CHAMORROS IN MANILA 1822

 

INTRAMUROS AND MANILA

(Intamuros was the heart of the city)

In 1822, a dozen Chamorro young men were sent, at Government expense, to learn trades and careers in Manila. The assumption was they would return to the Marianas and improve the local community with the skills they learned in the Philippines.

The list gives the names, but I'm spelling the names in more recognizable ways.

The youngest was a mere 13 years old; the oldest was 34. They were all students at Hagåtña's Colegio de San Juan de Letrán, the school founded by Sanvitores for boys. The names seem to be from Guam, not from Luta, although some boys from Luta were sent to the Colegio in Hagåtña. But it is still possible one or more of these 12 young men were from Luta.

Three went hoping to become priests. This meant to be admitted into a seminary. This shows that José Torres Palomo was not the first Chamorro to study for the priesthood, but he was the first Chamorro to actually be ordained a priest. Still, we have no idea (yet) how long these three priest aspirants lasted in their priestly studies. If they quickly stopped their studies, it may not even be right to say they studied at all for the priesthood. But, they had the dream anyway.

FRANCISCO GOGUE

LUIS QUITANO

CARLOS TEDGUATANO

There are still Gogues and Quitanos today, but the Tedguatano family became extinct. The Tedguatano were from Hågat (Agat).

MIGUEL QUIGIMA (ke+guma') wanted to be a shoemaker. There was a Queguma woman who married a Camacho, whose children lived into the early 1900s. But there were not enough male heirs carrying the name and it vanished.

JOSÉ ATOIGUE and

BERNARDO ALIG wanted to become carpenters. The document spells it Aloc but I've seen the name misspelled Aluc before, and this could be just a bad reading of the handwriting, which can be difficult to read.

Three young men wanted to become storekeepers. This is interesting, because the Spanish Governor controlled the government store. One also has to have things to sell, and where would Chamorro storekeepers get their merchandise? The three men were :

JOSÉ TAITANO

IGNACIO GOGO

JOSÉ PEREDO

RAMÓN DUEÑAS wanted to become a surgeon, a most needed profession in the Marianas at the time.

MARIANO GUEHILO (ge+hulo') or possibly QUEHILO (ke+hulo') wanted to become a blacksmith.

JOSÉ QUIDACHAY (misspelled Guedachay) wanted to become a painter (not the artistic kind, I assume).

The document was sure to point out that the Government provided all of these young men ample clothing.....and one rosary each.

What ever became of these young men? I don't know.

One has to wonder how many came back to the Marianas. We never hear of a surgeon named Ramón Dueñas. Or Chamorro storekeepers. Some of the names are so common we can't tell which José Taitano or José Atoigue we're talking about in later documents. We know for sure the three "seminarians" were never ordained priests.

We have to allow for the possibility that some died in the Philippines, or stayed there for good.

NOTES ON LEADING CHAMORRO MEN

 

In 1874, a Spaniard by the name of Francisco Chacón Lara was exiled to Guam for political reasons. Years later, he wrote a book about his time on Guam in which he shares some anecdotes about some of the Chamorros he got to know about.

RITA CRUZ TORRES. She was the mother of the first Chamorro priest, José Bernardo Torres Palomo. Although Rita was long dead when Chacón was on Guam (she died in the smallpx epidemic of 1856), Chacón wrote of her reputation as a very generous contributor to works of charity for the unfortunate. He said that her son, Padre Palomo, followed her example in this regard.

PADRE PALOMO

Son of a charitable and generous mother

JUAN DE CASTRO. A sergeant in the Chamorro militia, he was also an important government official in charge of many things, including the provincial archives, personnel, the supervision of public works projects and the courts. He received a monthly salary of 15 pesos. Unfortunately, there were several men of adult age by the name of Juan de Castro at that time so more research is needed to figure out which Juan de Castro is mentioned here.

JOSÉ CRUZ PÉREZ was Gobernadorcillo (Mayor) of Hagåtña. He had various other roles, too, in the Spanish Government.

JUAN GUERRERO was the English interpreter for the Government. English was an important language to know as the British and Americans were a constant presence in the Pacific by the 1800s, especially with the whaling trade. Quite a number of Chamorros spoke some English because of their contact with the whalers or because they themselves joined the whaling crews for a while then came back. 

I was thinking this Juan Guerrero is the same Juan Guerrero from Guam who lived in Hawaii in the 1850s to the 1870s but Juan Guerrero died in Hawaii in 1878, so he probably was not the same Juan Guerrero who was English interpreter on Guam in 1874. 

VICENTE PANGELINAN is remembered as a man working in the Spanish Government financial offices. This was quite possible Vicente Luján Pangelinan, who married Antonia Martínez Pangelinan connected to the Pedro Martínez family of later fame.

Known as outstanding farmers are JOSÉ SABLAN AGUILAR, LUÍS LINO, ANDRÉS CRUZ DE CASTRO, VICENTE MENDIOLA, FRANCISCO FLORES and LUÍS GUZMÁN SABLAN. "Lino" is not a last name, so it could be his nickname, being a son of a father named Lino, and more than one person can fit that description. 

MANUEL PANGELINAN was an excellent carpenter.

JOSÉ HERRERO was a skilled tailor. There was only one José Herrero old enough in 1874 to qualify as is, and that was José Aguon Herrero, the son of the former Spanish Governor José Ganga Herrero.

JUAN GUERRERO and JUAN ARRIOLA were good tin smiths.

ANTONIO PANGELINAN MARTÍNEZ

ANTONIO PANGELINAN MARTÍNEZ was a jack-of-all-trades. He was a prosperous farmer, too, with many children, most of them daughters who were sought after by many male suitors. 

FRANCISCO PÉREZ was a highly-regarded locksmith and blacksmith.

LUÍS MARTÍNEZ BAZA was called a "smart and inventive" man, but Chacón considered him an arrogant, strong-willed man. Baza was a fighter, who filed lawsuits against the Spanish Government. Baza was engaged in commerce and business. He was also engaged in commerce and operated a store in Hagåtña up to American times. He is the grandfather of Rosie Herrero Baza, the widow of former Governor Paul McDonald Calvo.