NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For each Inacha'igen Fino' CHamoru, the Chamorro Studies and Chamoru language faculty at UOG collect or produce a handful of creative and expressive texts in the language. These texts are used as part of the competition for these categories, Lalai (chant), Rinisådan Po'ema ( poetry recitation) and Tinaitai Koru (choral reading). Students have to memorize and then recite or perform these either as individuals or as a group. For the longest time, there wasn't a lot produced creatively in the Chamoru language. Most of it could be found in terms of music, as Chamorus were making songs, releasing albums and performing. Much of the publication and promotion of Chamoru could be found in the church, but little of it was creative. Much of it was translations of things written elsewhere in the Catholic universe and localized to Guam. In this way, the church preserved words and meanings in Chamoru, it helped teach and propagate the language, but it wasn't a venue for Chamoru

University of Guam Mangilao, GU April 26, 2015 Press Release For immediate release Forum on Changes to UOG General Education Curriculum UOG Professors to Lead Community Discussion on Removal of Second-Language Requirement Is “ENGLISH ONLY” Good Enough for the University of Guam and Our Students? A public discussion on keeping second-language-learning requirements in the University of Guam general education curriculum will be held on Thursday, April 30, at 6 p.m., at the CLASS Lecture Hall on the UOG campus.  The event is free and open to all concerned members of the public. Recently faculty endorsed and approved changes to the General Education curriculum at the University of Guam to remove second-language learning from the undergraduate requirements.  Learning a second language will become optional.  Until now, all students have been required to take two courses (8 credits total) in a language other than English.  Chamorro, Japanese, T

Inachά’igen Fino’ CHamoru 2015 Winners Division of Humanities, CLASS University of Guam, CHamoru Language Program March 9 and 10, 2015 LIST OF WINNERS Elementary Schools K-2 Dinilitreha/Spelling 1 st    Place:        Name of Student: _ Michael Villeza _________ Name of School: __ Wettengel ____________ 2 nd Place:          Name of Student: _ Maria Paule __________ Name of School: __ Mt. Carmel __________ 3 rd Place:          Name of Student: _ Jaydah Cruz _________ Name of School: _   Merizo Martyrs ______ K – 2 Yiningnga’/Drawing 1 st Place:          Name of Student: _ Darien Siaotong____ __ Name of School: __ Astumbo Elementary_ ___ 2 nd Place:          Name of Student: _ Jaydah Rome_ ____ Name of School: __ Merizo Martyrs_____ 3 rd Place:         Name of Student: _ Jaron Mansapit_ ______ Name of School: __ Astumbo Elementary ________ K – 2 Koron Famagu’on/Children’s Choir 1 st Place:          Name of School: _

Some pictures of the preparations for the May 23rd, Reclaim Guahan Rally which took place at Skinner's Plaza in Hagatna . Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the rally itself, it was quite an event. Despensa na gof atrasao yu' gi este.

On November 29th, the Chamorro creative arts group " Ginen I Hila’ I Maga’taotao Siha " wil be hosting a Stories and Songs Festival, which is free and open to the public and will feature Chamorro/Guam storytelling as well as arts and crafts. The group has been organizing a series of very enjoyable presentations recently, even having on before Halloween, where they told ghost stories on the beach at Ipan. I'll be participating in this festival in a number of ways. First off me and i che'lu-hu Kuri will have a table set up in order to display the tools of our grandfather Tun Jack Lujan. My grandpa has been a Chamorro blacksmith for more than 80 years now, and whereas the island once had several dozen tool makers, he is now the only traditional one, or one who comes from a generational legacy. Put i mafana'guen-na i che'lu-hu, esta gaige gi entre i familia-ku kuatro na henerasion herrero. Yesterday I posted some videos of grandpa, Kuri and me working in the sho

Last week I taught my first classes ever. I've guest lectured and substituted for people before, but this was the first time that I had my own classes and that I was the one in charge. Thing went pretty well. I'm taking over four History of Guam classes for November, since the professor is off-island for medical purposes. At first I wasn't quite sure how to approach the classes, since I'll be the third teacher for them (their real professor, another sub and then me), and what I might want to do, will no doubt conflict with what the others have taught. Also, since I have a dissertation that still needs to be written and finished, I have to find a way to be creative and get my students thinking, without taking too much time away from my writing and research. For my first round of classes, things went pretty well. At least from my perspective. I gave some background on myself, gave a little lecture on what I see as being the importance of history, and also talked about

People often ask me how I became "political" or how I became "radical." There are a number of points in my life that I point to, each of which in some way contributed to the development of the consciousness that I use to write this blog. One faint event is the time that my family spent in Africa when I was a small child, and the experiences we felt there as a mixed family with a white father and a brown mother and two brown children. Another is a variety of experiences as a undergraduate at the University of Guam, and finding myself entangled in numerous forms of faculty racism and apathy. One whose seventh anniversary just passed today is the 9/11 attacks. I had always been a more liberal and Democratic person, but it was the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent run up to war against Afghanistan and Iraq that pushed me to become a more mature anti-war or peace activist. It was also interestingly enough, 9/11 that helped propel me into becoming a far more intelligent