GUAM AND ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

San Juan Bautista

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FEAST DAY JUNE 24

PÅ'GO NA HA'ÅNE NAI

1. PATRON OF GUAM

When Blessed Diego arrived in the Marianas on June 16, 1668, the feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist was right around the corner - June 24.  He named St. John the Baptist the patron saint of Guam.  In many Spanish documents, the island isn't even called Guam at times, but the island of San Juan.

2. FIRST CATHOLIC MAGA'LÅHE NAMED AFTER HIM

When the maga'låhe of Hagåtña, Kepuha, was baptized, Sanvitores gave him the name of the patron saint of Guam.  He was then known as Juan Kepuha.

3. PATRON OF THE FIRST SCHOOL ON GUAM

In early 1669, Sanvitores established a colegio or school on Guam.  He named it San Juan de Letrán, after the Pope's Cathedral in Rome which is called Saint John Lateran (where the Spaniards got Letrán).  The basilica of Saint John Lateran is so-called because the building itself once belonged to the Laterani family of Rome before it became a church.  Sanvitores made Saint John the Baptist the patron saint of the Colegio in Hagåtña, and a painting of San Juan Bautista hung in the Colegio till the very end, when it was closed when the Americans took over Guam.

Si San Juan i Tatakpånge / tåya' taotao achaiguå-ña;

ta na' hulo' i Bautista / nu i mames na inagang.

(Saint John the Baptist / no one is his equal;

let us exalt the Baptist / with sweet cries.)

PARA TA FAÑÅLEK HA'

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Juan : Jose, håfa na'ån-ña eyi "stand" nai ma pepega i paki?
Jose : Paki - stand.

Juan : Ya håfa ta ålok yanggen todo esta ånglo' i pintura?
Jose : Penta - gone.

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AUTOMOTIVE CHAMORRO

KATON I TANO'

The Cat of the Land

Land Cat

Hmmmmm.....?????  Or, as we say here, "Haaaaaa......?????"

Not sure where this is going.  Is there a "Familian Kato" I've never heard of before?

Is the owner purr-ty much into cats?  Paw-ssibly.

Any which way, another example of Automotive Chamorro.

CHAMORRO NAMING SYSTEM UNDER SPAIN

When the Spaniards colonized the Marianas, a new system of naming individuals was introduced to our people.  First of all, one was given a Christian name at one's baptism - Jose, Maria, Juan, Rosa.

Now, as to the father's last name and the mother's last name.  The Spanish system was followed.  Which means :  FATHER'S NAME FIRST, MOTHER'S NAME NEXT.

So when Jose Cruz and Rosa Santos had a baby girl Maria, she was called MARIA CRUZ SANTOS.

Or, just plain Maria Cruz.  If the mother's name needed to be initialized, she was called Maria Cruz S.

Sometimes, the Spanish put the word "y" in between the two last names. "Y" means "and."  It is pronounced like an "ee" in English.  Maria Cruz y Santos.

In a Spanish document, if you see someone named Manuel Flores Diaz, you would know that his father was the Flores and his mother was the Diaz.

Women did not adopt the last name of their husbands when they got married.  They kept their names.

All this is important to know when you research your family tree and are using Spanish documents.

It took 20 years of American administration for them to change this system, adopting the American system in 1920 of MOTHER'S NAME FIRST, THEN THE FATHER'S NAME.

In the Northern Marianas, the Spanish system continued under the Germans and Japanese until the end of World War II.

BARTOLA GARRIDO

A Chamorro in Yap

BARTOLA GARRIDO

We had mentioned in an earlier post that several hundred Chamorros lived in Yap until 1947.  They had started to move there during Spanish times, from about the 1880s on.  But the first Chamorro who moved there, that we know of, was the lady pictured above - Bartola Garrido.

She presents something of a mystery.  First of all, in the records, she goes by different last names.  But the vast majority of citations call her Garrido, or Garrido y Taisague (meaning her mother's last name was Taisague).  But in other citations she is called Bartola Taisipic y Delgado.  We'll just call her Bartola Garrido.  At least that's how she signed her name, as can be seen in some Spanish documents.

Bartola's signature acknowledging payment for her services as government interpreter in Yap.  She was paid 600 pesos a year.  She spoke Spanish, English, Yapese and, of course, Chamorro.

The reason for her move to Yap is tied up with her male suitor, the American Crayton Philo Holcomb.  Holcomb was one of those entrepreneurs with a boat who tried every which way to make money in the Pacific.  Holcomb knew practically every island in the Pacific where money could be made, from Tahiti to Borneo.  Bartola was on a ship that got lost, only to be rescued by Holcomb, who persuaded her to move with him to Yap in 1875.  Holcomb named a schooner of his after his sweetheart.

BARTOLA GARRIDO

listed as a passenger out of Honolulu in 1872

Yap was not yet under Spanish (or any other foreign) colonial rule, but the Germans and the Spaniards were soon to compete over that issue.  Bartola and Holcomb supported Spanish rule and wrote declarations of that support.  Bartola did her part to try and convince the Yapese chiefs to also support Spanish rule.  It is said that when the Germans raised their flag on Yap, Bartola raised the Spanish flag.

When the Spaniards finally did set up a colonial government in Yap in 1886, Bartola's loyalty to Spain was rewarded.  For the next 13 years or so, she was the government interpreter and was paid handsomely for that service; 600 pesos a year (a government clerk in Yap was paid just 150 pesos a year).  It is said that Bartola helped recruit Chamorros to come to Yap in the 1880s and 90s to teach and to otherwise settle on the island.  Her house was used in the early days of Spanish rule as a school.

Juan and Ramón Aguon, also from Guam, moved to Yap in the 1880s and were called Bartola's nephews, but the connection was never explained as far as I know. Bartola is said to have actively recruited Chamorros from the Marianas to move to Yap.

Some of the first Yapese to become Catholic were Bartola's servants. She lead them in daily prayers in her house and taught them what she could. When Spanish missionaries came, Bartola did everything possible for them, from fetching water to finding food to interpreting for them to lending her boats when needed.

When the first Yapese infant was baptized, a girl, Bartola became its godmother.

BARTOLA SITTING WITH THE SPANISH FLAG BEHIND HER.
YAP

Holcomb was already dead in 1885, killed by islanders in the New Ireland area of Papua New Guinea.  But Bartola remained in Yap till her death, well into the 20th century.  She had her own estate in Yap, as can be seen on the map below.  Her grave site today is unknown.

Spanish map of their settlement in Yap, called Colonia.  On the bottom right of the map, the island of Topalau is described as the place where "Doña Bartola resides."

To this day in Yap there is a place called "Chamorro Bay."

TODAY'S CHAMORRO WORD : MUTUNG

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MUTUNG : stinky

Mutung i kemmon.  The toilet stinks.

Kao mutung i magagu-ho?  Do my clothes stink?

Minitung.  Stench.

Ei na minitung!  Oh what stench!

I minitung i isao-ña siha.  The stench of his sins.

HOW DO YOU SAY ATALIG?

YOUNG AND NOT-AS-YOUNG COMPARE PRONOUNCING CHAMORRO NAMES

ATALIG

AFAISEN

MANGLOÑA

CHARFAUROS

CHARGUALAF

FEJERAN

FEGURGUR

BASIC GRAMMAR : UM, part 4

Some words may be a little tricky when trying to insert the UM infix.  Like :

Åsson (to lie down).  Since the word starts with a vowel, the UM comes before the word. Umåsson.

To duplicate, åsson become å'åsson. 

Putting the UM in å'åsson becomes umå'åsson.

Let's try another word.  Åguåguåt.  (To be stubborn, obstinate in misbehaving.)

Again, UM comes at the beginning of the word.  Umåguåguåt.

In duplicating, it becomes å'åguåguåt.  Thus - umå'åguåguåt.

Umåsson yo'.  I lied down.  Umå'åsson yo'.  I am lying down.

Umåguåguåt gue'.  She was/became stubborn.  Umå'åguåguåt gue'.  She is being stubborn.

Try now, on your own, with....

Ekungok (to listen)
O'son (to become weary of)
O'mak (to shower or bathe)
Ugong (to moan, groan)

TODAY'S CHAMORRO WORD : PAOPAO

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PAOPAO : fragrant; also perfume or cologne

Paopao.  It smells good.

Paopao i gapot ilu-mo!  Your hair smells good!

Ti ya-ho sa' ti paopao.  I don't like it because it doesn't smell nice.

Pinaopao.  Fragrance.

Ei na pinaopao!  My what fragrance!

Na' paopao.  To make fragrant.

Na' paopao i kuåtto.  Make the room smell nice.

Paopågue.  To spread a fragrance.

Ha paopågue i gima'.  S/he spread a fragrance in the house. 

Si Påle' ha paopågue insensio.  The priest made it smell of incense.

Ha nå'ye gue' paopao.  S/he put perfume/cologne on her/him.

Mångge i paopao?  Where's the cologne/perfume?

AGI' MADE DURING WORLD WAR II

Don't be fooled by the bottle; it was borrowed, emptied and filled with local moonshine or agi', made during the Japanese occupation.

I visited a lady the other day and got to talking about the war.  She told me how her father made agi' on the ranch during the war.  Almost everybody during the war lived on their ranches, in order to grow food and eat.  Her father had to hide it from the Japanese.

As the note on the bottle says, "Flammable Chamorro Whiskey."  Perhaps for this reason, the man's son-in-law, who inherited the bottle, melted candles and sealed the bottle with wax.  Take a look in the next pic :

But the lady I visited told me it was sealed because, otherwise, the liquor would evaporate.  High alcohol content.  Strong stuff.

Agi' demanded a decent price during the war.  People made good money making it secretly on the ranch and selling it quietly to locals and Japanese alike.  Someone in my family did just the thing during the war.

LÅTAN DUDU

A venerable, old Chamorro custom rarely seen today.

After using up all the canned Real Fresh milk, or any tin can but preferably with a gold interior, keep your cold water in it and place it in the kåhon ais (fridge).  The låtan dudu.

Låta is "can"; dudu means something that can be used to hold liquid.  A coconut shell can be used as a dudu.

Gold interior ones rusted slower.  My grandma's cousin, born in 1900, always had to drink from her låtan dudu when she would stay (for weeks) at our house with grandma.  No other water would do.  Sometimes she would cover it with a napkin or folded paper towel.

It was a convenient way of always having cold water on hand, without the hassle of getting a glass, as one would have to do with a pitcher of water.  You drank straight out of the låtan dudu.  Sometimes, when no one was around, I'd take a swipe from her låtan dudu myself.  I will never forget the metallic taste of the water.

FALSE FRIENDS : KERIDA

False Friend

A word that appears to be the same in two languages, but means two different things

A few examples in English and Spanish would be :

EMBARRASSED : we're tempted to say "embarazada" in Spanish, but "embarazada" means "pregnant" in Spanish, not embarrassed!  What an embarrassing mistake that would be!

CAMP : we're tempted to say "campo," but in Spanish that means "field."

CARPET : shall we say "carpeta?"  But that means "file" or "brief case" in Spanish.

If we are tempted even in English to think the Spanish word for the same thing sounds the same, how much more will we be tempted in Chamorro, which has so much Spanish in it, to do the same.  Yet, we must be careful.  There are a few false friends in Chamorro and Spanish.  Like :

KERIDA

We got that from the Spanish word "querida."  It means "loved one," from the verb "querer," which is "to want, to love."

For us, kerida (female) or kerido (male) is our favored one, the one we love the most, among a group of people.  It is most often used for the favorite child, but it can also be used in a slangy way for the kerido/kerida in the office (the boss' favorite), the parish (the pastor's favorite) or the classroom (the teacher's pet).

But don't tell a Mexican or Spanish friend that so-and-so is somebody's kerida.  To them, it means "mistress."

You can use querido/querida as an adjective.  "Querida Sally," "Dear Sally."  But, in Spanish, never as a noun, unless you do in fact want to call somebody a mistress.

BASIC GRAMMAR : UM, part 3

PRESENT AND PRESENT PROGRESSIVE TENSE

As we have seen, kånta simply means the verb "sing" or the noun "song."

It can be used as an imperative, an order, a command to one or two people, "Kånta!"

Putting the infix UM inside the word gives it motion, but in the past tense.

Kumånta yo'.  I sang.

To give it motion in the present, we have to DUPLICATE a syllable, usually the first syllable.

Kånta.  Kå-kånta.  Duplicating kå tells us that the action is happening NOW.

Try this now with : BAILA, HÅNAO, CHOCHO.  (Dance, go, eat)

Ba-baila.  Hå-hånao. Cho-chocho.

Notice that in baila, we drop the "i" when we duplicate the first syllable.  Two vowels in a row are called a diphthong.  In duplication, one usually drops the second vowel.

For example, saosao (to wipe) becomes så-sao-sao.

Now try this on your own with : TOHGE, PESKA. (Stand, fish)

Just as we dopped the "n" in kånta to make it kåkånta, guess what you needed to do with the "h" in tohge when you duplicated?

Now that you know how to duplicate, let's add the UM infix.

Kumåkånta.  Bumabaila.  Humåhånao.   Someone is singing/dancing/going NOW.

Kumåkånta yo'.  I sing.  I am singing.
Humåhånao gue'.  She goes.  She is going.
Humåhånao hao.  You go.  You are going.

Two people ONLY :

Tumotohge hamyo.  You (two) stand/are standing.
Bumabaila siha.  They (two) dance/are dancing.

Three or more people : another lesson!

Practice now with : GIMEN (to drink) and CHÅLEK (to laugh)

CHAMORRO BOATSMEN - 1876

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The Marianas, especially Guam, were used by the Spaniards as a presidio, or prison, for convicts from the Philippines and Spain.  To feed these deportados (deported convicts), the government had to send supplies by ship from Manila to Guam.  The cargo had to be moved from the large ship anchored in Apra Harbor (San Juan de Apra) by smaller boats to Punta Piti (Piti Point) where a påntalån (pier) like the one above could receive them.  From Piti, the supplies made their way to Hagåtña by cart.

The following Chamorro boat owners and the men they hired hauled cargo for the Spaniards in March of 1876.  They were duly paid by the government for doing so.  The owner got 50 centavos a day for the work; the workmen 25 centavos.

Andres de los Santos - owner
Joaquin Mafnas, Luis de Leon Guerrero, Juan Blas, Pedro Gumataotao.

Jose Quintanilla - owner
Antonio Finoña, Vicente Ada, Cenen de los Santos, Lucas de los Santos

Jose de la Concepcion - owner
Pedro de los Santos, Ignacio Peredo, Pedro Baza, Jesus Muña

Pedro Taitano - owner
Juan Arceo, Jose de Salas, Mariano Garcia, Jose Lizama

Always four men and an owner.

(Source : Philippines National Archives)

KÅNTAN CHAMORRITA

In honor of the upcoming procession (lukao) on Corpus Christi, here's a Chamorrita verse about what to do when you see a lukao.

An gumupo si paluma / ya tumohge gi un trongkon paipai,

y'an un li'e mågi i likao / dimu påpa' ya un fanaitai.

When the bird flies / and lands on the paipai tree,

when you see a procession coming / kneel down and pray.

PAIPAI TREE

The paipai tree is considered endemic to Guam, though it is found on other islands in the Marianas.  Its scientifc name is Guamia mariannae to reflect that.  The wood of this tree was used for the frames of roofs of houses, as well as for the handles of the fusiños or thrust hoe.  It is not resistent to termites.