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ABSTRACT
This essay examines the importance of Chamoru women’s stories in understanding the growth of the Chamoru diaspora. The Mariana Islands, homeland of Chamorus, is a matrilineal society that has dealt with various waves of colonialism, often changing the routes of mobility available to Chamoru families. This essay discusses the outmigration of Chamorus under Spanish and American colonial rule through uncovering the absent accounts of our women’s experiences and the ways they aided in the community building in the diaspora. Their continued role as matriarchal figures push narratives about Chamoru issues to grapple with the lack of engagement with Chamoru women’s stories.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Lehua M. Taitano, “A Love Letter to the Chamoru People in the Twenty-first Century,” in Inside Me an Island (Cincinnati, OH: WordTech Editions, 2018), 15.
2. “Chamorro” is often used in general practice, when writing in English, and written according to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’ orthography. “Chamoru” is used when writing in the native language. In 2017, Guam’s Kumision I Fino’ Chamorro (Chamorro Language Commission) adopted “Chamoru” to emphasize that “CH” and “NG” are considered one letter and should be capitalized as such. I choose to use “Chamoru” to reference our Indigenous language and be inclusive of the Mariana Islands as a whole. The Mariana Islands are also referred to as Låguas yan Gåni. Låguas are the southern, populated islands and Gåni refers to the northern islands in the archipelago; Tiara R. Na‘puti, “Speaking of Indigeneity: Navigating Genealogies Against Erasure and #RhetoricSoWhite,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 105, no. 4 (2019): 495–501.
3. H. Greensill, M. Taito, J. Pasisi, J.L. Bennett, M. Dean, and M. Monise, 2022. “Tupuna Wahine, Saina, Tupuna Vaine, Matua Tupuna Fifine, Mapiag Hani: Grandmothers in the Archives,” Public History Review 29 (2022): 54–66.
4. In the Chamoru language, Guam is called Guåhan.
5. Cooperation and mutual respect for Chamoru men and women are demonstrated in our creator gods, Pontan and Fo’na. Together, this brother and sister pair demonstrate the value of cooperation and interdependency in their making of our islands and people.
6. Guampedia Team, “Women’s Lives, Women’s Stories,” Famalao’an Guåhan: Women in Guam History (Mangilao, Guam: Guampedia Inc., 2019), 7.
7. See Robert Underwood, “Excursions into Inauthenticity: The Chamorros of Guam,” in Mobility and Identity in the Island Pacific, ed. Murray Chapman (Wellington, NZ: Victoria University Press, 1985); and Faye Untalan, “An Exploratory Study of Island Migrations: Chamorros of Guam” (PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1979).
8. See Guam State Data Center, Guam Demographic Profile Summary (Government of Guam: Bureau of Statistics and Plans, 2012), 24; United States Census Bureau, “Total Population: Decennial Census of Island Areas,” United States Census Bureau, 2010, https://data.census.gov/cedsci/map (accessed October 25, 2021); and Guam State Data Center, Profile of the Chamorros in the United States (Government of Guam: Bureau of Statistics and Plans, 2012), 2.
9. See Michael Perez, “Pacific Identities Beyond U.S. Racial Formations: The Case of Chamorro Ambivalence and Flux,” Social Identities 8 (2002); Underwood, “Excursions Into Inauthenticity: The Chamorros of Guam”; and Untalan, “An Exploratory Study of Island Migrations.”
10. See Christine Taitano DeLisle, “‘Guamanian-Chamorro by Birth but American Patriotic by Choice’: Subjectivity and Performance in the Life of Agueda Iglesias Johnston,” Amerasia Journal 37, no. 3 (2011): 61; DeLisle, Placental Politics: CHamoru Women, White Womanhood, and Indigeneity under U.S. Colonialism in Guam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022); Laura Souder, Daughters of the Island (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1992); and Anne Perez Hattori, Colonial Dis-Ease: U.S. Navy Health Policies and the Chamorros of Guam, 1898–1941 (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2004).
11. See Jesi Lujan Bennett, “Migrating Beyond the Mattingan: Chamoru Diasporic Routes, Indigenous Identities, and Public Exhibitions” (PhD diss., University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2021); and David Chang, The World and All the Things Upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016), ix.
12. Epeli Hauʻofa, We Are the Ocean: Selected Works (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2008).
13. There are numerous stories of Pacific women participating in navigation and helping their people span the entirety of Oceania. For example, in the Marshall Islands, Lentaanur wove her youngest son, Jebro, the first sail, helping him win a canoe race against his older brothers. In Aotearoa, Te Arawa and Tainui iwi’s ancestor, Whakaotirangi, made the journey from the Cook Islands to Aotearoa. She brought kumara (sweet potato) with her, which is still a food staple for Māori today. See Kathy Jetil-Kijiner, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2017), 7; and Diane Gordon-Burns and Rawiri Taonui, “Whakaotirangi: A Canoe Tradition,” He Pukenga Korero 10, no. 2 (2013).
14. Mac Marshall, Namoluk Beyond The Reef: The Transformation of a Micronesian Community (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2004), 6.
15. The names of these archipelago’s commemorate European ventures within the region rather than their Indigenous names. All of these island groups experienced colonization by Spanish, German, Japanese, and American colonialism, except for Kiribati and Nauru. In 1902, they were annexed by Britain, Germany, and later Australia in 1914.
16. Vicente M. Diaz, “Oceania in the Plains: The Politics and Analytics of Transindigenous Resurgence in Chuukese Voyaging of Dakota Lands, Waters, and Skies in Miní Sóta Makhóčhe1,” Pacific Studies 42, nos. 1–2 (2019).
17. Vicente Diaz, “No Island Is an Island,” in Native Studies Keywords, ed. Stephanie Nohelani Teves, Andrea Smith, and Michelle H. Raheja (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2015), 93.
18. David Chappell, Double Ghosts: Oceanian Voyagers on Euroamerican Ships (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997), 4.
19. Teresia Teaiwa, “Microwomen: U.S. Colonialism and Micronesian Women Activists,” Sweat and Salt Water Selected Words (Wellington, NZ: Victoria University of Wellington Press, 2021), 89.
20. Francis X. Hezel, From Conquest to Colonization: Spain in the Mariana Islands 1690 to 1740 (Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands: Division of Historic Preservation, 2000), 14.
21. Connor Murphy, “Leprosy – Hospitals and Colonies,” Guampedia, October 11, 2019, https://www.guampedia.com/us-naval-era-leprosy-hospitals-and-colonies/ (accessed November 29, 2019).
22. Julian Aguon, No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies: A Lyric Essay (New York: Astra House, 2022), 38–41.
23. Dominica Tolentino, “Bartola Garrido,” Famalao’an Guåhan: Women in Guam History (Mangilao, Guam: Guampedia Inc., 2019), 20.
24. There is extensive research from Chamoru scholars, including Julian Aguon, Theresa Arriola, Michael Lujan Bevaqua, Keith L. Camacho, Christine Taitano DeLisle, Alfred Peredo Flores, Anne Perez Hattori, Kenneth Gofigan Kuper, Tiara R. Na’puti, Lisalinda Natividad, Craig Santos Perez, and Robert Underwood, that engages with the U.S. militarization in the Marianas Islands and the rise of Chamoru labor for military service. See also Theresa Arriola, “Securing Nature: Militarism, Indigeneity and the Environment in the Northern Mariana Islands” (PhD diss., University of California Los Angeles, 2020); and T.R. Na‘puti and K.G. Kuper, “Special issue on militarization of the Mariana Islands,” Micronesian Educator: Journal of Research & Practice on Education in Guam and Micronesia 31 (2021), https://www.uog.edu/schools-and-colleges/school-of-education/micronesian-educator/volumes.
25. Don Farrell, The Pictorial History of Guam: The Sacrifice 1919–1943 (Pohnpei, Micronesia: Micronesian Productions, 1991), 99.
26. Pedro C. Sanchez, Guahan Guam: The History of Our Island (Agana, Guam: Sanchez Publishing House, 1998), 291.
27. Ibid.
28. Famalao’an Guåhan: Women in Guam History.
29. Underwood, “Excursions into Inauthenticity,” 169.
30. “Investing in Your Future,” University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, January 4, 2021, https://manoa.hawaii.edu/admissions/financing/wue.html.
31. Souder, Daughters of the Island, 119; Dr. Laura Souder is another example of the Chamoru educational diaspora. She received her B.A. in Sociology from Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. from American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1985. She was later a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. See also: Laura Souder, The Island In Sight series, books 1–4 (Mangilao: University of Guam Press, 2020).
32. Tanya M. Champaco Mendiola, “Cecilia Cruz Bamba.” Famalao’an Guåhan: Women in Guam History (Mangilao, Guam: Guampedia Inc, 2019).
33. Souder, Daughters of the Island, 119.
34. Taitano, “A Love Letter,” backcover.
35. Marie S. C. Castro, Without a Penny in My Pocket: My Bittersweet Memories Before and After World War II (Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing Co, 2014).
36. J.L. Quenga, Growing Up Half & Half (independently published, 2019).
37. Paula A. Lujan Quinene, Remember Guam (West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2009).
38. Guma Gela’, guaiya yan puspus love & sex (2021).
39. Pulan Collective, “13 Moons 13 Meals,” pulancollective.com (accessed November 7, 2021).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jesi Lujan Bennett
Jesi Lujan Bennett is of Chamoru descent with familial ties to Dededo and Barrigada, Guåhan (Guam). She is a lecturer of Pacific and Indigenous Studies within the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato. Her research examines Chamoru visual culture with a particular focus in the relationship between colonialism, militarization, migration, and self-representation within the Mariana Islands and the Chamoru diaspora.