THE FAMOUS KAMALEN FIRE

 

Everyone has their version of the ways things happened in the past. 

The following story comes from the late Sister Mary Mark Martinez, a Mercy Sister who was 17 years old and present in Hagåtña on December 8, 1945 when the first procession with Our Lady of Camarin (Sånta Marian Kamalen) took place since 1940. The procession in 1941 was impossible to observe since the Japanese attacked Guam on that day. I had many talks with Sister Mark; the closer she got to her death, the more openly she shared things about the war she previously was hesitant to share.

SISTER MARY MARK MARTINEZ, RSM

After having moved around to be sheltered in several places during the Japanese Occupation and having survived American bombing, the statue of Our Lady of Camarin looked weathered and worn after the war. Her hair, especially, made from hemp, was disheveled. The Sodality girls used shampoo and chemicals to smooth out the hair as best they could.

The karosa, or wheeled cart, to be used for the procession in 1945 was the same one used before the war. Even the crescent moon which was placed at the rear of the karosa, providing a background for the statue, was the one that was supposed to be used in the 1941 procession. The karosa was heavily decorated, as usual, with cotton balls simulating clouds placed all around. The afternoon had clear skies; everyone was overjoyed that they could be with their beloved Blessed Mother on her feast day. The procession was coming to an end.

When the karosa entered the temporary church built on the same site as the prewar Cathedral, the crowds gathered around Our Lady on the karosa. Father Calvo told the people to blow out the candles they had carried in their hands during the procession. One old lady, probably hard of hearing, did not hear this instruction and knelt close to the karosa with her lit candle. Up in flames the fabric, crepe paper and cotton balls went on the karosa!

The fire spread fast and furious; so quickly that many people were stunned and did not move. Within seconds, though, people started to scream in Chamorro, “Save our Lady!” “Såtba si Sånta Maria!” Men wearing jackets took them off and started to beat the flames, trying to kill them. The crescent went up in flames and withered away. Amidst the screams of the people, a man stuck his arms into the karosa and pulled out the statue. Not a hair on his arms was singed, nor his skin burnt. This point alone amazed the people, besides the fact that the statue, too, did not burn at all, including not a single strand of her "hair."

JOSÉ DUEÑAS LEÓN GUERRERO

Since I'm writing this, I think I better mention that José Dueñas León Guerrero claimed to have been the man who rescued the statue from the flames.

HINENGGEN MAN ÅMKO' : CLEFT LIP

 

YANGGEN HUMUYONG I MAPOTGE' NA PALAO'AN AN GUALÅFON, SIEMPRE PIRI' I NENE

If a pregnant woman goes out when the moon is full, the baby will be born with a cleft lip.

Chamorros have many folk beliefs about pregnancy. This is just one of them.

Of course there is no scientific basis for this, and even some elderly Chamorros I talked to (especially the women) dismiss this belief as nonsense. "Håye fuma'tinas ayo?" "Who made that up?"

It's interesting that some older Chamorros are not the only ones with this belief.

Among some Mayans of Mexico, children born with a cleft lip are called "children bitten by the moon."

Others believe if a pregnant mother uses a knife, her child will be born with a cleft lip. It's not hard to see why some people think a cleft lip could be caused by a knife.

Very few of our people believe in this today, judging from all the pregnant Chamorro women who routinely go out at night even when it is a full moon.

At least this belief is mild and tame compared to some cultures who believe that a child with a cleft lip is possessed or cursed by evil spirit. Thank God our folk belief didn't go that far.

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.

TAOTAOMO'NA BABY

 

I taotao siha, annai ma hahasso i taotaomo'na, ma popo'lo na man dångkulo yan man lokka' siha. Ya hunggan magåhet taiguennao posision-ña i taotaomo'na annai umannok lao åhe' ti todo i tiempo.

(When people think of the taotaomo'na, they think that they are large and tall. And yes it's true that that is the way they appear but not always.)

I taotaomo'na siha siña ma tulaika hechuran-ñiha guato gi masea håfa malago'-ñiha. Siña ga'lågo, siña guihan gi halom tåsi yan siña paluma gi aire. Masea håfa.

(The taotaomo'na can change their appearance to whatever they desire. It can be a dog, a fish in the sea or a bird in the air. Whatever it may be.)

Meggai siha na åños tåtte, åntes de i gera, guaha familia yan i tatan este na familia si Juan. Un puenge, ha hungok si Juan kåten nene. Ha baba i petta ya ha sodda' na guaha nene gi halom åla. Sige de ha atan kao guaha håye pumo'lo i nene gi me'nan i petta, lao tåya' taotao.

(Many years ago, before the war, there was a family whose father was named Juan. One night, Juan heard a baby crying. He opened the door and found there was a baby inside a basket. He kept looking if there was someone who put the baby in front of the door, but there was no one.)

Ha konne' hålom i nene si Juan ya ilek-ña i asaguå-ña na po'lo ya u maigo' i nene ayo na pupuenge gi gima'-ñiha ya gi sigiente dia siempre u ma espia håye gai patgon.

(Juan took the baby inside and his said let the baby sleep that night in their home and the next day they would look for whose child it was.)

Lao mientras man mamaigo' todo i familia, guaha dångkulo na palangpang, kulan mohon guaha dångkulo na pedåson lulok poddong gi satge. Kahulo' si Juan ya ha songge i kandet ya ha atan todo i uriya, lao tåya' poddong. Sige de chumålek i nene, lao despues mamatkilo ya maigo' ta'lo.

(But while the whole family was sleeping, there was a loud bang, as if a large piece of metal had fallen to the floor. Juan got up and lit the lamp and looked all around, but nothing had fallen. The baby kept laughing, but became quiet later on and went to sleep again.)

Una ora despues, makmåta ta'lo si Juan sa' ha hungok na guaha kumakassas i ligan i gima'. Ha songge ta'lo i kandet ya ha atan kabåles gi halom guma' yan gi san hiyong, lao tåya' taotao pat gå'ga'. Sige de chumålek i nene lao mamatkilo despues ya pumåra i buruka.

(An hour later, Juan woke up again because he heard someone scratching the wall of the house. He lit the lamp again and thoroughly looked both inside and outside the house, but there was neither human nor animal. The baby kept laughing but quieted later and the noise stopped.)

Una ora ta'lo despues, makmåta si Juan sa' ha siente na guaha metgot na minitung gi halom guma' kulan mohon guaha måtai na gå'ga' gi halom guma' ya esta potlilo. Kahulo' ya ha songge ta'lo i kandet ya sige de ha espia håfa guaha, lao tåya'. Chumålek i nene lao mamatkilo despues. Måtto gi hinason-ña si Juan na gina'chuchunge i nene ni matdito na espíritu. Ilek-ña, "Gigon ha' manana si Yu'us bai hånao ya bai konne' i nene guato gi as Påle' ya ta kesoda' i nanan este na nene."

(An hour later again, Juan woke up because he smelled a strong stench inside the house, as if there was a dead animal rotting inside the house. He rose and lit the lamp again and kept looking what there might be, but there was nothing. The baby laughed but kept quiet later. It came to Juan's mind that the baby was accompanied by a cursed spirit. He said, "As soon as it is daytime, I will go and bring the baby to the priest and we will try to find this baby's mother.")

Lao annai esta manana ya mangahulo' si Juan yan i familiån-ña, tåya' nene!

(But when it was already daytime and Juan and his family rose, there was no baby!)

Ilek-ña si Juan, "Åhe' ti gina'chuchunge i nene ni malikno na espíritu. Guiya i nene i malikno na espíritu, pat sino taotaomo'na ni måtto gi hechuran nene.

(Juan said, "The baby wasn't being accompanied by a malignant spirit. The baby itself was a malignant spirit, or if not then an ancestral spirit coming in the form of a baby.)

"TAIGUENNAO MOHON" OR "AMEN?"

 

How should we end our prayers in Chamorro?

You hear "Amen" a lot of the times but sometimes you hear "Taiguennao mohon."

A lot of people aren't even sure what "taiguennao mohon" means.

Guess what? It means "amen!"

Well, what does "amen" mean?

"Amen" was the Hebrew word used to end prayers. It means "so be it, may it be so, truly" and things like that.

When a congregation responds with an "amen" to what a priest or prayer leader says, it's the congregation's way of agreeing with the prayer just said and making that prayer said by someone else their own as well.

TAIGUENNAO means "that way."

MOHON is a word that can express desire, or a possibility that hasn't happened yet.

TAIGUENNAO MOHON means "may it be that way." Which is what "amen" means.

So both "amen" and "taiguennao mohon" mean the same, exact thing. One is based on Hebrew, and the other is Chamorro.

OTHER LANGUAGES, TOO....

"Amen" can also be said in the native language in many countries around the world.

Some Spanish speakers say "así sea" instead of "amen," because "así sea" in Spanish means "that way (así) may it be (sea)."

In Italian it's così sia. In French it's ainsi soit-il. They both mean "may it be that way" which is what "amen" means.

Many languages end their prayers with "amen" and sometimes they end it with "may it be so" in their own language.

Most times, people all over the world end their prayers with "amen" and for this main reason. It's shorter and faster to say than "may it be so."

FLEXIBILITY IN CHAMORRO

In Chamorro, people can end their prayers saying either "amen" or "taiguennao mohon."

Even in Påle' Román's prayer books, he sometimes ends the prayer with "amen" and sometimes he ends the prayer with "taiguennao mohon."

For me, "amen" goes better with something like making the sign of the cross. "Gi na'an i Tata, yan i Lahi-ña yan i Espiritu Sånto. Amen." "Amen" is a quick ending to a short prayer. For a longer prayer, I might use "taiguennao mohon."

One good thing about using "taiguennao mohon" is that it makes clear what "amen" means. That is, of course, assuming you know the Chamorro language, which a lot of Chamorros don't nowadays.

NINA PARA TODOS

 

In many families, a female member who became a godmother (matlina, or nina) for one baby in the family was called NINA by everybody, even by those who were not her godchildren.

This often happened with women who never married, or at least who never had children of their own.

Single women often became godmothers because, having no husband and usually no children of their own, they could really put their all into being a godmother. All her godchildren could receive her undivided attention, since she had no biological children of her own.

And, reciprocally, the single woman with no children of her own, now had spiritual children to make up for the absence and, many times, actually raise the godchildren as her own.

So, some lady named Ana, for example, never married nor had children. So she became godmother to this child, then another child a year later and a third child two years later. On and on she became godmother to so many children that people just ended up calling her Nina'n Ana even if they weren't her godchildren.

Even if Ana were not godmother to many children, if she was the godmother of an oldest child or an important member of the family, the younger children heard the oldest child call her Nina, and so they followed suit and called her Nina as well. Or, because she was godmother to a high-ranking member of the family who called her Nina, everyone else called her Nina.

And so one example of a godmother who was called Nina by everyone, even those who were not her godchildren, was Tomasa Pereira León Guerrero from the Pakito clan.

Tomasa never married, but adopted a daughter. She also raised a number of children. Every younger member of the family called her Nina, whether she was their godmother or not.

SHE WAS OUR AUNT, BUT EVERYONE CALLED HER NINA

Rita Pérez Torres

In my own family, one of my grandmother's sisters never married and was godmother to a number of nieces and nephews, so she was called Nina by practically everyone.

NINA'N WIRICK

Eugenia SN Dueñas Wirick

And Eugenia San Nicolás Dueñas, one of our relatives, married later in life to the American Melvin Wirick. She never had children but was godmother to children inside the clan so she was called Nina'n Wirick by everybody. No one in our family called her Tan Eugenia or Auntie Eugenia; only Nina'n Wirick whether she was our own godmother or not.

IN PRAISE OF CHAMORRO WOMEN

 

In 1874, a Spanish political exile named Francisco Chacón Lara came to Guam. Years later, he wrote a book about his time on Guam and what he observed.

In it he praises the Chamorro woman, especially for her virtues of hard work.

He says,

"The poor Chamorras, that is, the poor women among the natives of the Marianas, are generally more hard-working, more at ease and communicative as their husbands, and one can state that they have no equal in the whole of Oceania. Indeed, they work in the fields, sowing and harvesting rice, tobacco, corn and sugarcane; they handle the axe and the machete with dexterity; they climb coconut trees and the tall breadfruit trees with the same agility and safety that one of our best balancers in our gymnastic academies; they ride the bulls and water buffalos as well as the men, and travel alone between the towns, crossing mountains and avoiding ravines; they climb aboard small canoes dug out from a breadfruit tree trunk, sailing along the beaches, fishing and rowing from their settlements to their farms and vice versa; they make all kinds of verbal contracts to buy or sell, cash or credit, an occupation for which they are highly trusted by their husbands; many of them are good seamstresses and a few of them are excellent cooks."

Another writer also said that the Chamorro women of the Marianas are given a lot of leeway by their husbands on account of their industry, enterprise and hard work.

Chamorro women were more than nurturers of their children. They were often the very anchor of the entire family, many times outshining their husbands.

NA' TAOTAO TUMANO'

 

FIESTA SCHEDULE FROM 1977

NA' TAOTAO TUMANO' is a Chamorro term used on Guam for the communal meal served to the faithful who attend a parish fiesta or feast.

To understand the concept, one must think of the olden days when people traveled on foot or by bull cart from one village to another, many times taking many hours to reach the destination.

The feast of Saint Joseph in Inalåhan is a good example. Being such a popular saint, and patron of the men, many people from Hagåtña went down to Inalåhan for the feast (called the Patrosinio) in March. Due to the distance and the long travel time, going to the Patrosinio was a whole 2-day commitment. People had to spend the night in Inalåhan, sleeping at relatives or friends' homes.

People did the same when it came to all the southern fiestas. Even Hågat and Sumay, which were closer to Hagåtña, took some time to get to.

So the people of the village receiving these guests from other places felt obliged to feed the people when the religious services were completed. They wanted to feed the pilgrims.

A pilgrim is someone who makes a journey for a religious purpose.

The Chamorro word for "pilgrim" is taotao tumano'. The Chamorro word na' means "food."

Na' taotao tumano' means "food for the pilgrim."

TUMANO' comes from the Chamorro word for "land" or TÅNO'. People traveled by land to get from village to village, so to tumano' means to travel by land (tåno').

Nowadays, it takes less than an hour, and many times less than twenty minutes, to go from home to the church holding the fiesta, but many people still call it the na' taotao tumano'. I hope we never lose the term. It reminds us what a pilgrim is.

FAMILIA : CELIS

The center of the CELIS family is Saipan, but there is a small branch on Guam.

It all began with a man named AGATÓN CELIS from the Philippines. Records are not consistent in telling us where in the Philippines he was from. Some records say he was from Malate, a district of Manila. Other records say he was from Camarines Norte, a province in the Bicol region. It's possible he was born in Camarines Norte then later moved to Malate, Manila.

Agatón was a soldier under the Spaniards in the Philippines but, in 1843, he was found guilty of some crime, it seems likely a military rebellion, and exiled to Guam. He was on good terms with Governor Santa María of Guam, who employed him in the Government in Hagåtña. It seems he was engaged in clerical work, as he talks about using his pen.

Later he was assigned to Tinian, when that island only had a temporary community of a dozen men who did some animal husbandry for the Guam market, the income being spent on the care of lepers.

Then he was assigned to Saipan as a teacher for the Carolinians, and assisted in teaching what they needed to know to become Catholics. In 1856, he petitioned to have his case pardoned and to receive a salary for his teaching. It was a petition supported by the Chamorro mayor of Saipan and the Spanish priest of Saipan, as well as the Spanish Governor of the Marianas based on Guam.

While in Saipan he married a Carolinian woman in 1857 by the name of Enriqueta Antonia (Aurora). Records about her origins are also not consistent, some saying Eauripik and others saying Lamotrek. Her Christian names are also not always consistent. Sometimes Aurora is added to her names. She would have also had a Carolinian name from birth. Lasiguerag is mentioned as her Carolinian personal name.

Agatón was such an early settler in Saipan that a stream, spring and valley in the Tanapag area are called Sadog As Agatón, Bo'bo' As Agatón and Kannat As Agatón respectively. Sometimes people skip saying the "As."

It's possible that these areas were named after Agatón Celis because he owned land here.

The As Agaton area just south of Tanapag was used as a village or camp for Samoans exiled by the Germans to Saipan in 1909 until the Japanese sent them back to Samoa.

Agatón and Enriqueta had at least these three children that I know of :

IGNACIA, born in Saipan in 1858. She had a son Felipe, born in 1892 with no father stated in his birth record. Felipe married Ana Díaz Castro, daughter of Rodrigo and Luciana. Ana was born in Guam but moved with her parents to Saipan as a child. From them came Celis descendants.

Ignacia had a daughter María who had children out of wedlock, some of whom carried forward the Celis surname.

CARMEN, born in Saipan in 1860, married Simeón Muña Camacho, son of Juan Camacho and Francisca Muña, two of the earliest settlers of Saipan from Guam.

JUAN, born in Saipan in 1865, married María Garrido Iriarte of Guam. It seems Juan lived on Guam at times because a son, José Iriarte Celis, seems to have been born in Guam sometime in the late 1880s. Another son, Joaquín, seems to have been born on Guam around 1891. Joaquín never married. Neither Juan, nor his sons José and Joaquín, appear in the 1897 Guam Census, leading me to believe that they moved back to Saipan, perhaps because María had died, since Juan married (again) in 1896 in Saipan with a Carolinian woman named Nicolasa Huarong. No children seem to have come from this second marriage.

José and Joaquín reappear in the Guam records after 1900 so they must have left Saipan for Guam and settled on Guam for good, with José eventually marrying Nieves Namauleg Tuncap, the daughter of Jaun de Ocampo Tuncap, a Filipino, and Escolástica Angoco Namauleg from Aniguak. Their descendants spell the name CELES, but in the past spelling was inconsistent and both Celis and Celes were used across the board. So the Guam family spells it Celes, but they are of the same clan as the Saipan Celis.

A small, village street in Tanapag, Saipan is named after the founder of the Celis family, Agatón Celis.

Sometimes the Celis family is known as familian Agatón, even though there is only one Celis clan in all the Marianas.

HOW TO SAY "DULCE NOMBRE"

 

The name of Guam's cathedral-basilica is a Spanish one. Dulce Nombre de María, which means "the Sweet Name of Mary." It's been called this since the beginning, when Sanvitores built the first Catholic church in the Marianas more or less at this present site in 1668 (it was dedicated on February 2, 1669, but construction began earlier).

Being a Spanish name, some people wonder how to pronounce it.

Well, there's more than one answer to that question, but there aren't dozens of answers to it. There are a few correct ways to say it, and many more incorrect ways to say it, depending on what language has borrowed the Spanish original.

In this video, I'll cut to the chase and start off pronouncing it the standard way of saying it as said by the majority of Spanish speakers, which is the way it was said on Guam (and still should be).

Then I will say it using two other possible pronunciations, and finally I will explain how one pronunciation is a confusing of Latin/Italian pronunciation and Spanish and should not be followed.

LISTEN....

A WRONG WAY TO SAY IT

Many years ago, someone started mixing up Spanish and Latin (or Italian).

He probably did this because there is a Latin hymn to Mary (the Salve Regina) which ends with the words "DULCIS Virgo Maria." 

Latin was the language of ancient Rome and is the historical language of the Roman Catholic Church. The Spanish word DULCE is based on the Latin word DULCIS, and they both mean the same - "sweet."

But Latin and Spanish have different rules of pronunciation. In Latin, a C before I, E, OE or AE is pronounced like a CH. So, in church Latin, DULCIS sounds like DULCHIS.

But this is not so in Spanish.  In Spanish, a C before an E or an I is NOT pronounced like a CH. It is pronounced like an S, among the majority of Spanish speakers, or in northern and central Spain, like a TH.

So that person was confusing Spanish with Latin (or Italian, which has a similar pronunciation of C before E or I). Hearing the Salve Regina week after week (it is traditionally sung in church on Saturday mornings), he got used to hearing the Latin pronunciation and started using it with a Spanish word. I have no other way of guessing why he made this switch, but it all began with him. I never heard anyone ever say DUL - CHE Nombre de María until he started saying it that way. But since he was holding a microphone, a lot of people went along with it. 

JUST LISTEN TO THE AUDIO and you'll be OK.

FINO' MAN ÅMKO' : WHAT GOES AROUND

 

Todo håfa bidå-mo siempre un binisita.

Everything you do will surely visit you.

This is one Chamorro way of saying "what goes around comes around," or "you reap what you sow."

This way of phrasing it seems a little scarier!

We all get unexpected visitors, especially the unwelcome ones.

They knock on the door and we want them to go away, but they don't. We can close our eyes and pretend not to hear the knock, but they keep knocking.

This sounds more similar to the expression, "It will come back to haunt you."

You can control some things, but you can't control who looks for you; who knocks on your door or who comes to visit you. They just won't go away.

So it is with some of our bad decisions. We think we can get away with it, but at some unexpected point in time, catching us totally by surprise, justice comes to pay us a visit.

DIALING A WRONG NUMBER IN 1972

 

In modern times, dialing a wrong number brings you to a dead end. Lucky if the other party even says goodbye before they hang up. Lucky if the other party even answers the phone, since they probably won't recognize your number.

But in the good old days, there was no caller ID. Every time the phone rang it created suspense. Who could it be? What was the call about? And so many people were excited to answer.

Calling a wrong number in the south of Guam (and maybe even in the northern Marianas) meant you had a good chance of not only dialing the wrong house but finding out news about the house you were trying to call. Such was island life back when everyone knew everything going on in our small, tight-knit communities.

Here's an example :

~ Alo? Marikita?
~ Åhe', ti si Marikita este.
~ Oh pues hu espipia si Marikita.
~ Håye na Marikita?
~ Si Marikita'n Santiago.
~ Åhe' adei. I numeron-ñiha 2147 ya hame 2174.
~ Ai sa' hu na' lachi.
~ Lao mungnga ma ågang siha på'go. Manaigue gi gima'.
~ Oh?
~ Må'pos i dos para i mediko.
~ Ada malångo si Marikita?
~ Åhe'. Depotsi para ma reseta gue' åmot hai blåt.
~ Oh. Po'lo sa' tiene ke bai li'e' gue' gi otro Såbalo para i fiestan-miyo.
~ Esta. A las singko i Misa.
~ Ok. Si Yu'us ma'se'. Adios.

----

~ Hello? Marikita?
~ No, this isn't Marikita.
~ Well I'm looking for Marikita.
~ Marikita who?
~ Marikita'n Santiago.
~ Oh no. Their number is 2147 and ours is 2174.
~ Oh I made a mistake.
~ But don't call them now. They're gone.
~ Oh?
~ The two went to the doctor's.
~ Is Marikita sick?
~ No. She was to get a prescription for high blood.
~ Oh. Never mind because I'll see her next Saturday at your fiesta.
~ Ok. Mass is at 5 o'clock.
~ Ok. Thanks. Bye.

NEITHER SEEN NOR HEARD

 

We used to hear before that children should only be seen, not heard.

But the older Chamorro custom in many families was that children should not even be seen, much less heard. But that applied mainly to when adult visitors came to the house.

Here, an older lady explains it :

~ Mungnga man man ekkungok. Respeta i bisita. Yan mås ta fan hånao para i gima'yu'us.

(~ Don't listen. Respect the visitor. And most let's go to church.)

~ Lao yanggen guaha bisita, mungnga ma ekkungok.

(~ But if there's a visitor, don't listen to him.)

~ Mungnga ma ekkungok. Eyigue' mås.

(~ Don't listen. That's the main thing.)

~ I famagu'on.

(~ The children.)

~ I famagu'on.

(~ The children.)

~ U fan ma retira.

(~ They are to leave.)

~ Fan hålom gi kuåtto yan eyigue' på'go hamyo la'mon gi kuåtto.

(~ Go inside the bedroom and then it's up to you now in the bedroom._

I am pretty sure a major reason for this was that the adults didn't want the children to hear what the adults might want to talk about. Even if the visitor was merely paying a social call and, at first, the adults just wanted to talk about pleasantries; it might happen that an adult topic might come up unplanned, and the children shouldn't hear it.

This, of course, assumes that the children understand the language the adults are using. In the old days, this was normal. Everyone, young and old, spoke Chamorro.

But foreign influences were still around, even in the old days.

In the 1800s, a British or American whaler might speak English to a Chamorro who picked up some English along the way; perhaps a retired Chamorro whaler himself.

Some of the elite Chamorros spoke Spanish, and they might speak Spanish to a priest or government official while the Chamorro child looked on bewildered.

After World War II, Chamorro parents who knew how to speak Japanese would switch to Japanese when they didn't want their post-war children to know what they were speaking about. Some children did know some Japanese words. One lady told me she always knew mom and dad were talking about the children, even in Japanese, when she heard them say the word kodomo which is Japanese for "child" or "children." If she heard them say that word, she could expect the father to do some disciplining.

Today, older Chamorro parents can speak Chamorro in order to prevent their children from understanding the conversation.

In today's modern world, many people believe that children ought to be both seen and heard.

GUAM WHALER KILLED BY WHALE

 

Whaling was dangerous business.

Those whales can be huge. They have great power. And they do not enjoy being hunted. They can retaliate and defend themselves.

And so one Chamorro whaler lost his life on some island in the Carolines on March 18, 1860. That's even before the American Civil War.

Pedro Sabbanas, whose real name is unknown, was a 4th mate on the New Bedford, Massachusetts whaling ship Saint George.

The ship came upon a bull whale in the waters of the Caroline Islands and the whale fought back. Another crew member, a boat steerer, was injured by the whale and died.

Pedro broke his back in the same event and somehow got into the water. With a broken back, it's no surprise Pedro drowned.

Apparently their bodies were retrieved and buried on some island in the Carolines.

There is no Chamorro family Sabbanas, but Chamorro whalers were often called by new names when they left Guam to join the whaling ships. Or, Sabbanas could be the mispronunciation of Pedro's true last name  but that is less likely. Sabanas is Chamorro/Spanish for "bed sheet."

HALÅGUAK

 

There was a time when the sound of the name HALÅGUAK sent shivers down the spine of some war survivors.

Often spelled JALAGUAC in the old days, according to the Spanish manner (just like Inarajan, Acfalle and Y Sengsong are spelled following Spanish ways), Halåguak is the area just north of Maite and south of Tiyan.

JALAGUAG 

1913-1915 Map

Being flat land, the Japanese decided that Halåguak (besides Orote near Sumay) was excellent terrain to build an air strip for the coming battle with the Americans. That's where it got hard for the Chamorros forced into work teams laying out the air strip. Since the strip started in Halåguak but headed in the direction of Tiyan, the next locale, some people refer to the airstrip as being in Tiyan. The Japanese called the field Guamu Dai Ni (Guam No. 2), Number 1 being Orote Field.

Prior to the war, Halåguak was used for farming. Some of the families residing in Halåguak in the 1940 Guam Census were Muñoz, Flores and Perez families, among others. 

There was enough of a local population to justify a small school in Halåguak.

Students at Halåguak's school came from all the different barrios in the area; Maite, Tiyan, Ungaguan, Barrigada, Leyang, Toto and the other locales.

Chamorro males aged 12 to 65 were drafted into the labor crews. Although the people living in the vicinity were prime targets for the draft, forced labor came from all parts of the island, loaded onto trucks and taken to Halåguak. Even people from Hågat and Malesso' testified that they were forced to work in Halåguak. The workers were organized by village and the different villages would be assigned different shifts. It was a 24-hour project, even when the sun set and it was all dark.

Machinery was lacking. A lot of things had to be done by hand and muscle : clearing the land, spreading the coral and beating it down into the ground to be compact. A little dynamite might be used to loosen part of the terrain, but most of the work was done manually.

AIRSTRIP CLEARLY SEEN ON THIS MAP

The Chamorros were housed in tents, where it was often too hot to sleep in. Latrines were just trenches dug apart from the tents, but out in the open and they attracted the flies which swarmed the camp. The flies wouldn't let go of the people, day or night.

Even women were drafted, gathering wood or cutting down grass.

The Japanese were not shy in beating or whipping workers they felt were too slow. The Japanese sometimes didn't need a reason to beat up Chamorros. One was punched for just not having the "right look."

AMERICAN PLANES FLY OVER GUAM

shooting at will

If being beaten and forced to work by the Japanese wasn't enough suffering, the Chamorros were also in harm's way thanks to the Americans. The Americans couldn't let the Japanese airstrips be completed, otherwise that would be a military asset to the enemy. So Halåguak airfield was a prime target for American bombs and shooting. The problem was Halåguak airfield was full of Chamorro workers, who would run and scatter when the American bombed or strafed the area.

My mother wasn't very clear about where she saw this, but my family did live in the Barrigada area during the Japanese Occupation, so not far from Halåguak. My mother, aged 16 at the time, would be standing in the open and, all of a sudden, she and others would cry out, "Hikoki! Hikoki!" (Airplane! Airplane!) and they would all run for cover. The American planes would go up and down, diving to shoot at anything that moved.

THE WHITE STRIP IS HALÅGUAK AIRSTRIP

Northeast of the bombed-out City of Hagåtña in 1944

By the time the Americans landed on July 21, all the work at Halåguak had ended and the Chamorros had fled or had moved to the camps set up by the Japanese to keep the people away from the Americans.

The Americans, too, wanted Halåguak and Tiyan, to even surpass the Japanese in using the field as an airbase. By the time the Americans reached Halåguak on August 2, Japanese resistance was not significant. Starting at 630AM, the Americans won control of the airfield by 910AM.

FROM JAPANESE TO AMERICAN

Using all its mechanical might, the US expanded the airstrip and it played a roll in the continuing war against Japan which went on for another year. In 1947, the airfield was turned over to the US Navy and it became Naval Air Station Agaña. It was closed in 1995.

HALÅGUAK IN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION

JALAGUAG IN SPANISH DOCUMENTS

All the old documents, from both Spanish and American times, call the place Jalaguag, spelled in slightly different way (sometimes Jalaguac).

JALAGUAG IN AMERICAN DOCUMENT FROM 1928

All the man åmko' I have spoken to, and their testimonies written in newspapers, call the place Halåguak (again, spelled in slightly different ways). The differences are merely between Spanish J (which sounds like an H, as in JOSE and JUAN) and English H, and the ending hard consonant, whether it be a G, a C or a K.

BATTLE OF THE GREEN HOUSE

 

THE GREEN HOUSE IN BARRIGADA

The battle between the Americans and the Japanese over Guam in 1944 involved many different clashes. There was first of all the American landings at Asan and Hågat; the American push up the hilly terrain above Asan; the isolation and capture of Orote point; and the last contest at Matåguak in Yigo.

But I just learned of a little-known clash in Barrigada centered on a Green House. You can see the picture above, taken from the air by an American reconnaissance plane.

THE PUSH NORTH

Basically, the American invasion plan was to land south of Hagåtña then push north till the Japanese were crushed, surrendered or threw themselves into the sea in the north. So they landed at Asan and Hågat, joined forces and captured Orote to use as an airfield, then pushed north. The south of Guam was easily secured as the main Japanese force fled to the north.

This push north meant the Americans had to pass through, and conquer, Barrigada. At Barrigada, there were two main prizes the Americans wanted.

First, there was the road in Barrigada that lead up to Fanhigåyan (Finegayan) which would allow the Americans to chase the Japanese north. Second, there was a sizeable water reservoir in Barrigada which the American soldiers needed badly. In many cases, they had been drinking from streams and rivers, at their risk, when potable water from their own supply chain did not reach them in time. But the north of Guam didn't even have streams or rivers. So the reservoirs the local farmers used became all-important as the Americans drove northward.

But the Japanese were intent to stop the Americans from gaining control of the Fanhigåyan road. The Japanese plan was to hide in the thick forest that surrounded the open areas of Barrigada and fire upon the Americans. Though their numbers were less than American tanks, the Japanese would skillfully use the tanks they had, especially by hiding the tanks till they caught American troops off guard.

JAPANESE TANKS ON GUAM

They were very light and successful in slowing down the American advance

THE GREEN HOUSE

When the Americans encountered enemy fire in Barrigada, it was mainly coming from the eastern side of the open field. Standing in front of the forest was a two-story house with a concrete ground floor. The Americans called it the Green House on account of its green-painted tin roof. It was behind the Green House and a little to its right that the main strength of the Japanese shooting lay. The Green House served as a focal point for the American attack.

Despite American shooting, artillery and even tank fire, the Japanese held on as if untouched for two days of fighting, from sunrise till sunset. The Americans were stuck. Many died on the soil of Barrigada or were wounded. Many of the GIs were sitting ducks if they were in the open field while the Japanese hid in the bushes.  Out of nowhere, it seemed, a Japanese tank would emerge and fire upon the Americans hugging the ground, praying. Japanese sharp shooters even targeted medics and stretcher bearers.

AMERICAN SOLDIERS SURVIVED BARRIGADA FIGHTING

One of them has a helmet riddled with Japanese bullets that didn't hit his skull

American tanks, superior in number than the Japanese, finally came to the rescue, but it was now becoming dark and time had been lost. The Japanese in Barrigada were successful in slowing the American advance and killing scores of Americans. The Americans even feared on the second night that the Japanese would mount a banzai attack, as they had done at other times in other places. But it never happened.

When the sun rose on day three, there was no sign of Japanese activity. During the night, they had packed up and left, bringing their wounded along. The Japanese had simply decided, or were ordered, to move north, where more fighting - and death - was waiting for both Americans, Japanese - and the Chamorro civilians caught between them.

But, for the remainder of the fighting on Guam in the north, the Americans would have canteens full of water, partly thanks to capturing the reservoir in Barrigada near the Green House. The day the Japanese abandoned Barrigada, the Americans sent engineers to use the back of a jeep for an engine, improvised a belt from a leftover Japanese fire hose and got a stream of water flowing from the reservoir.

KILLED BY THE JAPANESE IN BARRIGADA

Lt James T. Whitney, United States Army