NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Fanhokkåyan is my series where I share articles, writings and other documents from some of my previous websites, most notably the Kopbla Amerika/Chamorro Information Activist website and Minagahet Zin e. The one I'm sharing today is an intriguing one, as it represents a piece that helped shape alot of my own perceptions as an early activist about Chamorro issues, in particular their relationship to colonial legacies. This piece, which I co-wrote with a friend of mine at the time, built off the idea of "soul wound" a theory that was first popularized in considering the contemporary place of Native Americans in relation to their historical (or continuing) trauma. It is far too easy for us to argue that we shouldn't be stuck in the past by recounting how Chamorros have been hurt by colonizers, that is a common interpassive point. In truth, we need to recount it and we need to understand it, most importantly so that we can change things today, so that we can reshape th

Chamorros and others from Guam pushing for the island's decolonization first began visiting the United Nations in the early 1980s. This was after witnessing the United Nations and their role in assisting the other islands in Micronesia in their decolonization, and noticing that Guam and the Chamorro people were being left behind. A visiting mission from the United Nations to Guam in 1979 helped connect the local struggles to the larger international community, where such conversations about independence and self-governance were not taboo, but rather normal and more importantly, necessary.  Part of the postwar strategy of the United States was to develop the islands in Micronesia into a buffer zone, to put space between its potential enemies in Asia. This meant prioritizing for two decades the military interests of the US over the interests or desires of the people in the region. This manifested most clearly in the form of security clearance requirements for those coming in and

The late French philosopher Jacques Derrida referred to “justice” as a term we use for impossible things. It is a word that we use for things that we can’t ever seem to resolve, about the problems of the past and the present. When a wrong is committed, justice is the word we use for things done in the name of fixing the problems that emerge from that violence, from that harm. But there is no precise science to justice, no easy way to agree upon what is the appropriate means of making amends for something. Criminal justice systems, restorative justice, reparations, apologies, these are all ways that we try to channel the trauma of the past. There is no equation for justice equivalence. Whatever happens in the name of justice will either be too much or too little. It cannot replace what was taken away, or those who have to give up something in the name of past wrongs will insist that they shouldn’t have to sacrifice for the sins of others. But the conversation and the process of de

Someone once told me that Nicaragua is a land of wounds. If Latin America is a land of open veins, Nicaragua is a land of wounding after wounding. Since becoming independent from Spain in the early 19th century, it has gone through regular periods of social upheaval and repression, generally with the United States playing some form of oppressor. In the 1850's a US mercenary and would be monarch William Walker took over the country and re-instituted slavery. Although the US government didn't necessarily fund and organize his private imperial venture, they recognized his facade of a government, as it would be one where they were certain it would follow their interests. Walker was expelled by a coalition of local Central American leaders who all detested the power that the United States and its economic and military emissaries tended to wield over their local affairs. As the United States saw Latin America as their sphere of influence, they closely monitored any potential inte

(The image is from Pongsona, which hit Guam in 2002) Matto yan ma'pos esta Si Bavi.  Guam had yet another pakyon chotda this weekend. "Banana typhoon" is a term that people in the Pacific often use to refer to a storm that had some winds, some rain but wasn't too damaging or dangerous.  It has been more than ten years since the last super typhoon hit Guam and about 10 years since the last typhoon-strength typhoon hit Guam.  Most of my students haven't been through real typhoon before or only remember ones when they were very young. They are used to the pakyon chotda we've had for the past few years where classes are cancelled but ultimately the power and internet stay on. They have become the equivalent of island snow days.  In all my classes this week we talked about how people had weathered the storm, and some ha d stories of tin roofing flying, trees getting knocked over and some losing power for the night. The last pakyon chotda had some fl

I am always intrigued at the way American critiques of Japan often time focus on the way that Japanese conservatives are always seeking to erase of minimize sexual slavery during World War II. The women that were forced into sexual slavery across the empire Japan was seeking to create have a tragically complex ideological function. They are on the one hand discursive means through which the nations formerly colonized by Japan reassert their national power. The bodies of those violated women become the means through which a very masculine national honor can be regained. For the Japanese themselves, they are part of their former colonial past that they struggle to both erase but also deal with. For the conservative part of Japan they are something that is tied to the masculinity of the nation. Part of the way the nation was once allowed to act. Part of the way that, for those conservative sectors, it should not have to apologize for. They do not want to erase the sins of the past, but

The film American Sniper has been gaining so much attention lately, because of its new blockbuster status, the ethnic and racial hatred that it is stimulating and also the way it is leading to both a challenging and also a lionizing of the American soldier through the figure of sniper Chris Kyle. Bradley Cooper, who plays Kyle in the film recently came out in defense of the film, noting that if you have problems with the political aspects of war, blame the politicians, the ones who make the decisions to send troops into war. Don't blame the troops who suffer because of those fights. This of course makes sense to most people. The politicians are corrupt, they are the ones you can blame, but the soldier, the self-sacrificing warrior should remain untouchable. They didn't choose to go to war, they just obeyed orders and did what their country told them to do. But this defense of the film leads to the natural problem of dealing with the morality of conduct if a war is not justi

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