NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Every week I get at least one request for an interview, several requests each week for information related to Guam history or the Chamoru language. Sometimes the requests can become a bit much, as I'm not able to get back to everyone. And sometimes I've responded to people close to a year later (ai lokkue'). But if I had more time I would respond to everyone I could, since the knowledge that I have or have access to, is useless unless there are ways it can get out to others.  After I gave a guest lecture in an English rhetoric class last year, one of the students contacted me asking for some help on understanding Hagåtña and its contemporary and historical place in Guam. I appreciated her wanting to know more about a village that most everyone takes for granted nowadays on Guam. So I wrote up responses to her 8 questions. Here they are below. ******************** 1. What makes Hagatna unique from other villages?  What makes Hagåtña unique is that because

5 Bad Ass Japanese American Women Activists You Probably Didn't Learn About in History Class Densho Blog by Nina Wallace March 15, 2016 Since history tends to sideline the central role so many women played in the major social movements of the 20th century, here’s a little herstory lesson about five women warriors whose incarceration during World War II inspired them to fight back–some more widely known than others, all supremely talented and fierce activists who nuh care if them hurt hurt hurting your stereotypes about quiet, submissive Asian women. 1. Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga The redress movement owes a lot to Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga. A hardworking single mom, after the war she resettled in New York, where she became assistant director of a public health organization providing, as she put it, “education about venereal diseases.” (They had to call it “social health” though, cuz, you know, think of the children!) In the 1960s, she joined

My son Akli'e' has not quite learned yet how to deal with disappointment. When he says "Malago' yu este" and he doesn't receive it, no matter how small or trivial, he'll often pout and cry. Sumahi and I take alot of joy in scolding him in the weirdest way, by singing a Rolling Stone's lyric to him translated into Chamorro. The song? "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and what we sing to him is "Ti sina un chule' todu i malago'-mu" or sometimes "Ti sina un risibi todu i malago'-mu!" ******************* Everyday when we are driving home, the kids and I pass by the airport. There are plenty of ways to say "airport" in Chamorro if you don't want to just make airport sound Spanish to make it Chamorro. It depends primarily on what aspect of the airport you want to emphasize in how you name it. Chamorro has a circumfix known as "fan...'an." You put the fan at the f

When the military buildup was first announced, I remember people speaking so positively about the idea that "Guam could be just like Hawai'i." That the buildup would usher in such a period of fantastic ti hongge'on na economic prosperity that we would move to the next level of our island existence, becoming Hawai'i! Guam has long imagined Hawai'i as a greater, better, more American and more prosperous version of itself. People from Guam have long passed through or visited Hawai'i and understood it not through the lens of a fellow Pacific Island, and a fellow occupied island, but rather as that fantasy American space. Hawai'i is rich because America has fantasies about it, and because it has such a large, famous tourist industry. People imagined that Guam becoming like Hawai'i, would mean that all the superficial and largely meaningless things that you see when you visit a place as a tourist, or as a clueless subject of American empire would manif

I’m an avid fan of the television show House M.D ., whose main character Gregory House, is a brilliant doctor who can sometimes diagnose people by simply looking at them for a moment, but who is also a misanthrope, someone who detest people, even the patients he saves. For him each disease is a puzzle to be solved and so who the person is, matters only in terms of helping him cure the illness, and so House is generally rude and sometimes cruel to his patients, as their feelings are irrelevant, since all that matters is solving why they are sick. In the second season he is asked by a patient, why he became a doctor since he clearly hates humans. House evades the question at first, but later recounts a story of when his family was stationed in Japan and a friend of his was hurt hiking: When I was 14, my father was stationed in Japan. I went rock-climbing with this kid from school. He fell got injured and I had to bring him to the hospital. And we came in through the wrong entrance a

I’m feeling depressed this month. Tinemba yu’ gi este na mes. I spent the last year trying to get a permanent job at UOG and got nothing despite applying for several positions. Right now I’m teaching part time at UOG this month to get by, but come August, I won’t have a full-time job but will still have two kids to support, credit card debt to appease and a mountain of student loan debt that is always mahalang for my salape’. I’m spending the month of July trying to line up some full-time work for decent pay, but haven’t found anything certain yet. This is especially so when I’m watching a movie and some fantastic, but old pop or rock song comes on, and I’m tempted to start singing along with the soundtrack of the movie. I used to do that, but movies have a way of chopping up or rearranging a song to make it fit and so its really really embarrassing when you are the only person in a theater yelling along to a song and it cuts out, but you keep belting it out for a few embarrassing se

I called in sick today because I had a horrible migraine last night, the kind which basically incapacitates me for a few hours. I get feverish, weak, very sensitive to light, I have trouble focusing when looking at my laptop and my mind races and sometimes I feel like I can't control it. These atdet na malinek ilu-hu siha happen every couple of months, so while I'm used to them happening, while they are happening, they are not fun. Today, I'm trying to take it slow, I'm going to try and see a doctor about getting some stronger amot para este na klasin chetnot. As I'm tossing and turning in bed with this migraine, I have my laptop on to live coverage of the "historic" health care reform vote that is going on right now in the US House of Representatives. Obviously I'm not in any state of mind to write about this now, but I just thought I'd post something about the vote below. ******************************* The Final Health Care Vote and What i