NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

The Chamorro Studies Program (Prugraman Inestudian Chamorro) at the University of Guam is located within the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (Kolehon Atson Liberat yan Siensihan Sosiat). It has existed for four years and was officially launched in October of 2013. It was started by a faculty task force consisting of myself, Anne Perez Hattori, Evelyn San Miguel Flores, Rosa Salas Palomo, Sharleen Santos-Bamba, James Perez Viernes and a handful of others. On October 24th, 2013 a launch event was held which featured panels, performances and also the start of a Chamorro language lecture series titled "The Chamorro Experience gi Fino' Chamorro." The late Chamorro Master Blacksmith Joaquin Flores Lujan or Tun Jack was the speaker for the inaugural event. On that day we signed up seven majors and seven minors into the program. Since that time, the Chamorro Studies Program has organized numerous events and programs all meant at promoting Chamorro language, cultur

It has dawned on me more than ever before, the dire straits in which the Chamorro language exists in today. The death of my grandmother last year started forcing me to recognize this fact. I speak Chamorro on a daily basis, but one of the people I enjoyed speaking it with the most was now gone. The one who instilled in me a passion for the language is now gone. I worked on so many projects regarding the language with her at my side. Ti sina hu eksplika i minalingu hu siesiente pa'go put i tinague-na. When I look to my students, my family, my friends, there is just no one who can take the place of my grandmother in terms of speaking Chamorro. It is also something that has hurt my children and their ability to speak Chamorro. When we would visit grandma and grandpa before, grandma was always very diligent about speaking Chamorro to them, even if sometimes I would have to remind her to do it. Grandpa however, likes to through in a Chamorro word here or there, but has never gotten

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

I'll be posting more details, but for now here is the flyer. This is a program I am working on with Kenneth Gofigan Kuper and Edward Alvarez through the Chamorro Studies program. Jimmy Huang a linguistic professor at UOG initially conceived of the idea and is also assisting. We recently had a press conference/photo op for this project and we've had great public response. We'll be starting in the next month or two.