AS TEO

On the eastern half of Saipan, around the middle of the island, is an area called As Teo. It is a heavily wooded area sloping from the higher ground of Mount Takpochao down towards the sea. Capitol Hill is to the north of it, and Kagman lies to the south of it.

WHY "AS TEO?"

It has been called As Teo for the longest time. So long ago, in fact, that no one remembers the reason why it is called As Teo. I have never come across anything in writing explaining the name. Maybe it exists somewhere, but I've never seen it. I doubt it exists. People didn't write these things down in the past.

The "As" in the name is Chamorro roughly meaning "at." In many cases, this is followed by a person's name, meaning "at so-and-so's place." On Guam, there are places named As Quiroga, after former governor Jose de Quiroga; As Gådao, named after the legendary chief Gådao; and As Don Lucas, after someone named Lucas of whom we know nothing. On Luta, there is a place called As Nieves, after an unknown woman by the name of Nieves.

But place names beginning with "As" do not always refer to human persons. As Aniti on Guam refers to spirits (aniti); As Måtmos on Luta refers to drowning.

So As Teo could perhaps refer to a person named Teo. If it does, chances are that Teo is a nickname for Mateo, Doroteo or Timoteo or some other male name that ends in Teo. Chamorro nicknames usually consist of the ending of the name, not the beginning. Jesus will become "Chu" in Chamorro, isolating the "sus" in Jesus and turning it into Chu. In English, however, Jesus will become Jess, starting with the beginning of the name.

Even if As Teo is named after a Mateo or some other man with a name that ends in Teo, we will never know anything about him.

If Teo does not refer to a person but rather to a thing, we have no way of knowing, at least as of today, what that thing is. There is no word teo in Chamorro, at least not in the Chamorro we speak today. The closest we get to that is teok (thick liquid), and whereas many people like to see direct connections between similar things, I prefer to refrain from such conclusions till we see evidence. To me, there is no reason why Chamorros would have said teo for teok. We don't see the dropping of final letters in Chamorro words in other instances. Shortening of Chamorro words was achieved by eliminating sounds inside a word, not at the end of them.(1)

MANY CAVES

Long before any human being lived in the Marianas, much of Saipan was underwater where limestone formations were coming together. What we see now at As Teo and in many other places all over the Marianas - limestone caves and cliffs - is what was formed underwater and was later exposed when the land rose above the sea.

These caves were used as shelters during the horrific bombardment of Saipan when the Americans came to take Saipan from the Japanese in June of 1944. Even the Japanese used a large cave in As Teo as a field hospital for their wounded.

THE BORJA FAMILY

Today, people immediately associate the As Teo area with a branch of the Borja clan known as i familian Tuhu. They own a lot of the land in As Teo. The land came into the Tuhu family by way of marriage into the Diaz family who were the original owners. Manuel Mendiola Borja (born on Guam) married Ignacia Sablan Diaz, daughter of Ramon Diaz and Rita Sablan, also originally from Guam.

SANTA LOURDES SHRINE

Some time after the war, as the Tuhu family continued to farm and eventually reside at As Teo, they took advantage of the natural environment and built a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in one of the crevices of the limestone cliff on their property.

The Virgin Mary had appeared in 1858 in a niche on the side of a large rock in the small French village called Lourdes.

Lourdes, France

For many decades now, Catholics all over the world try to replicate this original grotto in a variety of styles. Where possible, grottoes are formed from crevices and niches found naturally in the environment, like As Teo.

Besides the good fortune of having crevices in the rock on their property to simulate the Lourdes grotto, the Tuhu family also had the blessing of a well at the same spot. At Lourdes in France, a spring of healing water burst forth at the Virgin's prompting. Indeed, As Teo made an almost perfect site for a Lourdes shrine.

Originally, there was just a well at As Teo. Recently, they have placed a pump there. The Church has made no statement about that water's spiritual significance, or lack thereof. But am sure the visitors find the water refreshing nonetheless. I have never tasted the water and don't intend to until I find out if it's safe to do so.

For many years now, the Santa Lourdes Shrine at As Teo is a crowded place due to the many visitors, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, from all over the Marianas and the world.

CHAMORRO HUMOR

A man in Saipan told me something that only a Chamorro would think of.

As I mentioned, the Borja family who live in As Teo and who run the Shrine are called the Tuhu family. Tuhu' in Chamorro means "to drip" or "to leak." The motion is downwards. But, as the man said, at Santa Lourdes Shrine, the water comes up from the ground below.

So, he said, the "dripping down" family (Tuhu) runs the shrine where the water springs up.

Ai. Only in Chamorro. Iyon i Tuhu i be'bo'! The spring belongs to the Tuhu!

THE MISSING SISTERS

Sadly, there is a tragic and final note to the story of As Teo.

It was at As Teo that two young sisters, Faloma and Maleina Luhk, went missing in 2011 and to this day have never been found. The sisters left their home in As Teo to catch the school bus, and were never seen again.

We pray that Faloma and Maleina are alive and well and will be found soon.

(1) An example of this kind of shortening a word in Chamorro is måktos. It comes from magutos. Gutos means "to break or snap," as in string or a cord. Instead of saying magutos, we shorten it in the middle of the word and say måktos.

IS TAITINGFONG CHINESE?

A story in the Marianas Variety tells us that police arrested a certain Tai Ting Fong for assault and robbery.

Since there is no Western first name preceding Tai Ting Fong, it's easy to wonder if the person arrested was Chinese, since the Chinese normally have three names. First would come the family name (Tai), then the personal name (Ting) and the generational name (Fong).

You know, like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

Someone also commented that he had heard that Taitingfong was actually a Chinese name that had been "Chamorrolized." I prefer the word "Chamorrocized."

So, is the name Taitingfong Chinese or indigenous Chamorro?

PROBABLY NOT CHINESE. WHY?

1. We have lists of Chinese immigrants to the Marianas during the late Spanish period. These lists were taken in the 1870s and after and name all the Chinese who came to the Marianas since the 1850s. They all settled on Guam. Every family on Guam with Chinese origins (Limtiaco, Unpingco, etc) is in these lists, except for the ones that came afterward during the American period (e.g. Won Pat). Yet, there is not a single Taitingfong in these "Chinese lists."

If you say that the first Taitingfong on Guam was a Chinese who came long before the 1850s, that would be pure speculation without documented evidence. You would have to explain how a single Chinese man came to Guam during a period of time that no other Chinese person came to Guam. The Chinese who did come to Guam in the 1850s came in groups from the Philippines, recruited by the government to help boost farming on Guam. A lone Chinese named Taitingfong coming to Guam before the 1850s would be an anomaly that would need explanation as well as verification.

2. The name Taitingfong does appear in lists of people living on Guam in 1843, more than ten years before the Chinese immigrants listed in the Spanish records. Taitingfong is a name that appears in lists of people from the village of Pago, at present-day Pago Bay. This small village was inhabited by "purer" Chamorros, with indigenous names like Mafnas and Atoigue. In the 1897 Guam census, a Josefa Taitingfong, born around 1842, married a man named Agualo, another indigenous name.

As with many names written in the past when people spelled the way they wanted to, Taitingfong in the Spanish records is sometimes spelled Taitinfon.

As the documents show that there were Taitingfongs living on Guam before the Chinese immigration of the 1850s, and that these Taitingfongs either lived in almost exclusively Chamorro villages like Pago, or married others with indigenous Chamorro names, the evidence suggests that the Taitingfongs were also Chamorros living among other "purer" Chamorros. "Purer" meaning less mixed with foreign blood, as suggested by their indigenous surnames and residence in villages far from Hagåtña, location of the greater ethnic mix of Chamorros and Spaniards, Hispanics and Filipinos.

3. The name itself can be understood within the Chamorro language.

We all know that tai means "without, lacking" in Chamorro. There are a number of indigenous Chamorro names that begin with tai : Taitano, Taimanglo and Taijeron to mention just a few.

The "tingfong" looks suspiciously close to tufong, which means "to count." Just as tucha (to lead prayers) morphed into techa (prayer leader) via titucha, tufong could have morphed into tingfong via titufong. One possible meaning, therefore, could be "without a counter," someone who counts.

4. The similarity between Taitingfong and two verified Chinese names, Tyquiengco and Tydingco, is only an apparent similarity, thanks to our Americanized brains.

Modern Chamorros pronounce it TAI-quiengco and TAI-dingco. But this isn't the original pronunciation.

The TY in those two names was pronounced like TEE, not like TAI. TEE-quiengco and TEE-dyngco In fact, older people and even younger people who know their culture still pronounce it like TEE, not like TAI.

Remember that it was Spaniards who first wrote down those Chinese names in a Spanish way. For a Spaniard, TY will never be pronounced TAI. The Y in Spanish sounds like an I. TI-quiengco, TI-dyngco.

Thus, Taitingfong and Tyquiengco are similar only to Americanized minds that think in English.

SO.....

Putting all of this together, I think the evidence all points to a Chamorro classification for the surname Taitingfong.

We are only being fooled by coincidental and apparent similarities if we assert the original hypothesis.

KÅNTAN CHAMORRITA

Ma susede un desgråsia

as Malilok na lugåt.

Ya ti ilek-ho na ti un måtai,

na un måtai naturåt.

An unfortunate incident occurred

at a place called Malilok.

I never said you would never die,

only that you would die naturally.

This verse comes to us from the island of Luta (Rota).

Puntan Malilok is a place there, on the southeastern shore.

Chamorrita verses, or any poetic verse, are not always meant to be logical. Oftentimes they are meant to be nonsensical, humorous or satirical.

What unfortunate event happened at Malilok? It seems to be connected to someone's death. How was this person's death "natural?" Not murdered, that's for sure. Murder wouldn't be "natural." Did the person simply drop dead? Of a heart attack? Possibly. That would be considered a natural death, but would it be considered unfortunate?

Perhaps an accident killed the person, or a drowning. Something that could have been avoided and was thus unfortunate.

We'll never find out the verified meaning of this verse; the composer is long dead. The humor comes from the singer addressing the dead person posthumously. The dead person was never guaranteed a long life; only that he or she wouldn't die by murder, suicide or war.

NOTE

Desgråsia sounds like "disgrace" but the word is borrowed from the Spanish and it means some misfortune or tragedy. This is the meaning in Chamorro as well.

CHAMORRO EXPRESSIONS

TÅNO' NA DÅKON

A Deceitful World

Tåno'. World.

Dåkon. Liar.

It was brand new. The new wall put up in the house looked perfect. But, within a few days, cracks appeared. Looks can be deceiving.

For the Chamorro, the world is a liar. Tåno' na dåkon.

We think our material possessions are safe and sound, yet they corrode, rust, break or get stolen.

The value of things - gold, gas, stocks - goes up and down. Nothing is stable. Nothing is permanent.

A tree behind the house looks strong and healthy. We wait, and yet it bears no fruit.

The sea looks calm. But lives perish that same "calm" day when an unseen swell tips the boat over.

We swear we saw something. It turns out to be a mirage.

Some people wear the nicest smiles. But that's all it is. Something they wear, and take off.

And the worst lie of all, according to the elders, is to think that this material world is all that exists.

SINANGAN I MAN ÅMKO'

Tåya' ti månnge' para i ñalang.

Nothing isn't delicious to the hungry.

There are many ways of stating the truism that the truly hungry person appreciates any food at all, despite its taste or lack thereof.

"Hunger is the best sauce," said the Spaniard Cervantes, or rather "El hambre es la mejor salsa." This saying is also attributed to the Roman writer Cicero.

This meant that hunger would make tasty what otherwise would not be appetizing, just as a sauce does not an otherwise bland dish.

The more common expression in Chamorro is, "Yanggen magåhet na ñålang, siempre ha kånno.'" "If he or she is truly hungry, he or she will surely eat it." Or, this was said in the second person :

~ Nang, ñålang yo'. Håfa na'-ta? (Mom, I'm hungry. What's there to eat?)
~ Kåddun månnok fresko. (Fresh chicken stew.)
~ Uy mungnga yo'! Ti ya-ho. (Not for me! I don't like it.)
~ Yanggen magåhet na ñålang hao, siempre un kånno'! (If you were truly hungry, you would certainly eat it!)

Many times children were told to eat what was put before them, or go to bed hungry if they refused. Parents would then grin in triumph when the famished child humbly asked to eat, an hour later, what he had previously refused.

But some mothers also used the phrase above.

~ Nang, matå'pang este na fina'tinås-mo. (Mom, your dish is bland.)
~ Tåya' ti månnge' para i ñalang. (Nothing isn't delicious to the hungry.)

Depending on the mother (or granny or auntie), that last statement could be accompanied by a whack with the slipper (changkletas) or hand (patmåda).

NANÅ-HO SÅNTA MARIA

Chamorros have traditionally looked to Mary as a protective mother but also as a sorrowful mother who knows our pain (she lost her Son on the cross) and who can thus have the deepest sympathy for us. This song is an example of that Chamorro view of Mary.

1. Nanå-ho Sånta Maria nå'e yo' siningon-ho
(My Mother Mary, give me endurance)

sa' ti hu huhulat sumungon i piniten korason-ho.
(because I am not able to withstand the pain of my heart.)

2. I piniten korason-ho hågo nanå-ho mås tumungo'
(You, my mother, know more than anyone the pain of my heart)

ya an un sotta yo' na måtai, i piniti-ho yo' pumuno'.
(and if you leave me for dead, it is my pain that killed me.)

3. Ai ai puti, puti tåya' familiå-ña
(Oh it hurts, it hurts to have no family)

sa' ni håfa siña bai hu cho'gue pot todo i hu padedese.
(because there is nothing at all I can do about all that I suffer.)

4. Ha na' pinite yo' i mediko sa' ha po'lo yo' gi piti
(The doctor made me suffer because he put me in pain)

ya ni uno gi familia måtto para u fan bisita.
(and not one in the family came to visit.)

5. Singko åños na pinadese gi espitåt i commonwealth
(Five years of suffering in the commonwealth hospital)

ya ni uno gi familia måtto para u fan bisita.
(and not one in the family came to visit.)

6. Puti, puti i tåya' familiå-ña
(It hurts, it hurts to have no family)

sa' ni håfa siña bai hu cho'gue pot todo i hu padedese.
(because there is nothing I can do about all that I suffer.)

7. Hu padese todo klåsen puti, kon todo putin manhasso
(I suffered all kinds of pain, including pain of thought)

sa' hamyo ha' hu hahasso gi todo i manera.
(because I thought of you all alone in all ways.)

8. Ai ai puti, puti tåya' familiå-ña
(Oh it hurts, it hurts not to have a family)

sa' ni håfa siña bai hu cho'gue pot todo i hu padedese.
(because there is nothing at all I can do about all that I suffer.)

GROWING RICE UNDER THE JAPANESE

Japanese officials supervise Chamorros working in the rice paddies

"No army ever marched on an empty stomach," so the saying goes.

Many times, though, the invading army expects the people they subjugate to fill those empty stomachs!

Our ancestors have been planting and eating rice for many centuries, long before the Europeans came. Due to the fact that rice cannot be grown except in wet fields, Guam did not have an abundance of land suited for large rice plantations. Corn, in time, became the main starch for Chamorros, thanks to Mexican influence. Corn can more easily be grown than rice, and rice was saved for special occasions. By the 1930s, more Chamorros were making money and could afford to buy imported rice from Japan. Local rice production was still low and could not supply the island with enough rice.

When the Japanese occupied Guam, they set out to rectify that situation. All that rice they hoped to grow on Guam was primarily for the Japanese military stationed here; then Japanese civilians and, lastly, the Chamorros. Private property was no issue for the Japanese. If they told you your property had to be used for rice cultivation, you had no choice but to allow it.

Prior to the war, only 186 acres of Guam land were used for rice production. The Japanese felt they could increase that to 1960 acres! The best they could do was reach 709 acres, but that was still a significant increase in rice plantings.

This chart shows where the rice was planted, according to acreage.

PITI	161 acres
AGAT	148 "
SUMAY	118 "
MERIZO	105 "
INARAJAN	96 "
ASAN	56 "
UMATAC	25 "
TOTAL ACREAGE RICE PADDIES 1944	709 acres

As you can see, no rice was grown north of Hagåtña. From Tamuning and Mangilao onto the north of Guam, the land was made up mainly of porous limestone, so wetlands were not to be found there. Rain seeped into the white, chalky soil, filling the huge underground lake that provides us water when we can dig wells to fetch it. No rivers can be found in the north of Guam.

The best areas for rice farming were in the south of Guam, where volcanic, red-clay hills descend into well-watered valleys and coastal wetlands, and in low-lying Piti and Asan. Piti, in fact, was highest in the number of acres dedicated to rice farming during the Japanese Occupation.

In this 1944 aerial photo of Piti, one can see the amount of flat land to the rear and west of the village which was cleared and used for farming.

I suspect that most of the rice farming in Piti would have been in Sasa, which is a low-lying, marshy terrain good for rice paddies.

Chamorro men and women were made to work in the rice paddies, in Chamorro called fama'åyan. (Fan+få'i+an). Få'i is the planted rice seedling.

Rice farming under the Japanese, however, was a failure. The Japanese gave up on rice farming by late 1943 and told the Chamorros to plant taro, yams, corn and other foods that proved more successful.

There were several reasons for the horribly low yields of rice at harvest time. The Japanese were unable to bring in enough insecticides to kill bugs like the leafhopper which attacked the rice plantings. Guam also lacked fertilizers and equipment. The Americans kept sinking Japanese ships carrying supplies to Guam, so very little of these made it to the island.

Let's honor the memory of our people who were made to work hard in the fama'åyan and not even for their own benefit.

ISAO I BAILA

American sailors and Chamorros dance right after the war

Gi despues de gera nai ma susede este.
(This happened after the war.)

Un puenge, kåsi guennao gi oran a las sais, man ma kombida håye malago' para u fan baila
(One night, around 6 o'clock, anyone interested was invited to dance)

yan i sendålon Amerikåno siha.
(with American soldiers.)

Ha sede si tatan-måme para in fan hånao, hame yan i mañe'lu-ho famalao'an,
(Our dad allowed us to go, me and my sisters,)

lao solo yanggen ha ga'chunge ham si nanan-måme ya guiya u pinilan ham.
(but only if our mother accompanied us and she would chaperone us.)

Man magof ham todos sa' månnge' todo.
(We were happy because everything was enjoyable.)

Pues, måtto un kapitan gi as nanå-ho ya finaisen nu guiya,
(Then, a captain came to my mother and asked,)

"Señora, maila' ya ta fanu'e este siha haftaimano magåhet ma baila i Lindy Hop."
(Ma'am, let's show these people how the Lindy Hop is really danced.)

Ti malago' si nanå-ho bumaila ya sige ha' mama' eskusu si nanå-ho na ti ha tungo' bumaila
(My mother didn't want to dance and kept making excuses that she didn't know how to dance)

lao sige ha' lokkue' i kapitan ha apreta si nanå-ho.
(but the captain also kept pressuring my mother.)

En fin, kumonsiente si nanå-ho ya ma tutuhon i dos bumaila.
(In the end, my mother agreed and the two started to dance.)

Ai lokkue'. Tåya' dies minutos måtto påpa' si tatan-måme ya ha go'te kannai-ña si nanå-ho
(Oh dear. It wasn't ten minutes and our dad came down and grabbed my mom's hand)

ya ilek-ña, "Nihi! Todos hamyo nihi tåtte gi gima'! Ni håyeye na låhe para un tinektok!"
(and said, "Let's go! All of you let's go back to the house! No man is going to hug you!")

Pues man hånao ham todos tåtte gi gima'-måme.
(So we all went back to our house.)

Man triste ham sa' pot si nanan-måme ti man baila ham åpmam ayo na puenge.
(We were sad because of our other we didn't dance long that night.)

CULTURAL NOTES

1. This family was of the "respectable" class, very religious and Spanish-influenced. Dancing, in general, was frowned upon as an occasion of sin. The father would not allow his teenage daughters to go to the dance unless the mother was there to keep an eye on them. The fear of dancing came from concern over physical touch. Notice the husband's remark that he would let no man hug his wife, even in dancing with many witnesses present.

2. How did the dad find out about the wife's dancing? Nothing stays a secret very long in our islands. Someone saw the married woman dancing with an American officer and made sure the husband heard about it.

3. The husband's displeasure could be more centered on a fear of being talked about by the community, rather than on any fear of an American officer's contact with his wife. Had the wife danced longer with the officer, and the husband never put a stop to it, people might gossip about the wife and her husband's ignorance of her behavior, or his indifference to it or his inability to correct his wife's behavior.

4. The mother's reaction is also telling. Two cultural factors were in tension within her. First, she instinctively knew she couldn't dance with the officer. That would be against the norm. Yet, there was another cultural norm and that was to please the other, especially an American and more so an American military officer. She had to weigh the two forces within her and the norm to please the other won out, probably because she thought it was a harmless dance, with her daughters present to vouch that it was just a dance and maybe she could do this one dance and be over with it. The trouble was that others were watching, too, and got word back to her husband.

The Lindy Hop

TINIAN'S LAST STRAGGLER

JESUS "KUMOI" GUERRERO, PEDRO ATTAO 

AND MANUEL "KIYU" VILLAGÓMEZ

escorting a captured Japanese

The changing tides of history.

In the photo above, Saipan Chamorro guards have custody over a Japanese. Six years prior to this, a Japanese would have had the power over the Chamorros.

On February 16, 1953, more than eight years after Tinian's capture by the United States, a Japanese straggler was discovered on that island.

Susumu Murata was not a soldier but rather a civilian employee for the NKK, the largest sugar company in the Marianas. Murata was a long-time resident of the Marianas, having worked for the NKK first on Rota in 1934. But it was on Tinian where Murata found himself running for his life during the American invasion.

Even though he knew from pamphlets dropped by the Americans that the war was over, Murata decided to hide. He built a well-hidden shack near Tinian's lake or hagoi in Chamorro. It is not the best of fresh water but it is potable. Murata was quite resourceful. Besides fishing and bird hunting, he would take from American supplies under the cover of darkness.

Murata's downfall was the vegetable patch he grew not far from his shack. When the little garden was discovered, it was enough to raise suspicions and a security detachment, including Cristino Sablan de la Cruz, went out to investigate. They followed a barely visible trail that lead them to the shack.

De la Cruz yelled for whoever was in the shack to come out with his hands up. It took a few tries but Murata eventually came out. When asked by de la Cruz if anyone else was in the shack, Muarat said no. Still, de la Cruz opened fire and shot up the shack. Murata started to cry. De la Cruz asked why. Murata said that de la Cruz had just shot up his only supply of soy sauce. De la Cruz told him he would find more soy sauce in Saipan.

CRISTINO SABLAN DE LA CRUZ

He captured Murata

KAMPANÅYU? KAMPANÅYA?

The Malesso' Bell Tower

Now how does one say "bell tower" in Chamorro?

If you go down to Malesso' and look for the signs at the bell tower, you will become very confused.

You will see it called Kampanåyu, with a U.

And you will also see it spelled Kampanåya, with an A.

Even the village name gets spelled two different ways. With an ending U, or with an ending O.

So which is it?

Well, the word is borrowed from Spanish and the Spanish word for bell tower is campanario. The word for "bell" itself is campana, which we also borrowed in Chamorro - kampåna.

Since the Spanish word campanario involved the Western Y sound in the last two syllables - RIO - the Chamorro is going to have difficulties with that since we don't have that Western Y sound. We change it to our own DZ sound represented by the Western Y letter. Thus, Yigo and Yoña are pronounced Dzigo and Dzoña.

Check out these comparisons :

SPANISH	CHAMORRO	ENGLISH
CAMPANARIO	KAMPANÅYO	BELL TOWER
ROSARIO	LISÅYO	ROSARY

So, kampanåya is a mistake. Kampanåyo is correct.

Someone on the staff didn't know this well enough to realize the mistake.

Funny thing is, the older wooden sign, with the correct spelling, was there and is still there! Nobody noticed.

MALESSU' -VS- MALESSO'

This is part of the U-vs-O debate.

Chamoru? Or Chamorro?

Guåhu? Or guåho?

Since Chamorros are (in the main) used to writing in Chamorro, no system is going to be easily accepted by the great majority of people. An official orthography exists, but the majority of people writing Chamorro do not access it. Many who do have disagreements with the official orthography.

Of the small number of people who write in Chamorro (compared to the vast number of people who hardly ever write in Chamorro), many will write it as they hear it.

And the fact is that some Chamorros favor the U sound when they speak. Listen to them. 

But a good number of other people, especially the older ones, favor the O sound when they speak. Listen to them.

I'm in favor of allowing people to spell it as they speak it, for the time being, because I don't think we have arrived yet at a commonly accepted orthography. We have an official one. But not a commonly accepted one yet.

But there is a bigger difference between a U and an A, compared to a U and an O.

Malessu'/Malesso' has a minor difference between them, in my opinion, compared to kampanåyu and kampanåya.

Call a guy fulånu is the same as calling him fulåno.

But call him fulåna and there may be trouble.

FAMILIA : PAULINO

Juan C. and Rosa M. Paulino

Juan is the grandson of Mariano, the founder of the Paulino clan

All the Paulinos of Guam can trace their ancestry to one man named Mariano Baza Paulino.

Mariano was originally from the Philippines and came to Guam around 1840. By the late 1850s he was the alcalde or mayor of Tinian. Tinian did not have a permanent population but was rather a government cattle ranch, staffed by 20 or so Chamorros from Guam who worked there for a couple of years and then were replaced by another round of workers from Guam.

The income from the sale of Tinian beef helped raise funds for government projects like the hospital for lepers (Hansen's Disease) run on Guam.

MARIANO BAZA PAULINO

Signature in 1898

Thanks to baptismal records in Saipan which survive to this day, where Tinian baptisms were recorded, we have documented evidence for Mariano.

Mariano's wife was Maria de Borja Aguon, a Chamorro of Hagåtña.

Some of Mariano and Maria's children were born in Tinian and Saipan.

Eventually, Mariano and family moved back to Guam and settled in Inalåhan. From there, the family grew and spread to the rest of Guam and, now, to the U.S. mainland and perhaps even beyond.

One of Mariano's sons, Vicente, was living in Hagåtña in the 1890s with his wife Fabiana Cepeda, but apparently moved back to Inalåhan some time later.

Mariano and Maria had three sons to carry on the name, and three daughters.

The three sons were Manuel, Vicente and Jose. All those who carry the surname Paulino of the Marianas can trace their ancestry back to one of these three men.

Jesus Paulino on the far right with other Inalåhan parishioners in the early 1970s accepting a donated car for the parish from Ricky Bordallo

Jaime D. Paulino (right) was Mayor of Inalåhan from 1981 to 1989

KARAKOT GI HALOM TÅSI

Karakot gi halom tåsi
(Shell inside the sea)

A'anok yan lalamlam;
(visible and shiny;)

i linamlåm-ña yan i bunitu-ña
(its brightness and beauty)

ti chumilong yan i guinaiya-ko.
(are not equal to my love.)



Ya i napu gi taddong tåsi
(And the waves in the deep sea)

måfåtto yan humåhånao;
(come and go;)

taggam, taggam yanggen siña
(block it, block it if you can)

lao adahe hao nu i chaochao.
(but be careful of the turbulence.)

~ Author unknown

NOTES

Karakot. Borrowed from the Spanish caracol, meaning "snail, seashell, conch, shell or cochlea in the ear."

Chilong. To match, balance, make equal. A synonym is the Spanish loan word pareho. Na' chilong i che'cho'-mo yan i apås-mo. Make equal your work and your pay. In other words, work for your pay.

Taggam. To block, stop, confront, repress. It also came to mean "to meet someone arriving," because, in one sense, to meet someone arriving at the airport or dock is to stop their movement traveling. Taggam is also used to describe how the priest meets the casket of the dead when it arrives at the church door for the funeral rites.

ESTORIAN I LEMMAI

Meggai åños tåtte na tiempo, åntes de i finatton i Españot, måtto gi islå-ta un tiempon ha'ilas.
(At a time many years ago, before the arrival of the Spaniards, a time of drought came to our island.)

Man måtai todo i tinanom siha. Ni un pedåson suni pat dågo pat ni håfafa na klåsen tinekcha siña ma sodda'.
(All the plants died. Not one piece of taro or yam nor any kind of fruit was able to be found.)

Man sen ñalang todo i taotao siha, kololo'-ña i man dikkike' na famagu'on.
(All the people were very hungry, especially the little children.)

Manetnon todo i maga'låhen i san lago na bånda para u ma deside håf para u ma cho'gue.
(All the chiefs of the northern/western* side met to decide what to do.)

Yan taiguennao lokkue' bidan-ñiha i maga'låhen siha gi san haya na bånda gi isla.
(And the chiefs of the southern/eastern side of the island did the same.)

I un gurupu ti ma tungo' håfa para bidan-ñiñiha i otro na gurupu.
(The one group did not know what the other group would be doing.)

Lao todo i dos gurupu ma deside para u tågo' uno na maga'låhe yan dos ga'chong-ña påtgon para u fanhånao para i otro na bånda pot para u tungo' håfa na nengkanno' siña guaha guihe.
(But both groups decided to send one chief and two child companions to go to the other side in order to know what food might be there.)

Ya ennao magåhet ma cho'gue.
(And that is, in fact, what was done.)

Sigiente dia, finakcha'i na uma'sodda' todo i dos na gurupu gi talo' gi isla.
(The following day, it happened that both groups met in the middle of the island.)

Hinengan i dos maga'låhe na pareho ha' intension-ñiha para u ketungo' håfa na nengkanno' siña ha' guaha gi otro bånda ya ma tutuhon i dos kumuentos pot i eskases ni muna' fañachatsaga todo i taotao siha gi isla.
(The two chiefs were surprised that their intentions to try to know what food might there be on the other side were the same, and the two began to converse about the scarcity which was putting all the people of the island in hardship.)

I kuåttro na famagu'on, pot i man yayas yan man ñålang, man åsson gi edda' para u fan maigo'.
(The four children, because they were tired and hungry, lay on the ground to sleep.)

Pot fin, kontodo i dos maga'låhe malingo maigo'-ñiha gi annai esta gespainge.
(At last, even the two chiefs fell asleep when it was already very late in the night.)

Gigon makmåta i dos maga'låhe, ma sodda' na man måtai i kuåttro na famagu'on mina' i niñalang-ñiha ni esta ti siña ma sungon.
(When the two chiefs woke up, they discovered that the four children died of their unbearable hunger.)

Gi trinisten-ñiha, i dos maga'låhe ma håfot i famagu'on ya ma håtsa åcho' latte gi naftan siha.
(In their sadness, the two chiefs buried the children and set up latte stones on the graves.)

Todo i taotao siha tumungo' na este na lugåt nai man ma håfot i kuåttro na famagu'on.
(Everyone knew that this was the place where the four children were buried.)

Åños despues, ma sodda' na kuåttro na trongko man dokko' guihe na lugåt, un trongko kada naftan.
(Years later, they saw that four trees grew in that place, one tree for each grave.)

Tåt nai ma li'e este na klåsen trongko, lao annai ma sotne ya ma kånno i tinekchå-ña, ei na minannge'!
(They had never seen this kind of tree, but when they boiled and ate its fruit, it was delicious!)

Ma ågang "lemmai" ya desde ayo para mo'na, tåya' na man måtai ñålang i taotao gi isla,
(They called it "lemmai," and from that time on, the people of the island never died of hunger,)

sa' achok ha' påkyo pat ha'ilas i tano', lamita gi sakkan guaguaha ha' lemmai para mantension i linahyan taotao.
(because even if there is typhoon or a drought in the land, half of the year there is still lemmai for the sustenance of the people.)

* san lago and san haya mean two different directions depending on which island (and sometimes village) you live in.

ENGLISH THE CHAMORRO WAY : TAIP

Just as we did centuries ago with Spanish, we do with English today.

We borrow the word and change it to fit our grammar and, many times, our pronunciation.

Nice to see also, as in the photo above, we feel free to change the spelling to match the way it really sounds to us.

So English "type" becomes Chamorro taip. Not as in "What's your type?" but rather "Can you type?"

Ti hu tungo' mantaip.
(I don't know how to type.)

This is interesting because, according to the normal rules, N+T becomes a simple N.

Man+tunu (to barbeque) becomes manunu.

Man+tungo' (to know) becomes manungo'.

So man+taip should become manaip. At first it sounds weird, but perhaps if heard often enough it wouldn't sound so strange. And, there are always exceptions to rules, so perhaps it would have remained mantaip.

Håye tumaip este?
(Who typed this?)

How about "typewriter?"

In other languages, the word becomes a compound word meaning "writing machine."

In Spanish, máquina a escribir.

In French, machine à écrire.

In German, Schreibmaschine.

So I suppose, in Chamorro, it could be måkinan månge'.

Måkina = machine (but also engine)

Månge' = to write (man+tuge' becomes månge')

Now månge' looks a whole lot like månnge' ("delicious") so be careful.

If you misplaced a typewiter you really liked, you could say

"Mångge i mannge' na måkinan månge'?"

"Where is the really good (literally, delicious) writing machine?"

We call anything we really like månnge' (delicious).

WARTIME INCARCERATION AT THE HAGÅTÑA JAIL

On December 8, 1941, when Japan attacked Guam from the air, the American Naval Government prepared for the imminent invasion.

Part of the plan was to set free the civilian prisoners serving time in the capital city's jail. That way, they wouldn't all perish at the same time if a Japanese bomb made a direct hit on the jail. In fact, a Japanese bomb did land close enough to the jail to damage a corner of it. But it was quickly repaired.

When the Japanese were securely the masters of the island, Saipan Chamorro interpreters helped round up the prisoners released by the Americans. The Japanese word for "interpreter" is tsuuyaku.

A man named Takeshi Shimada was a police investigator whom Saipan interpreters said was police chief during the Occupation, or at least acted as one. Helping him were fifteen or so Saipan interpreters who did more than translating. They also supplied the muscle in performing police work and in physically punishing civilians under police custody.

Some Guam Chamorro inmates continued to be a source of irritation to the Japanese police.

Juan T. was arrested for stealing a fusiños (hoe) and was thrown into the city jail and beaten.

Jose M., Enrique R. and Jose C. made the daring move to escape from the Hagåtña jail. They claimed hunger drove them to do it. They roamed around looking for food and were finally caught by the Japanese in Ordot. They were taken back to the jail and beaten.

Some inmates were caught playing dice late at night on New Year's Eve and were punished with beatings.

One Saipan police interpreter got drunk and started berating the Guam Chamorro inmates, telling them that they longed for the return of the Americans, but that they would never eat "bacon and ham" again. He then started beating them in his drunken state.

A Guam inmate testified that, during his entire time jailed in Hagåtña, he witnessed around 50 separate beatings of other inmates. Some were serious enough that the victim died as a result of the beating.

In their defense, some Saipan interpreters said that they had to be hard on their fellow Chamorros from Guam because the Japanese were watching. The last thing they wanted was to be accused by the Japanese for being soft on the Guam Chamorros. The Japanese expected total loyalty from the Saipan Chamorros, since they had grown up under the Japanese since 1914. They would have gotten a worse beating from the Japanese, they said, had they not satisfied the Japanese.