NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Since 2003 I have had a number of uneven traditions associated with this blog. Many of these have dissipated as I have used this blog less and less, but a few I have continued to hold on to. One of the longest held traditions is "Happy US Imperialism Day!" It started as a thinking piece while I was working on my Master's Thesis in Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam. I had spent a few years reading as much as I could about Guam History. I had interviewed hundreds of elders born prior to World War II, who had experienced Japanese occupation. I had even begun working for Puerto Rican filmmaker Frances Negron-Muntaner on a documentary that would later become War for Guam. I was also spending time with activists of every stripe on Guam, trying to talk to anyone who I could find who had long been critical of the things I was just starting to learn about the historical and contemporary realities of the Chamoru people.  I was encountering the history and the present of

I first wrote an article "Happy US Imperialism Day Guam!" about 16 years ago. It was published in Minagahet Zine and later on this blog when I began it soon after. The writing of this article originally was a very formative experience. Part of it eventually became my Masters Thesis in Micronesian Studies. But I also wrote it at a time when I was first trying to find a way to become more public about my critiques and writing letters to the editor of the Pacific Daily News and creating websites/blogs were some of the obvious choices. This article was written when the second Iraq War was only eight months old and the War in Afghanistan was over two years old. It was written at a time when I was feeling frustrated over the deaths of the first few Chamorros in Iraq, Christopher Rivera Wesley being the first. As I said, it was also written at a time when I was first working on developing a critical consciousness and a public voice in terms of writing and philosophy. I had been

The other day Independent Guåhan's held it's April teach-in at UOG, this time with a focus on "democratizing the media." The discussion focused on Guam's media landscape and ways that community members can create alternative means of educating or informing people on island about pertinent issues. For years I ran a number of different forms of alternative media, such as blogs, websites, podcasts and even a zine called Minagahet. From 2003-2010 I, and sometimes others ed ited a zine which focused on Chamorro issues from a critical and largely progressive perspective. You can still find it online, although the last issue was released during the DEIS comment period in early 2010. The name Minagahet which means "truth" came from a comment that a friend of mine had written on a message board many many years ago. It was an exchange with some Chamorros who felt that decolonization was stupid and impossible. My friend had written a long response see

Gof malåte' si Rachel Maddow. Gi este na pakyo' taihinasso. Hu sen agradesi i minalate'-ña. Mana'annok este gi primet na attikulu. Ti ha tatitiyi i hemplon i otro na media. Kada kumuentos si Trump. Ya ha na'annok ta'lo i tinaimamahlao-ña. Yan mabababa i ilu-ña. I otro media, ma tatiyias i take'-ña. Kulang puyitos gi lancho. Ma kekekånno' todu i papet etgue-ña Twitter. Lao si Rachel ti ha cho'cho'gue ayu. Mas tahdong i chine'gue-ña. Ha cho'cho'gue' i diposti i che'cho'-ña i journalist.  Ha kekena'famta i minaghaet. Yan ha na'annok i manmana'attok ni' i manakhilo'. ******************** Rachel Maddow on How She Doubled Viewership Under Trump: 'I Stopped Covering the Twitter Feed' by Brian Flood March 3, 2017 The Wrap MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” has been on a roll, posting her best ratings month ever in February and nearly doubling her viewership. Her

The Guam Museum is open in Hagåtña. Well it is sort of and kind of open. The permanent exhibit text, which I have been helping write for several years now isn't complete, although a temporary exhibit about the history of the Guam Museum has been set up in the meantime. It is strange to have the structure, the physical building finished and mostly ready, but still the museum itself, the story or i hinanao-ta, that it is supposed to represent isn't quite ready. While going through some of my old files on my computer I noted (and was reminded) that Guam didn't have a museum for quite a while. I recall visiting the museum as a young child at the Plaza de Espana and also at Adelup, but for most of my life there has been no national museum on Guam. When my kids were first born, the museum was, interestingly enough just a little annex in the Micronesian Mall that few people even knew existed. The discussion over a museum has been underway for a very long time, although it pains

Recently some people started sharing some articles on Facebook from old websites that I used to run such as The Chamorro Information Activists and Minagahet Zine. When I went back to read over some of what they shared, I could feel waves of nostalgia washing over me. These were the days when I was first starting as an activist and working with others for the first time, organizing things and trying to develop our ideas. I cringe when I read some of it because my positions have changed or I have learned more about certain topics. I've decided to start up a new recurring post series on this blog called "Fanhokkayan" or "Collection." Since these websites are no longer active, no longer being actively updated, they sit there online, and are occasionally visited by students conducting research for their papers. I worry sometimes that at some point they will disappear and they provide an interesting snapshot of Chamorro issues at a particular moment in my life and