FAMILY NICKNAMES : SAM

I ran into former Senator Benigno Manibusan Palomo and I asked him, "How did you get the nickname 'Sam?'"

He answered that it wasn't just his nickname but that of his branch of the Palomos.

He said his great-grandfather had a long white beard that reminded people of Uncle Sam's long white beard. So, he got stuck with the nickname "Sam" and it was passed on to his children and grandchildren.

Benigno's great-grandfather Palomo was Pedro de León Palomo, born around 1835.

The familiar, bearded figure of Uncle Sam that we know today didn't become prominent until the 1870s when newspaper cartoonist Thomas Nast made his depiction popular. In the 1870s, Pedro de León Palomo would have been in his late 30s, early 40s. But how would Chamorros be aware of Uncle Sam way over in the US, when Guam was under Spain?

THOMAS NAST'S "UNCLE SAM" IN 1877

The answer is easy. The American whalers who came to Guam every year, especially in the early months of the year. These whalers were the beginning of Guam's Americanization, even introducing English curse words long before the US took over Guam in 1898.

It's entirely possible that American newspapers and magazines (months old by then) were brought on island by whalers who didn't need them anymore. Some how or other, if the story be true, some Chamorros had seen pictures of Uncle Sam in the 1870s and 1880s when Uncle Sam became a popular figure in the US.

Pedro's son Ignacio Dueñas Palomo is mentioned in court documents in the early 1900s as "Ignacio'n Sam." So there we have historic evidence that the family nickname was indeed Sam, and it was a nickname before the Americans took over Guam. Ignacio'n Sam was Benigno's grandfather. He was born in 1862 or so. 

IGNACIO DUEÑAS PALOMO'S SIGNATURE IN 1912

Better known as Ignacio'n Sam