DEATH BY TUBERO

Tubero, or tuba seller

In 1807, Elías Topasña was killed. He was stabbed by a tubero named Francisco Quitaoji.

A tubero is a maker and/or seller of tuba, an alcoholic drink made from coconut sap.

On October 5th, the body of a dead man was discovered in the Fuña area of Hågat. There was a stab wound below the left nipple. The blade went into the body in the direction of the heart. The body was soon identified as that of Elías Topasña, a bilånggo of Hågat. A bilånggo was a peace officer or constable.

A search party was organized, looking for the knife. It was found by Javier Quidagua and Domingo Laguaña on the roadside. Two knife experts, Mariano Luján and Vicente Muña, studied both the knife and the wound and declared that the knife was the instrument of death.

The next step was identifying the owner of the knife. Very quickly, fingers were pointed at a certain Francisco Quitaoji, also of the Fuña area of Hågat. The knife was used by Quitaoji for cutting tuba.

When questioned, Quitaoji admitted he had stabbed Topasña during a struggle when Topasña met Quitaoji on the road and attempted to confront Quitaoji with a garrote. A garrote was a strangling device, often made of cord or rope. This is where Chamorro gets the word galute.

Despite his apparent justification based on self-defense, Quitaoji was found guilty and imprisoned at the jail in Hagåtña.

Prior to this incident, Quitaoji had been punished by the government for having fled to the mountains.

WHERE WAS (IS) FUÑA?

The location of a place in the Hågat area called Fuña is a mystery to me, so far. The reason for this is because I have yet to find a map showing us where a village called Fuña lies.

There are old maps which show an ISLAND named Fuña (the map above is from 1752(, but the old accounts seem pretty clear there was also a place on Guam itself called Fuña. Could it be that the area on shore facing Fuña Island was also called Fuña?

A village by that name is mentioned as far back as 1682, the year García's book on Sanvitores was published, just ten years after Sanvitores' death. The vague descriptions of Fuña point to an area north of Humåtak and south of Hagåtña, on the western side of the island, but nothing more precise can be ascertained.

FUÑA, FU'UÑA AND FOUHA

To make things even more mysterious, there are those who say Fuña is really Fu'uña, the female who, with her brother Puntan, created the world. She threw her body to the earth and it became a rock, and some believe that this rock is Fouha Rock, just north of Humåtak. Because of the conflation of Fu'uña and Fouha Rock, some people think Fuña or Fu'uña is Fouha Rock. But the old maps tell a different story.

This list of Guam place names used by the US Navy in 1946 shows this belief that Funna (Fu'uña) is the same place as Fouha Point.

Here is Fouha Rock, far from the scene of Topasña's murder in Fuña, under the jurisdiction of Hågat. Hågat village officials were involved in handling Topasña's murder, whereas Fouha Rock was, and is, under Humåtak's jurisdiction.

It also seems inconceivable that all these Hågat people involved in the murder walked all the way down to a place just north of Humåtak to enact a murder.

Topasña is thought of as primarily a Humåtak name, but the documents are clear that Elías Topasña was born in Hågat. Three hundred years ago, Chamorro surnames we think are limited to one village were found in more places all around the islands.

Fuña Rock, or Island, over by Hågat, looks very much in the same location of Turtle Rock. But that is a topic for another discussion.