NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I have too many things to do this week to waste much "ink" on Dave Davis or his case on this blog, but that doesn't mean I am not writing about it in other forms. Here are some articles about the Davis case, the Respect the Chamoru People Rally and also a recent letter to the editor connecting Davis' case to a longer history of disrespect that Chamorros have experienced. ****************************** Appeal Made in Plebiscite Ruling by John O'Connor Guam Daily Post April 8, 2017 "A lot of the Chamorros here and the community feel (the ruling) was an attack on them, calling us racists for not allowing somebody to register to vote in our plebiscite or register land." – Amber Benavente-Sanchez, rally organizer Hundreds of people descended on the pristine front lawn of the governor's office at Adelup late yesterday afternoon to join the "Respect the CHamoru People" rally that was being held in response to a March 8 District

The first monthly General Assembly meeting of the Independence for Guam Task Force will take place this week, Thursday, August 25th from 6 – 7:30 pm at the Main Pavilion in the Chamorro Village in Hagåtña. The public is welcome to attend, merienda will be provided as well as presentations, educational materials and a chance to join the Independence for Guam Task Force in its ongoing educational campaign. A General Assembly meeting of this type will be held each month. This first gathering is in honor of Ed Benavente, a Chamorro language teacher, a former Maga’låhi of Nasion Chamoru, and a fervent supporter of independence for Guam, who passed away last month.

At the funeral for Maga'låhi Ed Benavente today, I got a chance to talk to former Governor of Guam Felix Camacho. When Felix Camacho was first elected the group Nasion Chamoru was in decline in terms of its political power. Angel Santos had been elected into the Guam Legislature years earlier and formally left the group. Nasion itself had continued to fight and gotten a number of reforms implemented around land for the landless and for families that had lost land after World War II to the US military. Felix Camacho, seeking to make a sort of peace with Nasion Chamoru, which had been a notorious thorn in the side of the previous administration, reached out to Ed Benavente and offered him a position in his cabinet. I remember that time well, as I had already started hanging out with members of the Colonized Chamoru Coalition and so I got to listen in while members of Nasion Chamoru discussed whether or not Ed should join with Camacho. I won't describe the deliberations in detai

 I've been helping with the organizing of UOG's annual Puengen Minagof Nochebuena celebration for several years now. At first, I found myself very awkwardly participating, as much of the traditions involved, whether it be the praying of the nobena or the singing of Chamorro Christmas songs was foreign to me. I grew up in a home where we didn't make a bilen and certainly didn't go out into the jungle to obtain lumot for it. We sometimes sang some Christmas songs, but they were always in English and I was never really exposed to the exciting array of Chamorro Christmas songs, some of which are translations of popular English tunes (like "Similot" which is the Chamorro version of "Silver Bells") or gof katoliko na kanta siha, or Catholic Chamorro songs that feel like they were penned straight from the quill of Pale' San Vitores himself. As I grew up Seventh-Day Adventist, we didn't pray the nobena either.  Boñelos were a part o

Sesso nina'triste yu' ni i estorian Maga'lahi Mata'pang. Matatnga na gerreru gui'. Ha kontra i Espanot ko'lo'lo'na i mamale' anai ti meggai na Chamorro kumokontra. Guihi na tiempo meggai mano'sun nu i inentalo', lao i meggaina manma'a'nao nu i atmas i sindalun Espanot. Tumachu Si Hurao kontra siha gi 1671, lao manguahlo'. Kana' ma ikak i Espanot, lao manggineggue siha ni un pakyo'. Mandinestrosa i gima'Chamorro siha, lao tumotohgue ha' sin danu i gima'yu'us Katoliko. Gi 1672 anai umannok Si Mata'pang gi i estoria-ta, ha na'hasso i taotao na debi di u mana'suha i taotao sanhiyong. Ha puno' Si San Vitores yan i ayudante-na, i halacha na mafa'santo na Tagalog as Pedro Calusnor. Si Mata'pang ha fa'nu'i i tiguang-na siha na ti manyu'us i gilagu, sina mehagga'. Gi minagahet esta i Chamorro ma tungo' este, lao manmaleffanaihon. Gof na'ma'a'se na i hiniyon

“The Spear of the Nasion” Michael Lujan Bevacqua Marianas Variety 11/20/13 When I first began attending the University of Guam as an undergraduate, I had been off island for several years and so in a way, I was remembering and re-discovering Guam. When I had left Guam in middle school, I had never heard of Nasion Chamoru, but when I returned it was something that everyone seemed to have opinions about, mostly negative. Byt this point, the first Maga’lahi of Nasion Chamoru, Angel Santos had already successfully transitioned from activist to politician and was running for governor under the Hita banner. The height of Nasion Chamoru’s notoriety, when they were camping in front of Adelup and blocking access to disputed properties and getting arrested had passed several years before. Despite these changes in the group, there was still plenty of hate and vitriol left in how people talked about them. That first year I was at UOG, from parties, to the

Maga'lahi Ed Benavente is our last speaker for the Chamorro Experience gi Fino' Chamorro series! I am excited and honored to have him be our final presenter. I've been posting pictures of Nasion Chamoru and their actions all week on Facebook to help prepare people. Although Nasion Chamoru were reviled by many on Guam for years, their group nonetheless had a profound impact on Guam. I wrote extended essays on the impact of both Angel Santos and Nasion Chamoru for the website Guampedia this year. His talk will be tonight at 5:30 at the CLASS Lecture Hall.

Have you ever watched a movie or a television show where the main characters, the regular cast who you are supposed to digest aren't that interesting or engaging? Is it ever the case where minor characters, even those who maybe appear for just a scene or two, with simple cameos are more enticing? Even though they only appear for the briefest of moments, they are more interesting and draw your gaze more than those who lounge about on the screen seemingly without purpose. If you want to experience that feeling alot I suggest you start to read up on the early days of Spanish colonization of Guam. We know about those days through the accounts of Spanish missionaries and military officers. They wrote about their day to day activities, their hopes, their dreams, their fears and the lives of Chamorros around them. They were not anthropologists, they were not journalists and they were all incredibly racist and imperialistic. They did not see Chamorros through clear eyes, nor did they wri

My dissertation in Ethnic Studies is dedicated to three people. One is my daughter Sumåhi, sa’ guiya i mas maolek yan månnge na palao’an gi hilo’ tano’ yan gi todu estoria. The other is for my son Akli’e’. Ti sen maolek gui’ taiguihi i che’lu-ña, lao guiya I mas kinute na patgon gi hilo’ tano’. The last dedication goes to an Ancient Chamorro warrior, a maga’låhi named Chelef, who fought against the Spanish in the late 1670s and was eventually executed for his crimes against them. The dedication to my kids should obvious. I hope that in time I will be able to publish enough things so that everyone I love in my life can have something where their name and a few loving words appear in its opening pages. But why dedicate something to Chelef, a Maga’låhi who is not as famous as figures such as Hurao, Mata’pang, Kepuha or even Agualin? The reason is because of the way one of his acts against the Spanish, mirrored in a way the critical intervention I was attempting in my dissertation. In m

Guam is a colony. Anyone who says otherwise simply doesn't want to confront the truth. One of the mistakes that people often conveniently make when discussing the veracity of Guam's contemporary colonial status is making the assumption that in order to call something colonial, it must be the worst and most horrible thing in the world. Make no mistake, Guam is a colony and it is an unjust and immoral fact, but it is not the worst place in the world because of it. But interestingly enough so many people attempt to argue that Guam isn't a colony, just because it it's political status today isn't that bad. They argue that because it's better than before or because it's not as bad as forms of colonialism from time's past, you can't call it a colony. Part of the problem with this is the simplicity through which people are arguing for something. Simplicity and plain-spokenness is one of the easiest ways to appear to be speaking the truth or speaking of