NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Duru manhasso yu’ Put i orå-ta på’go na puengi  Anai umapacha hit put kånnai, lassas, labios I patten hågu ti manmaleffåyon Gi asson-hu guini anai esta ma’pos hao Gagaige ha’ hao gi fi’on-hu Hu nginge’ hao, hu siente hao  Ti siña maleffa yu’ i minaipe-mu gi hinagong-mu gi matå-hu Este todu muna’mongmongmong i korason-hu Ya muna’kakai ha’ i minaigo’-hu

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

The person in charge of this year's UN Regional Seminar is Xavier Lasso Mendoza, Chairman of the Special Committee, who is from Ecuador. He gave a short speech which began the first day, where he outlined the tasks we hope to accomplish and gave us some words of encouragement. He quoted part of the poem "Retorno" by Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario. The words have stuck with me the entire time I've been here. "Si pequeña es la Patria, unu grande la sueña" This translates to, "If the homeland is small, one dreams it large."  This is an important reminder for the Non-Self-Governing Territories or colonies of today, as many of them are small islands, with small populations who by the way most people (including those in those islands) tend to see the world today, are far too small and too faraway to ever become independent or achieve decolonization. As colonies we are bred to see ourselves as the stuck, dependent, lower end of every binary and regar

In my weekly Chamorro classes, I try to end each Intermediate lesson with a axiom, a saying, some words of wisdom in the Chamorro language. Each of them can shed some light on the continuum of the Chamorro experi ence. Some of these sayings are just Chamorro versions of sayings from other cultures. Some contain interesting hybrid elements and possibly ancient, pre-colonial themes. Some are just nonsense and only said because of a harmony with the sounds and words. This image is one such saying, "Nina'i hao gi as Yu'us i chetnot-mu, para un espiha i amot-mu." It translates to, "You are given your illness by God, so that you can search for the cure." It is a good idea to ask our elders for more of these sayings, these pieces of Chamorro wisdom and incorporate them into our daily lives.

--> It is a surreal experience being a "professor" and a "doctor" in the sense of being an academic. Although I have the degrees and the background to give these labels the appropriate meaning, I still feel first and foremost that I am actually an artist. My sensibilities and my approaches to almost everything are more like that of an artist than that of a scholar. I constantly learn towards creativity and innovation rather than seeking the usual stability of disciplinary sheltering that characterizes most academics. This is why even though my career and so much of my reputation is tied to things such as development of Chamorro language programs, curriculum, Guam History research and the development of programs related to Chamorro culture and identity, I still yearn to create "art." I try my best to force it into the things I do, but I also want to actually create art in the sense of comic books, writing fiction and often times just painting a

Since I started teaching at UOG, I've noticed a lot more students who come from the CNMI, than I can recall from when I was an undergraduate ten years ago. Perhaps I just never noticed them before, or nothing ever came up in discussions in class which would help reveal their identities, but I'm often amazed at how many people I'll have from Saipan, Rota and Tinian in my Guam History, World History and English Composition classes. I guess it might be part of the decline of the CNMI's economy, that families up there can no longer afford to send their kids straight to the states for college, but have to go to the best, cheapest, nearby option which is Guam. This new mix can make things interesting, just as having people from the other Micronesian Islands can. It can help challenge the dominance that local, Guam students feel, being the biggest and most American island in Micronesia. It can either help show them that there is another side or two to how islands can exist a

A very personal post today, so I hope you'll forgive me. I’m at the very end of a big phase of my life. I’m all but finished with my Ph.D. program, I graduated, I defended As I stand here though, where the future looks like a frightening bleak expanse, which I can only jump into, and the past is a welcoming mass of things all radiating nostalgia, both in good and bad sense. First as things which I no longer cherish, but wish I could and others which I have left behind and wish I didn’t. Whenever we come to a point such as this, we wish desperately that we could sift through that old life, like a family searching through an already burning house for the things that are most precious, and pack a suitcase to carry them with us. But you know that you can’t do that. Some if not most of that old life will be waiting for you at the bottom of the cliff. It will appear brand new at first, but then begin to signify the same familiarity. What scares us the most about this situation, this t

Venusian : Hoplessly Positive/Habitually Negative Sometime Maybe : Toba Tek Singh Latitude 13 : We the Chamorro People Tasi Thoughts : The Place of My Birth: Guahan Forever Ka'ili : Have You Seen This Movie Yet? Sepia Mutiny : What's in a Name? Right New Blogology : What Happened on Saturday Guamology : Alex Munoz - Filmmaker Uranium Diaries : On Environmental Justice the maile vine : Today in Settler Colonialism From a Tongan Daughter : Pacific Eye Radio Debut the scent of green bananas : First Look: Meskla The Insular Empire : Adios, Tun Carlos! Flip Flopping Joy : trust Indigenous Studies Engages Ethnic Studies : Mission Statement Overseas Territories Review : The Unfinished Decolonisation Agenda for 2009 Peach Sand Beach : Boonie Crab, Coconut Dog Beautiful Women and Lanzones : on the writing process One-Eyed Copy Ninja : s-a-s Waiting for Wonderland : The Real Question and the Tragic

The first full draft of my dissertation was completed almost a month ago and in the time since I've been editing and fixing up my chapters in preparation for my defense in June. As I've done with my previous chapters, I'm pasting in this post, all the tetehnan or leftovers from my writing of the fourth chapter of my dissertation. To read the tetehnan of my other chapters, click the links below: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 In this chapter I was discussing sovereignty and decolonization from a more local perspective, writing about and sometimes critiquing the ideas of sovereignty that Chamorros, activists or not, everyday use to articulate their existences, and how a lot of times they set themselves up for failure, dependency, non-existence or eternal colonization through their ideas. You might recognize some of the names in this chapter, and in fact, there might even be a chance that you might be mentioned in this chapter. Read through if you dare, its all over the plac

Sometimes I wonder if any of the things that I do on the internet matter. I write regularly on this blog, I have my zine Minagahet , I run or help run several different websites, such as Decolonize Guam or Chamorro.com . On all of these sites, I'm analyzing, cutting and pasting information about what's happening on Guam or what will soon happen to Guam. Because of this, a lot of people assume that I have a level of influence, that I'm not sure I actually do. When I come across letters such as the one below however, I start to feel better. Kulang magom yu'. Fihu hinasso-ku na taiga'chong i Chamoru siha gi este na mundo, sa' kalang todu ma aksesepta na i Amerikånu siha i dueñu-ta. Lao este na taotao ha tutungo’ i minagahet. Kada na hu taitai este, hinassosso-ku, “taimanu na siña ta taka’ mas taotao?” ********************************* BOSTON GLOBE - LETTER TO THE EDITOR GUAM SHOULD BE WARY January 11, 2009 "US PLANS for military buildup leave Guam wary

Despite being an emergency substitute teacher for four History of Guam classes at the University of Guam for the entire month of November, I was still able to finish up the first sprawling draft of the third chapter of my dissertation. Yanggen ti macho'cho'cho' yu', siempre mas nina'funhayan as Guahu. When I say sprawling, I am not exaggerating, this thing is was forty something single spaced pages, and could have gone on longer if I hadn't eventually hadn't considered the damage I would be causing my chair if I continued. The inanakko' of this chapter is due primarily to the fact that it is a sort of mainstream lit review of sovereignty, and an explanation about why I cannot use mainstream sovereignty texts or even the concept itself when talking about Guam's political status and talking about sovereignty for the island. Not wanting to produce a traditional or very simple literature review, I instead created a very convoluted but eventually worthw