Profiles, villages, and island life
Long time senator. Vicente (ben) Cabrera Pangelinan (1955-2014), known as “Senator ben,” was a fighter and champion for many causes that affected the people of Guam. Pangelinan was born in Saipan to Luisa Cabrera Pangelinan and Francisco Sablan Pangelinan on 22 October 1955 and moved to Guam with his family at the age of seven. He had two sisters, Maria and Jesusa, and one brother, Antonio.
Vicente Cabrera Pangelinan Read Post »
Hid in Guam jungles. Shoichi Yokoi (1915 – 1997) was a sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army, stationed on Guam during the Japanese Occupation of the island during World War II (December 1941- July 1944).
WWII: Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi, Last Straggler on Guam Read Post »
Largest latte house in the Marianas. Found nowhere else in the world, latte first appeared in the Mariana Islands about 800 years ago, during a period known as the Latte Era of Chamorro/CHamoru culture. Each stone is comprised of a vertical pillar (haligi) topped with a hemi-spherical capstone (tasa). Organized in two parallel rows of three to seven stones, the latte likely served as foundation posts for wood and thatch houses that were built on top of them. Representing the apex of CHamoru latte architecture, the massive stones of Taga House, located in Tinian, are 15 feet in overall length.
Tinituhun. On 21 July 1991 at Latte Stone Memorial Park in Hagåtña, a small group of Chamorro men and women gathered to form a new organization. This organization would be comprised of a number of different grassroots and family-based groups, who were all connected through a commitment to the Chamorro people and to the protection of their lands, their culture and their rights.
In 2006, the United States and Japan signed an agreement known as the Roadmap for Realignment Implementation. This bilateral agreement initially involved the realignment of some 8,600 marines from bases in Okinawa, Japan to the US territory of Guam in what would be the largest military buildup in the region since World War II. In addition to the relocation of marines, land would be needed to accommodate live round weapons training, as well as housing for military personnel, families and laborers.
Madeleine Z. Bordallo served as Guam’s delegate to the United States Congress from 2002 until 2018. Originally from Minnesota, Bordallo is a longtime senator of the Guam Legislature, as well as a former first Lady. She is also the first female lieutenant governor of Guam, and the only non-Chamorro to hold this position. With strong ties to the island community, Bordallo has participated in numerous civic organizations and activities, and has lived much of her life in public service on Guam.
Madeleine Zeien Bordallo Read Post »
Richard Flores “Dick” Taitano was a prominent figure in Guam politics and community service following the establishment of the civilian government on Guam. Taitano was a six-term member of the Guam Legislature in the 1960s and 1970s. He was also the first Chamorro to be appointed to serve as the director of the Office of Territories (OOT) in the United States Department of Interior.
Richard Flores Taitano Read Post »
Perhaps no individual figure in Guam’s recent history epitomizes the social and political activism of the 1990s more than Angel Anthony “Anghet” Leon Guerrero Santos, III (1959-2003). Santos was a United States Air Force veteran, a former Senator of the Guam Legislature, and an icon of CHamoru activism. He fought for the implementation of the CHamoru Land Trust Act and the return of excess federal lands, and was an advocate of social justice for the indigenous CHamorus of Guam.
Angel Leon Guerrero Santos Read Post »
Matatnga. In 1993, Angel Leon Guerrero Santos, the spokesman for the Chamorro activist group Nasion Chamoru was invited to Hawaii to join a gathering of indigenous people who were putting the United States on trial. Native Hawaiians organized the proceedings on the 100-year anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Although Chamorros have a long history of resisting the different colonial administrations that have governed the island, the latter decades of the 20th century are marked by the emergence of formalized indigenous activist groups. These groups mobilized to addressed the island’s ongoing colonial status.
OPI-R: Organization of People for Indigenous Rights Read Post »
