NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

 I am excited this week to sit in a Zoom room with other members of Independent Guåhan to reflect on our role in making possible the Fanohge March for Chamoru Self-Determination on September 2, 2019.  If you aren't familiar with it, this was a historic day. More than 2,000 people marched in support of the rights of the Chamoru people to self-determination and also marched in support of Guam becoming something other than an unincorporated territory. The event was organized by a collective of volunteers, including all three political status task forces and a number of community groups. If you want to learn more about that day, learn some inspiring stories, but also hear some reflections on what has happened in the time since, tune in this coming Wednesday (9/15) at 12 noon Guam time, live on Facebook. 

This image is of me in 2007, the first and only time that I've testified before the Fourth Committee of the United Nations. I am excited that next week, I along with more than a dozen others will be back at the United Nations to testify. In 2007, only three of us went, myself, Rima Miles and Marie Auyong. It was an incredibly exciting albeit frustrating experience, to testify in a room filled with the world's representatives, who aren't really pay ing attention to you because you come from a far-away colony of the world's most powerful country. I ended up incorporating my UN-experience into one of the chapters of my dissertation. We only had less than five minutes to testify and make our case to the world. Despite the short amount of time, it is common for people to still being and end their testimonies in their native language, while the bulk of it is in English.  Chamorro scholar Tiara Na'puti wrote about this in her own dissertation. This was

“New Perspectives on Chamorro Self-Determination” by Michael Lujan Bevacqua February 17, 2016 Guam Daily Post This Thursday, February 18 the next “Around the Latte Special Seminar Series” will be held at the University of Guam. This series of symposia is being organized by Dr. Unaisi Nabobo-Baba and myself on behalf of the UOG school of Education and UOG Chamorro Studies. In Fall Semester 2015, we held four special seminars on topics ranging from female empowerment, the Japanese occupation of Guam and the state of education on Guam. To start of the Spring 2016 Semester we have an exciting discussion titled “New Perspectives on Self-Determination in Guam.” The seminar will take place Feb. 18 from 4 – 6 pm in SBPA 129 at the University of Guam. The public is invited to attend and light refreshments will be provided. This symposium will be focused on a newly published issue of the academic journal “Micronesian Educator” which is housed in the School o

I am staying up all night tonight to finish an article on environmental discourses surrounding the US military buildup to Guam as it was proposed in the 2009 Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and later formalized in their Record of Decision (ROD). This buildup as it was proposed never happened, as financial problems in both the United States and Japan as well as local resistance efforts, including a lawsuit ended up stalling and delaying the process for years. The buildup looks and sounds so much different today than it did five or six years ago. There is a greater emphasis on environmental stewardship and also constant reminders that the Department of Defense (who currently control 28-29% of Guam) plan to control less total land once the buildup is over. Part of the change in tone is due to the fact that the island of Guam changed in the buildup debate process. This is a key feature of my article. When the buildup was first announced, public opinion on the buildup was op

When the Solorzano skull was brought to Guam there were several events held to discuss the meaning of the skull and also the legacy of the violent time during which the priest Solorzano was killed in fighting between the Spanish and Chamorros. The event that I helped organize at UOG was pretty well attended, with more than 150 people there on a Saturday morning. The discussion never got too heated, with the biggest conflict being over the statement made by Father Fran Hezel that the Chamorro-Spanish Wars was a result of cultural misunderstandings. Religion wasn't touched on much, despite the fact that religion was at the core of the history involved. The Spanish priests were assaulting the religion of Ancient Chamorros. They were forcing them to give up their religion and take a new one. Solorzano himself, as a priest was driven to go into places where he would put himself at risk in the name of his religion and in hopes of dying in the name of his God. But very few people mad

I just to Okinawa a few hours ago, had dinner and meant to quickly fall asleep in my hotel room, but this has not happened yet. I spent much of the trip today thinking over my various talks that I'll be giving while here this weekend. I was trying to map out my strategy for talking about decolonization in Okinawa. In Guam, I already have several ways of introducing and broaching the topic, as the history of the island has given us a couple of esta listo discourses that you can use. For example in Guam today I would say there are three basic ways in which decolonization is discussed. You can break them down as follows: Unincorporated Territory, Non-Self-Governing Territory and Nasion Chamoru. Each of them begins from a different point in Guam's colonization and although they may overlap, they often evolve in opposing directions. Unincorporated Territory: The basis for understanding colonization is the lack of incorporation with the United States. Guam is a possession of th