NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

In February,  Adolf Sgambelluri or "Sgamby" as many knew him, passed away. He leaves behind a long legacy of accomplishments. To name a few, he was a war survivor, a decorated Vietnam Vet, a GCC Vice President and a Guam Police Chief.     When I was a graduate student in Micronesian Studies at UOG, close to 20 years ago, and I was asking my grandparents who would be great to interview for oral history, about prewar life, war experiences, anything, we made long lists of people we could visit. Sgamby was on that list.    When we visited him however, he wasn’t the focus, but rather his father. Adolfo Camacho Sgambelluri had played a sort of double agent role, while working for the Japanese as a police officer, trying to minimize where he could their violent impact on the lives of Chamorus. I also learned from that visit that we were related with his mother being a close relative to my great-grandfather. Sgamby was eager to tell his father’s story since some up til this day don’t

10 years ago the cultural arts group Inetnon Gefpågo premiered "Fanhasso, Fanhita, Fanachu" a musical journey through Guam History and Chamorro issues written by Michael Lujan Bevacqua and Victoria Leon Guerrero, with choreography by Vince Reyes. The musical was directed by Clifford Guzman. The cast was made up of island youth in the group Inetnon Gefpågo.  Next Tuesday, December 8th, Inetnon Gefpågo and Independent Guåhan are holding a webinar to reflect back on the 10 years anniversary of this performance, which eventually was transformed into the play Pågat in 2014.  The webinar will be live on the Facebook pages of Independent Guåhan and Inetnon Gefpågo from 10 am - noon on December 8th. To say that I'm excited about this webinar would be an understatement. I am elated to the point where words are starting to fall short of expression.  The musical Fanhasso... was something I worked on with Victoria less than a year after starting teaching at UOG full-time and finish

  Every week I get sometimes a few, sometimes quite a few requests for information, for interviews, for assistance. I am not a very well-organized person and so sometimes these requests fall through the cracks, and I miss them. But for the most part I try to accommodate as many people as I can. I recall that if I can help someone in their research, finish a paper, gain some perspective for their thesis or even provide a key quote or insight for their article, it could help put Guam or Chamoru issues in a more critical light, and it may push someone, tied to the island, to be more engaged about things important to me (and hopefully to them).  It is always nice to look back and see if I did have an impact, albeit even a small one on someone's perspective or even the course of their intellectual journey. A few months ago, I was a guest speaker for a college course focusing on cultural diversity in psychology. I talked about my experiences growing up Chamoru, but also not very stereoty

The Fanohge Coalition formed earlier this year in part as a way of continuing the energy that was captured during last year's Fanohge: March for CHamoru Self-Determination. So far the group has written letters to elected leaders, organized forums and is planning to also send out a candidate survey this month. The Fanohge Coalition is made up of 37 different groups, and represents a wide swatch of Guam society. There are political status task forces, non-profits, small businesses and cultural organizations. Some are more conservative, some are more progressive. All are united however by the idea that the Chamoru people deserve to be treated with dignity in their own land and part of that is protecting their right to self-determination. Another unifying aspect to the coalition is the belief that Guam's political status should be changed to something more equitable. The coalition isn't untied by any particular options, but believes that a new status where Guam and its communit

In light of COVID-19, Independent Guåhan moves their annual Na’lå’la’ concert on air and online this Saturday on KUAM For Immediate Release, July 8, 2020 –  Since 2017, each July Independent Guåhan has hosted a free concert,  “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom.” This event is a chance for the community to connect to conscious and empowering messages for social change and decolonization through music, poetry, art and dance. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to social distance, this year’s concert is going online and on-air.  Independent Guåhan invites the community to tune in Saturday, July 11 th  from 7 to 10 pm on KUAM TV 8 for “Na’lå’la’: Songs of Freedom Vol. 4.” The concert will also be livestreamed on KUAM News’ Facebook page. The concert is held each year close to the Fourth of July or Independence Day in hopes of opening up the holiday up to a new more locally focused interpretation. Independent Guåhan encouraged the island as a whole and beyond those attending the

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Cultures takes place in a different island in the Pacific every four years. This is considered to be the most important event in the Pacific in terms of culture and regional solidarity. It is a chance for each island to showcase their own culture and artistic expression, while meeting with others across the Pacific.  Recently there has been some negativity in Guam around FESTPAC 2020 and the idea of the Government of Guam funding 100 delegates to travel there. There is a significant amount of misinformation floating around, which is unfortunate, since it threatens to tar this important event.  To learn more about the value of FESTPAC and its role in Guam’s cultural renaissance and movement for decolonization, Independent Guåhan is holding a Teach-In on the topic on Thursday, January 16th at 6 pm at UOG HSS 106.

Since 2010 I have traveled to Okinawa just about every year. Usually I have gone with my friend Ed Alvarez. We first travelled to Okinawa together in 2012 to present at a number of conferences focusing on issues of demilitarization, indigenous rights and also decolonization. Ed was the Executive Director of the Guam Commission on Decolonization and had made some important connections to academics and protest groups. One of my goals at some point is to write an academic article about the ever-evolving conversation in Okinawa about decolonization and political status. It is fascinating and often goes far beneath the radar, as most focus on the demilitarization and anti US base protests. But since I have been traveling there, I have regularly heard the makings of a decolonization conversation. When I say this, I don't mean it looks the same or sounds the same, or takes the same shape as Guam's. I mean that for Okinawa, which faces a number of fundamental and structural issues ab

I write regularly about "the decolonization conversation." I use this to refer to the wider public discussion and sometimes debate about Guam's future in terms of its political status. There are three main options that are to be considered when thinking about Guam's future status. Each of them provides a higher level of self-governance than remaining an unincorporated territory, although they can be slightly to very different. This conversation around Guam's political status has been around for more than a hundred years, although we often don't think about it that way. During the late Spanish period, Chamorus chafed under colonial rule, especially after the rest of the Spanish Empire had achieved independence or was actively rebelling or forming nationalist movements. Nowadays we don't know much about this, because we don't teach our own history very well. If we did take seriously the teaching of our history, we would have a general sense

Independent Guåhan to discuss veteran’s issues and decolonization and honor the late Tony “Submariner” Artero  For Immediate Release, November 24, 2019-  Independent Guåhan (IG) invites the public to attend their upcoming General Assembly (GA) to take place on Thursday, December 5th from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. For this GA, the group will honor as  Maga’taotao the late Tony “Submariner” Artero, who was a US Navy veteran and also a strong community activist in pushing for political status change in Guam. In honor of Veteran’s Day, this GA will also feature an educational discussion on the voices of Chamoru veterans and decolonization.  Tony Artero was a veteran, a war survivor and an entrepreneur, who was part of the Artero family that helped hide US Navyman George Tweed during the Japanese occupation of Guam. Although his father received the Congressional Medal of Freedom for the risks he took, soon after the US military condemned