NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I have been working for about two years now on a social studies textbook for UOG Press. This is a part of a project that aims to create locally and regionally focused social studies textbooks for each elementary school grade. In the past there have been a few different social studies textbooks, but often times they were aimed at multiple grades or were focused more on Guam History as opposed to being solid social studies texts. This project is exciting and challenging on many levels.  The grade I am working on is fourth grade, which is fortunate for me, since it is the grade when students are supposed to get their first focused taste of Guam History. It is, gi minagahet, very exciting. I get to use everything from Guam History, to Chamoru language, to legends and local parables to get students connected to the world around them and understand how to be an effective, productive and critical part of your community.  In the first two units, one thing that I have tried to use alot of are l

Two poems written by the late Angel L.G. Santos while he was in US federal prison in the year 2000. I will write more on them another time, but for now, let them stand here as a testament to who he was and the times in which he lived, and also, how he helped to affect the course of Chamoru and Guam history up until today. ************************ Who Are We To Uncle Sam – Friend or Foe? (by Angel Leon Guerrero Santos) As I pen this poem, while I sit in prison, For you silence my voice, in the American tradition; Who are we Uncle Sam, are we friend or foe? If we are your friend, then treat us as so; Our land and our water, the air God giveth,  You came to our island, and then you taketh; We have drinking water, at Fena Lake you will find, You want us to pay “Now!”, cause it’s no longer mine; Our language and our culture, is 4,000 years old, You pass your own laws, “No More!” we are told; We live and we learn, you say we are one, You build y

The United Nations is a strange beast in Guam in turns of its place in the movement for decolonization. Prior to the failure of Commonwealth in 1997, the UN was always a quiet force in the background, but held little authority or played a very minor role in the consistency of arguments or political positions. Even when Chamorro activists were successful in getting people on Guam to recognize the Chamorro people as being indigenous, even though activists were successful in defeating a Constitutional movement on Guam, which would have trapped the island within an American framework, and both of these things rely heavily on discourses which find great potency in the UN and its history, they were not strongly international movements. The UN itself, although still a quiet presence on Guam, is still interpreted in a very American framework, and so regardless of how Guam's relationship to the UN is fundamentally different (it is a non-self-governing territory), people here tend to see

If you look at pictures of Chamorros a hundred years ago, we look markedly different today. I do not mean in terms of skin color and so on, but I mean in terms of size. If you look at images of Chamorros a century ago there are some who look healthy and comfortable in their size, but most, especially men are quite skinny. Descriptions of Ancient Chamorros allude to them being a bit on the larger side, healthy, but slightly overweight. A happy and comfortable plumpness.  Chamorros today are a very large and very unhealthy people. Some of this can be blamed on environmental factors, such as poisons in the land and sea due to militarization. It can also be blamed on the diets of people today, which are a combination of poor health choices but also structural conditions that go all the way back to the end of World War II and the drastic changes that took place in the Chamorro way of life. Chamorros are not unique in this regard but it is a tragic story we find across the Pacific, wher

Below is the joint statement from all the delegates who attending the International Forum during the 2011 Japan Peace Conference last month in Okinawa.As delegates came from around the Pacific and Asia, each area has a separate paragraph which deals with their particular issues. You can see some of the concerns that I raised in my earlier Okinawa Dreams post on Nationalism and Solidarity however. While this statement lays out a clear map of solidarity, the question always remains, how do these ties become more than strands of knowledge or awareness of things? When do they become imbued with power? *********************** International Forum Joint Communique For a US-Base-Free, Nuclear-Free and Peaceful Asia-Pacific without Military Bases Japan Peace Conference Okinawa Nov. 24-25, 2011 The International Forum “For a Nuclear Weapon-Free Peaceful Asia-Pacific without Military Bases - Solidarity among Okinawa, Guam and Asia-Pacific” was sponsored jointly by Japan Peace Commi

I have been writing all week about how we can see similarities or connections between Guam and Okinawa, some of which have nothing to do with the transfer of US Marines from one island to the other. While visiting the protest camp for those opposing the construction of new US helipad facilities in Takae Forest in Northern Okinawa, I found yet another connection. The image above comes from a protest painting that was at the campsite in Takae. Even prior to visiting this area, I had seen this bird all over the place. It was featured in tourist literature, in advertising, and in posters for activist material or protests. For those on Guam, this bird should look somewhat familiar. On Guam we call this type of bird ko'ko , which in English is known as a rail. Ti gekpu este na klasin paluma, ya achokka' estaba meggai na paluma giya Guahan, i trahi-na uniku. Manggekpu i meggaina na klasin paluma guini, lao i ke'ko yan i sasangat i dos mas annok na ti gekpu. In Okinawa they re