WOULD-BE GOVERNOR OF GUAM

 

REAR ADMIRAL LOUIS KEMPFF

Captain Richard P. Leary is best known to us as the first American Governor of Guam.

But there was a prior Naval official who might have claimed that distinction but he never made it to Guam.

His name was Louis Kempff.

In December of 1898, the US Secretary of the Navy assigned him to take command of the Naval forces on Guam. This was eight months before Leary came to Guam.

Captain Henry Glass had taken the Spanish government officials away from Guam in June of 1898, but then sailed off to Manila, leaving Guam in a state of political uncertainty. A Spanish civilian official claimed power, and so did some local Chamorros, and various American Naval officials passing through made this or that change in Guam's government. But nobody knew what was up or down.

Even when the fighting stopped in August between American and Spanish forces, Guam's destiny was not immediately clear. It had to go all the way to December of 1898 for the Treaty of Paris to make clear that Guam would now be a possession of the United States.

Fine. But under who specifically?

Just before the Treaty was signed, President McKinley made that decision. Through Executive Order 108-A, Guam would now come under the rule of the US Department of the Navy. It took another month, in January of 1899, for McKinley to appoint Leary the first American Governor of Guam.

But prior to Leary's appointment, sometime in December of 1898, Captain Louis Kempff was supposedly tapped for the job as Governor of Guam, but by a lower authority than the President himself. It was Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long who had chosen Kempff. This was overturned by the US President within a month's time.

So what happened?

There were some reports that Kempff balked at the idea of going to Guam. Even his influential friends campaigned to have that appointment changed.

Apparently enough voices were heard in the Oval Office and McKinley changed the appointment and chose Leary instead.

Kempff went on to serve in a more newsworthy capacity in China and especially during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 when certain Chinese militants rose up against the foreign presence in China. It took close to 2 years for the Americans, Europeans and Japanese to put down the uprising. Kempff was made Rear Admiral in 1899.

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.