From a list of Chamorro government officials in the 1830s, we find the following officials for Sinajaña.
JUAN GOGO was the "Mayor" or Gobernadorcillo ("little governor").
ANTOLÍN MARCHENA was the second-in-command or Teniente.
JOSÉ TEDTAOTAO was the Agricultural Officer or Juez de Palmas, Sementeras y Animales (Judge of Palms, Fields and Animals).
MARIANO NAPUTI, AGUSTÍN QUIDACHAY and LUÍS ATOIGUE were the neighborhood leaders or Cabezas de Barangay (heads of the barangay). A barangay was a district or neighborhood.
Antolín Marchena is an interesting name.There is a Spanish last name Marchena as well as a Spanish town named Marchena and, sure enough, a captain named José Marchena is listed in the 1727 Guam Census as being in the Spanish company of soldiers. But this could mean he was from Spain or from Latin America, and even possibly (though less likely) the Philippines. He was married to María Salas. Quite probably it is their son José who appears in the 1758 Guam Census, married to Rosalía Tailaf. That spelling of the last name could be "off," but it seems pretty clear that it's a Chamorro name.
Antolín could be the son or grandson of José and Rosalía. By 1897, there is only one Marchena left on Guam, a woman named Josefa, quite possibly the daughter of Antolín. Josefa is married to Casildo Lajo and they have no children. The Marchena name died out.
As you can see, other than Marchena, all the surnames are Chamorro, as the more mixed Chamorro population (those with foreign blood) lived mainly in Hagåtña and those with less foreign blood (sometimes none at all!) lived in the outlying villages.
Buenas pale'Eric, I was wondering if you had any knowledge of where the Quidachay name originates. My mom is half Belauan half Chamorro(familian kodac)but was adopted by a chamorro family and we never talked about it but Now im doing my own research cause im mamalao to ask my grandparents. All I was ever told was Quidachay/Familian Kodac. Ive also used your blog to research my Orong(Quintanilla)side it brought me joy to see the story of my great grandpa and the orgin of my grandmas family name. Thank you for this blog and everything you do. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThe name Quidachay originates on Guam or the Marianas and is native to here, it is not Spanish or anything else. It is one of the many Chamorro names that begin with Qui which we would spell Ke, meaning "to try to, to attempt to." There were many Ke (Qui) names before like Quifahan (try to buy) or Quiosge (try to obey) and today we still have Quichochco, Quitugua and so on. So it's finding the meaning of the 2nd half of the name that is the challenge. Some we can understand like TUGUA' means to topple, FUNAS in Quifunas means to erase or wipe away. The DACHAI in Quidachay is a word we don't use anymore in Chamorro but if we can find it in some old document we may able to know what it means. But it's an old name that already shows in the 1727 Census with 6 or 7 people having that name.
ReplyDeleteSi yuos maase pale’.
ReplyDelete