NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The Chamorro Diaspora Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Marianas Variety April 23, 2016 I spent five years of my life in San Diego while I was attending graduate school there at UCSD. It was an interesting experience that truly helped to shape and deepen my understanding of Chamorros as a people today.    We may see Chamorros as tied to home islands in the Marianas, but the reality is that more than half of the Chamorro people live in the United States in what scholars refer to as “the diaspora.” For most of my life, I have moved back and forth between Guam and this diaspora — spending a few years in Guam and then a few years in Hawai’i, a few more years in Guam, a few more years in California and so on. Although people tend to conceive of Chamorros as being either the “from the island” or “from the states” variety, there has, since the revoking of the military’s postwar security clearance, been a constant back and forth migration of Chamorros. Individuals and fami

The documentary "War for Guam" premiered last month across the US and its territories. There were two showings of it on the local PBS Guam, KGTF. It was incredibly exciting to see this documentary finally be finished, as I first worked on it more than 10 years ago while a graduate student in Micronesian Studies at UOG. I was hired as the local producer who set up the interviews and locations. I cannot help by feel a heavy dose of nostalgia as I watched the documentary and recalled so many moments in the production. Part of the nostalgia was feeling the loss of several individuals who were gracious enough to participate in the film, but who passed away before they could ever see it finished. In this moment as I am writing I find it difficult to even type their names down. A flood of moments during the production and beyond race down to my fingertips, causing my fingers to pause and lock. On June 15th at 6 pm at UOG, in the CLASS Lecture Hall the Chamorro Studies program wi

Mina'sais na Lisayu 12/20/13 You could say that religion was a central part of grandma’s life and a key part of her family’s legacy to this island. Her families, both from her mother and her father, helped build the foundation for two different churches during the 20 th century. The seeds of Protestantism had already been planted in the island during the Spanish period. Whalers from the United States brought it in small doses towards the end of the Spanish period. In fact the first concerted effort to build a non-Catholic community came from two Chamorros who had left as whalers and returned as evangelists, the Custino Brothers. On both her mother’s and her father’s side, grandma’s relatives were among the first Chamorros to convert to Protestantism. Both grandma’s mother’s and father’s family were of the first generation of Chamorros to convert. In fact grandma’s grandfather, my great great grandfather Jose Aguon Flores (Tatan Engko) was th

This week I will be writing daily lisayus in honor of my grandmother. She was not Catholic and neither am I, so these are meant to be expressions of my love for her and gratitude that I got to know her and learn from her.  *************** Fine'nina na Lisayu for Elizabeth De Leon Flores Lujan December 15, 2013 You cannot understand who my grandmother was without knowing her mother. So many of the stories that I was told by my grandmother came from this woman, my great-grandmother Rita Pangelinan De Leon who married Guillermo Sablan Flores. My grandmother’s eyes would sparkle when she would share the stories of her mother’s life. For years she would narrate the story of her mother like it was a daily soap opera. The stories usually began with my great-great-great grandfather who was in charge of the kitchen in the Spanish Governor’s palace.  After those in the palace had been fed leftovers would be scraped from huge metal pots onto plates, wrapped and placed into