NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Fanohge Coalition Announces Delegate and New Senatorial  Candidate Virtual Forums in August   The Fanohge Coalition, which is comprised of 37 community organizations, was recently formed in the hopes of promoting the issues of CHamoru self-determination and political status change in the 2020 Guam election. It is the hope of the Coalition, that the elected leaders of Guam be knowledgeable about and engage seriously in changing Guam’s political status and pursuing just redress for the CHamoru people. In early August the Fanohge Coalition will be holding two virtual forums, one for those running to be Guam’s non-voting representative to the US Congress and one for the non-incumbent candidates seeking election to  I Liheslaturan Guåhan.  The tentative dates are as follows:               Congressional Delegate Candidate Forum – August 5 th , 10 am.              Non-Incumbent Senatorial Candidate Forum – August 6 th , 10 am.   Both forums will be livestreamed on the Fanohge Coalition’s Face

I felt like I've written a hundred press releases this year, most of them for the Independence for Guåhan Task Force, but plenty of others for the Chamorro Studies Program at UOG. I've been meaning to post them here just to easily archive them, especially for when I apply for promotion to UOG in the coming year. It is intriguing, because what made me think of this tonight, was a column written today by Paul Zerzan in the Guam Daily Post. It discusses how the Chamorro language is a dead language. It isn't very well-written and its argument is incredibly poor on almost all possible levels. Part of it hinges on him describing an anecdote whereby a Chamorro cultural event planned in 1993 was attended by only himself, therefore clearly proving the language being dead. What struck me as bewildering about this particular portion of his argument, was that on a regular basis I attend and organize (ko'lo'lo'ña gi UOG) Chamorro events that hundreds of people att

My personal metric for determining candidates who get my vote boils down to these three things: 1. Do they speak Chamorro? 2. Are they supportive of Chamorro language, culture and rights? 3. Do they support decolonization and are they open to considering independence as a political status for Guam? This election there are fewer Chamorro speakers than ever, especially at the senatorial level. But that's why I was grateful that so many candidates ( such as those in these images) were willing to participate in a Chamorro language forum where they used the Chamorro language in their responses even if it was difficult for them. I've also been impressed with the number of candidates who are expressing an openness to decolonization and the possibilities of Guam becoming independent. Biba Ha'anen Botasion! Biba Chamorro! Biba Guåhan!

Hu gof agradesi i sinaonaon este na kandidatu gi i Inadaggao Lengguahen Chamoru gi ma'pos na simana. Mas ki dos siento na taotao manannok ya ma ekungok este na ocho mamfino' Chamomorro put diferentes takhilo' na asunto gi kumunidåt-ta på'go. Hu nå'i este siha dångkolu na respetu. Magof hu na bei anunsia na in kekeotganisa un otro na dinanña' taiguni para i otro'ña na simåna. Siempre bei na'huyong i infotmasion på'go pat agupa'. Biba Chamorro! Biba Chamorro Studie gi UOG! Si Yu'os Ma'ase to the candidates who participated in the Inadaggao Lengguahen Chamoru held last week at the University of Guam and organized by students from t he Chamorro Studies Program. They are from left to right in this photo: Senator Tom Ada, Senator Rory Respicio, Senator Dennis Rodriguez, Joe San Agustin, Wil Castro, Fernando Esteves, Eric Palacios and Senator Mary Torres. Due to the community response, a second Chamorro language forum may be sch

Tomorrow is the Inadaggao Lengguahen Chamoru at UOG. The forum for senatorial candidates in the Chamorro language will begin at 6 pm in the CLASS Lecture Hall. See my column below for more information on why it is important.   ************** Breathe life in the Chamorro language Michael Lujan Bevacqua Pacific Daily News October 6, 2016   From 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 10 at the University of Guam  CLASS Lecture Hall, students in the Chamorro Studies program will organize an “Inadaggao Lengguahen Chamoru” or a Chamorro Language Forum. For this event, four senatorial candidates from each political party will be asked questions in the Chamorro language about pertinent island issues, and respond in the Chamorro language. The event is open to the public and refreshments will be provided. Nowadays it is easy to forget that there are two official languages for this island, Chamorro and English. One of them has been here for a little over a century, the other for thousands of

Six years ago under the guidance of Peter Onedera, the Chamorro language program at UOG held a Chamorro Language Forum, in which senatorial and gubernatorial candidates were asked questions in Chamorro about pertinent island issues. It was on one hand a great success. Students asked hundreds of questions to the candidates in the Chamorro language. But on the other hand, the format of the forum made it so that candidates didn't have to speak in Chamorro, they could just respond in English. I assisted Peter Onedera with these forums both as a student and a professor at UOG, and so I found it on the one hand inspiring to see a place where the Chamorro language was the focus for political discourse. But it was also so depressing to see so many leaders and would-be leaders not even trying to speak Chamorro, even though they were given the questions ahead of time and could have prepared answers. Fast forward six years and through my Chamoru Culture class at UOG, we have decided to br

I started a website five years ago titled " Fino' Chamoru na Inadaggao " meaning a forum for debating or discussing the Chamorro language. This was initially mean to be a website that would support a series of Chamoru Language Senatorial forums held during the 2010 Guam election. From October 19th - 21st that year, all the Guam Legislature hopefuls were invited to a forum where they would be asked questions in the Chamorro language and be encouraged to respond in the Chamorro language. Now as you might imagine/know, in 2010 and 2015 the overwhelming majority of local politicians, including those who are Chamorro, cannot speak the Chamorro language. Because of this, each participant was given the question ahead of time, so as to allow them time to translate the questions and prepare their answers in either English or Chamorro. Candidate were also allowed to have interpreters on stage with them, sitting behind them in case they had trouble following along or remembering w