"BIRD ISLAND" IN CHAMORRO

Obviously, it wasn't always called Bird Island.

What did Chamorros call it before the English name became prominent?

Isletan Maigo' Fåhang.

A list of Saipan place names

The fåhang is known in English as a "noddy tern." These birds favor coastal cliffs and small rocks or islets along the shore.

FÅHANG

Isleta means islet, or small island. The word is borrowed from Spanish.

Maigo' means "sleep" or "asleep" and it probably refers to the fåhang using this rock to rest and sleep at.

Apparently the Japanese, who ruled Saipan from 1914 to 1944, had their own name for the island. Tsukimi, which means "moon viewing."

YOU KNOW YOU'RE CHAMORRO WHEN....

...instead of saying "the funeral," you say, "THE DEAD!"

~ Where are you going?
~ To the dead!

A statesider or some other English-speaking person not used to Chamorro will assume the person is going to a dead person, not a funeral or wake. Of course, there is no funeral or wake without a dead person!

This could be another example of "English the Chamorro way," except that we also say the same thing in Chamorro.

BASED ON CHAMORRO

"I'm going to the dead,"in English, is based, I think, on our Chamorro way of speaking and thinking.

We do say in Chamorro, "Bai hu falak i matai," which literally means, "I will go to the dead." But what we mean is that we're going to a funeral or wake.

Måtai can be both an adjective (e.g. "The dog is dead.") or a noun (e.g. "Don't disrespect the dead.")

It can also be the verb "to die." Kumekematai i taotao. "The person is dying."

So we say in Chamorro things like,

Håye matai-miyo? Literally, "Who is your dead?" but what we mean is, "Who in your family or party has died?"

Guaha matai-ho agupa'. Literally, "I have a dead tomorrow," but what we mean is, "I have a funeral or wake tomorrow."

THERE ARE OTHER WORDS

Finatai means "death." So we can say, "Asta i finatai-ho," or "Until my death," but we can also say, "Asta ke måtai yo'," or "Until I die," or "Until I am dead."

Bela means "wake." It is borrowed from the Spanish word vela, meaning the same. A bela really means an overnight vigil with the dead body, which is why in English it is called a wake, because one stays awake all night. But I do hear some people call the viewing of the deceased during the day a bela.

Entiero means the funeral Mass or ritual. This is also borrowed from Spanish, and the root word here is tierra, meaning "earth." Spanish entierro most exactly means "burial," that is, to bury in the earth (tierra).

Håfot means "to bury" and hinafot means "burial." Fanhafutan is an indigenous term for cemetery, in addition to the Spanish loan word sementeyo (from cementerio) or kåmpo sånto ("holy land or field," from campo santo). Naftan, or "grave," is probably a contraction of fanhafutan.

Responso are the prayers over the deceased's body.

Father Ibáñez in 1865 says that onras also means "funeral," meaning the honors (onra) paid to the deceased.

THOSE CHILEAN PESOS

This Chilean peso was probably used in the Marianas at one time

During the 1800s, various kinds of money from more than one country were used in the Marianas as legal tender. Because of the abundance of silver in the Spanish colonies of Latin America, many coins came from Mexico, Chile and Peru. Then, because of the many whaling ships (and others) who came to the Marianas from England, the U.S., Australia and other places, coins from many parts of the world entered circulation in the Marianas, too.

In 1902, a businessman on Guam named Vicente Roberto Herrero and his wife Dolores Martinez Pangelinan had quite an assortment of those coins, put in an iron box in their general store, located on the ground level of their Hagåtña home. There was coinage from Spain, Chile, Peru, Mexico, England, the United States, Germany (perhaps via the Northern Marianas, in German hands since 1899) and even China.

One day that year, the Herreros discovered that their money was missing. Someone had entered the home during the night or early morning and run off with the money.

It didn't take long, though, before a man was fingered as the primary suspect. Why? He started throwing Chilean pesos around island.

In May of 1900, the American Governor had declared that only the Mexican peso (or its equivalent in U.S. currency) was legal tender on Guam. So, the Chilean peso was put in drawers or boxes, not to be used in commercial buying and selling anymore. Witnesses testified that by 1902 they rarely saw Chilean pesos in circulation on Guam.

So when this man started gambling with Chilean pesos and sending his son to buy groceries at stores with Chilean pesos, people started to notice. The man in question was quite the gambler, showing up at the Santa Rosa fiesta in Hågat to play card games for money, and playing also in other villages and at the cock fight.

It took the court a year, during which time the man in question spent some months in detention, to decide that the evidence against the suspect was weak. He was finally let go.

GAYERA

Cockfight

KÅNTA : AN UN TULAIKA

The Cruz Family singers put new lyrics and story to an old melody, Eskatmina Silensio na Puenge. Another song about false love, false expectations, false dreams.

An un tulaika i hinasso-mo

(If you change your mind)

ya åhe' ti para un dingo yo'

(and no, you will not leave me)

nene nå'e 'u mågi ni guinaiya-mo

(baby give me your love)

ya un dalak yo' para iya håme.

(and come with me to our place.)

Hu nå'e hao alahås-mo

(I gave you jewelry)

ai yan salappe'-mo

(and money)

lao ti este ha' siña bai hu cho'guiye hao.

(but these aren't the only things I can do for you.)

Nene nå'e 'u mågi ni guinaiya-mo

(Baby give me your love)

ya un dalak yo' para iya håme.

(and come with me to our place.)

Pues pine'lo-ko na ti dåkon i guinife

(So I thought that dreams don't lie)

sa' tåya' na hu susede taiguine

(because I never went through this)

i para un pångon yo' gi maigo'-ho

(that you would wake me in my sleep)

sa' malago' yo' bai kuentuse.

(because I want to talk.)

Gi annai makmåta hao un oga'an sen tåftaf

(When you woke up one morning very early)

ya hu hahasso i guinifi-ho

(and I remembered my dream)

pues pine'lo-ko na magåhet na gaige

(so I thought that it was true)

si nene nai gi fion-ho.

(that baby was by my side.)

I ha ofrese 'u na palåbras gi kattå-ña

(The words she offered me in her letter)

ha na' sen pinite korason-ho

(really hurt my heart)

sa' ha ofrese 'u na para bai in assagua

(because she proposed that we be married)

lao mandagi eyo na kontråta.

(but it was a false agreement.)

Pues pine'lo-ko na ti dåkon i guinife

(So I thought that dreams don't lie)

sa' tåya' na hu susede taiguine

(because I never went through this)

i para un pångon yo' gi maigo'-ho

(that you would wake me in my sleep)

sa' malago' yo' bai kuentuse.

(because I want to talk.)

KÅNTAN CHAMORRITA

An tumåtånges i patgon

nå'e na'-ña entot tupu.

Yanggen sige ha' de tumånges,

håtsa hulo' ya un na' susu.

(When the child is crying

give him a piece of sugar cane to eat.

If he keeps on crying,

lift him up and breast feed him.)

Now, I could be wrong but I don't think this verse is to be taken literally.

I'm not sure it's good to give an infant a piece of fibrous sugar cane that s/he can choke on! Even with mommy watching, I think it would be a challenge to get a baby to just suck the juice and not swallow the fiber. And chew with what teeth? No; I think the verse is meant solely for entertainment value.

Entot means a cut-off piece, a fragment. It comes from the word utot, which means to cut off.

Tupu (or tupo) is sugar cane. It is not to be confused with tupu' (tupo'), which has a glota at the end, which means a water well.

FAMILIA : GARCIA

DEMETRIO LEÓN GUERRERO GARCÍA

1902

The Spanish have a saying.

"Quien nombre no tenía, García se ponía." "Whoever lacks a name, is given the name García."

Back in the days when people were beginning to adopt family names or surnames in great numbers, let's say around the year 1400 or so, García was chosen by or given to so many in Spain that García came to be, and still is, the most common surname in Spain. Thus the saying, "If you don't have a surname, we'll call you García."

A million a half people in Spain today have García as a paternal last name. Another million and a half have García as their maternal name. García is so common that almost 80,000 people in Spain are García García, from both mom and dad's sides. The next most common surname (Fernández) doesn't even reach a million.

So, as the Spaniards went out into the world, to their conquests in America, Asia and Africa, the García name went with them. García ranks very high in places like Mexico and Argentina, and it is the most common name among Hispanics in the United States.

Closer to the Marianas, García is in the top ten most common surnames in the Philippines.

But when we come to our own islands, the Marianas, García doesn't make even the top twenty. In 1930, there were just a little less than 60 people on Guam with the surname García, and that includes women who were married to García men. There were more Gumataotaos than Garcías on Guam at the time.

AS FAR BACK AS 1727

And yet, it seems as if the García surname had the possibility of becoming a huge family on Guam, as far back as 1727. In that Census, there is a García family listed in the roll of Spanish soldiers, which meant that the names listed could be Mexican and other Latin American, as well.

The head of that family was Lázaro García, married to Juana de Cárdenas. They had three boys (Feliciano, Ignacio and Dionisio); enough, it seems, to plant the name rather well in these islands. But in the 1758 Census, only Feliciano is still listed among the sons of Lázaro (also named in the 1758 Census) and he is married to a Chamorro, Ignacia Taitiguan.

In 1758, there are new Garcías unseen in the earlier census. Two are Filipino, and one is listed under the Spaniards who could have been a son of Lázaro, but maybe not. There is also an orphaned male with the last name García. The two Filipino Garcías are incidentally married to Chamorro women. All these males with the last name García could have established a large number of García descendants, but by the 1800s, the number of Garcías on Guam remained small.

IN 1897

In what I call "modern Guam," the Guam about which we have much more information and can make clearer connections within families, there seems to have been three main lines of Garcías at the turn of the century in 1900, based on the 1897 Census and birth records from the early 1900s.

Two of those three lines, the García-Lujáns and the García-Manibusans, seem to date back to the Marianas in the early 1800s and could be descendants of the even earlier Garcías of the 1700s, either Spanish or Filipino in origin or both.

García-Luján

A Francisco Luján García from Hagåtña married Gertrudes Aquino. Their line continued and they have descendants to this day.

García-Manibusan

A Justo Manibusan García also from Hagåtña married Angela de la Cruz. One of their sons married Magdalena Pereira Atoigue, and they have descendants. A daughter, Antonia, married Félix Martínez Camacho, and they were the parents of former Governor Carlos García Camacho and the grandparents of former Governor Félix Pérez Camacho.

García-León Guerrero

A Santiago García from Pampanga in the Philippines moved to Guam at least by the 1850s and married a Chamorro woman named María de León Guerrero.

Their son Demetrio married Isabel San Nicolás and they have many descendants. Demetrio's signature is seen at the top of this post.

A possible son of Santiago and María was Antonio León Guerrero García, and he married Gertrudes Cabrera, and they also have descendants.

EVEN MORE GARCÍAS

Today, there are many more Garcías from many different origins. Filipino Garcías continue with new lines started, such as Jesse García who married Amparo (Paning) Díaz Gumataotao, and Tomás García who married Engracia Palomo, Father Pat García's grandparents. Jesse's brother Bert García has part-Chamorro grandchildren.

Then there are Hispanic Garcías. Juan Sáenz García, from Mexico, was stationed in the military on Guam before the war and married María Garrido Eustaquio. They had children who gave them descendants to this day. In Saipan, Juan García originally from Cuba but then in the U.S. military, married Fermina Sablan Pangelinan, and they had children and now descendants. Not too long ago, Thomas García, whose family hails from Enseñada, Mexico, had a child with Lynn Borja from Guam and another with Persha Mendiola, also from Guam.

And, given, the presence of Chamorros today all over the place, there are bound to be new lines of Chamorro or part-Chamorro Garcías that we're only beginning to know about.

So, while the García name was not as numerous among Chamorros as it was among Spaniards, Hispanics and Filipinos, little by little there are more and more of them as time progresses.

FAKE NEWS OF 1902

Yes, fake news is not just a modern phenomenon. It happened on Guam in 1902.

On the 9th of November, in the morning, the Court House in Hagåtña was the recipient of an anonymous letter, delivered by unseen hands.

The letter claimed to be from a fisherman who was casting his talåya at Alupang Island on the night of November 5. He said he saw, in the darkness, a little canoe approach the island, while he stayed quiet and hidden. A man and a woman landed on what little beach the island has. The man told the woman he was going to kill her. The woman asked for pardon. The fisherman author states that he recognized both persons as lovers living in the same house, but unmarried.

The letter goes on to state that the woman was killed and buried at the beach in Alupang.

Well, despite the questionable origin of the letter, the court officials decided they had to act. They formed a group to go out to Alupang and investigate. Those participating were the judge, Pancracio Palting; the island attorney, Tomás Anderson Calvo; the bailiff Lucas Camacho and the American Naval forensic physician, Dr HM Tolfree. Seeing the little island for themselves, they noticed nothing to suggest a murder nor a burial. There was only a little bit of sand that could have been dug up for a grave, the rest of the islet being made of hard coral rock. There was no trace of a freshly dug grave.

Returning to Hagåtña, the court decided to make a public announcement, not specifying a murder, but the receipt of a letter making a serious claim of a crime. The announcement insisted that the author of the anonymous letter make himself known within two days. The two days came and went, and no one showed up claiming to be the author. An announcement was made giving the author another three days. Still, no one showed up.

Alupang (or Alupat) Island today

The court's last move was to call on Pedro María Duarte y Andújar, a Spaniard married to a Chamorro who had been a government official under the Spanish administration and who kept working for the government even under the American flag, to act as a handwriting expert. Duarte was asked to study the writing and suggest a possible author, comparing the writing to the many documents kept in the island's archives.

It took Duarte some days, but he finally wrote a report, stating that he believed the letter was written by a Chamorro, but one with a good knowledge of Spanish. The grammar was basically good but the spelling was not. He suggested that the spelling was bad on purpose, to hide the identity of the author. Based on the handwriting he knew of many local people, he suggested three names as possible author of the anonymous letter.

Part of the Actual Letter written in Spanish

The grammar was OK, the spelling was not

All three people were brought to court for official questioning. All three denied being the author and of having any knowledge whatsoever about it.

The three suspects were let go. It was all a hoax, but one that cost the government a week or more of investigation.

As Duarte said, the perpetrator either wanted to distract the court from actual business, which may have included a case against the author, or to play a humorless joke on the government.

IT HAPPENED AT PITI

The wharf at Punta Piti 

Early 1900s

What major, life-changing event in the history of Guam happened at Piti?

Spanish rule over Guam ended at Piti on June 21, 1898.

Two hundred and thirty years of Spanish rule over Guam came to a screeching halt in a matter of hours that day, and it happened at Piti.

It didn't happen at Hagåtña, the capital city. It didn't happen in Apra Harbor or at Sumay. It happened in Piti. Specifically, not far from the dock that made Punta Piti (Piti Point) important in those days.

Apra Harbor, of course, was where almost all ships anchored when coming to Guam. Sumay was an important village for that reason. One could get on a smaller boat and head into Sumay. But, if one wanted to go to the capital, Hagåtña, people in their smaller boats headed towards Punta Piti. It was faster for them to get a ride into Hagåtña from Piti, rather than take a bull, karabao or horse-driven carriage from Sumay.

So when the American Captain Glass came into Apra Harbor on June 20, 1898 with orders to capture the Spanish officials on Guam, Piti was drawn into historic events.

Glass was in his own ship, the USS Charleston, but he was accompanied by three transport ships. These American ships had been spotted sailing down the western coast of Guam, past Hagåtña, and some Spanish military officers and other private citizens went down to Piti to observe the arrival. In time, they got on boats and went out to meet the Charleston and found out, for the first time, that war existed between the US and Spain. The Spanish officers were ordered to deliver a letter to Spanish Governor Juan Marina, in which the surrender of the island to Captain Glass was demanded. Much later that day, as the day was coming to a close, a letter from Marina arrived, declining the order to come on board the Charleston, and requesting Glass to come ashore to meet Marina.

Spanish Governor of the Marianas Juan Marina y Vega

In 1897 while in Cavite, the Philippines

The following day, on June 21, an American contingent under the command of Lieutenant William Braunersreuther went ashore at Piti. There, Braunersreuther met Governor Marina and gave him thirty minutes to surrender himself to the American forces. Marina was placed under US custody and transported to one of the American ships. The Spanish and Chamorro soldiers were ordered to appear at Piti not later than 4 o'clock that afternoon.

In compliance with this order, the 54 Spanish and 52 Chamorro soldiers gathered at Piti on the afternoon of June 21 and were relieved of their weapons. The Spanish soldiers were transported to the American ships, and the Chamorro soldiers were told to return home to their families. The next day, June 22, the four American ships left Guam with all the Spanish military officers and soldiers to be taken to Manila. Spanish rule over Guam had come to an end on the shores of Piti.

Spanish rule ended over Guam. But Spanish rule would not end in the Northern Marianas till the following year, in 1899, since the US wanted only Guam. Spain held on to the Northern Marianas for another year till Spain sold them to Germany.

WHERE IS THE SPOT TODAY?

If you look at old maps of the dock at Punta Piti, it was located right across Cabras Island, which was separated, at the time, from the main island. This map below is from before World War II.

Here is an even older map, showing Piti's older location.

And here is an even older map, showing the location of the pantalán, or pier, at Punta Piti.

If we look at a modern, aerial view of this same area seen in the two old maps above, here's what we find :

So the older location of Piti, and the location of the dock in which area the surrender of Spanish power to the Americans in 1898 took place, was in the area of Atlantis, in the area circled above.

Here's what the place looks like today.

It was somewhere in this vicinity, near today's Atlantis tourist office in Piti, that Spanish rule over Guam came to an end. One hundred and twenty years ago.

SINANGAN I MAN ÅMKO'

AYO I KUMUEKUENTOS, LALAYO' PAT MALALAGO'

"To the jealous," they say, "nothing is more frightful than laughter."

Your success is someone else's misery. They want what you have, and think that they don't have it.

"Why is he or she happy, and I am not?"

And so they try to subtract from your happiness by talking negatively about you or your success.

And so, the older people said, "The one who talks, is either jealous or wants what you have."

The frustration of the jealous, though, is that many times the happiness someone else has can not be taken away by any means. The jealous ends up feeling alone in a room full of smiles.

SAY IT AGAIN?

Yes, even in Chamorro we can be redundant. Saying the same thing twice.

Although it's something we can easily live with, it's good to explain the redundancy, so that people won't make the mistake of thinking they HAVE to write it the way they do, keeping the redundancy.

In Chamorro, we have a marvelous construct to make something a time or a place.

We simply add FAN in front of the word and then add -AN after the word. Doing so make the word a time period or a physical location.

For example, GUPOT or GUPUT means "to feast or party" or the noun "feast or party."

If you add FAN to GUPUT and -AN at the end of it, you get FANGUPUTAN.

That means, "The place of feasting or partying."

FAN/AN can also be used to call a period of time.

UCHAN means "rain" or "to rain." FANUCHÅNAN means "rainy season." The time when there is frequent rain.

Since FAN/AN do the job already, there is no need to add the word SAGAN (place of) when a word already has the FAN/AN prefix and suffix.

You can give the word SAGAN a break. The idea of "place of" is already handled by FAN/-AN.

SOME CHANGES

In Chamorro, when the N is followed by an S or a CH, that combination becomes Ñ.

So, FAN+CHOCHO becomes FAÑOCHO.

In the second picture above, FAN+SETBI becomes FAÑETBI.

In both cases, the -AN becomes a -YAN because it simply sounds better to the Chamorro ear to say FAÑOCHUYAN and FAÑETBIYAN rather than fañochuan or fañetbian.

Setbi, by the way, means "to serve, assist."

If there were a word fansetbisiyan, it would be based on the word setbisi, which I don't think exists in Chamorro. There is the word setbisio ("service") but that would then make it fañetbisiu'an.

DYNAMITING LATTE STONES

In 1919, the Naval Government of Guam was building a new road from Hagåtña to Yoña . As the road crew ascended the hill past the Pågo River, they came upon eight latte stones. Only three of them were still standing erect; five of them lay on the earth. Some of them stood in the way of the planned road. Finding the pillars too heavy to be moved, what do you think they decided to do?

Yes, that's right. Blow them up with dynamite! Five or more centuries old. Just blow them up.

The American foreman, a Mr. Bell, set off the first explosion. Seconds later, his sleeve was ripped by flying pieces of rock.

Bell's Chamorro assistants saw this and told him they'd have no more part in blowing up latte stones. If Bell wanted them removed, he'd have to blow them up himself. Those flying slivers of rock were enough to convince the Chamorro workers that Americans had no guarantee of being immune to the revenge of the spirits. The workers knew that latte stones meant both graves and homes, for traces of both were usually found where latte stones were found. "The owner of this house is angry with us," the Chamorro workers said, "and they will manage to kill us all."

The explosions and road work eventually revealed a gold mine of historic remains. Male and female skeletons in abundance, sling stones, potsherds, a broken pestle, a polishing stone, adzes and scrapers. The bodies had been buried face down, their feet pointing east. The biggest skull had a large rock on top of it. Why was it there?

I don't know what became of the standing latte stones, the bones and the artifacts. I'm not even sure of the exact location of the site. It would sure be nice to have those answers, so we could possibly go back and see how we can undo some of the damage done by dynamite and steamrollers.

Source : The Guam News Letter

SAIPAN : LUISES YAN ESTANISLAOS

Garapan Church in the 1930s

Before World War II, Spanish Jesuits staffed the Catholic missions of Saipan and Luta.

These Jesuit missionaries established on Saipan two organizations for boys and young men, just as they had been doing for many years in Spain. The aim of these two organizations was the religious formation of the members.

Age divided these two societies.

The Congregation of SAN ESTANISLAO was for boys who had made their First Holy Communion (7 years old) up to around 15 years old. It was named after Saint Stanislaus Kostka, a Polish Jesuit saint who died at the age of 17.

The Congregation of SAN LUIS GONZAGA was for boys older than 15, up until they got married. This group was named after Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian Jesuit saint who died at the age of 23. These two young, male saints were to be the model for the young males in these societies.

In Spain, members of the two groups were called Luises and Estanislaos. I don't know if they were called this in Saipan; all the members back then are now passed away! But it's possible they were, even if only on occasion by the Spanish priest.

Like any organization, they had their regular meetings and religious functions. In parts of Spain, the Luises met every third Sunday of the month for spiritual reflection and prayer.

These statues of San Luis Gonzaga and San Estanislao in the Mt Carmel Cathedral in Chalan Kanoa, Saipan are echoes of the past. Many people wonder, "Who are these saints and why are they here?" Now they have the answer with this blog post.

ESTABLISHED IN 1932

In April of 1932, the Spanish Jesuits in Saipan established the Congregation of San Luís Gonzaga in Garapan. Though the Chamorros were the majority, the Carolinians were well represented.

In time, every third Sunday of the month, the members attended the same Mass and received Holy Communion as a group. Mass was followed by a spiritual talk given just to the members. Gatherings usually ended with some kind of social time, such as a meal or snacks (merienda), once at the home of the Tomokane family.

ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF SAN LUIS GONZAGA

April 1932

Juan Matsunaga	Daniel Matsunaga	David Reyes
José Muña	Joaquín Santos	Juan Mendiola
Jesús Dueñas	Jesús Tudela	José Villagómez
Manasés Matsunaga	Gregorio Arriola	Germán de León Guerrero
Tomás Agulto	Vicente Cruz	Godofredo Sánchez
Gregorio Castro	Pedro Camacho	Antonio Reyes
Carlos Torres	Luís Arriola	Efrain Matsunaga
Francisco Sablan	Benedicto Lizama	Vicente Capileo
Luís Santos	Elías Malite	Vidal Selepeo
Francisco Teregeyo	Albert Fitipual	Tomás Igimara
Aniceto Teregeyo	Alejandro Sablan	José Olopai
Tomás Ríos	Antonio Díaz	Vicente Cepeda
Gabriel Boyer	Francisco Borja	Martín Borja
Antonio Cabrera Camacho	Leonardo Cabrera	José Cepeda
Bonifacio Esteves	Vicente Babauta	Luís Santos
Juan Cepeda	Tomás Blas	Antonio Rogolifoi
Jesús Ríos	José de León Guerrero	Joaquín Díaz
Torcuato Borja	Alberto Tenorio	Enrique Lizama
Juan Limes	Gregorio Camacho	Vicente Palacios
Basilio Ogarto	José Fitial

From among these members, the following were office holders :

Jesús Ríos - Prefect
José de León Guerrero - Assistant
Joaquín Díaz - Secretary
Torcuato Borja - Treasurer
Alberto Tenorio - Warden
Enrique Lizama - Instructor

Juan Limes - Councilor
Gregorio Camacho - Councilor
Vicente Palacios - Councilor
Basilio Ogarto - Councilor
José Fitial - Councilor

VICENTE DE BORJA YAN I CHILENO

In July of 1902, Vicente Taitano de Borja, a leading citizen of Sumay, took in a Chilean guest named David Soto.

Soto was a member of a sailing crew. There were other sailors from Chile with him on their stopover at Guam. For whatever reason, Borja and Soto became acquainted and Borja welcomed Soto into his home for three days. After weeks or months on the high seas, I'm sure several days of rest and entertainment on land was a welcome relief for Soto.

On the third day, a Sunday morning, at around 6AM, Soto asked Borja if he could borrow his boat. He wanted to go to Punta Piti, the usual place people landed when they wanted to go to Hagåtña, the capital city. Borja lent him the boat.

At 9AM, Soto was joined up now by another Chilean shipmate, one Miguel Mendoza. They left Punta Piti in Borja's boat, headed back to Sumay. Perhaps Soto wanted Mendoza to join him in Sumay for a day of fun or adventure.

Punta Piti (right) and A'papa (Cabras) (left)

Half-way to Sumay, a strong wind knocked the boat over, and both Soto and Mendoza fell into the waters of Apra Harbor. They struggled for two hours, hanging onto the capsized boat. After around 2 hours in this situation, Mendoza dove under the boat, we assume to try and push it back up from underneath. But he never resurfaced. Not long after, Soto managed to get the boat upright, though it was full of water. He got to shore and found a talayero, a man fishing with a talåya net, who took Soto in his small canoe to Piti to report the incident.

Naturally, the government authorities had to keep open the possibility that there was foul play, since they had only Soto's version of events. But the next morning, a government party found Mendoza's lifeless body washed up at Leyang, a location on Cabras Island (called A'papa in Chamorro). An autopsy performed later that day showed that there were no signs on Mendoza's body of a fight or struggle. There were only two superficial wounds, one of his left shoulder and another on his left ear, both easily caused by rubbing against coral rocks in the harbor.

Mendoza's decaying body was quickly buried at Pigo' Cemetery that same afternoon by Padre Palomo.

The only wrinkle in the story is that a third Chilean sailor, Francisco Carceles, was interviewed and said that Soto was a drunkard and a troublemaker, while Mendoza, the dead man, was not a drinker and not a troublemaker. But the physical evidence showed that, in Soto's case, being a drunkard and troublemaker do not necessarily make one a murderer.

Vicente Taitano de Borja

The boat owner, Vicente Taitano de Borja, was also interviewed. The judicial proceedings in those days were done in Spanish, with interpreters provided for those who needed one. Borja didn't need an interpreter; he understood Spanish. He testified that Soto had asked to borrow his boat, and that, up till then, Borja had not gotten his boat back. It was still in the harbor.

I hope he eventually got it back.

RIP Miguel Mendoza. A Chilean's bones reside in Pigo' Cemetery.

VICENTE TAITANO DE BORJA

Born in Hagåtña, a resident of Sumay.

He was the son of Gregorio Guerrero de Borja and Alejandra Luján Taitano.

He was a Cabeza de Barangay (neighborhood leader) in Sumay for a while.

MAULEK-ÑA MA PUNO'

Damage in Hagåtña after the 1940 Typhoon

The worst typhoon to hit Guam since 1900 came to the island on November 3, 1940, just a year before the war. Winds got up to around 150 miles per hour, at a time when most of the island's homes were made of wood, tin or thatched roofs. Damages were estimated at $1.6 million in 1940 values.

The typhoon destroyed so much of the vegetation on the island that the cattle didn't have enough to eat. So, rather than see their cows die a slow death by starvation, many cattle owners butchered their cows and ate the meat.

In 1930, there were around 7000 head of cattle on Guam. Eleven years later, in 1941, there should have been more, but in fact there were only around 6000 head of cattle due to the killing of large numbers of cattle after the 1940 typhoon.

As an aside, notice how the U.S. newspaper makes sure to mention that all the "Americans" were safe and sound. The 20,000 Chamorros of Guam, at the time, were not American.

OFISIÅLES SINAJAÑA

From a list of Chamorro government officials in the 1830s, we find the following officials for Sinajaña.

JUAN GOGO was the "Mayor" or Gobernadorcillo ("little governor").

ANTOLÍN MARCHENA was the second-in-command or Teniente.

JOSÉ TEDTAOTAO was the Agricultural Officer or Juez de Palmas, Sementeras y Animales (Judge of Palms, Fields and Animals).

MARIANO NAPUTI, AGUSTÍN QUIDACHAY and LUÍS ATOIGUE were the neighborhood leaders or Cabezas de Barangay (heads of the barangay). A barangay was a district or neighborhood.

Antolín Marchena is an interesting name.There is a Spanish last name Marchena as well as a Spanish town named Marchena and, sure enough, a captain named José Marchena is listed in the 1727 Guam Census as being in the Spanish company of soldiers. But this could mean he was from Spain or from Latin America, and even possibly (though less likely) the Philippines. He was married to María Salas. Quite probably it is their son José who appears in the 1758 Guam Census, married to Rosalía Tailaf. That spelling of the last name could be "off," but it seems pretty clear that it's a Chamorro name.

Antolín could be the son or grandson of José and Rosalía. By 1897, there is only one Marchena left on Guam, a woman named Josefa, quite possibly the daughter of Antolín. Josefa is married to Casildo Lajo and they have no children. The Marchena name died out.

As you can see, other than Marchena, all the surnames are Chamorro, as the more mixed Chamorro population (those with foreign blood) lived mainly in Hagåtña and those with less foreign blood (sometimes none at all!) lived in the outlying villages.