AFTER THE ELECTION

I was talking with an elderly man the other about the Primary Election results, which weren't so encouraging for a handful of incumbents. Of course, the primary and general elections can produce very different results, so those incumbents are not necessarily out of a job already.

But, it seems that there may be one or two sitting senators who may need to look for employment this coming January.

To which the man said to me, "Kada guaha nuebo na såntos, tåya' esta milagru-ña i hagas."

"Every time there's a new saint, the old one has no more miracles."

New saints are appearing in the Church all the time, especially in our modern age. In the past, there might be a new saint every several years. Under Pope St John Paul II alone, 480 were added to the list of saints in 27 years. Unless they are martyrs, miracles need to be attributed to a candidate for sainthood. Thus the focus on the miracles of new saints.

As time goes by, saints who lived over a thousand years ago become more and more forgotten. There are so many old saints that for most Catholics they are names only, and some of them very unusual. About their life, nobody knows, except for a tiny number of people. Thus, the saying goes, the old saints have no more miracles, so to speak. (As Catholics, we know saints are always saints whose prayers are effective, even if few people know about them.)

Now apply this to politics.

A sitting senator has a good deal of power, even if that power is simply to make a phone call and something gets done.

But political office isn't a lifetime position. Politicians get elected, and politicians lose elections.

So, whenever there is a new saint (newly-elected politician), the old one (the losing politician) has no more miracles. There is nothing an ex-senator can do for you (as a senator).

BIBA I BIBU NA BINIBU

Along with "Håfa adai," "Si Yu'us ma'åse'" and a few other expressions, newcomers to the Marianas, before long, hear and wonder about the way we say "Biba!" on many occasions.

Just mention someone's name in a speech, and you might hear someone in the crowd tell, "Biba!"

What does it mean, really, and how is it connected to similar words like bibu and bubu?

FIRST MEANING

The word biba is taken from the Spanish word viva. The literal and first meaning of viva is "live" in the imperative. It is, in Spanish, the command to live. Live! Don't die!

The implied meaning is "long live." The word "long" is not stated, but the idea is implied. So, whereas in English we would cry out "Long live the King," in Spanish one says "Viva el Rey!"

I wouldn't be surprised if this is how the expression made its way into the Chamorro language, hearing soldiers and guards working for Spain say this salutation now and then. In time, these "Spanish" soldiers and guards were Chamorro soldiers and guards. Of mixed blood, to be sure, but born here and speaking the Chamorro language.

Secondly, Chamorros would have heard the word "Viva!" exclaimed in religious settings. Not during Mass, which was in Latin and celebrated with solemnity, but during a procession, or at the end of a priest's remarks on a feast day.

We do this to this day, as it is custom to abiba the saint three times towards the end of a patronal fiesta. Biba San Jose! Or whatever saint is being honored. Three times.

This is interesting because Saint Joseph is alive and well, and for all eternity, in heaven, yet we are wishing that he live long, as if he could possibly die. But that is just the literal meaning of viva or biba. The expanded meaning of biba is simply an exclamation of love, happiness, appreciation and so on.

This is how, I believe, the term was then applied later in time to anyone and anything we want to honor, or to show appreciation for, or even, in politics, support.

Biba Democrat! Biba Republican! Biba Liberation Day! Biba kumpleåños! Biba retirement! Biba si Magdalena! Biba tax refund! Whatever and whoever you want.

One way we make this Spanish expression Chamorro is that we do not follow Spanish grammar when using it. Viva is the imperative for one person. In Spanish, when speaking of more than one person, viva becomes vivan. Vivan los pescadores! Long live the fishermen! But, in Chamorro, it is "Biba i man peskadot!"

BIBU? BUBU?

The Chamorro word bibu is related to biba.

Even bibu comes from the Spanish word vivir (to live) and it means "fast, energetic, lively" and so on. A car can be bibu in speed and a party can be bibu, full of life, fun, entertaining.

It is pure coincidence that the Chamorro word bubu (angry) sounds similar to bibu. But there is no historic connection between the two words.  There is no Spanish word bubu nor bubo.

Then there's abubu (balloon), also unconnected with Spanish.

BEN ZAFRA

Once a Big Name, Now All but Forgotten

There are some people who had a place in Guam history who have gone and are all but forgotten.

One of these is Ben Zafra. Government worker. Forester for the Naval Government. Chief Commissioner of Guam from 1941 to 1960. Even during the Japanese Occupation.

But if you ask people if they ever heard of Ben Zafra, only the older people will say they have.

Ancestry

Ben was born Vicente Ulloa Zafra, the son of Román Zafra, the son of Dominga Zafra. Román's father is unknown. But we do know that Román was Filipino. He moved to Guam and was military health officer in the Spanish colonial government. He had some bad luck, though, being accused in the 1880s of having abandoned his post and fleeing from arrest. But, he was still living on Guam in 1897 and appears in the census, a free man.

Román's first wife was Chamorro, María Eustaquio. Together, they had a daughter named Angustia. María then passed away and Román married another Chamorro woman, Dolores Rivera Ulloa, the daughter of Manuel Ulloa and Vicenta Rivera. Román and Dolores' one and only child was Vicente.

Both Román and Dolores must have passed away before 1920 (perhaps in the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic) because Ben and Angustia are found in 1920 living with Eulogio de la Cruz. Cruz was a man of some means, and a Filipino married to a Chamorro. Perhaps Eulogio and his countryman Román Zafra were friends, and when Román died, Eulogio became the guardian of Román's children. Next door to Eulogio, in their own dwelling, were Eulogio's two sons, Francisco and José. It seems certain that Eulogio made sure that Ben learned English and to read and write. He was identified as a messenger at the age of 17 in the 1920 Census.

Early Years

Zafra began working for the Naval Government in 1917 as a messenger boy, then in 1922 as a clerk. Sometime before 1930, Ben was married to Oliva Castro. Their wedding, said one elderly lady who heard it from her mother, was a big event. Their wedding cake was so tall that they couldn't decorate it inside the house. They had to take the cake outside for that. Sadly, after just a few months, Ben and Oliva separated. In Chamorro, "ma na' na'lo si Oliva." "They returned Oliva to her family." In the 1930 Guam Census, Oliva is listed as divorced, living alone except for a ten-month old baby girl whose last name was Castro, Oliva's maiden name. Apparently the baby was born out of wedlock.

Around 1925, he went to Hong Kong to work for the U.S. Public Health Service. He served one year as a Merchant Marine, then worked for the Texas Oil Company (China), Ltd. In 1934 he moved to Saigon to work for a construction company.

He returned to Guam in 1935 and worked as deputy land judge and assistant chief forester for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Chief Commissioner - Even under the Japanese

In 1941, just months before war, Ben was made Chief Commissioner, succeeding Antonio Crisóstomo Suárez who decided to retire. The commissioners were the village mayors, as we call them today. The Chief Commissioner was a liaison between the Naval Government and the village commissioners, but he could also, apparently, make some judicial decisions on minor issues.

When the Japanese occupied Guam, they asked him what his job was under the Americans. "Chief Commissioner," he replied. The Japanese then told him he was still Chief Commissioner whether he liked it or not. He was placed in the Japanese Navy Civilian Administration, called the Minseibu. Its offices were located in the Saint Vincent de Paul Hall adjacent the Hagåtña Cathedral.

The St Vincent de Paul Hall was turned into the headquarters of the Japanese Minseibu

His main job was clerical; a "glorified messenger boy" Zafra called himself. Juan "Buko" Castro, a Saipanese interpreter, would write or speak instructions from the Japanese in Chamorro to Ben, who would then type them out as written notices in Chamorro for the public. They were duplicated on a mimeograph machine. Ben passed out numerous copies to all the district commissioners and posted them on Hagåtña's eight public bulletin boards. 

He was also responsible for putting out a daily mimeographed news bulletin called the Omiya Nippō (Guam Daily Report). "Nippō" means "daily report" and "Omiya" literally means "great shrine" but it was the Japanese name for Guam during the war.

The Omiya Nippō was written in English by a Japanese named Ogawa. Ogawa's English was bad at times, turning his sentence into gibberish, but Zafra was not allowed to change a word. The "news" was also pure propaganda; lies in many cases. One time Zafra and his assistant José Roberto counted all the American ships the Japanese news said had sunk, and the amount was more than the number of ships in the world. "It became a joke," Zafra said.

Ben was paid 90 yen a month at first, till his pay was reduced to 75 yen a month. When the Americans started bombing Guam in 1944 and the Minseibu office caught on fire, Ben left Hagåtña and his job at the Minseibu. War's end was only a matter of time.

After the War

After the war, Ben continued as Chief Commissioner of Guam till 1960. He also sat on several government boards (Parole Board, Alcohol Beverage Control Board, Election Commission, etc) and was associate judge of the Court of Appeals before 1950.

Eventually, Ben found himself a second wife, Isabel (Beck) Perez, the daughter of Atanacio Taitano Perez, a prominent Chamorro government official in various capacities almost the entire first decades of the Naval Government period. They raised Beck's nephew, David Taitano Perez, Sr, the son of her sister Maria. The couple moved to California, according to one family member, to be closer to their nephew Daniel Perez Ploke, who was studying there. In 1964, Ben died in Alameda, CA.

Besides all this, Ben was well-known in the Guam community at the time as a sportsman. He was a good baseball player and a boxer. He was a tall man, easily 6 feet or more. He had huge hands. He was also a member of the Young Men's League of Guam, the first Chamorro civic organization.

Hawaii Church Chronicle, November 1959

Ben joined the Episcopalian Church in the 1950s, at Saint John the Divine Church, located at the time in Hagåtña. He is pictured above (left, holding flag) presenting the Guam flag to the church.

As Ben and Beck did not have any children, that family line is no more.

Angustia

Ben's older sister, Angustia, better known as Nenita, who was single most of her life, finally married a Filipino man named Valentin A. Baltazar after the war in her senior years. They lived in Agaña Heights at her house. According to a family member, she could not speak much English and her Filipino husband could not speak Chamorro. So they used a lot of sign language. She died before him, and after her death he brought some family members from the Philippines to Guam. Angustia never had children.

CHETNOT SAN JOSE

Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. (Matthew 1:19)

CHETNOT SAN JOSE

Saint Joseph's Disease

A man from Saipan was telling me the story how his father, in early 1944, was conscripted by the Japanese to join the work crews unloading weapons, ammunition and equipment that were shipped from Japan for the defense of Saipan against the Americans.

Workers were obliged to work round the clock with just a four hour visit to their wives and families.

Around that time, the man's wife found herself pregnant. At first, he thought nothing of it. But during those long hours at the dock, unloading military arsenal, he started to wonder if he had found the time and the energy to father a child. He just couldn't remember, as he would crash to his bed and go out like a light from pure exhaustion when he had his four-hour family visit.

So the man telling me this story said, "Nina'ye ni chetnot San Jose."

"He came down with Saint Joseph's disease."

Why Saint Joseph?

Saint Joseph faced a similar predicament when he took Mary for a wife but had no relations with her. When she was found to be pregnant, Joseph was totally perplexed. He knew he was not the father, but then who was? Mary was a virtuous woman completely above suspicion. So how then can a righteous woman be pregnant? Thus his decision to end the marriage, which had no yet been completed.

Eventually, an angel informs Joseph that it is the Holy Spirit who enabled Mary to conceive without human participation, and then a relieved Joseph continued with the completion of the wedding.

In the icon (painting) above, a perplexed Saint Joseph sits by himself in a confused and bewildered state, with the devil, disguised as an old shepherd, tempting him to doubt the divinity of the Christ Child. Of course, Joseph resisted this temptation and proved his righteousness.

The man's dad wondered to himself, "Is my wife pregnant with a Japanese soldier's baby?"

The man knew that his wife would not willingly have consorted with a local man, nor with a Japanese soldier or anyone else. But only a Japanese soldier would have had the power to force himself on the woman.

To his relief, when the baby was born, he didn't have a trace of Japanese looks on his infant face. By the time the boy was ten, he looked just like a younger version of his Chamorro father. 

He was cured of the Chetnot San Jose.

HOW TO SPELL "ACHAKMA'"

I've seen it spelled achatmat, achatma, chakmak....

...and many other versions, with or without glotas.

So how does one spell the word? And what is its origin?

Maybe answering the second question will shed light on the first.

The word is made up of two root words.

The first is ACHA. Acha means "equal, the same, similar, also."

Acha baba i dos. The two are equally bad.

Acha amko' hit. We are the same age.

Acha poddong i lepblo yan i båso. The book and the glass fell at the same time.

The KMA' that follows is a contraction (shortening) of the word guma'.

In other words, acha guma' becomes achakma'.

It means two people living (romantically) in the same house. But they aren't married.

So the older meaning of achakma' was a concubine, a lover you lived with. Not a lover whom you met every so often on the sly, and who lived apart from you.

We know this from the root word guma'. This kind of lover lived in the same (acha) house (guma') with you.

Today, achakma' is more understood as a lover or mistress who is "on the side,"  not one you live with openly. Language is always evolving and changing.

But the older meaning is a man and a woman who skip marriage altogether (whether religious or civil) and live together under the same roof, in the same house (guma').

The man and woman here skip over both the Justice of the Peace and the clergy man.

* By the way, many older Chamorros would also use the word konkubino, or concubine, for two people living openly in a romantic partnership without marriage.

CREATING ANEW USING SPANISH

The men in the picture above are "roofing" a house.

In Chamorro, åtof is roof.

To roof a house is to åfte.

Åfte is a shortening (or contraction) of the word formed by åtof+e. By placing an E at the end of a word, the meaning of the word can now mean "to do that for/to someone or something." So, åtof means "roof" and åfte means "to put a roof on a house."

Now here's where it gets interesting.

We remember that Chamorros borrowed words from Spanish, and that's where we leave it.

But it also happened that Chamorros mixed Chamorro with Spanish and came up with a new word, a blend of both languages. Our ancestors did that with åfte.

They took the Spanish prefix des, which in English is dis.

To disregard, to dislike and to disagree. Those are all the negative sense of those root verbs.

Then they attached Spanish des to Chamorro åfte and came up with desåfte.

It means to "unroof," to take the roof off a house.

ÅFTE : to put a roof on

DESÅFTE : to take a roof off

THE FIRST "MODERN" LEGISLATURE



11th Guam Legislature (1970-1972)

Why "modern?"

Many people are not aware that the Guam Legislature, created in 1950 by the Organic Act, underwent some important changes in 1968.

These changes enacted in 1968 were to take effect in the next round of elections in 1970. That year, the 11th Guam Legislature was elected.

The changes included :

1. Giving a title for the members of the Legislature. In the original Organic Act (1950), no title was given. So they were called "congressmen," which in hindsight doesn't quite fit, since there was no longer any Guam Congress, but rather a Guam Legislature. Now, according to the amendments to the Organic Act in 1968, they would be called "senators."

SENATORS WERE CALLED "CONGRESSMEN" BACK THEN

2. Lifting the limitation how often the Guam Legislature could meet. In the original Organic Act, the Legislature could meet for only 60 days in a year (not including emergency, special sessions). This was usually broken down into two, 30-day sessions. This meant that the lawmakers did not meet year-round; it was a part-time legislature. Members had full-time jobs as lawyers, businessmen and what have you. Salaries were low. Staff was small and shared among all 21 members.

With the 1968 changes to go into effect in 1970, the Legislature could meet as often as it desired. This encouraged many senators to become full-time lawmakers with higher salaries. Each senator was given the power to hire staff and a budget to fund that. This is what we mean by a "modern" Legislature.

THE DEMOCRATIC RIFT IN 1970

The gubernatorial campaign of 1970 was an exciting, passionate time; the first time Guam was allowed to elect its own governor, rather than receive a Washington appointee, who were, in the 1950s, all statesiders.

The Democratic Party, the dominant party on Guam, divided along three lines.

The Governor Guerrero Camp

Manuel Guerrero had been the appointed Governor of Guam from 1963 until 1969. He threw his hat in the ring to run for Governor in 1970. Having been Governor for around 6 years, appointing directors and other officials, Guerrero had a following among them. He put up his own candidates for the Guam Legislature in 1970 and the following eight won :

Allen Sekt

Jose Ramirez Dueñas

Adrian Sanchez

Joaquin Perez

William (Bilmar) Flores

Oscar Delfin

Tomas Charfauros

The Ricky Bordallo Camp

The charismatic Bordallo, who served many terms in the Guam Legislature, and who was involved in turning the old Popular Party into the Democratic Party, enjoyed great influence in the Party and also ran for Governor in 1970. He had his own candidates, and the following seven won :

Florencio Ramirez

Frank Lujan

Adrian (Nito) Cristobal

Francisco Santos

Paul Bordallo

Leonard Paulino

James Butler

The Joaquin Arriola Camp

The Speaker of the 10th Guam Legislature, Joaquin Arriola also ran for Governor in 1970 and put up his own candidates for the Legislature under the Democratic banner. Only one won : George Bamba.

The Republican Minority

The Democratic winners from the three camps numbered 15 members, a handsome majority (more than 2/3).

The six minority Republicans were :

Paul Calvo

Ben Ada

Concepcion (Chong) Barrett

Tomas Tanaka, Sr

Pedro Perez, Sr

Tomas Ramirez Santos

FAMILY NICKNAMES : ESPÅTSA

A branch of the Camacho family on Guam is called the familian Espåtsa.

You won't normally hear them say it that way. But originally, the nickname was Espåtsa, back when Chamorros had the same trait as the Spaniards in being unable to say an S followed by another consonant without putting a vowel in front of the S.

In other words, in Spanish and in old-style Chamorro pronunciation, you will never find combinations like SB, SP, ST, SM, SN, SG or SK without a vowel (A, E, I, O, U) in front of it.

So Chamorros used to say ESKOOL when saying school; or ESTUDIENT when saying student.

As people got more Americanized, this trait disappeared and the Espåtsa family became known as the Spåtsa family.

Even the spelling shows the strong mark of Americanization.

The nickname begins with Spåt, but we think like Americans and picture the word spot. So, Spotsa, like the street sign picture above.

The trouble is that the Chamorro O always sounds like O as in coat or vote. Ogo, Okada and Toves are examples using the Chamorro O. So Spotsa really ought to be Spåtsa.

This street sign uses the A but without the lonnat (Å) to show that it has the AW sound. It also uses a Z when in Chamorro, we do not have the Z unless it's a foreign proper name like Perez or Lizama. Espåtsa is not a proper name, it is a nickname formed by Chamorrofying the Spanish name.

Well, enough about spelling....

Why does this family have this nickname?

If you're a member of the Espåtsa family and know the reason, please do comment below and let us know. But the few members I have been able to contact do not know the reason.

A CLUE

When I first came across the nickname Espåtsa, in court and/or land records during Spanish times, it was spelled Esparza. This makes sense. Chamorros would have changed the R to a T, and would have pronounced the Z like an S. When older Chamorros say Perez, it sounds like Peres. When older Chamorros say Carlos, it sounds like Kåtlos.

Esparza became Espåtsa.

So Esparza happens to be a Spanish last name!

In fact, here's a pic of Felipe Esparza, a Mexican comedian. I don't know his comedy nor support it. I just use him as an example of how Esparza is a Spanish last name.

OK, so did some Spanish, Latin American or Filipino guy named Esparza come to Guam and got somehow connected with a branch of the Camacho family?

That would seem to be a good possibility.

In a list of convicts on Guam in 1821, we find the name of JUAN DE DIOS ESPARZA. He came from San Luís Potosí in Mexico, and was exiled to Guam as punishment by the Spanish Government, still ruling Mexico at the time.

We find Juan again in a document from 1823, still on Guam. Maybe he has something to do with the nickname Espåtsa passing onto someone else. Maybe he had a daughter who married a Camacho. Who knows? We need better information, which I'm afraid is difficult to come by when 200 years have passed.

So the best, I think, we can say for now, unless we get reliable information from the family, is that

1. Espåtsa comes from Esparza
2. Esparza is a Spanish last name
3. The Camachos better-known-as the familian Espåtsa were so named because of some connection to a person named Esparza or some other connection to the name Esparza.

WHICH CAMACHO?

Espåtsa must be one of the oldest family nicknames in Guam because it is not known yet who was the first person to carry the nickname. If the nickname had begun later in time, we would have a greater chance of knowing who was the first person to have the nickname.

In the case of Espåtsa, several Camacho families have been identified with that nickname, and the connections between these different Camachos is not always clear.

For example, a FERMÍN LUJÁN CAMACHO, born around 1849, was identified in court records ad being known as Espåtsa.

Fermín was the son of Luís Palomo Camacho and Juana Luján. These are the same ancestors of the late Governor Carlos García Camacho and his son, the former Governor Felix Pérez Camacho. Fermín was married to Ignacia Acosta Arriola.

Félix San Nicolás Camacho, born around 1877, is also identified as being Espåtsa in court documents. His father was Pedro Camacho, but we don't know yet what connection, if any, Pedro has with Fermín Luján Camacho. Félix married Juana Borja Crisástomo and their son Vicente, who married Josefa Guerrero, have descendants today.

Félix's brother Manuel married Ana Delgado Meno and this branch of the Espåtsas have many descendants to this day.

José Ortiz Camacho, husband of Josefa Baza Deza, was also the son of the same Pedro Camacho, father of Félix San Nicolás Camacho, but with his first wife Joaquina Ortiz. These Camachos became more identified as the familia'n Desa, because the man Camacho married a Deza woman, and as the Deza name was only one family, the nickname Desa was more convenient in singling out this family.

And then we have the Sumay Espåtsa.

Guillermo Sablan Camacho, whose name appears below in a court document in 1912, is nicknamed Esparsa, or Espåtsa. The @ stands for "alias," or "also known as." His son Tomás Taitano Camacho carries on the nickname.

Guillermo was the son of Antonio Camacho and Dolores Sablan, both of Hagåtña. What connection, if any, existed between Antonio and Fermín and Pedro Camacho is still not known, though they were all identified as Espåtsa. Clearly, this nickname goes back to the 1830s or so. One of the oldest family nicknames that has survived till now.

FAMAISEN GI HALOM TÅNO'

Famaisen = to ask

Halom Tåno' = jungle; inland; literally "inside the land"


Almost three hundred years of Catholicism under Spanish missionaries were unable to completely stamp out the belief that the jungles of our islands are inhabited by spirits. It shouldn't surprise us. It's a trait of human nature found all over the world. Spain itself has its share of scary folklore and allegedly haunted places.

Many Chamorros believe that these spirits inhabiting the jungle can become angry with you and hurt you in some way, mainly by making you sick. Thus, custom says to ask permission when entering the jungle and other natural, uninhabited places of the islands. Taboos include making unnecessary noise, disturbing the natural environment such as tumbling rocks or breaking trees without reason, and going to the bathroom without asking permission.

Tan Maria, in the video below, gives her own description of this custom.

Eyi i hagan i haga...i lahi-ho, an humånao para i lancho
(My daughter's...my son's daughter....when she went to the ranch)

tinago' as nanå-ña na u famamaisen an para u me'me' pat masinek.
(was told by her mother to be asking if she was to urinate or defecate.)

Ilek-ña pa'go eyi i hagan i lahi-ho,
(My son's daughter said,)

"Håfa grandma....ai mom...na para bai famaisen yanggen tåya' taotao?"
("Grandma, I mean mom, why should I ask when there is no one?")

Ilek-ña tåya' nai taotao lao guaha. Famaisen ha'. Gaige ha' gi fi'on-mo.
(She said there is no one but there is. Just ask. He is by your side.)

Sa' guåho tåya' magåhet Påle' ti ma na' malalango yo' ni ennao
(Because as for myself, Father, truly I have never been made sick by that)

sa' måno hinanao-ho todo i tiempo mamamaisen yo' para bai ma asi'e' ya bai...
(because wherever I go, I always ask to be forgiven and...)

sa' åhe' ti para bai pala'cha'...
(because certainly I am not going to be mischievous.)

NOTES

1. Tan Maria is from Luta so she pronounces malångo as malango. The å is absent.

2. Notice how the English words "grandma" and "mom" have entered the speech even of an elderly woman from Luta.

3. Pala'cha' means to be mischievous, or rascally or to be otherwise disrespectful. She seems to soften the word in her speech and omit the first glottal stop.

CHAMORRO SOLDIERS IN 1795

By 1795, we had then what we have now.....a new kind of Chamorro race based on the blood lines of those who lived here before European contact, mixed now with the blood of people from Spain, Latin America, the Philippines and a few from other places.

The soldiers of Guam had been formed into two separate companies based on racial lines.

The Spanish Infantry (Infantería Española) included people from Latin America, more than likely from Mexico most of all, but it is not impossible that there were some from other countries of Latin America (we know that Governor Esplaña was from Peru) and perhaps even from Spain itself, though normally the only Spaniards from Spain on Guam in those days were the high officers and the missionary priests.

The Pampanga Infantry (Infantería Pampanga) included Filipinos from Pampanga, a province of the Philippines not far from Manila, having its own language distinct from Tagalog. This group of soldiers could have had some men from other parts of the Philippines as well, but the majority would have been from Pampanga.

In short time (1670s), these foreign men began marrying Chamorro women. Then they started marrying among themselves : Chamorro, Latin American and Filipino blood all mixing together. This happened mainly in Hagåtña, where the soldiers lived, while the outlying villages had but a few soldiers posted there and were populated by Chamorros who more slowly intermarried with foreigners.

In 1795, the soldiers were still classified as belonging either to the Spanish Infantry or the Pampanga Infantry, but they were all, in the main, Chamorros as we understand the term today : the descendants of the pre-contact people, mixed with foreign blood. In fact, you can find some indigenous Chamorro names in this list such as Aguon, Materne and Achuga.

NOTE : I am keeping the spelling of the names as found in the original document, with the modern spelling in parenthesis.


Achuga, Rafael
Acosta, Patricio
Aguirre, José Antonio
Aguon, Víctor
Anungui, Francisco
Arceo, Desiderio
Arceo, Félix
Arceo, Francisco
Arceo, Leopoldo
Basa, Remigio (Baza)
Basa, Victorino (Baza)
Bermejo, José
Borja, Enrique de
Calderón, Pedro
Camacho Francisco
Cárdenas, (first name illegible)
Castro, Ignacio de
Castro, Nicolás de
Cotino, Pedro
Cruz, Felipe de la
Cruz, Félix de la
Cruz, Francisco de la
Cruz, José de la
Cruz, Justo de la
Cruz, Salvador de la
Díaz, Pedro
Dimapan, Ignacio (Demapan)
Dueñas, (first name illegible)
Dueñas, Feliciano
Dueñas, José Romano
Espinosa, Ignacio
Flores, Juan Crisóstomo
Flores, Rosario
Fránquez, Florentino
Fránquez, Rufino
Garrido, José
Garrido, Manuel Tiburcio
Guerrero, Juan de Dios
Guevara, José Andrés
León, Luís de
Lima, Joaquín de
Lizama, José
Lizama, Nicolás
Manibusan, Gregorio
Manibusan, Juan
Manibusan, Martín
Materne, José
Mendiola, Paulino
Mendiola, Tomás
Mendiola, Vicente
Ojeda, Manuel de
Pablo, Juan Regis
Palomo, Antonio
Pangilinan, Gaspar (Pangelinan)
Pascual, Andrés
Pascual, Francisco
Quintanilla, Nicolás de
Ribera, Diego de (Rivera)
Rivera, Marcos de
Rodríguez, José
Rosa, Domingo de la
Rosario, Remigio del
Sánchez, Andrés
San Nicolás, Dámaso de
Santos, Antonio de los
Santos, Mariano de los
Sarmiento, Juan
Sigüenza, Ignacio
Taytano, Juan (Taitano)
Tello Ximenez, Andrés (Jiménez)
Torres, Juan Francisco Regis de
Ulloa, José de
Vega, Antonio de la
Zablan, Augustin Roque (Sablan)
Zepeda, Nicolás (Cepeda)

NOTES ABOUT SOME NAMES

Crisóstomo. In this case, this was not a last name. Crisóstomo is the Spanish form of Chrysostom, the full name of Saint John Chrysostom. That is why this man's name is "Juan Crisóstomo." What was interesting is that, in the list, his name is abbreviated using the Greek form for the first two letters : xptomo.

Tello Ximenez. Tello would be the paternal surname; Ximenez the materanl. In Spanish, X (before a vowel) would have the same sound as a J (before a vowel). Think of México. The Tello surname continued in Guam till the late 1800s into the early 1900s but then died out, being all women.

De. Many of the surnames began with "de," meaning "of," or "del" (of the, masculine) or "de la" (of the, feminine) or "de los" (of the, masculine plural). Most families dropped all of these in order to shorten their names. The de la Rosa family did not drop it.

Pangilinan. In Spanish, a G before an I or an E would sound the same. The G would sound like an H. Pan - hi - li - nan. The name is from Pampanga where there still are many Pangilinans and they spell it this way. In the Marianas, the Chamorro descendants of their Pangilinan/Pangelinan ancestor moved in time to the GE form of Pangelinan.

Augustin. The first name of the only Zablan on the list. In modern Spanish, it is spelled Agustín.

Zablan. In the Spanish spoken in Latin America, the Philippines and the Marianas, the Z sounds like an S in all cases. That is why, in the past, it was sometimes spelled Zablan or Sablan. Both sounded the same.

Basa. See above, about Zablan, that explains why at times it was spelled Basa and at other times Baza.

Zepeda. See above, about Zablan, that explains why at times it was spelled Zepeda and at other times Cepeda.

Regis. Some people might mistake this for Reyes. It is not Reyes. There was a Jesuit saint named John Francis Regis. Since the first missionaries here were Jesuit priests, John Francis Regis (Juan Francisco Regis), or a version thereof, was a name often given to boys.

Taytano. In Spanish, Y and I have the same sound, so at other times it was spelled Taitano, the form which soon became the exclusive way to spell it. This is why at times you see Ynés/Inés, Ypao/Ipao and so on.

Joseph/Josef. The original is the Latin Joseph or Josephus. Later, the Spaniards shortened it to José, dropping the PH or F. I have my suspicions that, even when it was spelled with a PH or F, it was pronounced José by the 1600s.

Dimapan. Later it became spelled Demapan. This Guam family moved to Saipan.

Ribera. In Spanish, the V and B before a vowel sound the same, closer to a B. The Victorino Basa listed above was actually spelled Bicturino but I couldn't bear to repeat that spelling in the list.

Rosario. There is a man named Rosario, which might surprise some people because we take it as a woman's name. People named Rosario are named after Our Lady of the Rosary. The word rosario actually means "rosary" so, although not often, the name is also given to men. Other names considered "female" but which are sometimes given to men are Trinidad (for the Trinity) and Nieves ("snows," in honor of Our Lady of the Snows).

Juan de Dios. Literally, "John of God," was the name of a saint.

NOTES ON SOME PERSONAGES

Augustin Roque Zablan. Sablan, or Zablan, does not appear in the Marianas records till after 1758, so this may have been one of the first Sablans in the Marianas, or the son of one of the first.

Juan Francisco Regis de Torres. Son of a Spaniard (José Miguel de Torres) and Dominga Josefa Espinosa. He married a Chamorro. A very high official in the colonial government.

Manuel Tiburcio Garrido. His name appears in many Marianas documents, having been a government clerk.

Justo de la Cruz. Justo served many years in the Spanish colonial government in a variety of offices.

Dámaso de San Nicolás. This last name does not appear in the Marianas records till after 1758 and, as shown in some baptismal records, was given by some Augustinian Recollect priests (who arrived only in 1769) to some illegitimate children. Saint Nicholas of Tolentine was a patron of these Recollect priests, so it is no surprise they wanted to name some babies after him.

SURNAMES THAT DISAPPEARED

At least among the Chamorro population. There may be families living on Guam now with these last names, due to more recent migration.

Aguirre
Achuga
Anungui
Bermejo
Calderón
Cárdenas
Cotino
Jiménez
Lima, de
Pascual
Tello
Vega, de la

CAMP DEALEY

In World War II, no ship sailing the ocean was safe from the attack of a submarine.

Submarines were a huge military asset. The 60 or so submarine crew members could often do more harm and at less cost on the enemy than 1000 men on a battleship. The US had around 288 submarines in the water by the end of the war. Their main mission was to cripple the Japanese war machine. By sinking Japanese ships, supplies and soldiers could not easily get in or out of port.

The USS Kingfish was one such submarine that hung out on Guam during WW2

THE FOUR R'S

Wherever advantageous, the Navy identified certain place in the Pacific where the submarines and their crews could receive the four R's : repair, refit, refuel and rest.

Before Saipan and Guam were in U.S. hands, the U.S. Navy had to use bases in Australia. But by August of 1944, those two islands in the Marianas were now assets of the U.S. From these two islands, American submarines could patrol the waters near Japan in half the time it took to do so from Australia.

In October or November of 1944, the Navy approved the building of a submarine rest camp on Guam. The site chosen was just north of Talofofo, in Ipan by a beach. There, the submarine crew members could rest, relax and recreate in peace and quiet. The camp was built by the crew members of the AS 12 Sperry and christened Camp Dealey.

THE BEACH AT CAMP DEALEY

WHO WAS DEALEY?

Commander Samuel David Dealey was something of a war hero. He was, at least, a submarine war hero. He won fame for sinking so many Japanese destroyers and was known as the "destroyer killer." Unfortunately, he missed one Japanese vessel and didn't notice it was trailing him. The Japanese fired and he and his entire crew of 78 men perished. It was August of 1944.

JAPANESE HOLDOUTS

Camp Dealey was not a perfect paradise. Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender hid in the thickly-wooded areas around Ipan and further inland. Desperate for food, the Japanese would sometimes raid the food pantry at Camp Dealey under the cover of darkness. Once in a while an American would discover the Japanese scavengers and start shooting. A submariner resting at Camp Dealey had as much of a chance of getting killed by one of these trigger happy fellow Americans as by a Japanese armed with a bamboo spear.

LIFE AT CAMP DEALEY

The facilities at the Camp were adequate but not luxurious. There were Quonset huts, tents and small shacks. While at the Camp, you did whatever you wanted. Sleep, write letters, swim, play a game, read. It was a way the submariners kept from losing their sanity, since they spent months underwater many times. Twenty-two cases of beer were dropped off every day at Camp Dealey.

When American Prisoners of War were liberated in various places in Asia, some of them were sent to Camp Dealey on Guam first before heading to the U.S. mainland. Some of the former POWs felt that they needed to gain weight and get back to their former health before they met their families in the States.

When World War II was done, there was no need for the camp and it closed.

Playing tennis at Camp Dealey

CAMP DEALEY TODAY

Today, the Camp Dealey area is back in private hands, mostly Chamorro families, some of them renting out homes in the neighborhood.

Many of the beaches are inaccessible unless the owners let you in.

Almost everything is gone from the old camp, but you can still find a lot of concrete flooring which tells you that a Quonset hut or some other building sat on that spot. Some of the families living there now use these old floors as parking lots or basketball courts now.

Old Guard Post

We pass this many times when we travel south to Talofofo, but many people do not give it a thought, that these posts are relics from Camp Dealey, where the camp guard regulated the traffic in and out of the camp.

CHAMORRO EXPRESSIONS

Ti daddao yo'.

I don't have sharp teeth.

The other day at a party, where seating is informal, a lady wanted to sit at our table with me and another lady.

She asked, "Kao siña yo' matå'chong yan hamyo?" "May I sit with you all?"

The lady who was with me replied, "Hunggan. Ti man daddao ham!"

Daddao can mean two things, but they are connected. In fact, I think one comes from the other.

The oldest reference I can find in a dictionary (1918) says that daddao means "sharp, cutting, pointed."

It's obvious how this was then applied to the sharp teeth of a menacing dog or some other threatening animal. This is how other dictionaries then define daddao. "Vicious, cruel, savage."

So, "Ti daddao yo'" is a Chamorro way of saying the English equivalent "I don't bite," as is often said by people inviting others to come closer.

AS PALOMO

Just south of Garapan, and behind Guålo' Rai, as the terrain gently slopes upward towards the Mount Takpochao high ground, is a small area of Saipan called As Palomo.

The prefix "As" can be used as a name or place marker, roughly meaning, at times, "at."  "At my dad's" can be translated "as tatå-ho," for example.

So the place name "As Palomo" more or less means "at Palomo's" or "at Palomo's place." The area, thus, was named after someone with the last name Palomo. But which Palomo?

If we research the Saipan church records, there was no Palomo family that permanently settled the island. There is no Palomo family in Saipan today; at least not among the Chamorros.

But Padre José Palomo y Torres, the first Chamorro priest, did live in Saipan for many years. As a diocesan (or secular) priest, who do not take a vow of poverty, he was able to personally own land and he did, in fact, own land in Saipan as well as other places. When Guam and the Northern Marianas became politically separated, Palomo's land was confiscated by the German government because Palomo was living on Guam and could not develop his Saipan land. The Germans were much against idle land ownership and took it over.

Is it possible that the place is called As Palomo because Padre Palomo owned land there at one time? The best way to get to the bottom of this question is to look at old Saipan land records from the Spanish period, if they still exist, and see if Padre Palomo indeed owned land in the area known as As Palomo.

Don José Bernardo Palomo y Torres

KÅNTA : TRINISTEN PUENGE

A song of one man's yearning for the woman he loves, sung by the one and only Mike Laguaña, one of the great Chamorro singers.

Ai frineskon månglo' i gumuaife i tataotao-ho.

(What a cool wind blows upon my body)

Ai minaipen somnak i umina i kamå-ho.

(What a hot sun shines on my bed.)

Ai trinisten pulan i umina i kamå-ho.

(What a sad moon shines on my bed.)

Ya ai na trinisten puenge gi annai tåya' ga'chochong-ho.

(And what a sad night it is when I have no companion.)

Sa' ai na trinisten puenge gi annai tåya' ga'chochong-ho.

(Because what a sad night it is when I have no companion.)

Sa' man hula yo' palao'an na hågo ha' guinaiya-ko.

(Because I promise you, woman, that you alone are my love.)

Ya ti un lie yo' palao'an man aligao nai otro.

(And you will never see me, woman, look for another.)

Sa' ai na trinisten puenge gi annai tåya' ga'chochong-ho.

(Because what a sad night it is when I have no companion.)

Sesso tengnga an puenge matå'chong yo' man hahasso.

(Very often at night I sit thinking.)

Ti ha estotba yo' pot i taigue hao,

(You being absent doesn't disturb me,)

ha estotbå-ña yo' nai che'lo:

(it disturbs me more, sister.)

Ti ha estotba yo' pot i taigue hao,

(You being absent doesn't disturb me,)

ha estotbå-ña 'u konsiensiå-ko.

(my conscience disturbs me more.)

Sa' ai na trinisten puenge gi annai tåya' ga'chochong-ho.

(Because what a sad night it is when I have no companion.)

FALSE FRIEND TWINS

A "false friend" is a word that looks the same, or similar, in two different languages but means two different things in those two languages.

For example, in Spanish embarazada looks like it means "embarrassed" but in reality it means "pregnant." A false friend indeed, because if you asked a blushing woman in Spain if she is embarazada , you could insult her. You think the word "embarrassed" is your friend, helping you communicate with a Spaniard, when in truth it is betraying you and getting you into trouble. A false friend.

Today we consider two words that are false friends. Almost twins.

Asiste and atiende do not mean what they look like.

Both are words borrowed from the Spanish, so their original meanings come from the Spanish way of defining them.

ASISTE means "to be physically present." In other words, "to attend" in the same sense as saying, "I will attend the program."

Bai hu fan asiste gi progråma. I will attend the program.

Ha tungo' na a las ocho i lisåyo, lao ti man asiste. S/he knew the rosary was at 8 o'clock, but s/he didn't attend.

ATIENDE looks like it should mean "attend" as in to be physically present.

But the original Spanish and Chamorro meaning of atiende is "to attend to" as in "to look after, deal with, help, listen to."

Atiende i che'cho'-mo! Pay attention to your work!

Ti u lache bidå-ña i patgon komo ha atiende i dos saina-ña. The child wouldn't have made a mistake if s/he had only listened to his/her parents.

THE CARTOON ABOVE

This explains the cartoon above.

The doctor is telling the new nurse, "Because you are a new nurse, don't help but come and attend."

The doctor doesn't want a new and inexperienced nurse to be involved in the surgery or procedure, but he wants her to attend and learn from watching the others.

LANGUAGES ALWAYS CHANGE

But languages are always changing and evolving.

Today, and for many years now, the words asiste and atiende have indeed acquired additional meanings.

People (nowadays) do say asiste and mean "assisting, helping."

And people (nowadays) do say atiende and mean "to be physically present."

Kao siña hu asiste hao gi gualo'? May I help you in the farm?

Bai atiende i entiero agupa'. I will attend the funeral tomorrow.

Even in Spanish, asistir can mean the original "to be physically present" but also now "to help."

But, in Spanish, atender still means "to look after, pay attention to" but never "to be physically present."

THE RESULT

Because of these additions to the original meaning, Chamorro speakers and learners have to be careful when using asiste and atiende.

You could be using those words in one way, and the other person is understanding them in another way.

That's why the nurse in the cartoon is befuddled.

The doctor meant, "Don't help, but attend."

She understood, "Don't help, but assist."

Knowledge is power. Know these details and you'll be OK.

But if you use asiste and mean "be physically present," and if you use atiende and mean "to look after, to pay attention to, to heed," then I will know that you know the older meanings our great grandparents understood.