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

Last year a graphic story that I wrote titled "I Sindålu" was published in the creative anthology Pacific Monsters edited by Margret Helgadottir. It was a fun story, that I thankfully got to write in the Chamoru language, with English translations. It tells the story of a Chamoru soldier who is dealing with the trauma of what he experienced while being deployed in a foreign land. He comes home to Guam and live in a ranch at the edge of the jungle, and begins to feel menaced by the spirits of his ancestors, the taotaomo'na. I really liked writing this story and was happy to see it in print, but I am terrible at promoting things, especially if I'm the one who created it ( ai lokkue'). Here is an interview that I did with the website The Future Fire.   ************************* Sunday, 6 May 2018 Interview with Michael Lujan Bevacqua The Future Fire http://press.futurefire.net/2018/05/interview-with-michael-lujan-bevacqua.html May 2018 I n th

My trip to Spain took me through South Korea, where I spent seven hours in the Incheon Airport in Seoul. In the same way that Guam and Okinawa have been connected for years now because of US military plans, so too have Guam and South Korea become connected as well. Guam has been a potential target for North Korea for many years now, as it is one of the most prominent US bases in the region. But over the past year the danger to Guam has become far more pronounced, from both sides of the Pacific. Late last year, North Korean rhetoric became more focused around Guam, far more than it ever had before. The year before that, Donald Trump was elected President of the US, and his foreign policy approach hasn't been very ideologically based, but seems to be rooted in impulsive Twitter tirades. Both of them combined mean that people on Guam have no idea what to think or even worry about next. North Korea is portrayed as a tin pot regime, simply full of bluster one moment, and

War reparations is something that hardly receives much attention anymore. It used to be the issue that could make or break a candidate for delegate in Guam. It was something that people pushed for, and always seemed likely to get in some form, but never materialized. War reparations in the Chamorro context, is about compensation for the atrocities, suffering and destruction that Chamorros experienced during World War II at the hands of occupying Japanese forces. Chamorros did receive some compensation for what had happened in the immediate postwar era, but a commission later determined that they were not given enough information or access to those channels of redress and that further compensation should be awarded. This issue is waning in political importance due to the fact that the war generation is dying out. The number of people who would be eligible for compensation decreases with each year. The impetus is slowly being quashed as time ravages our elders and making the issue ap

The Independence for Guahan Task Force held their second monthly general meeting last week and it was a significant success, with 70 members of the community coming to listen to educational presentations and provide feedback. Here are some media reports on the meeting, both before and after. As you'll read below the educational portion of the evening focused first on security threats to Guam due to it being a strategically important unincorporated territory of the United States. Second, it contained a presentation on Singapore, the first model of an independent nation that Guam can look to in terms of inspiration as it pursues independence itself. Each monthly meeting will feature a new independent nation to analyze and compare. ****************************** Does the US military turn Guam into a regional target? By Timothy Mchenry Pacific News Center September 20, 2016 The topic was chosen after audience members at the first general assembly co

This Friday, December 4th from 6 - 9 pm in the HSS Atrium, the CHamoru Language Classes at UOG are organizing their annual event, Puengen Minagof Nochebuena at the University of Guam. The event is free and open to the public. There will be dancing, singing, the praying of a nobena, a fashion show and meggaigai na bonelos. Here is the flyer for the event, the press release, as well as a short interview I did about the event. ***************** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Puengen Minagof Nochebuena 2015 An evening of Chamorro Christmas Traditions The Division of Humanities, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the University of Guam’s Chamorro Studies Program cordially invite the UOG and Guam community to Puengen Minagof Nochebuena, an evening of Chamorro cultural festivities connected to the holiday season. The celebration will take place on Friday, December 4, 2015 from 6 pm – 9 pm in the Humanities and Social Sciences Building (HSS) Atrium.

The past week has been crazy and the lack of blog posts reflects that. Between parenting, teaching, writing, film-making, play-writing, endless meetings, interviews, and planning for a summer trip, things have been too exhausting and too hectic. I'm going to try and get back on track with my blog posts about my Nicaragua trip over the weekend. In the meantime I wanted to share this interview I did recently for an undergraduate student about the origins of the Chamorro Studies program at UOG, the program I was proud to help create and even more proud to be a part of today. **************** How did the Chamoru Studies program come about? The initial incarnation of the Chamorro Studies program was developed in the School of Education at UOG. The Government of Guam was mandating UOG to train people who were able to teach Chamorro language and culture in schools and the program was developed under Dr. Bernadita Dungca in order to accomplish that. The

At the start of the month I was interviewed by the Marianas Variety on the topic of NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I have participated in this since 2012 and it is the highlight of the later part of the year for  me. The goal is to make it to 50,000 words from November 1st to November 30th. I've done it for the past two years, and I'm struggling to make it this time as well. I lost several days due to curriculum writing (I've already written about 50,000 words in terms of curriculum writing this month). I'm supposed to be at 25,000 words by now, but I'm only at 22,000. I will complete my goal however as the story "The Legend of the Chamurai" that I have been working on for the past three years has to be written and it is exciting to see it take shape each year.  Here is my interview below. ***************** 1. How many years have you participated in NaNoWriMo? This is my third year, I hit the 50,000 mark in

Every week I do a couple interviews, sometimes with media either local, national or international. At least one or two is for research purposes, either for some student working on a project for an undergraduate class or a graduate student working on their masters or Ph.D. Most recently one of my interviews aired as part of a PBS series called "America by the Numbers." The episode was on Guam's percentage of veterans and the poor treatment they often receive in terms of vet care infrastructure by virtue of their being from Guam. I'm not a veteran but was just asked to provide some historical background to help viewers in the states understand why so many Chamorros might join the US military and why people on Guam might get treated like crap by the US Federal government.  For the past few years the majority of the interviews I do are related to decolonization and political status issues for Guam. A case in point is the interview below, that I g