CAPITOL HILL CEMETERY

 

CAPITOL HILL "WIRELESS RIDGE" CEMETERY

In some countries where, in the past, almost everybody was Catholic, there are Non-Catholic Cemeteries set up to accommodate non-Catholics, usually people who are not native to the place. Rome has a famous Cimitero Acattolico, which literally means "Non-Catholic Cemetery," where some famous people like John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poets, are buried. There are so many British and Protestant people buried there that the cemetery is often called the English Cemetery or the Protestant Cemetery, but Non-Catholic Cemetery is more accurate as there are a good number of Russians, Germans and many other nationalities, even Italians, buried here. And not just Protestants but Orthodox as well.

Keats and Shelley were Protestant, not Catholic, and, in those days, non-Catholics and even Catholics who committed suicide or who otherwise lived in public sin could not be buried in the Catholic cemetery proper, but only outside it, where the ground was not consecrated.

Saipan was a place where everybody, at one time, was Catholic, at least among its native population. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s it had no other cemeteries but the ones for Catholics.

So what was someone to do if one died in Saipan but was not Catholic?

This was Mike Marcus' situation in 1975. Marcus, a Chuukese Protestant and Saipan's safety officer at the time, was trying to bury his infant daughter on Saipan, and could only do so "outside the fence" at the Catholic cemetery. He did so, but began prompting government officials to look for a site in Saipan suitable for a public cemetery where anybody could be buried, regardless of religious affiliation.

WIRELESS RIDGE

The area selected was a far, isolated spot north of Capitol Hill called Wireless Ridge by the Americans after the war.

There are just a little over 100 graves at Wireless Cemetery today. If Marcus' daughter was buried there, either the grave can't be found anymore or her remains were moved. The oldest death we can tell from the grave stones was in 1975; someone named Kim An Montenero.

As can be expected, the cemetery has a good number of Koreans, Chinese and Micronesians from various parts of that region. There are fewer numbers of Statesiders and Filipinos. There are Protestant Christians and non-Christian Buddhists and at least one Jew.

DIFFERENT ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS AND RELIGIONS

There is at least one Chamorro we know of buried here, which is unusual given that most Chamorros are Catholic, but we're not sure why she is buried here. There could be a few other Chamorros buried here, but I'm not totally sure yet if they are Chamorro. If the surname is Spanish, the deceased could be some other race. It's also possible the deceased with a Chamorro name had been married to one but is not Chamorro herself.

Due to the fact that many of those buried here have few, and some no family at all, on Saipan, many of the graves are not cared for. Mother Nature has taken over a lot of the cemetery, with the grass so tall that it hides many of the graves. Many of the grave stones are no longer legible or lack signage completely. A few graves are reduced to just a small percentage of the cement that used to be there, and one cement grave is partially open.

Hillside fires, sometimes due to the heat of the dry season and sometimes due to deer hunters setting fires to scare the deer, typhoons and just the passing of time exposed to sun and rain have taken their toll on many of the graves. It's certain that some graves are now completely unseen. 

When you first drive into the cemetery, it appears to be rather small, but that's only because the tall grass and some of the tall trees obscure your vision. The cemetery is actually a good size, and goes all the way to the edge of the cliff. It has a great view of Mañagaha Island.

There was talk of closing this cemetery so that a larger, better-located public cemetery for Saipan can be opened, and the graves at Wireless transferred to the new one. But the new one has yet to be built, so Wireless continues till this day.

PEACEFUL PULANTAT

 

The people of Pulantat are so very content to live there and they have all the reasons for being so. Except for the occasional flooding during heavy rains or typhoons, Pulantat is quiet and surrounded by nature. It breathes "family" and the people wouldn't have it any other way. The people are sure to add "Pulantat" to "Yoña" when they inform you where they're from.

Having gone to elementary school from 1st to 6th grades at Saint Francis School in Yoña, I've heard about Pulantat from a very young age. Classmates came from Pulantat but I never ventured into this area of Yoña till I was much older.

I thought it had a reputation for roughness, but I'm told it's far from that. A local resident told me, "Pulantat is quiet. There's another neighborhood in Yoña where rougher guys live and if they come to Pulantat looking for a fight, they'll find it and they will lose. They always lose because you don't just fight 2 or 3 guys in Pulantat. The whole family comes out to settle things."

FAMILY

FORMER SENATOR AND YOÑA MAYOR JOSÉ "PEDO" TERLAJE AND FAMILY

Pulantat resident his whole life

Residents of Pulantat have a strong sense of family being rooted in the area. Over the years, others have moved in, but the older families associated with Pulantat are still well-known.

In the 1950 Census, the largest clans living in Pulantat at that time were the Toves and Terlaje (Cha'ka/Pedo) families, and there are some blood connections between these two families, as well. There were also Pulantat residents named Baza, Cruz, Pangelinan, Ogo, Quitaro, Tenorio and Sablan in the 1950 Census.

The Camacho (Trabuko), Cruz (Kúkuri), Pocaigue (Pokiki), Cruz (Dulili) and Tenorio (Labucho) families are also associated with Pulantat, and there are a number of other families, as well.

In fact, a man who only recently moved to Pulantat told me that even though the street he lives on is practically all people from the same family, they have accepted him and his wife and children as members of the community on that street. "Pulantat is a place I'd want my children to grow up in. My kids can run to the neighbors' houses to play. In Pulantat there are big lawns and back yards. We are surrounded by nature. And everyone on the street looks out for each other. When we see a car we don't recognize, we keep an eye out."

Another long-time resident told me, "People from here (Pulantat) who move to the States always know that they still have a home here they can come back to. Our roots here are permanent. If you're from Pulantat, you will never be homeless because you will always have a home to come back to here."

"People in Pulantat don't like to sell their land. They've already earmarked the land for their descendants," this man told me.

A definite draw for Pulantat in the old days was agriculture. "Back in the day, Pulantat was a place of abundance. They grew everything here. A lot of it wasn't even sold. The food was grown and the animals raised to supplement the family's income. Some of it was sold, but some of it was just given away. Shared with other families, or used to exchange one thing for another. Nowadays it's a lot less. Garden-type produce; papaya, cucumbers, beans (friholes), bananas."

FLOODING AND DUMPING

A CAR CAUGHT IN A FLOOD IN PULANTAT IN 2017

"It never fails," says a resident of Pulantat, whenever there is heavy rain.

"It's not every part of Pulantat, but if you're place is lying low, in a valley, you're going to get flooded. It doesn't take a typhoon to flood the place."

A PULANTAT HOME WAIST-HIGH IN WATER AFTER A TYPHOON 

"Other than the flooding, Pulantat is a great place to live. Thank God the flooding is just now and then."

There is one other drawback, though, and yet it doesn't hurt Pulantat residents except for the blight on the neighborhood scenery and the hassle of now having to deal with abandoned material on your property. The problem is illegal dumping, even of stolen cars.

"Pulantat is so out-of-the-way, and some parts can be very isolated, that outsiders take advantage of that and come dump their stuff here and there," one villager shared. "People find spots where they think no one will catch them, especially at night."

"NO DUMPING"

There is an area, just as you descend the hill into Pulantat, that was used as a dump site. It was an actual dump site used by the US Navy after the war. There is a fence now and it is pad locked, and the Mayor, it is said, is looking into permanently shutting down the dump site.

PULANTAT EARTH STATION

In 1969, Pulantat became the site of an RCA satellite earth station, capable of using telephone, television, telex, facsimile and high speed data communication technology. The site still functions as a satellite station but now for a different company.

SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS

When I was talking once with a Pulantat residence if it were true that many school bus drivers were from Pulantat, without hesitation he started to name them. "David Cruz, also known as 'Shorty.' From the Dulili family. Mike Camacho. Peter Elatico, but with him you have the Camacho family, too. And Pio Quidachay."

LATTE SITE

Little-known by the general public, and it's better that way, is the fact that Pulantat has a latte stone site, hidden away in the brush.

"It's not just latte stones," one Pulantat resident told me. "My kids will be playing in the back yard and come running to me that they found something." It doesn't take a lot of digging, he told me, to find pottery shards and smoothed stones. Pulantat is literally strewn with ancient Chamorro remains, as well as World War II artifacts, some of which could be dangerous.

TAOTAOMO'NA

Which lead me to ask some Pulantat people, "Is Pulantat full of taotaomo'na?"

One man replied, "They could be standing right next to you and me right now."

When I asked what specific areas of Pulantat are known for taotaomo'na, most people said the whole place can be their spot, and that everyone must be respectful everywhere in Pulantat. "Just be respectful and don't disturb the place and nothing bad will happen."

One resident, whose house is not far from a drop in the terrain leading down to Mañenggon said that the back side of his house is believed to be a taotaomo'na trail. "They use that path to go down to the river," he said. He tells his children to avoid that spot.

TENORIO TITIYAS FACTORY

A Pulantat family, the Tenorios or Labucho clan, make titiyas in their Pulantat facility. They are sold in stores all over the island.

So from titiyas to taotaomo'na, from satellites to school bus drivers, Pulantat has a lot of interesting things. But, above all, Pulantat has peace and that's the way its community wants it to remain.