NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The position of the non-voting delegate in the US Congress is something I've been fascinated about for many years. As a scholar I’ve channeled this fascination into research. Over the past fifteen years I’ve conducted more than 50 interviews from different people who have been in some way tied to the non-voting delegate position.   I’ve been able to sit down and interview former Guam delegates Bordallo and Underwood, former US Virgin Islands Donna Christensen, former (and now deceased) American Samoan delegate Eni Faleomavaega and current delegate from Washington D.C. Eleanor Holmes Norton. In addition, I’ve also interviewed people who have worked on territorial issues in the US federal government, including those who have worked in the Guam delegate office from Won Pat and even to current delegate San Nicolas.     I dedicated a chapter of my dissertation to discuss the strange and peculiar position of the non-voting delegate. The so-called greatest country in the world permits its

In Vivian Dames' dissertation on the Chamorro place inside and outside of what she referred to as "the circle of American belonging" she devotes a chapter to the first three non-voting delegates that Guam sent to the US Congress. She conducted interviews with both Robert Underwood and Ben Blaz, but at the time of her research Tony Won Pat had already passed away and so she instead interviewed his daughter Judi Won Pat, current Speaker of the Guam Legislature (a position her father historically held). She attributed to each of them a different identity as politicians in Washington D.C., a different approach to their job that made them effective despite being simultaneously included and excluded from Congress. Each of them didn't have much power in the formal sense, but were able to capitalize on something in their background or in the political climate that made it possible for them to accomplish things in the center of American power. Won Pat, took advantage of ce