NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

For my intermediate Chamoru coffeeshop classes, which during the current lockdown, have been moved online, we translate a Chamoru song into English each week. We listen to the song twice, go over the lyrics, sometimes talk about the cultural dimensions of the song or the metaphors and history that it invokes. It is one of my favorite ways to teach the language, since it involves not only teaching the language itself, but also making connections across generations and sometimes using the nostalgia that people have to encourage further learning. My lyrics are often from just listening since few Chamoru albums include lyrics. This means that sometimes my lyrics are slightly to noticeably off. But even years after doing this regular assignment, I still learn new things from this exercise, even for myself. Sometimes I hear lyrics in a new way and realize I was singing them wrong for years. Last week, at the request of one of my students, we translated the song "An Mo'na Hao&quo;

I left the University of Guam in January, after teaching there for more than 10 years and probably teaching more than a 1000 students during my time there. Some students I can definitely say I had an impact on because they have told me as much and I've seen them blossom into professional careers. A few of my former students have become elected officials in Guam and some have PhDs of their own now. For some, maybe the impact was less obvious or pronounced, but there may have been something. Something said. An assignment required. Something gleaned. Who knows what, but somewhere in my scattered approach to how I would hold a class, something stuck with them. Sometimes I find students, who years later refer to something I said, or a space I created and how it really changed their view of certain things. One thing that former students from UOG would regularly tell me is that they liked that I seemed to care about the island. This, according to them, was a contrast with most of th

For the past few months my Saturday morning Chamoru coffee shop classes have been structured around two activities. Each class begins with the translation of a Chamoru song into English. Usually the students get to the pick the particular song, or at least the type of song. Second, we go through a longer narrative, sometimes a story, a speech or a poem in Chamoru and also spend time translating it and practicing reading it. As a result of this, I've been translating lots of Chamoru songs lately. When I first started learning Chamoru, gi minagahet, I was terrible at transcribing Chamoru songs. I hadn't grown up with the ear for hearing or catching Chamoru and so my transcriptions of songs were often wildly inaccurate. For the first few years I had people both politely and impolitely correct my attempts at transcription and then translation. My ear for Chamoru has gotten better, but I still struggle sometimes with particular artists who may have their own flair for pronunciat

A special presentation by Chamorro Studies student at UOG as part of the 2019 MARC Seminar Series. Sen gefpågo este na dinanña'. Ya-hu taiguihi na fina'pos, sa' ta na'fåmta' i lengguahi ya ta na'gof oppan gui' lokkue'! It featured presentations by students at the CM102, 202 and 302 levels. It also featured some very special presentations by my CM340 of Chamoru Culture students. One of whom Joe "Dågu" Babauta is included below in a video with his original song that he shared.

The two images are flyers featuring quotes from the political status debates I hold in my Guam History classes.  Students are divided into Statehood, Independence and Free Association groups and develop their arguments for which status is better and also produce posters, brochures, flyers, stickers and sometimes even food to help make their points.  The first is a quote from Maga'låhi Hurao, who in 1671 became the first Chamorro leader to organize large scale opposition to the Spanish presence on Guam, is regularly used by students arguing in favor of Independence. In Chamorro I have seen that line translated as "Metgotña hit ki ta hasso" as well as " Megotña hit ki ta hongge. " Given that many peoples' resistance to the notion of Guam becoming independent is tied to generations of feeling like we are inadequate or subordinate to those who have colonized us, this simple notion can be very powerful in start the process of self-empowerment. Nihi

I'm in Japan for one month and the issue of peace, pas, minagem is all over the place. Part of the reason is because my guide while I'm here is Professor Ronni Alexander who teaches International Relations/Peace Studies at Kobe University and is the head of the Popoki Peace Project. The main thrust of her work is helping communities, a diverse range of communities across Asia and the Pacific, young and old, to imagine peace in new and interesting ways. To get to see what in their life creates peace and what limits peace. As a result of my connection to Ronni, my mindset here is actively been shaped by peace and non-peace. For example: I'm teaching a course on US militarization in the Asia-Pacific region and various peace movement, antiwar and demilitarization movements are all over the curriculum. I'm in Japan at a time when protest movements are evolving around the Prime Minister's attempts to pass new security laws that would fundamentally change Japan's

Bota Fino’ Chamoru! Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Marianas Variety 10/29/14 During the summer, the Hurao Language Camp at the Chamorro Village in Hagatna held several waves along Marine Drive. This is un såkkan botasion, an election year and so waves are about as common as Japanese tourists, with candidates sometimes standing in the early morning and the twilight hours, hoping to make eye contact with you as you speed by. Hurao’s wave was somewhat different. It wasn’t for any particular candidate, instead it was for “Fino’ Chamoru” or the Chamorro language. Children held up signs with “Håyi hao?” and “Hu tungo’ håyi yu’” on them, and shouted out “Bota Fino’ Chamoru!” to those driving by. Johnny’s Sablan’s immortal classic “Mungga Yu’ Mafino’ Inglesi” or “Don’t Speak English to Me” blared in the background. It is that time of the year, when young 18, 19 and 20 year old in my classes, who will be voting for the first time start to wonder about this new ri

I wrote a column for the Marianas Variety titled "Sympathy for the Taotaomo'na" a while back, it provided an overview of different beliefs about Guam's particular brand of spiritual phenomena and how most people may need to expand their understanding of them. For most on the island, taotaomo'na are ghost stories. When you start talking about them, people begin to get intrigued, to get frightened, hairs on their body begin to stand up. For me it is very interesting that when Destination Truth visited Guam years ago almost everyone hated the show they produced. They were here for a few days, met with people, filmed in the jungles, at beaches, in Tumon. While they were here they seemed to those I spoke to friendly, nice and understanding. People were almost universally irritated and appalled when they saw the Guam Zombie episode they created. The idea that taotaomo'na were somehow zombies made sense to people. It was disrespectful and ignorant. We watched the

I began teaching the Chamorro language formally at the University of Guam this past semester. It was a very eye-opening experience. After 10 years of classes in the community, whether they be in coffee shops, community centers or via email, it was both empowering and frightening to have a classroom that was mine to design for 220 minutes each week. I found that alot of my informal style worked well, but that I needed to produce more materials and handouts to keep students engaged. More and more I realize students have trouble just listening and following instructions but constantly need a sheet of paper in front of them telling them what is what. When you organize lessons in a coffee shop only those that want to learn will attend, but when you teach a class the overwhelming majority who attend many not want to learn but simply want to pass and so I learned I needed to recognize this lack of motivation and compensate for it. But because I was focusing on teaching in the classroom I

-->This semester I am teaching Chamorro Language at UOG for the first team ever. I've taught classes for years in the community, but these are my first official college level classes. I am having lots of fun, even though it is alot of work since I am starting from scratch in many ways. Each week I put together my own handouts with vocab lists and grammar lessons. This past week we went through opposites such as "dikike'" and "dangkolu" or "taianao" and "dangge" and also occupations such as the Chamorro words for judge, runner, lover, thief and soldier. Chamorro occupations is an interest mix because it breaks down to certain words that are borrowed from the Spanish, such as "hues" or "peskadot" that means "judge" and "hunter." There are also older Chamorro terms such as "fafalagu" and "a'afulo'" which means "runner" and "wrestler." Then there ar

I am really looking forward to Django Unchained coming out on DVD so I can make my World History 2 students watch it. Although I'll be showing it to students in a history class, I wouldn't make them watch it because it is the most accurate film. There are several reasons why you might want to show films in a history class. 1. Gagu' hao: You are just lazy and want the films to help fill in the details for things that you yourself should be covering in your class. 2. Ya-mu documentaries: You love documentaries and you think that they are stuffed full of historical details and facts and present them to students in the most direct way possible. 3. Ayu i mas kannu'on: You don't necessarily show documentaries to students but instead popular films, because that is one of the ways they tend to inadvertently consume ideology about history and form their historical understanding. For me the 3rd choice is why I show films in class. Not to show students perfectly hist

I have a Chamorro Sentence email list. Every day or so I send out an email to everyone on the list featuring a basic sentence in Chamorro. You are encouraged to email back a reply to the sentence to either myself or the entire email list. If is entirely up to you how you want to use the list. You can ask yourself the question and then say your response out loud. You can write it down. You can send it to myself or to others and share your response. Hagu la'mon taimanu na mausa este na lista.  Here is the sentence that was sent out today. Chamorro Sentence #99: Hafa i mas ya-mu na fañochuyan Chamorro? or in English: "What is your favorite Chamorro restaurant?" If you are interested in joining the list, please send me your email at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com Otro fino'-ta: For those interested, Chamorro classes at Java Junction will be starting again this Friday,  January 25th at 12 pm. Classes are free and open to everyone and of all skill levels. The more stu

Today in class will be learning about the Wars Against Spain in the early 19th century. It is a period where Spain loses all of its colonies in Latin American (except for the Caribbean) in less than 30 years. In order to understand the roots of those anti-colonial wars we need to understand the indigenous forms of resistance that continued for centuries even after Spain had colonized, converted and enslaved most of Latin America. We'll be learning today about Tupac Amaru II who led an uprising against the Spanish in 1780. Below is a song written by Alejandro Romualdo that I sometimes share with my students. And hunggan, kumayu Si Tupac Amaru yan Si Tupac Shakur. Tupac Shakur was named after Tupac Amaru.  A CHORAL SONG FOR TUPAC AMARU By Alejandro Romualdo Valle Lo harán volar con dinamita. En masa, lo cargarán, lo arrastrarán. A golpes le llenarán de pólvora la boca. Lo volarán: ¡Y no podrán matarlo! They will blow him with dynamite. As on

My weekly Chamorro classes have started again.  They take place each Monday at 2:30 at Java Junction in the Agana Shopping Center. They are free of charge and open to anyone. If you are interested in attending the classes please email me at mlbasquiat@hotmail.com with any questions.

HISTORICAL DISLOYALTIES Wednesday, 18 Apr 2012 BY MICHAEL LUJAN BEVACQUA The Marianas Variety  IN MY Guam History classes when we discuss the Chamorro-Spanish wars of the 17th century, I always see my students torn. In terms of the history itself, as objectively distanced from the present as possible, it is clear who the good guys and bad guys are of the story. For every Chamorro that readily accepted Catholicism, there were dozens or hundreds who resisted Catholicism and believed they should have the right to live as they wished. Although there were atrocities on both sides, in truth the Spanish were aggressors and the Chamorros were legitimately resisting. One had the right to defend themselves, while the other didn’t. Students, Chamorros and non-Chamorros alike are torn because what they see in that war is the messy and complicated birth of the present day. They see the foundation being laid for much of what we accept as being Chamorro or an integral part of

"Historical Scavenger Hunt" Michael Lujan Bevacqua 2/1/12 The Marianas Variety   LAST Saturday I took my Guam History students on a historic scavenger hunt in Hagåtña. Right now, we are at the beginning of the semester and learning some basic ideas about both what Guam is as a place and what the nature of history is as a concept. For this semester I wanted to try out a new approach to introducing students to Guam, and thought that giving them a “self-motivated” tour around the historic sites of Hagåtña in order to find the meaning of a vague set of clues was ideal. I have taken my students to Hagåtña several times before over the years because of the way it provides a very clear example of how history is all about layers. Most people think of history as being something determined by a clear line. What is on one side is the past and what is on the other is the present. It is for that reason that if you ask most people why history is important, they wi