One Reason Why I Am An Activist
During my dissertation defense this week a question came up around whether it was appropriate that I be both a scholar/academic and an activist, and does this mixture, este na yinalaka somehow affect me in such a way that my work as an academic cannot be taken seriously because I’m too partisan or too influenced by my own political ideas that my work can’t be objective. Unfortunately during the defense, there wasn’t enough time to address this issue, but it wasn’t a new question for me.
This was a very different way of framing a question that I am constantly asked on Guam, by friends, family, enemies and random people at Chamorro Village, “why am I an activist?” We can translate this question into a number of different forms, “why do you need to speak out?” “why bother speaking out?” “why try to change anything?” “why be so disrespectful?” “sa’ hafa un a’akka’ i kannai ni’ muna’boboka hao?”
Although I am still a “young activist,” I often times feel old because of the many many times and many many ways that I have answered this question. There are inspirational answers, ones about positive change and empowering people. There are genealogical answers, such as a desire to serve one’s family or protect one’s family. There are dire answers about something needing to be done before its too late, that if we don’t act now we will sink into the ocean or be burned to ash in a nuclear conflagaration. There are personal answers, where one can talk about being hurt or wounded or offended in some way and that experience created a drive to protect others from that trauma.
I have answered all of these things at different times, and have felt and meant every single one in my life. Today however, when I am reconsidering the question of why I am an activist on Guam, the answer that keeps floating sarcastically into my mind, is “sa’ ti tasa ha’ Guahan” or in other words “because Guam is not a cup.”
You might be a bit confused now with what exactly this means, since it could mean that simply manatmariao i manactivists, or that all activists are crazy. In truth, the origin of this remark comes from an infamous quote from an Air Force Captain that was captured by anthropologist Ronald Stade in his book Pacific Passages: World Culture and Local Politics in Guam. Stade was interviewing two officers from the United States Air Force’s International Political-Military Affairs Office of the Geopolitical Department in the early 1990’s, hoping they could shed some light, (from the military’s perspective) on the political relationship between Guam, its people and the United States and its military.
People on Guam seem to forget that they are a possession, and not an equal partner…If California says that they want to do this, it is like my wife saying that she wants to move here or there: I’ll have to respect her wish and at least discuss it with her. If Guam says they want to do this or that, it is as if this cup here [he pointed at his coffee mug] expresses a wish: the answer will be, you belong to me and I can do with you as best I please….This is a U.S. territory and not like in the Philippines or other places, where they can kick us out. Here we have absolute right of disposal.
Although this was not meant to be the official view of the US military with regards to its presence on Guam, it nonetheless speaks volumes to their mentality, and is not something that should be treated as an errant, flippant remark. The truth revealed in this characterizing of Guam as this precious object which the United States can do whatever it wants with, is not very distant from the official words that do come from the military, where Guam is objectified, not as a lazy, vessel for liquids, but a weapon which is to be sharpened or readied for war.
This statements connects to a long long history and a political relationship which started between the United States and Guam in 1898, and continues up until this day. It is colonial, it is determined and defined by strategic importance, and it is something that no one on Guam should simply accept. Because as the Air Force Captain states boldly, it is all premised on the idea that “you belong to me and I can do with you as best I please.”
To sum up, as to why all of this is one reason why I’m an activist. Any logic, any law, and excuse which can allow for the transformation of an entire community and the homeland of a people into “a cup” that someone can do whatever they want with, is in desperately in need of an island of activists ready to tear it apart.
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Comment by Kel Muna on 15 June 2009:
“you belong to me and I can do with you as best I please.” is this an actual quote? holy smokes.
Comment by Joseph Certeza on 16 June 2009:
A teacher told me that she believes in the mixture of scholars and activist, which she calls them scholarly activist. The balance of both worlds.
That is crazy to read that kind of stuff from the military. Once again, the oppressors believe they know everything about the land that is not theirs.
Don’t worry man, I am just learning how to accept the role of being an activist. I was too questioned by my parents about becoming an activist. They thought I would be a radical, and one of them compared me to Angel Santos. I come from a very political family, but I never had any interest for the system. My uncle being the present day Governor and then relatives that are loyal to the “Your Still the Once” campaign. Fully understanding oppression in America and our island, America’s previous social movements, and the Ethnic studies department at De Anza my mind has changed.
As an inspiring artist for social change, I’ll support you in the movement. The arts and the culture was slowly diminishing as I was growing up, then I was are taught in the eyes of the West and that is why I am an activist. The empowerment of the Chamorro culture, the language, and to educate the youth in art.
Comment by Lucas A. Storts on 16 June 2009:
ok, now i’m pissed. who was that?
Comment by Michael Lujan Bevacqua on 23 June 2009:
Usually the rhetoric that the military uses for describes Guam’s political status focuses on the positives it gets by being here. We don’t have to ask anyone’s permission, we are close to Asia and danger spots. This was an instance where all of the positive facade and all of the pretense of Guam being a partner with the military fell away leaving only the “ownership” of a colonial relationship. You don’t hear stuff like this in any official statements, but its always there. Surprisingly, in court cases this is where the idea that the United States “owns” Guam and can do whatever it pleases with it, is always admitted to, openly and freely. A little over a century of American legal precedent all points to this. Its truly sad that we don’t have more people recognizing this, it should make us all made, regardless of where we stand on political status, everyone should be an activist when it comes to this.
By the way, to provide a little bit of the context of the statement, it was made in response to questions about Angel Santos and about the Government of Guam’s pushing for a different political status. This Air Force guy was basically saying, according to US law you can’t do anything, the law states that you belong to the Federal Government, and they can do with you as they please.
Si Yu’us Ma’ase for your comments.
Comment by Ronald Stade on 16 December 2009:
Buenas! The title and name of the U.S. Air Force strategic analysts who so openly declared that Guam is like a cup is Lieutenant Colonel Douglas. While his statements may have been intended to test or provoke me, it is nevertheless true - as Mike Bittot notices - that they also reflect an attitude that I believe still prevails among many haoles as well as in the military-industrial complex at large. Instead of editing Douglas’ remarks, or burying them under my own comments, I decided to quote him verbatim in the hope that the reader would feel as outraged as I did at the time. Si Yu’us Ma’ase, Ron
Comment by bert cruz on 26 December 2009:
Boy, a lot of questions but no answers. In the late seventies I spoke at a rally in Fort Mason, San Francisco, to a gathering of sympathetic San Franciscans, mostly white. I was one of many other central pacific islanders protesting the dumping of nuclear waste near Guam. I complained about the wanton disregard by large governments of the small islands in the central pacific. Well, here we are almost forty years later and still complaining. I don’t think the problem is the U.S. - its US! Guam is a possession of the United States and, so, by extension, are we. We are, indeed, the “cup” to which that USAF officer compared us. I think the general concensus, especially of the post-WWII generation, of guamanians is that we change our “cup” status. But how do we change? To what do we change? Do we seek independence from the U.S.? Do we become the fifty-first state? Do we join the CNMI and become a commonwealth? Do we join with CNMI and seek independence as a nation group of small islands? Personally, I think Guam should seek statehood. I have been an American all my life. I love the U.S. despite its imperfections with which we just love to take issue. Americans are an easy target for hateful rhetoric because they cherish freedom of speech. I love America because this nation believes in God given individual rights and property rights, two very important premises toward building a great nation.
Comment by Michael Lujan Bevacqua on 28 December 2009:
To bert cruz: “Well, here we are almost forty years later and still complaining. I don’t think the problem is the U.S. - its US!” I hear this argument a lot, and I do agree that the apathy that most people on Guam have towards the decolonization of the island has played a big role in keeping Guam a colony. I hear this in Guam and I hear this in the United States as well, that if Guam wanted to be something else it would just have to make that decision.
The problem with these arguments is that they are made to do exactly what bert cruz’s comment is meant to do, to take the United States out of the colonial equation, to make excuses and apologize for it. Its very easy to blame Guam for everything, its problems, its status, but if you are really looking for solutions and just moving beyond questions, then all issues have to be addressed as part of that shared relationship.
But even beyond this, the idea that Guam being a colony is its own fault or because people on Guam haven’t made up their own mind yet simply isn’t historically accurate. The main example here would be Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Movement showed to the United States that the majority of people on the island desired to change their political status and for years negotiations took place between the Government of Guam and the Federal Government. Eventually, Commonwealth died because the United States refused to recognize any provisions which would give Guam any power unto itself, or any authority which would conflict with Federal law. I can give you a number of big and small instances where its made clear that the United States has no intention of ever supporting Guam changing to another status. As I tell my students at UOG, political status can never be reduced to just us, the US is the one who “possesses” us and seems to enjoy holding on to us and so they have to be changed and challenged in order for Guam to be empowered.
Lastly, for me it doesn’t matter whether my colonizer is the best and friendliest in the world or not, he’s still my colonizer and so therefore he needs to be challenged and he needs to be complained about. I think that Guam has changed dramatically from 40 years ago, especially in terms of political status. One thing which hasn’t changed though is the United States reluctance to support Guam in its quest for self-determination.