For this week, I am honoring the celebration of our Chamorro heritage. Fan magof hamyu gi pilan Chamorro/Taotao Håya!
Declaration
On Guam, the month of March is traditionally celebrated as Chamorro month. In the past, the first Monday in March was a Guam holiday known as Discovery Day. However, due to government budget constraints, this holiday was eliminated from the list of recognized holidays on Guam.
After much effort from Guam Senator Tommy Morrison and a rallying of supporters request to reinstate and rename the first Monday of March a Guam holiday, Acting Governor Ray Tenorio proclaimed March 3, 2014 as Guam History and Chamorro Heritage Day.
There tend to be many celebrations and activities that occur on Guam throughout the month so I hope you will take advantage of it and immerse yourself.
Retrospect: Chamorro Cultural Association
Typically when I write some of these articles, I will also try to find something complementary that may have occured in the past. During my search I found some names of people in the past who were advocates of preserving and perpetuating our heritage. I'm sure there are other articles and other people and would be delighted if any of you readers would want to share that information with us.
So recently, I came across an article from the defunct Pacific Profile magazine. The article included a picture of some of the Charter members Chamorro Cultural Association. I must admit that this is the first time I ever heard of this group. Therefore and unfortunately, I do not have much else to report out on them and the things they may have accomplished, other than what was included in the article. All the photos contained in this article are courtesy of the September 1964 Pacific Profiles magazine located at the Micronesia Area Research Center, University of Guam.
The Association was a non-profit organization and founded to encourage and assist cultural activities in Guam. Its goals were to: 1) encourage the preservation of historical and archaeological materials; 2) to study the Chamorro language and literature; and 3) to search and preserve records of the Chamorro language and literature.
The article indicated that the Association had put together a lecture series and exhibited privately owned artifacts on Guam.
Transcriber of Guam's Old Spanish Land Record
One of the participants of those lecture series that I was able to recognize, by his name and through the article, was Professor Domingo Abella. Dr. Abella was a professor of history at the Ateneo de Manila University. In the 1950's Dr. Abella was contracted and commissioned by the Government of Guam to translate old Spanish land records at the Department of Land Management. These are the same records that I have been able to re-digitize and enhance with text searching capabilities on the Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project.
If you don't have a subscription to the transcribed land records you can still view the Land Records Demo version.
