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Guam and Seville, Spain, are linked through a shared history. Seville was the departure port for many of the mariners, explorers, priests and soldiers who plied the oceans in search of a better life. For those destined for the Pacific, it was the beginning of the first leg of a journey across two oceans and a continent.
The galleons left Seville and traveled down the Guadalquivir River to the ocean. From there, the ships made their way south, and those destined for the Pacific put in at Vera Cruz. Seamen bound for the Pacific who did not jump ship when they arrived in New Spain (Mexico) traveled by land to Acapulco, where they boarded another larger galleon for the long and arduous voyage across the Pacific.
While the ships were ultimately headed to Manila, a few people were off-loaded on Guam during a provisioning stop. It is certain that a small segment of this intrepid group settled in the islands permanently. Who were these travelers and where did they originate? Were they Spanish as commonly believed? Did this group include some of my ancestors?
A trip to Seville would give me firsthand information and insights into the character and history of the people of this area. It also would allow me to conduct research at the Archivo General de Indias, the largest collection of historical records relating to Spain’s overseas territories in America, the Philippines and Mariana Islands.
The fourth article of this series looks at my efforts to find documentation in Seville of the origins of the Leon Guerrero family on Guam and the Mariana Islands.
(This article was initially published in Guahan Magazine, May 2008 edition, and is reprinted by permission of the author and publisher)
Arriving in Seville, Spain, I went first to the phone book. Were there pages and pages of Leon Guerreros as there are on Guam? After almost two days of traveling, my eyes were not in the best shape and the small print in the book made the task even more difficult. The fact that my luggage was lost and it was cold and pouring rain outside lent a certain air to my effort. In other words, I’d be really, really disappointed if I didn’t find a Leon Guerrero.
Of course there were plenty of Guerreros and Leons but where was Leon Guerrero? Turning the pages and wishing I had the magnifying glass that was in my lost luggage, I scrutinized the print on the page. I handed the book to my husband and asked him to look; was that a Leon Guerrero — a single entry in the entire phone book?
He confirmed my finding and I was eager to find out what this person knew of their family history. The only problem I found was that in Seville, you need to speak Spanish. My effort to learn the language was not very successful. So how was I going to speak with someone on the telephone and ask questions about their family?
The Archivo General de Indias is a wonderfully beautiful building. The treasures it holds for the historian are priceless. I was so honored to hold in my hand original documents written in the 1500s that report the progress of the mission in the Marianas Islands. Bundles of single sheets of paper wrapped in a leather cover tell the story of our ancestors through the eyes of Spanish governors and priests.
The staff was very helpful and a first search for “Leon
Who will be the characters of my story? I wrestled with this thought. How can I ensure that they are accurate depictions of the time period as well as have depth? Basically, how do I create a character that I, and hopefully my readers, connect with? While the list of potential characters is long, I need to build a believable back story for each.
Since my experience as a writer has mainly been in the nonfiction genre, character development will be my biggest challenge.
In tandem with historical research for the novel is my own genealogical research. It seems obvious that I should use real characters for my story. I’ve been a bit ambivalent about this since I do not know the history of my early ancestors – what if they were unsavory characters? But then again, we are all human and it is our character flaws that sometimes define us from each other. I couldn’t think of a more efficient way. I’d accomplish two goals at once – work on my genealogy and develop characters for my story.
Feeling pretty good about my decision, I revisited the genealogical research that I had started years ago and hadn’t gotten back to recently. The paternal roots on my mother’s side can be traced to Germany in the 1800s. The maternal roots on my mother’s side are better documented and extend to the 1600s in the United Kingdom. While knowledge about my German ancestors may not be useful background for my novel, my English heritage may help in the character development of pirates and privateers who plied the waters off Guam.
My father’s Chamorro heritage is not as easy to verify. There is a 139-year gap in the historical record from 1758-1897. Links between the earliest families recorded on Guam and today’s families cannot be verified. Most of the work done thus far has been through oral family history. As our manamko pass on, this information is harder and harder to come by.
My strategy is to learn as much as I can about the origins of my family and search for documents that may shed more light on my heritage. I contracted genealogists in Utah to verify my findings and continue research on my maternal line. I decided to tackle my paternal line. Hopefully this strategy will afford me an opportunity to understand the world of the patriarch of my Hispanic-Chamorro family. Below is an account of this quest.
(This article was initially published in Guahan Magazine, April 2008 edition, and is reprinted by permission of the author and publisher)
Traveling has always been a part of my life. Growing up in a military family, I made my first crossing of the Atlantic at the tender age of 6 months. My family would move numerous times after that. My parents had five children — all born in different places. My sister Sally had to be naturalized as a U.S. citizen because she was born in Cambridge, England. I think I had seen more of the world than most people by the time I was 12.
Perhaps my interest in my heritage sprang from my early nomadic life. Then again, one of my favorite memories as a young child is my dad lifting me in the air so I could look out the window and asking “See Guam? See Guam?” My father’s pride in his homeland I would later learn was a character of the Chamorro people from earliest times. It is a character that I inherited as well.
What connections does my contemporary family have with my ancestors? Are there character traits that we share? What I do know is that somewhere in my background, a male and possibly a female ancestor traveled to Guam from abroad and planted the seed that would flourish into the Leon Guerrero family tree.
After my initial research I decided I needed to scour the not-so-obvious documents. Since others had already done work in more traditional means, by documenting relationships from the present to the past, I decided to start at the other
