ESTORIAN UN SONGSONG

There was a village where the first homes you saw upon arrival, all in a row on the same street, were the following families in order of geographical precedence :

The Påkpåk (explode) family; the Palakse (slippery) family; the Bådo (hunchback) family; the Dåkngas (bald) family; the Sabåna (mountain) family; the Båchet (blind) family and finally the Måddok (hole) family.  These were their better-known-as names.

So people used to tell others traveling to this village :

Gigon humålom hao gi ayo na songsong, gof adahe sa' siempre un hungok i papåkpåk.  Yanggen esta monhåyan hao guennao, gof adahe na un sulon sa' siempre un sodda' i palakse.  Pues an kahulo' hao, adahe na un fina'ñago nu i bado.  Pues, yanggen esta sige hao, adahe na un totpe i dakngas.  Pues siempre an sige hao mo'na, un hotde i sabåna.  Yanggen tumunok hao ginen i sabåna, adahe na un totpe i batchet.  Pues an sige hao mo'na, adahe na un poddong gi maddok!

As soon as you enter that village, be very careful because you will surely hear something explode.  When you're done there, be very careful not to slip because you will surely find something slippery.  When you get up, be careful not to be frightened by the hunchback.  Then, when you keep going, be careful not to bump into the bald person.  Then surely as you keep going forward, you will climb the mountain.  When you come down from the mountain, be careful not to bump into the blind person.  Then when you keep going forward, be careful not to fall into the hole!

TODAY'S CHAMORRO WORD : BULA

flickr.com

BULA NA'-TA SPAM!

BULA : plenty, abundant, many, full

Bula salape'-mo.  You have a lot of money.

Bula na lepblo ha fåhan.  She bought a lot of books.

Bulala.  Replete.

Bula somnak.  Much sunshine.

Bulan tåse.  High tide.

Na' bula.  To fill.

Binila.  Fullness.

Bula seems to have originally meant full, while meggai referred to many.   For example, bumula means "to become filled up."  Or, the Hail Mary in Chamorro, "Si Yu'us un gineggue Maria, bula hao grasia..." "full of grace."

An anecdote

I once traveled with a fellow priest to visit the seminary in Fiji.  All over Fiji, this priest saw the word BULA written on signs at every turn.  In Fijian, bula means " hello."  But, in the Fijian alphabet, "b" has the sound of "mb."  In Fijian, bula would be pronounced EM-BU-LA.  But this priest kept going around Fiji saying "Bula!  Bula!"  He thought it was funny that he was greeting everyone in Fiji with the same word he knew in Chamorro meant "A lot!  A lot!"

It was only on the day we left Fiji that he began to realize that the Fijians weren't saying "bula" but "em-bu-la."  Ai adei.

THANKS, BUT...

apriliani.com

Ilek-ña si Fulåna gi as Påle' : Påle' estague' na'-mo sena, lao på'go na biåhe hu nå'ye carrots pot para u guaha diddide' kolot.

Ai i palao'an sa' ti ha tungo' na ti siña si Påle' manli'e kolot! (color blind)

FINO' I MAN ÅMKO'

Yanggen maolek hao, maolek-ña yo';

yanggen tailaye hao, tailaye-ña yo'.

(If you are good, I am better;

if you are bad, I am worse.)

The saying is meant both as a comfort and a warning.

It basically means : If you are good to me, I will outdo you in returning the favor.  But if you cross me, you won't know what hit you.

Suffice it to say, I have seen this philosophy lived out concretely before my very eyes.

TODAY IN HISTORY

TYPHOON KAREN DEVASTATES GUAM

November 11, 1962

95% of the island's homes damaged or destroyed

vw1assoc.tripod.com

Karen's Path of Destruction

The worst typhoon to hit Guam, up till that time, since after World War II was Typhoon Karen.  It hit Guam around 9pm on Sunday, November 11, 1962, striking the southeastern coast first.  Thankfully, the speed of the typhoon actually picked up to about 18mph so its unusually fierce winds (sustained 150mph-175mph; gusts up to 200mph) would not do even more harm.  The eye (there were actually two eyes) passed around 9:45pm.  People knew, even in the darkness, that it was a bad typhoon, as they saw their very roofs rip off, walls come crashing in, water pour into rooms.  Only till the light of the new day were people able to see the horrific disaster.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114246741950282683574/TyphoonKarenNov196202#

Due to its location, just north of the path of the storm, Yoña was the hardest hit of the villages; about 97% of its homes and buildings destroyed.  The roof at Saint Francis Church went flying, as can be seen above, damaging the interior, including the paintings of the Life of Saint Francis series that lined both sides of the nave, painted by Capuchin Father Marcian.

For more on the typhoon, check out http://www.drallea.com/1962Typhoon%20Karen/

Black and White video clip of the aftermath of Typhoon Karen

Guam Changed Forever

Because of the immense devastation wrought by Typhoon Karen, the local government created a brand-new agency, the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority (GHURA).  With federal funds, Urban Renewal was brought to two villages which opted for it : Yoña and Sinajaña.  This began the trend, "cemented" by further typhoons, of turning the whole island into a concrete jungle.

Before Typhoon Karen...

http://dangerboyandpixie.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/inarajan/

Typical house, on stilts, to cool things down

After Typhoon Karen...

Typical house, a concrete fortress, or oven if there's no AC

 

A personal note

 

I was just about 8 months old when Typhoon Karen struck.  We lived in a two-storey residence in Sinajaña, the ground floor being made of concrete, where we lived, with two separate apartments on the second floor, made of wooden walls and a tin roof, which were rented out.  Parts of the roof flew and the whole building was drenched.  According to my mother, at some point, when the winds were really bad, she hid me in the fridge.  I've had a weight problem ever since.

 

flickr.com

 

FAMILY NICKNAMES : ARAGON

finanzzas.com

A branch of the CAMACHO family goes by the nickname Aragon.

Aragón is the name of a region in Spain, made up of the provinces of Zaragoza, Teruel and Huesca.

Why should this one branch of the Camacho clan be called after this region?  It's anybody's guess, unless someone in the family knows the answer, and learned it from a credible mañaina.  Perhaps there was a connection with a Spaniard from Aragón; a friend or perhaps even a biological father outside of wedlock.  Did someone in the family work for a Spaniard from Aragón?  Was it part of the name of a song he or she sang a lot?  The name of a ship he or she sailed on?  A good number of the Spanish priests who were missionaries on Guam in the 1800s came from Aragón.  The possibilities are many.

panisnostrum.blogspot.com

A better idea where Aragón is in relation to the whole of Spain.

Una rama de los Camacho en las Marianas es más conocida como la familia Aragón.  En verdad, los chamorros dicen áragon, con el acento en la primera sílaba.  En las Marianas, hay que distinguir a cual familia Cruz o familia Torres se refiere, porque muchas familias tienen los mismos apellidos.  Por eso, la mayoría de las familias chamorras tiene sobriquet o apodo.  ¿Por qué tiene esta rama el apodo Áragon?  No se sabe.  Quizás tiene esta rama progenitor aragonés, aunque sea fuera del matrimonio.  O trabajaba alguien en la familia para un aragonés, o cantaba una canción aragonesa.  Sabe Dios.

AIRPORT CHAMORRO

AUTHORIZED.  We have a challenge with borrowed words beginning with "au."  Automóvil, for example, the Spanish word for "automobile," becomes tomobit in Chamorro, dropping the "au" altogether.

Spanish aumentar ("to increase" or "augment") becomes umenta (although some older Chamorros kept the Spanish pronunciation and said aumenta).  Older Chamorro dictionaries like Father Aniceto's (1865) and von Preissig's (1918) keep the "au" diphthong.

So "authorized" can be aturisa, as seen above, or auturisa, autorisa...depending on how you prefer to pronounce it, either closer or farther from the original Spanish pronunciation.

You don't like auturisa, no matter how it's spelled?  How about ma konsede?  Konsede means "to grant, agree," as in "to grant a request."  From the Spanish conceder.  Like the English "concede."

If we we're thinking in the plural, that only authorized persons could go through this door, we might want to add the plural marker "man."  Man ma aturisa.

HA'.  Only.  Here the glota ( ' ) is properly placed.  Ha and ha' are two different words.

NO.  Clearly a mistake.  NA is meant.

PERSONNEL.  We've borrowed once again from the Spanish personal, which can mean "personnel" in terms of "staff."  It can also mean "personal," in Spanish and Chamorro.

A Spanish-speaking person could walk by this sign and know that it was talking about "authorized personnel."  But s/he wouldn't understand the rest.

Este letrero es ejemplo de la dependencia fuerte del idioma chamorro al castellano para expresar ciertos conceptos, tal como "autorizar" y "personal."

CHAMORRO EXPRESSIONS : FULÅNO

laneuronalight.blogspot.com

FULÅNO : What's-his-face; so-and-so

When you don't know the name of a person, or you know it but don't want to mention his name, you say fulåno.  Like we say in English, "What's-his-face finally arrived."  "Måtto pot fin si fulåno."

We got the word from the Spaniards, who also use mengano and zutano for the same thing.  So, in Spanish, if you wanna say, "Tom, Dick and Harry" you say "fulano, mengano y zutano."

Håye gai iyo este?  Whose is this?
Iyon fulåno.  Somebody's.

If you are referring to a woman, it's fulåna.

DANGEROUS PLACES

TRONGKON NUNU

Stay away!

The banyan tree, or trongkon nunu, is popularly believed to be inhabited by taotaomo'na, or ancestral spirits.  They do not like to be disturbed, so it goes.  I once saw a construction team bulldoze everything on a field to make way for new buildings - everything but one trongkon nunu.  Workers claimed the bulldozer's engine would simply die as soon as it neared the tree. 

The tree produces figs, but people don't eat them.  Birds and fanihi (fruit bat) do.  They must have special dispensation from the taotaomo'na.

Filipinos and Chamorros share a common fear of the trongkon nunu.  Many Filipinos avoid the tree and teach their children not to even point at a fully mature trongkon nunu, or balete in their language.

But Buddhists believe that the Buddha achieved enlightenment while sitting under a banyan tree.  It's also the national tree of India, and a banyan tree figures in the national coat-of-arms of Indonesia.  I am in Hawaii at the moment, and Hawaiians (they tell me) have no belief in spirits living in their banyan trees.  Different housing arrangements I guess.

FINO' GUAM, FINO' SAIPAN

GUAM : PÅPPET ETGUE
(paper used to cleanse oneself)

SAIPAN : CHIRIGAME
(Japanese)

Of course, one could always use another word often heard in both places...

PAPER TOILET

YOU KNOW YOU'RE CHAMORRO WHEN...

costumeshopper.com

You're a 50-year-old man but people older than you still call you BOY.

Nåna (80 years old) : Boy, hånao fan ya un famåhan låtan kåtne. (Boy, go buy canned meat).

Boy (60 years old) : Esta, nang!  (OK, mama!)

HINENGGEN I MAN ÅMKO' : FANMATÅYAN I ESPITÅT

flickriver.com

"The Hospital is a Place of Death"

Susana Hospital, Hagåtna, Early 1900s

Many old-time Chamorros had a fear of the hospital.  First of all, they weren't used to hospitals.  The first real hospitals didn't start on Guam until the American period.  Before that, the Spanish government maintained homes for people with Hansen's Disease (leprosy) or conditions thought to be leprosy, but no hospitals for general medical care.  Under the Spaniards, there was often one military doctor or medical officer.  At times there was also a practitioner of sorts; for example, someone who had previously served as a kind of doctor on a whaling ship then settled on Guam.  Still others were just in charge of giving people vaccinations.  Delivering babies was the work of midwives or pattera, and this was done in the home.  Many people were also used to going to the suruhåno and suruhåna (herbal doctors).

When the first hospital went up in Hagåtña, Chamorros did not avoid it entirely.  Many gladly went to it for medical attention. 

But some didn't.  They reasoned that they saw many people go in, but not all of them come back out, except in a wooden box.

They said, "Fanmatåyan i espitåt."  The hospital is where you go to die.

FAN+MATAI+AN = fanmatåyan.

Of course, many people did go to the hospital, only to die, because they waited till it was too late to profit from medical attention.

To this day, there are those who refuse to see doctors, much less go to the hospital.  And there are still others who would rather see the suruhåno and suruhåna, than see someone with an MD after their name.  One lady who lived past 100 told people the secret of her long life : avoid doctors.  She only drank Chamorro herbal medicine.

I see doctors all the time.  But I have also benefited from åmot Chamorro (herbal medicine).  I like using both approaches.  But then, again, I am mestiso.

FAMILIA : MENO

This is an Inalåhan name.

It is also an indigenous name, but its meaning is uncertain.  Påle' Román's dictionary has one definition for "meno" and he says it means "basura" or "trash." But since Påle' Román did not use the glota, it is unclear if this word is the same as the last name Meno, which has the glota sound, though it is not written with a glota.  Or, perhaps, Påle' Román's word is me'no, or menno', neither of which are Meno (with its final glota sound). So although there was a Chamorro word for "trash" which Påle' Román spelled "meno," we can't be totally sure how the word sounded and if it is the same as the last name Meno.

There are Menos listed in Spanish records as far back as 1835; one Pedro Meno is the teniente (vice mayor) of Inalåhan that year.  The village only had around 260 inhabitants at the time.

One of the village teachers (usually there was just one for the whole village) was Jose Meno, listed in the roll of school teachers in 1869.  The U.S. was still feeling the effects of the Civil War then!

By the 1897 Census, these were the branches of the Meno clan :

INALÅHAN

JOAQUIN NAPUTI MENO
married to Alejandra Santos Crisostomo

FELIPE NAPUTI MENO
married to Soledad Aguon Paulino

VICENTE CHARGUALAF MENO
married to Candelaria Mendiola Delgado

JOSE MENO
married to Genoveva Delgado Naputi

MALESSO'

JOSE ALELAJE MENO

married to Francisca Nasayof Chargualaf

Jose was born in Inalåhan and moved to Malesso'.  His wife Francisca was from Malesso'.  Jose's middle name (his mother's maiden name) is possibly, in Chamorro, Håle' (root) Låhe (son, male).  In those days, spelling was not uniform and I have seen this named spelled Jalelage in Spanish records, which the Spaniards would have pronounced ha-le-la-he.

HAGÅTÑA

FELIX BLAS MENO
married to Amparo Benavente

There are a few other Menos scattered here and there in the 1897 Census but they are either women or bachelors who wouldn't be considered the founders of surviving branches of today's Meno clan.

TODAY'S CHAMORRO WORD : TUNOK

descendandmaintain.blogspot.com

Tumutunok i batkonaire.

TUNOK : to descend, to come down

Tunok påpa'!  Come down!

Kao para en fanunok hamyo?  Are you getting down?  (Plural; three or more people)

Na' tunok.  To take down.

Na' tunok, fan, i litråto.  Please take down the picture.

Ti siña ma na' tunok.  It cannot be taken down.

Tunokgue.  To come down upon.

From a Chamorro hymn to the Holy Ghost :

Tunokgue ham / Espiritun guinaiya

(Come down upon us / Spirit of love)

yan songge ham / nu i guinaiya-mo.

(and enflame us / with your love.)

TODAY IN HISTORY

Map of the Marianas based on information obtained by the

Jesuit Missionaries in the Marianas

THE JESUITS ARE EXPELLED FROM THE MARIANAS

On November 2, 1769, a small schooner, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe arrived on Guam, bringing Spanish authorities sent to round up the small group of Jesuit priests and one brother in the Marianas and remove them.  Their crime?  Being Jesuits.  The Marianas were given over to another missionary group - the Augustinian Recollects.

What did the Jesuits do to merit this expulsion, when it was the Jesuits who founded the mission in the first place, shedding much blood to do so?

The Society of Jesus, its formal name, was by the 1760s, a very large and powerful organization.  It had much prestige and influence, running schools for the elite in Europe, as well as for ordinary students.  It was responsible for many missions all over the world.  Jesuit chaplains and spiritual directors walked the halls of palaces and government offices, with the ear of important political people.  All this would be naturally resented by some, who also turned the wheels of European politics.  None of this had anything to do with the work of the majority of ordinary Jesuits teaching classes and working in far-flung missions.  But they were all made to pay the political price.  One by one, Catholic kings banished the Jesuits from their realms, including their colonies.

Communications with the isolated Marianas were so slow that the royal order from Spain did not reach Guam till two years' time.  The Jesuits were to be put in custody and removed from the Marianas within 24 hours, taking with them only their personal effects and prayer books.

The Jesuit superior of Guam, Father Franz Stengel, was in Rota when the schooner came.  So a canoe was dispatched there to fetch him and bring him to Guam immediately.  A Jesuit on the list had died after the list was composed, and a certification of death had to be written to explain why the dead man was not brought to Manila with the others.

JESUITS IN THE MARIANAS IN 1768

The weren't all Spanish priests!

The Jesuits in the Marianas were down to four men in 1768, a year before they were expelled; three priests and one brother.

Fr. Franz Stengel was Superior (Vice Provincial) and pastor of Hagatña.

Fr. Franz Reitenberger was Rector of the College (San Juan de Letrán).

Fr. Rafael Canicia was in charge of the south - Humatak, Malesso' and Inalahan.

Br. Placido Lampurdanes ran the pharmacy in Hagatña and was a medical practitioner of sorts.

Who was in charge of Rota, the only other inhabited island?  Since none is mentioned, we would assume one of the three priests went up to Rota periodically, as we can see when Stengel was in Rota when the schooner came to Guam to deport him.

Reitenberger had just died that very year of 1769.

Notice the German names of Stengel and Reitenberger. They were from Bohemia, then part of the Habsburg Empire which also ruled Spain.  Father Canicia was a Spaniard (Valencian) and so was Brother Lampurdanes (Aragón).

Thus ended a 100 year history of the Jesuits as the missionaries of the Marianas which had begun in 1668 with Sanvitores.  They put into Recollect hands two islands, Guam and Rota, their churches, one school (Colegio de San Juan de Letrán) and the several ranches the school ran and a pharmacy.

A Jesuit in typical and distinctive Jesuit garb of the 1600s

Claudio Aquaviva, Jesuit General