NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Independent Guåhan continues village outreach with Malesso’ General Assembly, will focus on local leadership and ingenuity For Immediate Release, May 23, 2017 – In their continuing efforts to educate the island community about decolonization, Independent Guåhan will be holding their monthly General Assembly at the Malesso’ Recreational Center on May 25th from 6:00-7:30 P.M. This month’s assembly continues a village-based outreach initiative, where the group brings informational resources and critical conversations about independence as a political status option directly into the island’s villages. At each General Assembly, Independent Guåhan choose a Maga’taotao or elite person to be honored. For the May assembly, the group will recognize the courage of Jose “Tonko” Reyes, who during the closing days of the Japanese occupation of Guam, organized a group of men from Malesso’ to rise up and kill the Japanese soldiers holding the village captive. Like the brave and

Estague un dikike’ na tinige’-hu put i sengsong Malesso’ giya Guahan. Hu tuigiyi i prayek I Ma’adahen i Fino’ Chamorro gi Koleho nu este. Dipotsi para u mausa gi un leksion put i sengsong gi sanhaya’ na songsong siha giya Guahan. Hu mentiona gi tinige’-hu unu na gof impottante lao esso malefa na sinisedi gi sengsong gi duranten i Tiempon Chapones, annai mangkahulo’ i Chamorro gi sengsong ya ma dulalak i sindalun Chapones, ya ma gogguen maisa siha. Estague i tinige’-hu: Gefpaʹgo Malessoʹ na songsong. Guaha pantalan ni siña maʹudai hao batko para un bisita Dånoʹ (Cocos Island). Esta hassan koʹkoʹ giya Guahan, lao siña mannoddaʹ hao koʹkoʹ giya Dånoʹ. Meggai na estoria put este na songsong lokkueʹ. Gi i Tiempon Chapones manmapunoʹ meggai na Chamorro ni i Chapones giya Tinta yan Fåha na lugat. Lao i Chamorro manachu ya ma kontra i Chapones ya manmadulalak huyong giya Atate. Este na aksion munaʹ fan såfu i Chamorro giya Guahan guihi na tiempon gera. Gefpåʹgo na songson

Adios Siñot Torres by Michael Lujan Bevacqua Guam Daily Post October 14, 2015 I spent last week asking several dozen people about the favorite classical musical choices of an eighty-eight-year-old Chamorro man who had just passed away. It was a saddening, sobering, but also inspiring experience. Jose Mata Torres, a man I’ve spent the last two years working with, passed away on September 28. Through the Chamorro Studies program at UOG, I assisted him with the researching, writing, editing, and eventual publishing of his memoir “ Massacre at Atåte .” The book recounts not only his general wartime experiences but also a truly heroic event where he was among a group of men in Malesso’ who rose up and killed or drove off the Japanese in their village in July 1944. I feel privileged to have helped him publish this book, which, he joked, schoolchildren may be forced to read for generations to come. When I learned of his passing, I immediately felt the

I've spent the past week asking several dozen people what the favorite classical music choices were of an 89 year old Chamorro man who passed away last week. It has been a strange experience on so many levels. Jose Mata Torres, who I spent close to two years working with passed away last week. I assisted him in getting his memoir titled "Massacre at Atate" through the research, editing and publishing process. After learning he had passed away I immediately felt the need to do something to commemorate him and his contributions to the community and to Chamorro history. Mr. Torres was a host on the Guam public radio station KPRG for 20 years. His show "classical concert" pushed the boundaries of Chamorro possibility in ways that I still find fascinating. Torres was a proud Chamorro man, who felt it was very important that Chamorros keep their language alive and also keep alive a memory of their culture even if it has changed substantially from his youth. When I

Jose Mata Torres, who I've spent the past two years working with, passed away earlier this week. I worked with him for more than a year in getting his memoir "Massacre at Atate" published. We held a book launch in February of this year and more than 200 people showed up to hear the story of how the people of Malesso' suffered during World War II, and when faced with possible annihilation at the hands of the Japanese, decided to fight back. We had begun work on another project and I am hoping that I can finish it in his honor. We would meet regularly sometimes three or four times a month and I will miss those meetings so much. Below is a list of accomplishments and other bio-data for Mr. Torres. ************************** Jose Mata Torres was born November 26, 1926 and died September 28, 2015. He was born in the village of Malesso’ and was a lifelong resident of the village. He married Carmen Lizama Torres and they had two daught

I spent a year working on getting the book "Massacre at Atate" by Jose M. Torres published. It is a first hand account of one of the few times during the Japanese occupation of Guam that the Chamorro people openly resisted and fought back. There are countless instances of Chamorros passively resisting, but this was one of the few moments that I've been able to collect where you can point to Chamorros using violent resistance to protect themselves. There are only a few men left who took up arms against the Japanese in July 1944 and Mr. Torres was one of the youngest at that time. We had a reading in Malesso' a few weeks ago in the historic Merlyn G. Cook school. This was a followup to the large book launch that we had in February which was attended by close to 300 people. I came across this account of the book launch, that I wanted to share here: *********************** http://micronesianmission.blogspot.com/2015/02/wwii-historical-lecture-more-than-w

For the past year I have been assisting one of the men who fought the Japanese at Atate, Jose Mata Torres with the publication of his memoirs, “The Massacre at Atate.” Torres was a young man at the time who and wasn’t a main organizer for the attack but he said that he had never felt more inspired or exciting in his life, than to see the men from his village rise up and in order to defend their families and their lives, face off against their violent occupiers. On February 24th at 6:30 in the CLASS Lecture Hall at UOG, the book “Massacre at Atate” is being released. There will be a reading by Jose Torres and then a panel discussion afterwards. Please come and join us for this important step for Chamorro Studies, but also just the remembering of Chamorro history and in turn Chamorro possibility. As I come near to the end of this project it reminds me of something I posted earlier, last year titled "Three Massacres." It was originally posted on this blo

It was last Fall that UOG first launched our Chamorro Studies program. A Major/Minor degree program for undergraduates who want to deepen their knowledge about the language, culture and history of the Chamorro people. It has been an amazing year. We have signed up more than 20 majors. We have held dozens of events, on several occasions filling the CLASS Lecture Hall to capacity. We have organized exciting projects from the Massacre at Atate, to the Master Apprentice Learning Program to the Chamorro Experience gi Fino' Chamorro speaker series.  The second year for the program has already started and I am looking forward to our first graduates finishing up next semester. We've already had several minors that have finished or will finish this semester. One minor in particular is Ruzelle Amparo, a Communications Major who will be graduating this semester. I just finished submitting some letters of rec for her to graduate schools. Ruzelle was in my CHamoru Culture class last year

The article below comes from the Liberation Day commemorative booklet published in 1994 on the 50th anniversary of the retaking of Guam by American forces during World War II. It covers the story of the men of Merizo/Malesso' in the south, who fought and killed the Japanese in their own village, liberating themselves prior to the US return. For the past six months I've been working with one of the last survivors of this fight against the Japanese, Mr. Jose Mata Torres, featured in the article. Hopefully in the next few weeks we'll be publishing his memoirs of the war titled Massacre at Atate. Until then, here is the article telling the story from a slightly different perspective, written by the late PJ Borja.   *************** Men escape nightmare in Merizo By PAUL J. BORJA So near, yet so far. In July 1944, the ships of the U.S. Navy could be seen off Merizo, almost as close as the waves rushing over the reefs that fringe the southern village.

Every July Guam becomes transformed into an "island of massacres." As the collection memory of the island becomes focused around recalling and recounting the tragic final weeks of I Tiempon Chapones on Guam, the month seems to move from one horrific story to another. July 1944 was filled with more atrocities and more suffering than the 31 months of Japanese occupation that preceded it. Pale' Jesus Baza Duenas is killed. Chamorros are forced into concentration camps. Massacres take place in Hagat, Yigu, Merizo and Hagatna. War stories from war survivors build towards a brutal climax at this point. This brutal period however is the prologue to the happy end to Japanese rule. Within days or weeks of these atrocities taking place, Japanese guards have disappeared from concentration camps and stories of American troops being spotted are traveling around with lightning speed. War narratives at this point jump from opposite sides of the spectrum. They go from being

On Saturday, my special projects class "The Uprising at Atate" traveled to Malesso' in the South to take pictures of the two memorials at Tinta and Faha. Malesso' has the most notorious "village" story of the entire war. Despite being far away from the centers of Japanese power, by the end of the war it is the site of two massacres (Tinta and Faha) and one uprising (Atate). For this research project we have been studying why the massacres sites, which are zones filled with trauma and victimization have become so important in WWII memorialization, while Atate, a space where Chamorros fought back and killed their Japanese captors holds little to no significance over how people see the Tiempon Chapones tale unfolding. Finding the exact location where the uprising at Atate took place has proven difficult, as those who have been there are generally too old to travel there, and other know the general area and can point at it from afar in a way which is attemp