This mini unit introduces students to an idea that storytellers can be different and that timelines can be broadened to include all sorts of stories/narratives that co-occur in time.
As part of a larger effort to preserve and revitalize the language, the CNMI’s Chamorro community began in 2008 to revise Topping, Ogo, and Dungca’s (1975) Chamorro-English Dictionary, which contains entries for some 9,700 headwords. With support from the National Science Foundation, assistance from the CNMI government, and the help of many volunteers, a concerted effort has been made to revise, update, and expand the dictionary.
Revised Chamorro-English Dictionary Read Post »
Women in Chamorro history. The importance of women in Chamorro history is well documented, and many Guampedia entries reinforce this point. In the Chamorro cosmology, from the moment of creation, men and women worked together.
Gender and Guam History Textbooks Read Post »
Pilar Cruz Lujan (1930 – 2022) was a CHamoru language advocate and leader, groundbreaking educator, and a six-term senator in the Guam Legislature.
Culture clashes. In the years following the end of WWII in Guam, the naval administration, followed by a civilian administration in 1950, took on the great endeavor of building the government departments and agencies that served the island. Among the numerous challenges that this effort required was restructuring the island’s education system. One of the paramount issues in this was staffing schools with accredited teachers.
Contract Teachers in the Classroom Read Post »
Need for teachers in Guam grew after WWII. In the years following the end of World War II, Guam became a new military stronghold in the Pacific, leading to a massive increase of US military troops and their dependents on the island. The increase in military dependents, coupled with a rise in local birth rates, caused an increase in student population. As a result, the Naval administration began its reconstruction of the local education system with the ability to accommodate the large school population.
Stateside Teacher Hiring Program Read Post »
“Juan Malimanga” is the first comic strip in local print news that is written completely in the CHamoru language. The comic strip, originally written by Clotilde Castro Gould and illustrated by Roger Faustino, centers around humorous observations and adventures of the character Juan Malimanga. Despite its continued publication in the Pacific Daily News (PDN), the origins of this iconic comic strip signaled a landmark victory in efforts to overturn the controversial language policies of print media on the island of Guam.
CHamoru/Chamorro Comic Strip: Juan Malimanga Read Post »
The Chamorro Bilingual/Bicultural Program began on Guam in 1970 as a five-year test program run by the Guam Department of Education to promote the use of the CHamoru language in public schools on Guam. It served as the precursor to the CHamoru Studies Department, which continues to operate in the Guam Department of Education. This program marked the first time the CHamoru language was officially used in classrooms in the Mariana Islands.
Guam’s Bilingual/Bicultural Program Read Post »
Paul Carano (1919-2020) was a teacher, researcher and one of the founders of the University of Guam’s Micronesian Area Research Center. Carano was the son of John “J.P.” and Mary (Ross) Carano, pioneer residents of Krebs, Tobucksy County, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. At an early age, he moved to Hanford, California. He was a graduate of Stanford University and pursued other studies at California’s College of the Sequoias at Visalia California State University at Fresno and the University of New Hampshire at Durham.
Educator, historian and public servant. Dr. Pedro Cruz Sanchez (29 June 1925 – 15 August 1987), known as “Doc,” was a prolific educator, historian and public servant who served as the president of the University of Guam, and published several landmark books that document Guam’s history.
Dr. Pedro Cruz Sanchez Read Post »
