FILIPINO CANDIDATE, CHAMORRO AD

 

In 1970, the vast majority of Guam voters were Chamorro. Many of those Chamorro voters were elderly, born when schools went as far as the fourth or fifth grade in many cases. So, quite a number of senior voters spoke little to no English in the 1970s.

Even if many voters spoke English, their primary language was still Chamorro and to speak Chamorro to many voters was more effective than to speak to them in English.

So when Juanito Peralta, a Filipino, ran for the Guam Legislature in 1970, he thought it a good idea to put some campaign ads in the newspaper in the Chamorro language. Not only did he have an uphill battle winning because he was not Chamorro, he also ran as a Republican, a new party on Guam that had not won a single seat in the Legislature yet.

Peralta had a Chamorro wife who perhaps assisted him in writing the Chamorro ad, or perhaps a Chamorro supporter penned it for him. The spelling is quite rough, so I'll put it in my own way of spelling Chamorro.

HÅFA ADAI MAN ATUNGO'-HO yan todos hamyo taotao Guam.

(Greetings to all my acquaintances and to all of you people of Guam.)

Guåho si Juanito T. Peralta, asaguan Rita Flores Guerrero, ginen Bånik yan Charot na familia.

(I am Juanito T. Peralta, the husband of Rita Flores Guerrero, from the Bånik and Charot families.)

Numero diesisais yo' gi agapa' na bånda gi baloto.

(I am number 16 on the right side of the ballot.)

Pot fabot na' saonao yo' gi bentiuno na kandidåto para en bota.

(Please include me among the twenty-one candidates you will vote for.)

Malago' yo' bai anunsia na yanggen suette ya humålom yo' gi konggreso

(I would like to say that if I am lucky and am admitted into the Legislature)

bai protehe mås i mamopble yan bai hu setbe maolek para i interes-miyo

(I will protect the poor more and serve well your interests)

yan i fina'maolek i tano'-ta.

(and the improvement of our land.)

I fuetsa gaige giya hamyo. Hamyo i ma'gas, guåho i setbiente. Ennao i hinengge-ko.

(The power is with you. You are the boss, I am the servant. That is my belief.)

NOTES

Notice that uses his wife's full maiden name, including her maternal and paternal surnames and even the Chamorro nicknames for her families. This is a way to connect with all the voters who might be related or who these families well. A candidate can win by one vote, so every vote counts.

He doesn't say he is on the Republican side of the ballot. In 1970, the island was still very Democrat. The Democrats won all 21 seats in the Legislature two elections in a row before 1970. The word "Republican" would instantly turn off a number of voters and, as every vote counts, it's safer to just say "right side of the ballot."

He calls the Legislature Konggreso or "Congress." This was the way older Chamorros called the Legislature. It goes back to the pre-war Guam Congress established by some Naval Governors, which was purely advisory and lacked real power. Even when, in 1950, Guam got a Legislature with the power to pass laws, older Chamorros kept calling it the Konggreso and the members Konggresista. Even in English, members of the Legislature were called Congressmen/women till 1970. Old habits die hard.

Seen above, it's 1953, Guam has a Legislature, not a Congress, but the new Speaker is called CONGRESSMAN A.B Won Pat, not Senator A.B. Won Pat.

DEMOCRAT SUPER MAJORITY

Peralta did not win, but neither did fourteen of his fellow Republicans.

The Democrats swept the 11th Guam Legislature in 1970 with a super majority of fifteen seats, against six Republican winners.