NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

T his week's Fanachu! episode will feature Leland Bettis, former Executive Director for the  Guam Commission on Decolonization and Commission on Self-Determination. He was involved in negotiations around the movement for Commonwealth in Guam and also part of educational campaigns around political status in the 1980s and 1990s. The episode will go live on Facebook at 11 am this Wednesday (2/10), Chamorro Standard Time. I'm very excited to talk more with Leland Bettis, who has such a wealth of knowledge the recent historical movements for political status change in Guam and also just negotiating with the federal government around these issues.  Below is an article from the Christian Science Monitor from 1998 when he was still in GovGuam service, talking about the status issue and the need for decolonization on the even of then President Bill Clinton's visit to Guam.  ********************************* Identity struggle of an American Pacific island President Clinton visits Gua

Independent Guåhan October General Assembly will commemorate the history of Chamoru petitions for self-determination For Immediate Release, October 21, 2019-  Independent Guåhan (IG) invites the public to attend their upcoming General Assembly (GA) to take place on Thursday, October 24 th from 6:00-7:30 pm at the Main Pavilion of the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. This month’s GA will commemorate the more than a century of petitions by the Chamoru people for improvements in their political status. In this spirit, the group will honor as  Maga’taotao  the late Senator Francisco R. Santos, a long-serving local leader. Within months of the US takeover of Guam in 1898, the Chamoru people were already politely requesting improvements in their political status. Dozens of petitions were sent to the US Congress and the US Navy prior to World War II, some bearing thousands of signatures asking that the US improve the political status of the Chamoru people, whether by granting US citize

An interesting discussion on the possibilities of a "third" option when thinking about decolonization in the Pacific. In Guam, I have written about the risks or dangers of "fourth kinds" or "fourth options," but I still found this article to be enlightening.  In Guam, I refer to the fourth kind as potential political status traps. Decolonization in the most general sense is about achieving a genuine level of self-governance. There are, as we can see in the world today, a wide variety of arrangements whereby a colonizer or administering power can call a place self-governing, while still maintaining colonial control.  For example, when looking at the United States, Puerto Rico is a "commonwealth" and isn't supposed to be a colony or non-self-governing territory anymore. But if you compare the status of Guam and Puerto Rico, their level of self-governance, they are almost in the exact same position, with only a fancy title separating th

In less than a week, a new Governor will take power in Guam, as will a new non-voting Guam delegate and a number of new senators will be sworn in for the island's legislature. I have certain hopes for the new crop of leaders. There is great potential for them to learn lessons from the past, especially on the topic of decolonization. In recent years, the small, but significant maturation of the community on the topic, is part of the fact that for decades it has been circulating in conversations and political agendas. For a long time, rhetoric around decolonization wasn't worth much to voters, and wasn't really worth it. That is why for decades it was rare for politicians to share what their personal preference would be for Guam in terms of political status. It wasn't that they didn't have opinions or thoughts on it, but it was either something politically risky or simply  taibåli.  For the past few years, I've been interviewing Guam politicians from the previ

I have been traveling for the past few weeks and struggling while conducting research and giving a variety of presentations, to also finish up a couple of articles. One of them is based on the research I did for the Guam Humanities Council a few years ago for their exhibit Sindålu: Chamorro Journey Stories in the US Military. It was an exciting and interesting project on a variety of levels. I got to share some interesting stories that I've come across in my archival and oral history research, some of which haven't really ever been publicized before. I also got to tackle some issues in terms of understanding or unpacking contemporary Chamoru identity. The veteran subjectivity is so pervasive and somewhat hegemonic in Chamoru culture today, that it ends up taking a great deal of space, even for those who aren't veterans themselves. How many people when talking about issues of decolonization and demilitarization feel a inner need to curb their potential voice, their potenti

Commonwealth is a word that continues to haunt discussions of decolonization in Guam. For most younger people, they have no idea what Commonwealth means in a Guam context, although they know of it in the context of the CNMI's political status. It is something that has some very profound meanings for people of a certain age, most older than I am, because of the way it represents nostalgia for a time when political status change on Guam seemed to have a more clearly defined direction. Commonwealth in terms of Guam, was a decades long movement to try to get the island to a new political status, something along the lines of "improved status quo." It involved long negotiations with different presidential administrations, different iterations of Congress, all in the hopes of moving Guam to a slightly better political position. In terms of political status options, Commonwealth would fall between integration and free association. It kept Guam and the US tightly conne

I spent some time recently with former Governor of Guam Joseph Ada. It was a very enlightening experience and one that I will most definitely be writing about or incorporating into my research and activism with regards to Guam's decolonization. There was one thing that stood out though, especially when comparing the time when Joseph Ada was Governor (1986-1994) to the current moment under the leadership of Governor Eddie Calvo. In both eras Guam's political status remains a fundamental unresolved issue that leaks out and affects so many other aspects of life, even if the general population doesn't understand it or accept the connections. During the term of Governor Ada, the Government of Guam was well organized and focused on negotiating with the US Congress and Feds over the proposed Commonwealth status. These negotiations eventually failed under the term of his successor Governor Carl Gutierrez, but the negotiation of a new, transitional political status for Guam that w