NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Ha'ånen Guinaiya ta'lo gi otro simåna.  Estague un rigålu para todus hamyo guenao huyong ni' manamåntes put guinaiya yan i fino' Chamoru.  Estague na tinige' put courtship yan konstrumbre Chamoru put umakkamo' åntes di gera.  Tinige' este as Illuminada Perez, ni ma'estra gui' gi kinalamten para i nina'la'la' i fino'-ta.  *************************** Kustumbren Chamorro put Inakamo’ By Illuminada Perez   Annai sumuttero pat sumuttera un patgon, mana’eyak i lahi na patgon gumualo’ yan pumeska, parehu ha’ gi saddok pat i tasi, yan mamoksai månnok yan babui. I sottera, mana’eyak manlakse, manganchiyu yan manarekla gi halom guma’. Desde i diesisais años i patgon, ha tutuhun manenteresao put guinaiya yan inakamo’. Yanggen esta ti siña machomma’ i lahi yan i palao’an ni’ u maguaiyan-ñiha, pues i lahi ha sangåni i mañainå-ña para u fanmamaisen saina. Tenga i nana, i tata, i tiha yan i matlina, mañaonao manhånao para i gima’ i

It is a strange paradox in a colony to consider the issue of patriotism and or lack thereof. On the one hand, as a colony you are being discriminated or marginalized in some way that is fundamental to your political relationship. Whether it be massacres and mass exploitation of resources or the creation of rules and laws that disenfranchise you and leave sovereign power over your lives and lands with those thousands of miles away. In this context, patriotism or devotion to the colonizer seems very unlikely in a colony. But this isn't really the case. Although the basis for patriotism is a reciprocal inclusion. It is not simply a unilateral love, but rather the relationship whereby your political love will be rewarded with a set of basic rights or forms of recognition. Despite the inequality or lack of a well-defined circle of recognized belonging, patriotism is still routinely found in the colonies, and even takes on superlative forms. Colonies are structured so that, there

 I've been helping with the organizing of UOG's annual Puengen Minagof Nochebuena celebration for several years now. At first, I found myself very awkwardly participating, as much of the traditions involved, whether it be the praying of the nobena or the singing of Chamorro Christmas songs was foreign to me. I grew up in a home where we didn't make a bilen and certainly didn't go out into the jungle to obtain lumot for it. We sometimes sang some Christmas songs, but they were always in English and I was never really exposed to the exciting array of Chamorro Christmas songs, some of which are translations of popular English tunes (like "Similot" which is the Chamorro version of "Silver Bells") or gof katoliko na kanta siha, or Catholic Chamorro songs that feel like they were penned straight from the quill of Pale' San Vitores himself. As I grew up Seventh-Day Adventist, we didn't pray the nobena either.  Boñelos were a part o

--> Tonight the Chamorro Studies Program through the wonderful work of the Chamorro language instructors at UOG held Puengen Minagof Nochebuena, a night for celebrating Chamorro language and culture in the context of Christmas. The event was a great success, with over 250 community members showing up to see the bilens made by Chamorro classes, to sing along to Chamorro Christmas songs and to taste a dozen different kinds of bonelos. Chamorro language is the most popular language course at the University of Guam. Far more students take it than take Japanese a language that everyone feels has more economic value. But even though it is the most popular language and so many students and community members expect that UOG be a place where the language can be learned and preserved, there is currently no tenured full time faculty who teaches Chamorro. The same goes for the new Chamorro Studies program, which is already doing great work both on campus and off, but has no facu

"We Can't Afford the Pivot" Organizing Notes by Bruce Gagnon   I'm at the Washington airport waiting to fly home.  The three days of meetings on Obama's "pivot" of 60% of US military forces into the Asia-Pacific went very well.  I'll write more about the meetings later on.  For now it's evident that we are building a good national/international working group around the US military strategy to surround and provoke China.  We came up with some good plans to help the peace movement and the broader public get engaged in thinking and talking about this expensive, provocative and dangerous strategy. I was up early this morning and left the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House where I stayed the last three nights.  As I was waiting at the metro stop for it to open at 7:00 am I saw a big rat scurry by.  Then finally on the subway we passed over the river and I was struck by the rusting bridge.  Even the towering Washington monumen

Texas has made my teaching a lot easier lately for a variety of reasons. When trying to talk about Guam's political status, it's experience of the colonial difference, or to use the imagery of Du Bois, its own personal veil, the story of a Chamorro woman who recently attempted to apply for a Federal childcare program for her children, but was rejected on the basis being born on Guam made them not U.S. Citizens. When she confronted the agency about this "mistake," this was the conversation she had with a supervisor. "He laughed about it and said the letter is true and he actually had gone to college and he has never been taught or never had heard anything about Guam existing or even being a territory of the U.S." She later received an apology. Where did this most recent example of the everyday manifestations of Guam's unequal political status in the lives of those who call it home take place? Texas. The rhetoric of Texas Governor Rick Perry in the f