I asked a lady yesterday if she could take some fresh vegetables I was given and make a dish for me. I asked her to sprinkle some salt and garlic powder on it when she was done cooking it.
She said to me, "Pinelo'-ko na chaot-mo i asiga." ("I thought salt was bad for you.")
I replied, "Hunggan, lao masea diddide'." ("Yes, but even just a little.")
She said, with a smile, "O, bai takpånge ha'." ("Oh, I'll just baptize it.")
When a baby is baptized, just a little water is poured three times on his or her head. Funny lady.
Starting from the very top, to the right of the angel, it reads :
Rogad por él.
Sus desconsolados
esposa e hijos
dedican este recuerdo!
(Pray for him.
His inconsolable
wife and children
dedicate this memorial!)
Then the abbreviation : E.P.D. which stands for :
En Paz Descanse
(Rest in Peace)
At the bottom :
Aquí yacen los restos mortales de
D. Pedro Borja Pangelinan
+25 Abril 1929
a la edad de 45 años
(Here lie the mortal remains of
Don Pedro Borja Pangelinan
Died 25 April 1929
at the age of 45 years.)
NOTES
Spanish was still in vogue with some people even in 1929, 30 years after American colonization began. Spanish was still prestigious, and associated with church matters, with all the priests being Spanish at the time
In 1920, the American Governor obliged the Chamorros to follow the American order when using surnames; the maternal in the middle and the paternal last. Prior to that, Chamorros followed the Spanish system which was the reverse. Under Spain, the deceased would have been Don Pedro Pangelinan Borja. Everyone would have known that Pangelinan was his last name.
Because he had "Don" added to his name, Pedro was some kind of municipal leader at some point in his life.
This man is an ancestor of the Kotla clan of Pangelinans.
Well, not in a philosophical or theological sense, but medical.
A History of Health on Guam (2010), edited by Dr. Robert Haddock, offers us a comparative view :
CAUSE OF DEATH
RANKING IN 2000
RANKING IN 1910
Cardiovascular Disease
1
7
Cancer
2
-
Stroke
3
-
Suicide
4
-
Diabetes mellitus
7
-
Chronic liver disease
8
-
Renal failure
9
-
We were dying for different reasons in 1910. Of course, the statistics for 2000 include many, many
non-Chamorros, and different races have higher or lower incidences of any particular illness.
So why were we dying in 1910, a year which would reflect an almost completely Chamorro population?
The Big Three : tuberculosis, intestinal parasites, asthma.
For a lot more information on a whole range of health-related topics, pick up a copy of the book.
The Yapese government hosts an annual Homecoming Festival, and this year the theme is the Chamorro community that lived on Yap since about the 1880s till 1948. The Homecoming Festival is a way to bring back to Yap people who used to live there, both Yapese and others.
Some people's blood pressure shoots up when discussing such questions. If we keep this up, we'll then be debating whether it's måtai or måtae (dead). Either way, the funeral home has the advantage.
The fact of the matter is that Chamorros don't all sound the same when they speak Chamorro.
Guam/Saipan/Tinian Chamorros say på'go.
Luta Chamorros say pa'go.
Guam Chamorros say trabia.
Saipan Chamorros say tarabia.
Some Chamorros say konne'. Some say konni'.
Some say bonito. Some say bunitu.
Nevertheless, we all understand what we're saying in the main. Or, if the difference is greater, the confusion is eventually resolved.
Americans don't all sound the same. Compare Boston and Houston.
Spaniards don't all the sound the same. Compare Madrid and Sevilla.
Japanese don't all sound the same. Compare Tokyo and Osaka.
It's not a problem. Tåya' guaha.
So, people will spell it the way they pronounce it, and we don't all pronounce it the same.
Do they want us all to spell it one way? The U.S. and Britain/Ireland/Canada/Australia/NZ have been doing just fine even though it's either color or colour, center or centre, realize or realise depending on what country you're in. Whereas academia may insist on standardized (aha! American) spelling, I worry about the civil law telling citizens how to spell. Shall we start laying fines on those who don't conform? Create a Language Police? What about free speech? It doesn't look right to me, no matter how you spell it.
Talk about non-conformity. Every day I get texts that tell me "c u 2mrw." Or, "idk. ttyl." That's supposed to be English. Shall we arrest them all?
Finally, while we're all arguing what's the right way to SPELL Chamorro, fewer and fewer people know how to SPEAK Chamorro. Let's put our efforts and passion into the more important things.
I have great memories of Humåtak, where I was pastor back in the 90s.
Benny's mom went to Mass every day that there was Mass. Sometimes it was just me and her at Mass, and, although she always walked to Mass, I always drove her back home, which took ninety seconds by car.
All my life I have heard that the three villages of the Deep South : Malesso', Humåtak and Inalåhan, all had the tonåda, or the sing-song accent. But I actually heard it from just a tiny number of people, including Benny's mom. Benny, too, has the accent which, I believe, is the genuine Chamorro way of speaking, as it is found in the south and in Luta; places which, historically, had less outside contact.
In this clip, Benny talks about his daughters and granddaughters, and about the importance of God and religion.
In Humåtak, I learned how some people refer to the priest as i amko' (the old man), even if he was in his 30s, as I was! And how some people refer to God as i amko' (Benny says this). In human terms, God certainly is old. But, strictly speaking, God doesn't age. He's eternal. But God is called i amko' out of respect, because, for Chamorros, everything old is respected.
Kao dinga' i dos chume'lo? Are the two siblings twins?
Kalan dingå'-mo gue'! S/he is like your twin!
Atan na mamaila' mågi i dos dinga'. Look at the two twins coming here.
Dinga' i pachot-ña. His/her mouth is double. Untruthful, a liar.
Dinga' i korason-ña. His/her heart is double. A traitor, disloyal.
Dinga' i matå-ña. His/her face is double (two-faced). A hypocrite, fake.
Dinga' chålan. Crossroads.
Repåra! Notice!
Twins of the same gender are called gihen. But this term has been lost in modern times.
When speaking about a matching pair, of shoes, or candlesticks and the like, one can ask "Mångge i dingå'-ña?" "Where is its twin?" In other words, the other shoe, or candlestick.
Today, May 1st, is yet another feast of Saint Joseph, but somewhat different from the feast on March 19. Today he is honored as "the Worker." In Chamorro, "i fafacho'cho'."
March 19 is the older of these two feasts. The May 1st feast was instituted in 1955 by the Church to counter the leftist May Day festivities for industrial workers. The Church held up Saint Joseph, the carpenter, as a manual worker himself. One could be both a worker and a believer, the message of the feast announced.
The older feast on March 19 points to Saint Joseph as the patrosinio, the patron saint of the universal church. Just as Saint Joseph watched over the first church - the Holy Family - we ask him to watch over the church all over the world.
CHAMORRO RELIGIOUS POETRY
HINAGONG I ANTE
(Aspirations of the Soul)
Hu fa' båkulo hao
San Jose gi masa'pet-ho;
ti hu abak sa' kandet-ho
si Jesus, Yu'us taotao.
I make you a staff
Saint Joseph in my sufferings;
I will not be lost
because Jesus is my light, God and man.
Minagof taotao siha
gi tano'-ta yan i langet;
i minagof i man ånghet
i Nanå-ta as Maria.
Joy of the people
on our earth and in heaven;
the joy of the angels
is our Mother Mary.
Hu ågang siha i tres
adahen i finatai-ho;
minagof i korason-ho
Jesus, Maria, Jose.
I call these three
the guardians of my death;
the joy of my heart
Jesus, Mary, Joseph.
NOTES
Hinagong. Hågong is "to breathe." Hinagong is "breath, respiration and aspiration."
Båkulo. A staff, crook or walking stick. It is a symbol of strength and support.
Fafacho'cho'. In Chamorro, when you duplicate the first syllable of a verb, it turns the verb into a noun - someone who regularly does that action. Here are some examples :
Kånta = to sing
Kakanta = singer
Facho’cho’ = to work
Fafacho’cho’ = worker
Tuge’ = to write
Tituge’ = writer
Pulan = oversee, guard, watch over
Pipulan = guardian, overseer, supervisor
Setmon = to preach
Sisetmon = preacher
It becomes tituge' (rather than tutuge'), pipulan (rather than pupulan) and sisetmon (rather than sesetmon) because the definite article the ( i ) changes the pronunciation. I tituge', i pipulan, i sisetmon. The writer, the guardian, the preacher.
The earth opened in several places, with houses falling into some of the gaping fissures.
One life was lost, because the woman, Josefa Lujan, was standing near the beach, and a wave rolled in and swept her out to sea. Her 2-year-old niece was also swept out, but the waves threw her back on land, but unfortunately on rocks, bruising her face.
Some time later, Carolinian islanders arrived on Guam in their canoes, begging for permission to live in the Marianas.
The reason? Their low-lying, tiny atolls had been swept over completely by enormous waves, around the same time as the earthquake on Guam.
Capuchin Brother Ryan Charfauros lives in Santa Ynez but returns to Guam this summer.
The smell of lechon and red rice filled the California air as 20 Chamorro families in the Lompoc area gathered at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church. It was a fundraising event and many guests came to enjoy the Chamorro fiesta food.
Many Capuchin friars from all over the U.S., England and Australia got their first taste of Chamorro fiesta food.
Most of the lápida (gravestones) are now nameless slabs of stone. But a few remain, in Spanish, Chamorro and English, to the extent that we can come up with a list of the people buried here :
This list is long, but some names are missing, such as Concepcion Perez, whose Spanish lápida I saw for myself, lying on the ground in this cemetery.
The Sumay baptismal records survived the war, so even if the cemetery did not survive, or even if it survived but most lápida are unidentifiable at this time, those baptismal records provide us much valuable family information.
For us Hagåtña people, we lost both the baptismal records and our cemetery (Pigo') to American bombardment. Ai ke lástima!
