NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Recently at the Fanhita: Our Continuing Quests for Decolonization, I and the several hundred other attendees received updates on Puerto Rico from Wilma Reveron-Collazo. Her presentation "Puerto Rico Actually" provided a powerful genealogy of Puerto Rico's movement for decolonization, as well as American attempts to keep the island colonized or to hide its continuing colonization.  Puerto Rico occupies an interesting place in the imaginary of Guam. It is a place very distant from us in geographic terms, but we nonetheless share a similar history of Spanish colonialism and a similar present of American colonialism. At a time when Puerto Rico and Cuba were developing their own nationalist and revolutionary movements, the same movements, albeit on a smaller level, were also developing on Guam. Both Guam and Puerto Rico exist in territorial/colonial relationships with the US, although they have different names. Puerto Rico is referred to as a commonwealth, although you wo

When I was writing my dissertation more than 10 years ago, one question that I constantly had, was what is the "Department of Interior" in the United States, especially in relation to the territories. The easy answer is that it is the office to oversees them. It is the office that oversees the natural resource, the parks, the relations with Native Americans, but also the way the US connects to its insular areas and colonies. We can refer to the Department of the Interior as the make-shift colonial office, a colonial office in denial that it is a colonial office. The office manages resources and helps to remind those of us who live in the territories that we are a resource, that our lands, our lives are more explicitly than any other place within the US and its empire, thought of as a commodity. The fact that our strongest link to the federal bureaucracy is the DOI is key in understanding our relationship to the US. We may have a variety of fantasies about what we are to

For those attached to the United States, whether as eager patriotic citizens or uncomfortable colonial subjects, the past week was filled with an unbelievable amount of revelations and insinuations about Donald Trump’s campaign, Donald Trump’s administration and Russia. The relationship between the US and Russia is at a point that would be almost unrecognizable to someone just a few years ago. There is a Republican president of the US, repeatedly praising the leader of Russia Vladimir Putin. And rather than align his statements with the underlying adversarial relationship between the two countries, he goes to any extent to not back down, even to the point of maligning the US rhetorically in order to maintain his praise for Russia and its leader. Early on, you could argue that this was due to Trump’s blind neophyte level of political acumen, but now it just looks suspicious.  This was even compounded to a degree that basically brutalized any possible commonsense under

It is intriguing how quickly things that were once seized upon as exciting and drenched in exciting new possibilities can be forgotten or disavowed. Part of the way this happens in terms of Guam is tied to our colonial position and how we interpret minute gestures that might be faint to others, as being clear indications of our colonizer caring about us and wanting to finally recognize us and take care of us. A perfect example of this came last year when Donald Trump was running for President of the United States. His campaign was barely coherent and very narrowly focused, and the territories of the US, with the exception of Puerto Rico barely factored into his rhetoric. At the time of the Republican primary Trump sent a letter to the people of Guam which wouldn't even count as pandering, since it was so lazily written it could have been sent to any number on constituencies. Hillary Clinton's pandering letter by comparison during the Democratic primary showed a least a modicu

The conventions for both political parties this year have passed. Because of the time difference on Guam, I wasn't able to watch them as much as I'd hoped, because I was usually in class when people were speaking. I followed the coverage as best as I could, even writing about the Guam delegations for both the DNC and RNC and the way they represented the island in their roll call spotlight moment. I have only attended one political convention in my life and that was in 2008 when I got to be the "Blogger from Guam" to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where Barrack Obama received the nomination for President. I has wanted to go back to another convention or two, and toyed with the idea of attending this year, but my teaching schedule made it impossible. While reflecting on this year's convention and my own experience 8 years ago, I sifted through my digital files and came across this article this article that I written fro AAJA or the Asian American

The United States has long ignored its obligation to Guam with regards to educating the people on their political status and enhancing their understanding of self-determination with the intent of pushing them towards a greater degree of self-government. For decades, activists and Government of Guam officials have called on the United States to fulfill this obligation, with little to no success. This past year however represented the first instance in recent memory of the United States accepting this obligation, as the Department of Interior has provided a grant of $300,000 to the Government of Guam to be used for political status education. Similar grants were also provided to other colonial possessions of the United States, with a similar educational purpose in mind. This money is promising, however most likely unique. Previous attempts to get this type of funding were met with confused responses at multiple levels and didn't go anywhere. As of today it isn't clear what ex

Come this Thursday for a screening of the Insular Empire organized by the Hope for Guam Committee. Check out the flyer below for details:

Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 by Common Dreams From Jeju and Afghanistan, an Asia Peace Pivot by Hakim   Mi Ryang, standing with Gangjeong Village Association members and Gangjeong’s mayor, outside the Jeju Courts, to refuse paying fines for protests against the U.S. naval base construction. (Courtesy of the author) “Don’t you touch me!” declared Mi Ryang. South Korean police were clamping down on a villager who was resisting the construction of a Korean/U.S. naval base at her village.  Mi Ryang managed to turn the police away by taking off her blouse and, clad in her bra, walking toward them with her clear warning.  Hands off!  Mi Ryang is fondly referred to as “Gangjeong’s daughter” by villagers who highly regard her as the feisty descendant of legendary women sea divers.  Her mother and grandmother were Haenyo divers who supported their families every day by diving for shellfish.