NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For years nothing much happened in terms of decolonization advocacy at the governmental level. I wish I couldn't make this statement, but it is unfortunately true. The issue fizzled out towards the end of Governor Gutierrez's last term, and received close to no attention during Governor Camacho's time in office. Even, the island's current chief executive, Governor Calvo, who is currently pushing for a decolonization vote in the near future, did very little for the majority of his term. While it is good to see him coming around on the issue, it has to be acknowledged, that with so little coordinated efforts for so long, it would take a great deal of resources and focus to make up for lost time. It remains to be seen if Governor Calvo recognizes this fact and will do what is necessary to make his current goals a reality. During that time, those in civil society and in particular in academia in Guam did what we could to make up the difference. Every year, either myself

A close friend of mine who just started his Ph.D. program has been having trouble with balancing his personal life and academic life, and keeping up with the theoretical workload involved. I sent him some advice, just from my perspective about how to survive in an environment where you are reading so much each week and then expected to speak intelligently on the sheer amount of data and ideas you are expected to absorb. This naturally made me remember my own grad school days, in particular my days of reading multiple theoretical texts a week in my UCSD Ethnic Studies program. I had my own tricks in order to survive, but I was helped by the fact that I read pretty fast and also just loved reading. Not having kids at that time and living away from much of my extended family also helped. The reflection or analytical papers that I wrote in grad school are favorite mementos of mine. They represent a time when my brain was afire with ideas and I was writing and reading constantly. It is

Each year for the Inachaigen Fino’ CHamoru or Chamorro Language Competition at the University of Guam we offer a number of competitions where students can show their skills in reading, writing, speaking and singing the Chamorro language. Each year we provide students two texts in Chamorro, one of them is a song/chant and the other is a poem. Students will have to memorize and perform these pieces before judges and the audience. Here is the poem that was provided last year for students. It was written by two Chamorro language teachers and fa’fa’nague or dance leaders in Pa’a Taotao Tano’. The lyrics are included below: Imåhen i Taotao-ta Tinige’ Siñot Brian Terlaje yan Siñot Raymond Lujan, 2014 Betso 1 : Fresko i aire Duru i manglo’ Humuyong i atdao Chumi’op ha’åni An poddong i ichan papa’ gi i tano’ Manmagof i taotao, bunitu i ha’åni. K oru:               Humuyong i hilét i isan i langet Yan i paluma kumǻkanta gi i trongko Mamflores i tano’ P

--> Mamfeminista ham. Hami i hagan i mambruha ni’ ti en sehnge, ya in singon gi estoria ya in sisingon ha’ gi pa’og na tiempo i hineksen lalahi. Manmalago’ ham humatme i lugåt publiko ni’ i menhalom feminist ya ta usa gui’ para ta analisa i minagahet gi oriyå-ta. Gi i lugåt publiko nai ma kekesakke’ i direcho-ta yan makekedesponi i tahtaotao-ta siha. Para i kada diha na biolensia, i hinekse put i sexualidat, i fina’domestic, chinemma’ put minagof, fina’isao pinekka’ yan i manespipiha pinekka’, todu este siha pulitikåt na asunto, ya para ta kontra este siha yan i chi-ta ni’ ma nå’na’i hit ya humuyongña manlå’la’la’ hit på’go sin minalulok. Nina’fanhuyong este na sichu’asion ni’ i hinasson låhi, rasan apå’ka, Katoliko, heterosexual, bourgeois, ableist, cisgender yan monogamous. Debi di ta yamak este na sistema, debi di ta na’suha i naturåt-ña i hinasson taklåhi ya deskribiyi i mundo i pinadesin-måmi komo famalao’an. In hengge na un mumon linahyan debi di u feminista, osino ti

Ha'anen Fino' Chamoru Ha' by Michael Lujan Bevacqua Marianas Variety 2/18/15 A constant question in my life, something that I am always considering and pondering and people around me always bring to me seeking answers is, “How can we save the Chamorro language?” Students ask me in class. Elders ask me in line at the grocery store. Random people come up to me at the mall and ask me. Last week someone started talking to me about it while we were at urinals next to each other. People are always seeking big ideas or fantastic innovations. They want to hear about plans involving Rosetta stone or language apps or TECH talks or fancy new curriculum created by people with shiny degrees or ancient words that reveal the true nature of Chamorro cosmology. These are all cool ideas but saving the language can be so much easier and simpler than all that. All we need to do to save Chamorro is that those who know the language use it with those who don’t and those who don’t know how t

This week I, along with a few others will be unveiling a new blog that we have been working on. It is titled " Mumun Linahyan " which is one of the Chamorro words for saying "revolution." Although the title of the blog might make it seem that it will be strictly political, it isn't necessarily. There will be posts about literature, movies, comics and other types of media. Sometimes these posts may have some political dimension, sometimes they may just be instances of nerding out. As much as possible things will have Guam connections to them and as an excited side effect, the blog will feature plenty of things that don't appear to have any Chamorro connection, nonetheless written about in the Chamorro language. I wrote the passage below to talk about the meaning behind the name. http://www.mumunlinahyan.com.  ************** According to The Chamorro Dictionary by Donald Topping, “mumun linahyan” is a way of saying “revolution.” If we break it down

I completely neglected this during the past year, even though I would remember it every once in a while. 2014 was the ten-year anniversary of the starting of this blog, "No Rest for the Awake - Minagahet Chamorro." I first began it in 2004, while I was preparing for graduate school in San Diego, California. At that time I was running several websites with the help of a few other people, some of whom I haven't been in contact with for close to ten years. It was a place for me to vent thoughts, share ideas, get the word out about things. It has been by now something that countless high school, middle school and college students use for their research papers. It is something that even other scholars have used on occasion for theoretical points. I have posted on this blog 2121 times and it has been visited over 900,000 times. Over the course of this blog's life I have had two children, finished a Ph.D., lost both my grandmothers, testified at the United Nation