NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

After World War II, Chamorros launched into a period of aggressive Americanization, which you could argue is still going on until today. This Americanization had many levels and dimensions to it. There were clear desires amongst most Chamorros take on the material and consumer comforts America seemed to offer. There were also clear moves by some to ensure that there children were properly or at least passably Americanized, most notably through the refusal to use the Chamorro language with them. There were frameworks of economic, social and political dependency that were created and eventually celebrated by Chamorros themselves. There were also dramatic shifts in lifestyle due to land loss and trauma from the war, which made things such as cultural maintenance difficult because occupations and life-ways were changing so quickly. Alot of these shifts could not be helped, but simply came about because the US is so much larger than Guam, and it produces ideological content and material

It is intriguing when we see epochs of time shift and change and replace each other. These are like grand markers in time, like huge arches that delineate when everything was one way and when it all changed and became something else. On Guam we have antes di gera and despues di gera which draws a clear line of memory between what existed prior to World War II and after. World War II survivors will tell you the smells in the air, the sounds of the island were different in 1940 as they were in 1945. Most people in the United States and elsewhere in the world mark recent memory with "9/11" as if to say that things were fundamentally different before September 11th, 2001 than they were afterwards. All of this is a fiction of course, but there is still a way that communities tend to lay out the stretches of time behind them in certain blocks, to make them easier to manage, but propping up these important moments as providing the keys to understand all those temporal tectonic shi

The issue of Tiyan has been constant my entire conscious life, but has shifted so much over time. When I was younger it was a base one that I remember visiting several times. As I got older it became an issue of protest, the site of the most infamous protest act in modern times, the jumping of the fence by Angel Santos and others and their subsequent arrest where he spat on an officer. When I returned to Guam after living in the states for several years Tiyan had been returned to the Government of Guam and everything about it was different now. Before I left Tiyan was thought of as a beautiful place, that had the military "betde na cha'guan" luster that brightens the eyes of so many locals. Once it had been returned it began to symbolize something else, decay and incompetence of the Government of Guam. I found it interesting that the toxic chemicals in the area were put there by the US military, but people seemed to ascribe its disgusting qualities instead to the local

The relationship between Chamorros and the United States has always been stimulated and frustrated by the United States military. When Chamorros were initially promised the greatness of the United States in terms of democracy, freedom and liberty in 1899, they instead met with the US Navy which governed by island for half of a century not allowing any of those three things to exist in any formal sense on the island. When Chamorros began to join the US military as a way of improving their lives and learning the importance of service and patriotism and how the greatest of any community are those who take on the sacrifice of sacrificing for all others, instead they were met with racism that relegated them to only serving in the lowest ranks of the US Navy, being just mess attendants. Even when Chamorros finally felt and learned first hand the liberating potential of the US military when it expelled the Japanese during World War II, they also learned that the US military h

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                 Date:               March 11, 2014                         Contact:          Kimberlee Kihleng, Executive Director                                                 Monaeka Flores, Coordinator for Marketing and Programs                         Phone:             472-4460/1 Council to host next Smithsonian Institution Exhibit Journey Stories, public call for photographs and artifacts The Guam Humanities Council will partner with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program to bring a national exhibit to Guam in 2014 entitled, Journey Stories. Many of us have powerful journey stories in our personal heritage. It may be a story of a family uprooting itself in order to stay together, or of sons and daughters moving to another land, or of a distant ancestor, perhaps unknown. As part of the Guam tour, the Council will highlight Guam’s unique journey s

Read the article below about the case of James Leon Guerrero, notorious on Guam for robbing the Bank of Guam. The Federal Government was planning on seeking the death penalty for him and another Chamorro for their role in killing a prison guard. The article recounts how the death penalty has been dropped due to a Federal judge ruling that Leon Guerrero has a history of untreated mental illness. And so while Leon Guerrero will remain in prison for the rest of his life, he is no longer in danger of ending up on death row. For the past few years I have been meeting with Leon Guerrero's defense team to discuss with them aspects of Chamorro history that may be relevant to the case. Through these meetings I learned about mitigation, and the exhaustive amount of research that should take place prior to trying someone in a capital case. I have spoken to them about the impact of World War II on Chamorros and the trauma that gets carried into postwar generations in both visible and invisib

In all my classes that I teach at the University of Guam, the issue of decolonization and independence for Guam always arises. Part of it is because of who I am and what I believe in. Part of it is because of what I teach and how I teach. But regardless of why, it is something that I always end have addressing either in response to students and their questions, or as a matter of wanting to open their minds up to something they have yet to consider. Part of the difficulty though in discussing these two topics is that while Guam is a colony and has been such for more than a century, the Chamorro experience of colonialism has changed so much since 1898, 1941, even 1968. The colonial difference between Guam and the United States is not as wide or as daunting or as disgusting as it used to be. In Guam in 1898, 1941, 1944 and even 1968 you could see where America ended and Chamorros and Guam began. You could see that America engaged with Chamorros only up to a certain point as human beings o

As I've said before on this blog, alot of people, when Googling or (now) Binging around on the internet for Chamorro stuff, they end up on my blog. The majority of those people end up on my blog looking for English translations to Chamorro songs. I have a couple translations of songs on my blog, the most popular of course is for J.D. Crutch's unforgettable, epic cover of a very forgettable BeeGee's song, "Apo Magi." But I also have translations for other famous and awesome songs such as: Hagu Inan i Langhet by Johnny Sablan Pues Adios, Esta Ki - by Tainå'an Guam, U.S.A. - K.C. Leon Guerrero Guinaifen Manglo - J.D. Crutch An Gumupu Si Paluma - Tainå'an yan Johnny Sablan Puti Tai Nobiu - Flora Baza Quan I always give warnings with my translations because sometimes parts of the song aren't exactly clear to me. The audio is bad or I mis-hear the words and so I end up translating it incorrectly. This has happened a few times and usually someone emails t

A lot of people end up visiting this blog because they are searching around the internet for lyrics to Chamorro songs. Over the years I’ve pasted a couple here and there, but haven’t really kept up with it as much as I should. I complain all the time about there not being enough internet presence for the Chamorro language and for Chamorro thoughts and so I feel bad when I inadvertently contribute to that absence. På’go, gaige yu’ gi i gima’ iyo-ku grandfather. Desde i ma’pos’ña na mes, kumakatre gui’. Kana’ hineart attack gui’, ya sumaga’ gui’ gi i espitåt para tres meses. Mana’huyong gi i ma’pos na mes, ya sumåsaga’ gui’ gi i gima’, lao ti ha hulat tumohgue sin ayuda. Kada na puengge måtto yu’ gi i gima’-ña para i tetno-hu pumulan gui’. Gi este na tiempo, tåya’ internet, pues siña hu usa este para bai hu fanhasso. Manhasso yu’ put i lina’la’-hu pat i guinife-hu. Buente i chinathinasso-ku siha lokkue’. Tonight, I was trying to figure out what would be the best song to share the lyr

For the past month and a half I've been working for the Guam Humanities Council, putting together their exhibit "Transitional Table" which opens next week, on Tuesday October 13, at the T. Stell Newman Visitor Center at the entrance to Big Navy. The opening reception is at 6 pm, but if you can't make it then the exhibit will be open unil November 21st. The title itself doesn't sound very interesting, but the exhibit ( gi minagahet) is. Its a combination of a national Smithsonian exhibit that has been brought to Guam, which covers changing food practices in the United States over several centuries. A locally made exhibit has been added to it, which deals with the history of food in the years immediately before, during and after World War II. I just went down yesterday while the exhibit was being put up and although the space is a bit tight, I still think it's going to be great. In the middle of the exhibit room the Smithsonian panels have been put up, and alon

Gaige yu' ta'lo giya San Diego. Gi este yan i otro na simana para bei in asodda' yan iyo-ku "department" put i dissertation-hu. Magof-hu na gaige gui' guini, sa' esta kana' maleleffa i "fino' academic" put i gaige-ku giya Guahan. My department at UCSD, Ethnic Studies is in the midst of rebuilding itself after losing several faculty over the past few years. So last week and this week the department is being visited by several candidates, each of whom is meeting with faculty, students and giving jobs talks. I went to the one this morning, and also got to have lunch with the job candidate with other students. It was a good chance to catch up with other students, find out what is going on with their work, whether it be a thesis, a qualifying exam or a dissertation. At the lunch, I heard updates from one student whose thesis and soon her dissertation will be on Agent Orange use in the Vietnam War. I'm not sure yet what approach she