NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

“I Pilan Yanggen Sumåhi…” by Michael Lujan Bevacqua Marianas Variety 11/2/11 Many people have asked me why I would name my column “When the Moon Waxes.” The simple answer is, I pilan yanggen sumåhi…which in English translates to “when the moon waxes.” These are my favorite words from a famous old Chamorro love song called “Dalai Nene.” The word “sumåhi” always stuck with me. It shares the same root word “såhi” with another well known word on Guam now, “sinahi.” This word is most famous as the Chamorro men’s necklace made of hima shell, but is also the word for “new moon.” The tragic lyrics combined with the imagery of the moon stuck with me so, influencing me to name my first child Sumahi. Like many cultures, the moon has been very important to Chamorros, especially in helping mark the passage of time throughout the year. The Ancient Chamorro calendar had 13 months, one for each moon. In the naming of their months, they noted that different moons symbolized different ideal mome

If anyone out there ever wants some quick insight into what I am like as an academic or a teacher, you simply have to remember that before I became an academic, an activist or a professor, I was an artist. So no matter what I am writing, what class I am teaching or what I am researching, there is always this festering, Duchampish, avant garde impulse to either push some boundaries or to infuse some creativity. So for instance, I am currently teaching three English composition classes at the University of Guam. Its something I never imagined teaching, and to tell you the truth, there isn't much about it that I've enjoyed (although the job ( yan i salape) is appreciated), but I still find ways to make my pedagogy or what I'm teaching match my instincts as an artist. Sometimes this has gotten me into trouble, thankfully, no serious trouble yet, but enough irritating little spats to ensure that I never want to teach English at UOG again. But to give you an example of my desir

If I don't post for a few days, its not because nothing is going on. Its because I started teaching again this week at UOG and it means I still haven't finished my syllabi for my five classes. Puede ha' para bai hu na'funhayan todu, yan puede ha' lokkue' este na semester maolekna kinu i ma'pos.

Este i ettimon na post-hu para este na såkkan, pues mandisidi yu’ na este na post teneki tahdong yan dongkålu. As the last post of the year, I thought I’d make it big, deep and personal. The image above is from the manga Berserk . As you can guess just from this image alone it is a fairly violent manga, with plenty of blood, guts, gore, depravity, etc. But every once in a while, when the main character (featured above) Guts is particularly enraged and actually does go berserk, the artist Kentaro Miura will draw a simple but ghastly image. These images set the tone for the carnage that follows. It is for this reason that they are almost more violent then the actual depictions of creatures and people being sliced in half. The stark black and white image, has a way of not only powering up the images that follow, but the reader as well, preparing their gaze, communicating through what are sometimes the most simplistic of images, the pure, sublime emotion that is about to be released. Som

The media on Guam seems obsessed with the conflict of interest represented by Matt Rector being both a Senator in the Legislature and the President of the Guam Federation of Teachers . I don't see anything inherently wrong with this inquiry, it is something which can be questioned and should be looked at, but I think its almost hysterical how narrow or selective the idea of "conflict of interest" is in this case, (and the way it is usually conceived of). In any community, the ideological glue that holds it together will always mark the interests of some as being a conflict or something which will taint the governance of said community, whereas a myriad of other equally or more dangerous interests will go unnoticed, or worse yet, be seen as essential or positive. So in this case, the idea that a Senator is the President of a labor union on Guam becomes the ultimate sin, whereas the fact that various businessmen on island have repeatedly obstructed legislation or passed l

Despensa yu', but there probably won't be much on this blog for the next few days. I'm starting teaching at UOG in a few hours and so things will be crazy as I finalize my syllabi (syllabuses) and try to familiarize myself with how to teach English Composition ( in addition to the Guam History classes I'm teaching). I will be back soon though, as there is simply too much going on out there, to not be writing and blogging about it!