NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Through my Facebook page and this blog,  I often share what I refer to as “Adventures in Chamorro.” Gof takhilo’ i lenguahi-ta gi lina’la’-hu . Much of my work is dedicated to the revitalization of the Chamorro language and for my two children, Sumåhi and Akli’e’, from the days they were born I have only spoken to them in Chamorro. As such, in both work and the home, my life is filed with lots of interesting and hysterical Chamorro language moments. These are what I refer to as our “Adventures in Chamorro,” named for the adventure we take every day trying to talk about the world around us in the Chamorro language. Every couple of months, I would also share some of them in my Guam Daily Post columns. Here are some that I shared in my column published on August 17, 2016. Adventures in Chamorro #266: The other day Isa (i nobia-hu), the kids and I were walking along the beach and looking up at the moon. It was a crescent moon, which many people translate to "sinahi&q;

In this image we see Sumåhi and Akli'e' finishing up a 3D puzzle for the show The Walking Dead.  I've only watched the first season and the kids refuse to watch any of it at all, but we saw this puzzle at a bargain store earlier this year and decided to grab it. At 150 pieces it isn't too exhausting. As trying to get the kids to finish puzzles with 500 or 1000 pieces can end up feeling like trying to get a fanihi to jump into a pot of boiling coconut milk.      As zombies are so pervasive in popular culture nowadays, the kids and I have had plenty of conversations over the years about what word to use for zombies in Chamorro. When the kids were much younger I would use the term "taitintanos" or "brainless" and zombies in general would be " i manaitintanos."  This phrasing was cumbersome and confusing for the kids as zombies no longer moan "brains..." as they shamble. We later switched to " i mamomokkat na man

I wrote a column for the Marianas Variety titled "Sympathy for the Taotaomo'na" a while back, it provided an overview of different beliefs about Guam's particular brand of spiritual phenomena and how most people may need to expand their understanding of them. For most on the island, taotaomo'na are ghost stories. When you start talking about them, people begin to get intrigued, to get frightened, hairs on their body begin to stand up. For me it is very interesting that when Destination Truth visited Guam years ago almost everyone hated the show they produced. They were here for a few days, met with people, filmed in the jungles, at beaches, in Tumon. While they were here they seemed to those I spoke to friendly, nice and understanding. People were almost universally irritated and appalled when they saw the Guam Zombie episode they created. The idea that taotaomo'na were somehow zombies made sense to people. It was disrespectful and ignorant. We watched the

Lumiliko' yu' gi i "Leeward" na banda gi i ma'pos na simana giya Oahu. Un atungo'-hu, malago' gui' fuma'nu'i yu' hafa ha fa'na'a'an i magahet na Hawai'i, ya pues in hami humanao. Ti hu gof tungo' ayu na banda. Estaba managa' ham giya Kunia, anai Si tata-hu macho'cho'cho' gi Del Monte gi fama'yan pina siha. Hu gof tungo' iya Manoa yan iya Honolulu, put i Unibetsedat yan i malls siha guihi. Lao unu pat dos biahi ha' di hu bisita i Leeward na banda. Gi minagahet sen gefpago este na islan Oahu. Lao para Guahu mas hu ripara i chinatpago, put hemplo i mantaiguma', i tahdong na fina'militat, ya taimanu na masasakke' ha' kada diha i tano'-niha i mannatibu na Hawaiian siha. Put este siha mas na'triste este na lugat. Ti ya-hu bumisitanaihon. Ai adai, i pumasehun-mami nigap, ha na'gasgas i ante-ku. Ginen sanlagu yu', ya hunggan gof gaiprobechu i bida-hu guihi p

I will be teaching Guam History this summer at the University of Guam and so I'm trying to put together a new syllabus for the condensed schedule of a summer intersession class. As I'm trying to figure out what lectures to keep and what should go, an interesting sort of Guam history question came to mind. Which of the periods of Guam History over the past 500 years would I consider to be the most traumatic for students to learn about? In my World History 2 class (1500 CE - the present), I teach it in such a way that it is meant to be a crash course in horrible things that the First World did to the rest of the world, focusing on colonialism and how people have attempted to liberate themselves from its grasp. In my Guam History class I take a similar approach, spilling out on the floor each week a laundry list of horrible things that have happened to Chamorros and to Guam. But amidst all the truth telling, which is the period or the story, the moment in Guam History that is th

In my Guam History classes this last month we read the poem below written by my pare' Julian Aguon, titled "The Mango Trees Already Know." The poem is written in the shadow of the impending military buildup to Guam, and is about how the warning signs, the possible dangers to our island and to the Chamorro people are all around us, but we seem to be incapable of doing anything to protect ourselves. Julian even discusses the death of his father to cancer, and forces an important connection between how Guam has become modernized and militarized since World War II and the alarming rates of cancer and disease. I asked my students this past week "What is it that the mango trees know, that we don't?" or "What is it that they know, that we refuse to recognize?" For me, in answering that questions, my mind quickly turns to the film The Happening, by M. Night Shamalayan. For those unfamiliar with the movie, people in the East Coast of the United States s

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