FAMILIA : UNGACTA

 

Ungacta is an indigenous Chamorro name.

It is derived from the Chamorro word ungak, which means "to knock off balance, to tilt, to bend to one side."

A Chamorro hymn about the Holy Cross says, "Ungak på'pa' i ramås-mo."  "Bend down your branches," referring to one side of the beam of the cross, so that the singer can kiss Jesus hanging there.

ONE FAMILY

From all appearances, anyone named Ungacta today is a descendant of Don Miguel Cruz Ungacta of Hagåtña.  The fact that he is named "Don" in the 1897 Guam Census shows that he had held some civic position (former neighborhood leader or justice of the peace, for example).  "Don" is equivalent to "Sir."

He may have had a sister Maria, married to Pedro Baza.

Miguel was married to Maria de Leon Guerrero Perez, the daughter of Cesareo Aguon Perez and Nieves de Leon Guerrero.

The family is still very much associated with the capital city, with an Ungacta holding the position of mayor for many years.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE CHAMORRO WHEN....

Watch Frankie's own video, and you'll understand how we often sprinkle the word "own" in our own conversations.

ÅNTES YAN PÅ'GO

Plaza de España, Hagåtña

Before 1930

I can tell this was taken before 1930 because the Saint Vincent de Paul Hall isn't built yet.  That Hall, with two floors, was built adjacent the Cathedral on the west side and would have been visible from this vantage point.  The little building that is seen next to the Cathedral in this photo was taken down to make room for that Hall.  My guess would be this photo was taken in the mid to late 1920s.

The Kiosko (built by the Americans, not the Spaniards) is on the left.  Some kind of group formation, more than likely from the schools rather than militia, is taking place.

Plaza de España, Hagåtña

Now

The original Kiosko is still there, and much of the concrete foot path and the arches.  The new Cathedral is bigger and doesn't go as far back on the property as the pre-war one.  Instead of the konbento directly behind the Cathedral, today we have the Academy Gym in that spot.

DID YOU KNOW....?

That the Plaza de España wasn't always called the Plaza de España?

At one time it was called the Plaza de Magallanes.  What?  Magallanes is the Spanish form of the name Magellan.  Chamorros pronounced it Ma - ga - yå - nes, with a Y as in Yigo.

TODAY'S CHAMORRO WORD : LÅ'LA'

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LÅ' LA' : to live

Låla'la'.  Living.  It is alive.

Ti låla'la'.  It's not living.  It's not alive.

Lina'la'.  Life.

Gi todo i lina'lå'-ho.  In all my life.

Para todo i lina'lå'-ho.  For all my life.

Dångkulo bali-ña i lina'lå'-mo.  Your life has great worth.

Na' lå'la.  To make live.  To animate.

Si Jesus lumå'la' ta'lo.  Jesus came alive again.

Ha ofrerese hit si Yu'us nu i taihinekkok na lina'la'.  God offers us everlasting life.

THE BIRTHDAY SONG IN CHAMORRO

How lucky am I to have the talented Ruby Aquiningoc Santos sing and play this for me?  And Lawrence makes a good birthday boy, even though his birthday is months past.

The Chamorro version of the Happy Birfday Song is quite simple, consisting of just one line of two words : Biba Kumpleåños.

Kumpleåños is borrowed from the Spanish word, and broken down it means "completing" (cumple) "years" (años).

Biba is also borrowed from the Spanish (Viva!) and it literally means "may you, he, she or it live," as in "live long!"  But Chamorros use Biba! as a celebratory exclamation of joy or glee.

Spaniards never say Biba Kumpleåños.  Instead, they say "Feliz cumpleaños."  Call it "Spanish the Chamorro way" to say Biba Kumpleåños.

BE CAREFUL....

Kumpleåños, as we mentioned, really means "completing years."  "Anniversary" is a good synonym for it.  So, kumpleåños does not refer just to the anniversary of one's birth.  You can observe the kumpleåños of someone's death (Kumpleåños Finatai) or one's wedding (Kumpleåños Umakamo' or Kumpleåños Kasamiento or Kumpleåños Umassagua).

HINENGGEN I MAN ÅMKO'

playaweather.com

A pregnant woman shouldn't look at the moon during the first quarter...

...or else the baby will be born with a cleft palate.

MOUNT JAMALAMLAM

What a surprise many years ago when we were all told we had been climbing the wrong mountain.

For years people said we were taking the cross up Mount Lamlam on Good Friday, only to find out it wasn't Mount Lamlam.  It was called....Mount Jama....Jama....never mind.

The name is Humuyong Månglo'.  Here's how the Chamorro language authorities spell it :

guampdn.com

Huyong means "to exit, to come out of."  But that can also mean "to result in, to become," as "You came out alive!"  So Mount Humuyong Månglo' could mean "where the wind exits" or "what became wind."

So why does the PDN spell it...JUMULLONG MANGLO?

guampdn.com

Well...back in the good ole Spanish days, many places in the Marianas were spelled the way a Spaniard would spell it.  You know....Sinajaña, Inarajan, Merizo.  The J in Spanish sounds like an H, like Jose and Juan.  The double L sounds exactly like a Y, which in Chamorro sounds like an English J.  As in Yoña or Yigo.

That's why we have that double L thing going on in AcfaLLe and TajaLLe.  Those are Chamorro names, but for the Spaniards LL and Y sound the same.  And for Chamorros, LL and Y sound the same : like an English J, or better, like a DZ.

SO WHERE IS LAMLAM?

As you can see on the map, Lamlam is due north of --- there we go again --- Jumullong Manglo.

Due to the confusion - which mountain we're climbing on Good Friday - some young guy from Agat that I know calls it Mount Jamalamlam - a mix of Lamlam and how a young generation Chamorro thinks Jumullong is pronounced - the American way.

CHAMORRO TONGUE TWISTER : DRY SEASON

It rained a fair amount tonight, but from the looks of the humble Hagåtña River today, it certainly is the dry season.  The river water is quite low, exposing those dry banks.

"Dry season" in Chamorro is fañomnagan.  I have to slow down every time I'm about to say it.  A bit tricky for the lingually challenged.

FA + ÑOM + NA + GAN

It comes from FAN + SOMNAK + AN.  Somnak means "sunlight."  To the Chamorro mind, "dry season" is really "time of sunlight," meaning "abundant sunlight, little or no rain," which kind of dries things out, no?

BEST BEACH IN MARIANAS?

TÅGA' BEACH

Tinian

What's not to like?

Sand --- not sharp rocks and coral.

Warm, clean water that gradually deepens so you can actually swim, dive or float, and not just get your legs wet.

The beach is situated at an idyllic cove, free of pollution.  And the best thing - this is Tinian!  Which means - you can spend hours here and be the only person.  Your own personal beach.

Like these two Tinian boys roughing it up in that clean, clean water.

FELIS PÅSGUAN RESUREKSION!

Lumå'la' ta'lo si Jesus!

Måtai i Finatai!

Gigon manana gi tetset dia, kumalamten un dångkulon laolao tåno', ya guihe mismo na momento humuyong si Jesus gi naftan yan bula i oriyå-ña nu i mina'gas långet.  Tumunok un ånghet gine i langet guihe mismo na tiempo.  I matå-ña mañiñila' kalan i lamlam, ya i bestidu-ña siha man å'paka kalan i niebe.  Ya ha na' susuha i acho nu i tumåmpe i naftan, ya matå'chong gi hilo'-ña.  I sendålo siha nu i man eståba man mamumulan ni naftan, man laolao ya man matomba kalan man måtai.  Ya annai mana'lo manhomlo', mangahulo' ya man malågo sen chaddek para i siudå.

Niebe = "snow," from the Spanish nieve

Gine = older form of ginen, "from"

Siudå = "city," from the Spanish ciudad

TODAY IN HISTORY

GERMAN SHIP BLOWS UP IN APRA HARBOR

April 7, 1917

en.wikipedia.com

SMS CORMORAN

Originally a Russian ship, the Germans captured it in 1914 and re-fitted it at their colony in Tsingtao, China, naming it after a prior ship of the same name.  There is a historical first associated with the Cormoran from the outset; it was the first naval prize won by Germany from the Russians in the First World War.

While sailing in the north Pacific, the Cormoran was pursued by Japanese warships.  Japan, at the time, was at war with Germany in the First World War.  Since the U.S. was, at the time, neutral and not at war, the Cormoran pulled into Apra Harbor to escape the Japanese, as the ship was running out of coal.

Governor Maxwell supplied the ship a small amount of coal and ordered the Cormoran to leave, but the Germans refused.  So the Cormoran was detained, and for two years, the German sailors lived on Guam, often very happily!  The Catholics on board even formed a choir to sing at the Hagåtña Cathedral for Christmas.

German sailors of the Cormoran with a Chamorro boy

On April 7, 1917, however, everything changed.  The United States finally decided to enter the fight and declared war on Germany on April 6 (April 7 for Guam).  The Cormoran was now considered an enemy ship, subject to seizure by the U.S.  Rather than let his ship fall into American hands, the Captain of the Cormoran blew it up himself.  Before this happened, however, the Americans fired a shot over the ship - another first!  The first shot between Americans and Germans in the First World War.

Nine German sailors died as a result of their own scuttling, and are buried at the Naval Cemetery in Hagåtña. 

The Cormoran lies under water in Apra Harbor to this day, with a Second World War Japanese casualty, the Tokai Maru, resting on top of it - another rarity!  Two enemy ships, sunk in two separate World Wars, lying in the same watery grave.

A depiction of the Tokai Maru lying atop the Cormoran in Apra Harbor

Memorial to the fallen German sailors of the Cormoran
at the U.S. Naval Cemetery, Hagåtña

The memorial is written in German and says

"The dead of the SMS Cormoran
7 April 1917"

SÅBALON LORIA

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Today is the day, in the past, that weeping and wailing and the crack of the kuåtta (cowtail whip) were heard all over Guam.

All during Kuaresma (Lent), certain rules were supposed to be followed.  One was silence.  But if you punished the child for breaking silence, that would make him or her cry, and that in itself would break the silence.

So parents and grandparents waited till today - Såbalon Loria - Holy Saturday - to dish out the spanking and whipping that was carefully calculated based on all the Lenten infractions mentally stored in the memories of the mañaina.

It was called Loria because, in those days, Mass was said in the morning on this day, and the Gloria (Loria) was sung once more since the time it was forbidden in Lent.  In those days, Lent ended with this Saturday morning Mass and the penalized kids could cry all they want.

Some Chamorros could not easily pronounce Gloria, so they said Loria.  But other people could and did say Gloria.  That's why you'll hear it said both ways.

Martha and Elena recall experiences of Såbalon Loria.  It was so associated with spanking, that Loria became a word on its own, meaning "to be punished on Såbalon Loria."  Ma loria hao!  You were loria'ed!

Another custom, for some people, which is really a folk belief, is for the kids to jump up and down on Såbalon Loria so they can grow taller.

Martha says her grandma would have the windows opened to allow the graces of the day to come in.  Why not?

She also says she would go out and shake trees so they would produce more fruit that year.  I wonder if shaking wallets might produce a similar effect.

It's interesting that Såbalon Loria was both a fearful day (for those being punished) and an auspicious day of grace and blessing, since Easter, the resurrection of Christ, was already in the air.

KÅNTAN KUARESMA

Our last Lenten hymn till next year.

ATITUYE KILISYÅNO

Atituye Kilisyåno i sinantos kilu'us

(Reflect O Christian on the most holy cross)

Annai måtai ma atåne i magåhet na Yu'us.

(Where the true God died by crucifixion.)

Mames lulok, mames håyo ni umuma si Jesus.

(Sweet nails, sweet wood which carried Jesus.)

The song borrows from the ideas sung about in a Latin hymn, "Crux Fidelis."  One of its verses talks about the cross being the noblest tree in the world, which produces the best fruit, our redemption through Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  It speaks of "dulce lignum, dulces clavos," "sweet wood, sweet nails," just as in the Chamorro version.

SILENSIO!

friki.net

IT'S GOOD FRIDAY!  SHHHHH!

In my grandma's generation, strict rules governed all 40 days of Kuaresma (Lent) : no parties, dances, picnics and so on.  During Semåna Sånta (Holy Week), the rules got more severe : no loud talking, no music from radios or phonographs, no laughing and playing in the streets and yards.

Americans living on Guam before the war remarked how Hagåtña came to a standstill on Bietnes Sånto (Good Friday).  Nothing was open; no one was on the streets.  People were all mainly in the churches (Hagåtña had two Catholic ones) and even the religiously indifferent who didn't go to church stayed in-doors.  The Americans were a bit put off by this, as they had nothing to do on Good Friday, and not by their choice.

As Martha and Elena in the video recount, people were warned not to go into the ocean during Kuaresma, or else they would drown.  Of course, there was the Babuen Kuaresma, but I posted on that last year.  Today, a few people still keep the old custom of being soft-spoken and abstaining from TV and music on - at least, of all days - Bietnes Sånto, the day Jesus suffered so much.

BIETNES SÅNTO

Gi para talo'åne dångkulo na hinemhom tumåmpe i tano' pot tres oras na inapmam, ya i uttimon-ñiha måtai si Jesus.  Para u gef siente si Jesus i minalaet i pinite, si Tatå-ña gi langet nina' apattanguan nu i manakkalom na konsuelo siha gi hinalom-ña.  Este na abandono era sen dångkulo na totmento para si Jesus, na umugong a'gagang, "Yu'os-ho, Yu'os-ho, sa' håfa na un abandona yo'?"

Despues ti åpmam ilek-ña si Jesus, "Må'ho yo'."  Entonses un sendålo ha chuchule' un espongha, ni ma supok gi binakle; ha sahang gi un piao, ya ha nå'e si Jesus para u gimen.  Despues de monhåyan gumimen, ilek-ña si Jesus, "Todo esta kabåles."

Pot uttimo, ilek-ña si Jesus a'gagang, "Tåta, gi kannai-mo nai hu enkomienda hao nu i anti-ho."  Ya ha na' tettekon i ilu-ña, ya ha entrega i anti-ña gi Saina.