NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

A few weeks ago I was taking one of my English classes on a short tour around the historic central area of Hagatna. We walked from Angel Santos Memorial Latte Stone Park, through the Plaza de Espana and finally to Skinner Plaza. The point was for students to see the ways in which history is layered upon itself. You can see this in the way the Spanish part of Hagatna is also filled with American history in the way the American came to occupy the same colonial place, even to the point of remaking the primary buildings, such as the palace, in small ways to make it fit their tastes or their mission in Guam. But beneath all of that there is also the history prior to colonialism. It still emerges in so many ways, most of which swing between being overly visible to barely perceptible. Angel Santos Memorial Latte Stone Park is one such place. As both the Plaza de Espana and Skinner's Plaza seem to exist to glorify the colonizers of Guam, the Park seems to attempt to signify something els

In 1999, I had my first ever one-man exhibition of my paintings. It was a show of about 40 small abstract pieces that I had made while I was an undergraduate at UOG. The title of the show as Typhoon: An Island’s Intensity, because of the sheer intensity and fury that some noticed in what were otherwise very tiny images. Fihu annai i manamko’ siha, ma atan i pinenta-ku (taiguihi gi i fine’nina na fina’nu’i-hu), ma alok na “atmario” enao. In 2001, I had my second one-man show titled “ Matan I Kuttura-ta Siha ” or The Faces of Our Culture. This show featured 30 or so, large “abstract portraits.” They were portraits of famous figures from Guam history, and all painted in a Jackson Polluck drip style of painting, where the paint isn’t so much applied delicately with brushes, but rather splashed, splattered and dripped onto the canvas. The result is usually very abstract, but in the case of this show, I used that technique to try and portray different pioneers amongst the Chamorro people.

For those who don't know, the word "chumilong" is Chamorro for "to become equal." One of the most interesting things to come out of the DEIS comment period and the flurry of activist activity that has taken place, is that after four long and frustrating years, the media does actually start to treat the buildup is an issue which has more than one side. For years, the Pacific Daily News set the tone making primary any positive information related to the buildup and generally minimizing any possible negative issues. The Marianas Variety to its credit often has problems talking about an issue in a very full or complete way. They tend to give one side of the story in most of their pieces, and then another completely different story in another piece. Part of this comes from their regular printing of press releases. In general though, the buildup, even if it has "some questions or concerns" there was still this impression that it was nearly all good, and t

Last month I had the privilege of meeting peace and US demilitarization activist Ann Wright while she was in Guam meeting with the group Codepink Osaka . I got to attend the meeting, where they not only talked about what is going on in Japan right now, but also wanted to hear more of the stories of Guam and Chamorros and their particular struggles against US militarization. The meeting was an interesting one, as translators were used and made communication difficult, but it was still an exciting experience for me. Meeting Ann Wright was a great pleasure. She is someone who I'd seen interviewed on Cable News, read plenty about on the internet and long admired for her willingness to not only speak out against the Iraq War, but even go so far as to resign from her position in the United States State Department after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. The years since the Iraq War started have been filed with plenty of retired military or diplomatic officers from the US, who now

A little less than two weeks before I defend my dissertation. Sumahi and I are heading to San Diego this morning to prepare for my defense and graduation. For those of you who have been interested in what my dissertation is about, and I haven't been able to tell you, or told you I would tell you later. Here's the fragment that I've written to introduce it. ******************************* GUAM! Where the Production of America’s Sovereignty Begins! Tinituhun This title might seem odd for a number of reasons. It collapses, or causes a collision between, a number of different concepts that many might not be familiar with, or feel go together. First we have Guam, a colony of the United States, or as it is more formally known, a territory or a dependency of it. Then we have the United States, which most likely needs no introduction, but the reference to its sovereignty might cause a few eyebrows to be raised. Sovereignty can refer to many things, but generally deals with nat

I'm writing a section of my dissertation right now on the narrative that Guam "has no culture." This has led me around the internet looking for different articles from travel magazines and the notorious Lonely Planet guide that discusses Guam as a horrible place to visit, with nothing on the island of interest except the world's largest K-Mart. As I often tell people on Guam, you may feel all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings for the United States or for Americans, but stroll around the internet for a bit and visit the blogs or pages of people sent to work on Guam or stationed on Guam and you'll find an aircraft-carrier-load of negative and nasty comments. If you think that Sherry from Myspace was bad, or that Mike Ogle's trash from ESPN.com was racist, then you have to read the comments and testimonials below from the website, Virtual Tourist. The section was " Guam Warnings or Dangers " and is full of people who call Guam "hell" and think o

On January 30th, 2009 the remains of 88 Ancient Chamorros which were discovered and unearthed during the remodeling of the Fiesta Hotel in Tumon were re-interned at a small monument near the hotel's parking lot. The monument was small, and contained several spelling errors in the Chamorro text used in it. In many ways it was a sad and pathetic commentary on the treatment of ancient remains in Tumon over the past thirty years. Development there and around the island has disturbed an unknown number of sites of Ancient villages, and in most cases the construction companies never reveal what they've found. Those who do or those who get caught however usually end up creating some sort of small, token memorial. I wrote about this issue last year for GU Magazine, in an article titled " Searching for a Slingstone ." For that piece I was writing specifically about the expansion at the Okura Hotel, which had disturbed the remains of 350 Ancient Chamorros, and a small scandal