TÅYA' ILU-ÑA!

 

Manet came running as fast as he could to his father's ranch house in Luayao, just past Barrigada heading towards the eastern cliffs of central Guam.

He and his father were supposed to spend the night there and they had arrived there just after the noon hour, having taken a karetan guaka (bull cart) from Hagåtña. After feeding the pigs, goats and chickens, and repairing some fences, Manet's dad told him to take it easy and relax while the dad did some last-minute preparations before the sun went down when they'd have dinner and go to sleep. 

It was around 5:30 in the afternoon when Manet went, stick in hand, into some jungle trails surrounding their ranch property. Reaching dead ends, he'd go back and try another trail. One lead him to the edge of the cliff, where he was able to just see the horizon of the sea by stepping on some huge boulders to get past the tree line. The sun was setting on the other side of the island but Manet was able to get a glimpse of the dark blue sea.

As light was leaving fast, Manet jumped off the boulders and headed back towards the ranch. The scene was very quiet, as Manet was all alone in a secluded place and the ranch dogs hadn't even followed Manet all the way in. Bored, perhaps, or maybe hungry, the dogs had deserted Manet and returned to the ranch ahead of Manet. Every now and then, a faint bark from the dogs reminded Manet where the ranch was.

As Manet passed a håyon lågo tree, he distinctly heard some rustling to his left. He figured it could be benådo (wild deer) or a babuen hålom tåno' (wild pig), or maybe even a hilitai (iguana). Whatever the case, he thought to himself, it was getting darker and he'd rather be back at the ranch than fight off some angry animal. Picking up his gait, he sped his way down the stony trail.

But the further he went, the rustling seemed to follow him. He sped up some more. The noise on his left seemed to have stopped. He was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when all of a sudden he heard rustling on his right! "Asaina!" "Lord!" Manet thought. "Are there two animals tracking me? Or did the one cross to the other side?" Neither possibility was good, Manet thought.

Relieved he was nearing the main trail that took him directly to the ranch house, the periodic barks of the ranch dogs sounding closer and closer, Manet was now briskly walking down the trail. Ouch! His foot got snagged in an unseen crevice in the ground, hidden by nightfall's darkness. Down Manet went, but he broke his fall with his outstretched hands. But when Manet gathered his bearings, instead of the rustling of trees and bushes to his left or right, he heard the rough noise of moving gravel behind him.

Still on his hands and knees on the ground, Manet peered behind him. Looming high above him about ten feet away was a massive black shadow, with the broadest shoulders he'd ever seen on a torso. As dark as it was, this deep black shadow still stood out against the purplish dusk sky. When Manet turned around, the figure stopped walking and, without thinking, Manet jumped to his feet and ran for his life.

"Tåta! Tåta!" "Father! Father!" Manet screamed as he got to the ranch house, illuminated by coconut oil lamps here and there. "Påkkaka'!" Manet's dad yelled back. "Keep quiet"

"Manli'e' yo' taotaomo'na!" "I saw a taotaomo'na (ancestral spirit)!"

"Ha falagu'e yo'!" "It chased after me!"

Manet's dad explained, "Masea lao tåya' bali-ña i para un essalao. Esta hao maolek. Trangkilo." "Even if it chased you, yelling about it doesn't do any good. You're safe now. Just calm down."

"Lao tåta....tåya' ilu-ña! Tåya' ilu-ña!" "But dad, it had no head! It had no head!"

The fact that Manet only saw a huge black figure with broad shoulders but no protruding head lead Manet to the firm conclusion that the spirit was headless. The fact that it had no head was what really did it for Manet. The fear factor increased by a thousand percentage points because of it. How could a spirit know where it was going if it had no eyes in a head to see?

WHY SOME TAOTAOMO'NA ARE HEADLESS

If the taotaomo'na are the spirits of ancient Chamorros, then it's no surprise that some of them appear headless.

Our people in the days before European contact often took the skulls of deceased relatives out of the grave and placed them back in their homes. Sometimes the skull was put in a high place inside the home and other times the skulls were placed in baskets.

The skulls were valued as ways of venerating the deceased relative or of asking them to bring good fortune, or both. In any case, ancient Chamorros often separated the skull from the rest of the body remaining in the grave, so it makes sense that some ancient spirits chose to reappear on earth as headless beings.

As for the broad shoulders, this could be attributed to the fact that a lot of hauling of heavy stones and other artifacts was needed to be done by men for, let's say as an example, the building of latte stone sites, some of which were used in house building.

NOTABLE VICTIMS OF 1918 INFLUENZA

 

The 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic hit Guam like a ton of bricks.

It began in November and, by the end of that month, more people had died in one month than in entire years prior to the pandemic. Some 673 Guam residents died that month alone, and in the entire year prior to this, in 1917, only 243 Guam had died. So many people were dying daily that carts were brought up and down Hagåtña's street picking up bodies to be buried quickly at Pigo cemetery. 

The flu was very bad on the elderly. Some of the island's oldest people died in November 1918. Every human life is precious, but some stand out because they were patriarchs or matriarchs of large clans, or were notable people in the community or lived to a very long age. Here are some of them who died in November 1918 during the pandemic.

GREGORIO CRUZ PÉREZ

Goyo

HUSBAND AND WIFE DIE DAYS APART

Gregorio Cruz Pérez and Rosa Aguon Flores

GREGORIO CRUZ PÉREZ was the founder of the Goyo clan of Perezes, which has played an important part in Guam's recent history. Gregorio himself was a big landowner and held some civic posts, including Associate Judge. Some of his descendants include Guam politicians (including a Governor, Felix Camacho) and businessmen. He died at age 71.

Just two days later, in the same pandemic, his wife ROSA AGUON FLORES, of the Kabesa clan, passed away at age 75. They are buried in the family cemetery in Yigo.

NICOLÁS AND AGUSTÍN EVARISTO DUEÑAS

Brothers

Two brothers, from a respectable family who themselves are the patriarchs of many descendants, died days apart because of the pandemic.

NICOLÁS EVARISTO DUEÑAS was the grandfather of Father Jesús Baza Dueñas, only the 2nd Chamorro priest ordained in history and who was executed by the Japanese in 1944. He is also the great grandfather of Judge Cristóbal Camacho Dueñas. He was 87 when he died.

His younger brother AGUSTÍN died not long after. Agustín is the founder of Oting clan, and another branch coming from the Oting clan is the Kaila family. He died at age 74.

KATSON

One branch of Aflagues are known as the Katson family. VICENTE FLORES AFLAGUE was one of them, the son of Manuel Camacho Aflague who served as a judge during Spanish times. Vicente's mother was Saturnina Manalisay Flores.

Just 54 years old, Vicente died from the Spanish influenza.

He was the great grandfather of Governor Lourdes Aflague León Guerrero.

ANTONIO PANGELINAN MARTÍNEZ

Although he did not leave many male descendants, ANTONIO PANGELINAN MARTÍNEZ, while he lived, was one of Guam's highest level elites. He had tremendous land holdings, including a cattle ranch in Dandan. His several daughters married prominent men, including foreigners. He died from influenza at the age of 81.

KUETO

JUANA PÉREZ SAN NICOLÁS was the matriarch of the large Kueto clan. Her husband, who did not die from influenza and who lived many more years after the pandemic, was José Mendiola Taitano, a former whaler. When a Protestant mission was opened on Guam as soon as the Americans took over Guam, José'n Kueto joined them. Juana was 68 when she died, leaving behind many children whose descendants include many politicians, including a Governor (Carl Gutiérrez). She is buried in the Custino (General Baptist) Cemetery in what is now called East Agaña.

HUSBAND AND WIFE DIE SAME DAY

Down in Sumay, a husband and wife died from influenza on the same day. They were FRANCISCO GUZMÁN SABLAN, aged 80, and his wife ANDREA DÍAZ PÉREZ, aged 73. What a sad day for that family to have to bury both spouses on the same day. They left many descendants.

OTHERS

Others who perished in the pandemic were PEDRO GUZMÁN SABLAN, the grandfather of Baptist minister Reverend Joaquín Flores Sablan. He was 76.

FÉLIX BORJA PANGELINAN, of the numerous Kotla clan, died at age 45. Still being relatively young, his widow remarried.

TITO QUICHOCHO BAZA, patriarch of many Bazas in Yoña and a large landowner, died of influenza at age 59.

MARÍA LUJÁN IGLESIAS was 54 when she died of influenza. She was the grandmother of Agueda Iglesias Johnston. 

OLDEST

The oldest victim of the Spanish Influenza of 1918 we have on record was JOSEFA DEMAPAN TANOÑA. She was 99 years old, and possibly older, since ages were notoriously inaccurate in those days, as many people could neither read nor write and documentation was not only unnecessary but also useless to many people in those days.

Josefa was married to a Borja and they had land in Cañada, Barrigada.

And so, these members of Guam's past and present history pictured above, a Protestant minister, a Catholic priest, a leading island educator and a Governor of Guam all lost a grandparent or great grandparent in the Spanish Influenza pandemic in 1918 that took the lives of over 600 people on Guam in pretty much a month's time. 

FAMILIAN ANONAS

A branch of the Guerrero family on Guam is called the familian ANONAS.

The anonas is a tropical fruit, related to the åtes and laguaná, or custard apple and sour sop. There are literally dozens of different kinds of anonas in the tropics. They originated in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and were brought to the Marianas and the Philippines by the Spaniards. The name anonas comes from the Native American Taino word for the fruit. The Tainos were from Hispaniola, the island on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean are located.

"Anonas" is also said in a number of Philippine languages.

Here's an early artistic portrayal of the anonas as found on Guam:

According to Safford, the Chamorros did not eat much of the anonas, preferring the åtes most of all, and then the laguaná. But the fanihi (fruit bats) relished the anonas and they grew wild in the jungle, so the bats had their fill of them.

DOMINGO BAE GUERRERO

The branch of the Guerreros known as the familian Anonas seem to be the descendants of Domingo Bae Guerrero who was born around 1849 or so. He was still alive, age 71 years, in the 1920 Guam Census. But he does not appear in subsequent censuses, so he must have passed away in or prior to 1930.

It is believed he was the son of Ignacio Guerrero and Andrea Quintanilla Bae.

DOMINGO'S SIGNATURE IN 1906

It was common to abbreviate Guerrero as Grro

Domingo married Ana Blas and they had five children.

SOLEDAD was the only daughter. She married José Garrido Álvarez but they had no children.

DOMINGO, a son, never married.

JOSÉ, another son, left Guam during Spanish times joining the crew of a ship.

JOSÉ BLAS GUERRERO

José was already out of Guam by 1897 as he is absent from the Guam Census taken that year. He may have gotten to the US during Spanish times, then. At any rate, he was married in California in the year 1900 to a Hispanic woman named Augustina Rodriguez, whose father was born in California and whose mother was born in Mexico. Originally living in San Francisco, the couple moved to Stockton by 1910. They had many children, so the Anonas family has had a branch in the United States for over 100 years.

NICOLÁS, another son, married María San Nicolás Luján, the daughter of Silvestre and Nieves.

They had a daughter María and a son Silvestre.

Nicolás married a second time, with Josefa Dueñas Crisóstomo, the daughter of José Tagaña Crisóstomo and María Camacho Dueñas.

Their children were Manuela, Rafael, Ana, Maria, Domingo and José.

Nicolás' children kept the Anonas clan continuing and spreading on Guam.

FRANCISCO, also a son, is listed in the 1950 Guam Census as the husband of Josefa Dueñas Crisóstomo. So it seems that, after his brother Nicolás died, he married his widowed sister-in-law Josefa. But both were too old by then to have children.

Domingo, the patriarch of the family, apparently married a woman named Nieves, perhaps after his first wife died. But by then he and his new wife were too old to have children.

I have not come across any information as to why Domingo's branch of Guerreros are nicknamed Anonas.

BAE

Domingo's middle name, Bae, which was his mother's maiden name, was a family here on Guam in the 1800s that has since vanished due to lack of male descendants. There are only 5 people with the surbame Bae in the 1897 Guam Census, and they are all women.

The Bae family goes back even further in time, and the name was sometimes spelled BAHE which means it was pronounced BA - E, since the Spanish H is silent and is used at times to separate tow vowels.