CHamorro Roots: The CHamorro Genealogy Project

On June 1, 2012 I was contacted by Dr. Tonia San Nicolas-Rocca to help her reach out to the Chamorro community to complete a survey for her research in an attempt to explain the importance of information and communication technologies. More specifically her efforts focused on capturing and conveying indigenous cultural knowledge through a case study within the Chamorro people from Guam.

Once again, while performing a random search on the internet, I came across an abstract of Dr. Tonia San Nicolas-Rocca's work and results regarding this survey. The abstract led me to her published paper (co-authored by James Parrish), "Using Social Media to Capture and Convey Cultural Knowledge: A Case of Chamorro People." This paper was presented at the 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences that occurred January 7-10 2013 at the Grand Wailea, Maui, Hawaii.

It is not that often I come across published papers that reference the Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project website and this one did. I was thrilled and honored to see that Dr. Tonia San Nicolas-Rocca referenced one of my blog write-ups and acknowledged me for supporting her research project.

Part of that research included an on-line survey that was created using surveymonkey.com and was accessible for two week weeks through facebook.com, 671recipes.com, and chamorroroots.com. 22 questions were asked and 111 Chamorros responded.

Now, I do not want to give away all the details of the survey responses and outcomes, but I am proud to share this one table of outcomes with you, because I am further honored that many of you use the Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project website (www.chamorroroots.com) to learn and share your knowledge about our Chamorro culture! I am sure that the various Facebook Chamorro groups I am a member of had some survey impact as well!

Gof dångkulu na si Yu'os ma'åse para todos hamyu! Mågåhit na gef pågu i håle' Chamoru!

The database has been updated and has grown from 294,080 to 294,739 names.

The times of the early 1900s for Guam were an era of cultural transition, to say the least. It was also a period in the world where many topics were sensitive and censored from public display or discourse.

In 1907, Island Attorney Tomas Calvo filed a charge against Atanasio Blaz y Cruz (Atanasio Cruz Blaz), a teacher in Guam’s public school system. The charge against Blaz was for bringing in and circulating a book, titled “True Love” among a group of young male and female teachers. Calvo contended that the book was “extremely immodest or indecent or immoral,” which violated Article 571 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code.

Witnesses for the prosecution included:

• Rafaela Saiz
• Juanita Saiz
• Conchita Martinez
• Francisco Taitano
• Gregorio Perez
• Jose Roberto

Blaz was arrested and brought before the court where the complaint was read to him. The Honorable Judge Luis de Torres y Diaz(Luis Diaz Torres) presided and advised Blaz of his rights and asked him how he pleads: guilty or not guilty to the misdemeanor as charged. Without a debate, Blaz pleaded guilty and was fined seven dollars and ten cents and three dollars for costs. In the event he was unable to pay fine and cost he would have to work for “public purpose” until the fine and cost was deemed to have been satisfied. Blaz paid the fine and cost.

One of the earliest known owners of the land where the Pigo Catholic Cemetery is located in Aniguak, Guam was Don Manuel Brabo y Brabo. In 1858, Don Manuel sold a piece of property consisting of five hectares and fifty-two ares to Doña Dolores de la Cruz. This land was further described as a parcel of limy land. Towards the north of its borders were the coconut plantations of Mariano de la Cruz and Joaquin Diaz. To the east of its borders were the estates of Jose de Salas and Jose Sablan, and on the west was the Pigo river. To the southeast was the mountain of Tumaglago. The purchase amount was not disclosed in the land record. The neighboring witnesses to the land transaction were Don Luis de la Cruz and Jose Mendiola.

On January 13, 1873, Doña Dolores sold two ares and twelve and a half centares to Fray Aniceto Ybanez del Carmen for 50 pesos. To the north, east and south of this property were the coconut plantations of Doña Dolores and to the west is the Pigo river.   It seems not long after this transaction this particular piece of property thereafter became known as or commonly referred to as the Pigo Cemetery or Pigo Catholic Cemetery. The instrumental witnesses recorded in this transaction were: 1) Mariano de Castro y Torres (aka Mariano Torres Castro), 51 years of age and married; 2) Mariano Fausto y Borja (aka Mariano Borja Fausto), 38 years of age, married and a laborer; and, 3) Juan del Rosario y Flores (aka Juan Flores Rosario), a Peninsular Spaniard, 39 years of age and married.

These land recordings occurred on March 14, 1895. Doña Dolores de la Cruz was further described as 73 years old and a single woman.