NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I am currently working on an exciting comic project for a friend of mine. My brothers Jack and Jeremy are joining me in the project (and spearheading it), which will look at Guam's political status in a very new way, through the unlikely narrative of sports. To comic will follow the story of Roque Babauta, a Chamorro basketball player who gets wrapped up in national and international politics. As part of it, I wrote up a concept draft which outlined everything the way I was seeing it. Jeremy has gone on to shake things up and make flow better and add in more realism and details. Part of it is a sequence where a sports commentator is ruminating on the connection between politics and sports. Here is the first draft of it: Too often even we who love sports, dismiss it as a diversion, as an opiate for the masses, a distraction from the world. But sports is the world itself. It is not a diversion, but a reflection, a mirror image. The wars between na

Last week I visited the Yoko Gushiken museum in Ishigaki island. It was an interesting moment because of the way it connected to the many discussions of the week relating to decolonization, nationalism and activism. Gushiken is a celebrity in Japan and in the international world of boxing. He was the WBA Flyweight Champion for five years, with a record of 23-1, 15 wins by KO. Although he came from the small island of Ishigaki he fought in rings around the world. In a two-story house on the edge of the tourist area of Ishigaki City, you will find his museum. It has his trophies, images of him and a mock practice ring with highlights from his matches playing on a TV nearby. Throughout the museum was images of eagles, as the eagle is an important animal to Ishigaki Island and it was his symbol that he put on his uniform and on his promotional materials. You might wonder what a boxer like Gushiken might have to do with the conference I was attending, where Okinawan

Mina'dos na Lisayu  My grandmother’s aunties were notorious in their day as “The De Leon Sisters” They were famous as teachers, nurses, opera singers and one of them even dated the boxer Jack Dempsey while he was on island. Grandma and her two sisters Ruth and Tonette became the next generation “De Leon Sisters.” Their mother would dress them in matching outfits and have them stroll around Hagatna. People would see them and remark that they were like ducks walking to the pond.  The De Leon girls were known for being beautiful, but my grandmother, at least to me, always insisted that she was unattractive and ugly. She was a shy girl and was only asked to dance once at her school social events, although she was so nervous she was worried she would soak the hands of the boy she was dancing with. She said that people always talked about her sisters Ruth and Tonette as being beautiful, but didn’t feel like anyone saw her as beautiful. I’ve spent years interviewing