the village.
He married Carmen Lizama Torres and they had two daughters, Rita Benavente and Carmelita Reyes.…

I spent a year working on getting the book "Massacre at Atate" by Jose M. Torres published. It is a first hand account of one of the few times during the Japanese occupation of Guam that the Chamorro people openly resisted and fought back. There are countless instances of Chamorros passively resisting, but this was one of the few moments that I've been able to collect where you can point to Chamorros using violent resistance to protect themselves. There are only a few men left who took up arms against the Japanese in July 1944 and Mr. Torres was one of the youngest at that time.

We had a reading in Malesso' a few weeks ago in the historic Merlyn G. Cook school. This was a followup to the large book launch that we had in February which was attended by close to 300 people. I came across this account of the book launch, that I wanted to share here:

***********************
http://micronesianmission.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwii-historical-lecture-more-than-we.ht…

For the past year I have been assisting one of the men who fought the Japanese at Atate, Jose Mata Torres with the publication of his memoirs, “The Massacre at Atate.” Torres was a young man at the time who and wasn’t a main organizer for the attack but he said that he had never felt more inspired or exciting in his life, than to see the men from his village rise up and in order to defend their families and their lives, face off against their violent occupiers. On February 24th at 6:30 in the CLASS Lecture Hall at UOG, the book “Massacre at Atate” is being released. There will be a reading by Jose Torres and then a panel discussion afterwards. Please come and join us for this important step for Chamorro Studies, but also just the remembering of Chamorro history and in turn Chamorro possibility.
As I come near to the end of this project it reminds me of something I posted earlier, last year titled "Three Massacres." It was originally posted on this blog, but I posted it rece…

BOOK LAUNCH AND BOOK SIGNING
“The Massacre at Atate” by Jose M. Torres
This memoir tells the story of the courageous people of the village of Malesso’, who under Japanese occupation, fought and killed their captors, and liberated themselves.
Published by the Micronesia Area Research Center
Thursday February 26, 2015 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm UOG CLASS Lecture Hall
The evening will feature a reading by the author, a panel discussion about the events in Malesso’ during World War II and a chance to meet the author and buy copies of the book.
Refreshments will be provided.
For more information contact Professor Michael Lujan Bevacqua At 735-2800 or mlbasquiat@hotmail.com

While at the Pyeongtaek Peace Center, I had the chance to meet with Yongdong Yang, an artist and one of the main photographers who captured the resistance of the people of Daechuri village, which was almost completely demolished in order to make way for the expansion of Camp Humphreys. He published a book a few years ago chronicling the fight of the villagers, and I was lucky enough to purchase a copy while I was at the Center.

Unfortunately the book is entirely in Korean and the only thing I can read in it are the dates on which the photos were taken. Nonetheless, many of the pictures are very powerful and a few very brutal. We see in some the simple but direct resistance of people who are fighting for their land, fighting to not lose the land or homes some held in their families for generations, and be forced to live in high-rise apartments like the majority of South Koreans today. But in other images we see the overcompensation of the state, the vast army of riot police that it sent…

Ti hu gof komprende sa' hafa, lao fihu manuge' yu' put Si Sarah Palin.

Annai ma anunsia na inayek gui' as McCain para Vice President gi i bandan Republican, hu tuge' este na post: "Sarah Palin as VP."

Annai tumunok Si Palin ginnen i ofisina-na, hu tuge' este na post: "So is Palin now a community organizers with no actual responsibilities?"

Annai ilek-na Si Palin na mandisidi na para u dingu i ofisina-na, hu tuge' este na post: "Palin resigns."

Hu tuge' este na post: "An Indigenous View on Palin's Alaska" put i estao i Natibu Amerikanu siha gi i Estados Unidos yan i botasion 2008. Este na post, i mas mabisita na post sa' pega i link gi i blog Crooks and Liars.

Duranten i botasion 2008, fihu manuge' yu' put gender yan race, sa' ayu na botasion i fine'nina na biahi giya i Estados Unidos na malalagu (yan sina mailihi) un atelong na lahi yan un apa'ka na palao'an. Achokka' guaha na biahi…

Julian Aguon will have a book reading and a book signing for his third book, "What we Bury at Night: Disposable Humanity", on Jan. 8 at The Venue in Hagåtña.

The book documents the present day realities surrounding the United States' current relationship with Micronesia. The book is the result of his work from his time as a Sam Cohen International Human Rights Fellowship, which Aguon was awarded last year.

For more information, contact Aguon at 472-4062.