GUAM-Our Pacific Cousin

Guam has always been in the periphery of Carmina and Patch’s consciousness. In this episode, they discover that the intersecting path of the Philippines and Guam was fated. From pre-colonial to modern times, learn about the little-known connections and encounters (both serendipitous and calculated) between the two "Pacific Cousins." 

 To learn more: Destiny’s Landfall, Ancient History of Guam, Filipinos On Guam, State VS Territory, Cultural Contributions of Filipinos on Guam, HOLY COW! HISTORY: How We Got Guam, and FILIPINO NATIVES IN SEVENTEETH CENTURY MARIANAS.

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Transcript

Carmina: 0:06

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird, and in between about the Philippines. And now a quick shout out. Check out Manila Candle. Manila Candle features Filipino inspired scents like Tagaytay, Palawan, Ube Halaya and Buco and Mango. They also have fun ones like Ay Nako and Bahala Ka Sa Buhay Mo.

Patch: 0:35

Enjoy their car fresheners, wax melts and merchandise to visit manilacandle.com and take a trip to the Philippines through their scents.

Carmina: 0:46

Back to our show.

Patch: 0:48

Today's trip is a side trip when we take a short detour to a specific place and discuss it in a bit more depth. And today we are taking a trip to Guam.

Carmina: 0:59

Before anything else Patch, we should greet our listeners a happy New Year.

Patch: 1:06

Happy New Year!

Carmina: 1:07

2023. Wow!

Patch: 1:10

Where did the time go?<laugh> That was, it was a blink of an eye!<Laugh>. Anyway, Carmina, why are we talking about Guam?

Carmina: 1:19

We found out that a significant event occurred on January 7th, 1901, involving the Philippines and Guam. So we seized the opportunity to find out more on January 7th, 1901 when Major General Arthur MacArthur Jr., who's the big-daddy-of-dougie-I-shall-return-MacArthur.

Patch: 1:44

<laugh>

Carmina: 1:45

Ordered the deportation of politicians and leaders of the Philippine Revolution led by Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, who was the author of the first Philippine constitution and close ally of Aguinaldo, as well as 31 other people sailed for Guam on January 16th. But Patch, Emilio Aguinaldo was not one of them.

Patch: 2:09

Why?

Carmina: 2:10

This is very interesting and intriguing.

Patch: 2:13

Okay?

Carmina: 2:14

The Americans wanted all the revolutionaries to pledge allegiance to the United States. Emilio Aguinaldo did, but he and his other companions to Guam did not. So before we go into all that, Guam is one of the 14 islands that makes up the Marianas Islands. So aside from Guam, you may have heard of places like Saipan, Rota and many others. Guam is only 30 miles long by 10 miles wide and 214 square miles in area. Does that mean anything to you?<laugh>

Patch: 2:55

<laugh> No.

Carmina: 2:58

So I tried to to find something that might make me appreciate those numbers more. If we compare it to a place in the US, it's about as big as Chicago.

Patch: 3:07

Okay,

Carmina: 3:08

If you compare it to Puerto Rico, it's about 17 times smaller than Puerto Rico. What it lacks in size though, it makes up an importance from way back then until now. It's in a strategic location in the Pacific and it's very important in military tactics and geopolitics because of this reason.

Patch: 3:31

Carmina, I have another confession as well. I didn't remember what the difference was between states and territories<laugh>, and finding out that Guam was a territory I had to research. If you don't mind, I just wanna, you know, let the people know if they don't already know what some of the differences are. First of all, voting state residents have their right to vote for their representatives in the US as well as the presidential elections. However, people in the territories do not, even though they are citizens. So another difference is taxation. So state residents are required to pay federal taxes and are subject to all federal laws. While territory residents do not pay federal income tax, but they do contribute to federal programs such as social security.

Carmina: 4:28

Guam is an unincorporated territory of the US. Specific portions of the constitution can be suspended, like automatic US citizenship, which is also very significant in addition to all the things you already mentioned. And Guam is an organized territory because they have local self-government. These all figure into the contemporary issues that they're facing today and that we'll talk about later. For now, let's go way, way back in the way back machine<laugh>. So Patch, the indigenous people of Guam are known as Chamorro. In its early history, the Marianas and Guam as a part of it were fairly untouched because the Spaniards and other foreigners were largely cautious of the Chamorros, the spoken tongue. Guam show a connection with Indonesian languages, as it is with OC and PA. In the Philippines,

Patch: 5:30

The Chamorros were of Indo and Malay descent. That means Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. And that's probably why the linguistic similarities are there.

Carmina: 5:42

There were a lot of signs of pre-colonial contact between the Philippines and Guam. For example, there was a form of early pottery called Lapita pottery that were also seen in the parts of Indonesia and the Philippines. So historians are saying that it's definite proof. There was contact between Guam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In pre-colonial times, there were many figures in history that are common to the Philippines and Guam. And of course the first known one was our buddy Ferdie, right? Ferdinand Magellan.

Patch: 6:21

On March 6, 1521, Ferdinand Magellan made the first known contact with the island. So Magellan stayed three days to replenish the crew and its three ships with much needed water and food and exchanged highly priced iron with them.

Carmina: 6:41

So just to put things in context, Magellan, as you said, came to Guam on March 6th, 1521. Then he reached the Philippines on March 16, 1521, and then was killed by Lapu Lapu in Mactan in April 1521. Can you just imagine what would've happened if he just stayed in Guam?

Patch: 7:03

<laugh> That's an excellent question.

Carmina: 7:06

The Chamorros were such a formidable foe that as soon as they were able to replenish supplies, they just left.

Patch: 7:14

They were out of there<laugh>. Right?

Carmina: 7:17

And before we even go into the next phase of significant contact between the Spanish and the Chamorros, I just wanted to mention a few significant pre-colonial facts about Guam. For example, have you heard of the Chamorro Latte stones? They are a very unique and long-lasting aspect of Guam's culture that survived the Spanish colonial period. They're stone pillars that originally served as foundations for their buildings, and they can range from three feet to 16 feet high and are made of solid limestone. And each of these slabs had a capstone on top with the curved side down so that the flat side is up. One of the descriptions said it looks like an upside down mushroom top.

Patch: 8:10

That's what I was thinking right now.

Carmina: 8:12

<laugh>. And then it evolved into the smoother tops. One of the other explorers common to the Philippines and Guam is Legaspi. So when Legaspi went there, one of the things that was described was a large canoe house. Imagine this Patch, that fit 200 people plus large canoes on top of t hese structures. And there's apparently nowhere else in the world where this can be found. The other thing that we had in common in pre-colonial times was the strong role of women kinship and ownership of property was determined through the mother's lineage. The Spaniards also observed that the mother ruled in the household and the husband did not dare disagree with the wife< laugh>. One of the Spanish historians said that if a C hamorro husband disagreed with his wife, the wife will quote, turn upon him and beat him.

Patch: 9:11

< laugh>. Oh my gosh.

Carmina: 9:14

And this was my favorite Patch. Quote, if the husband is unfaithful to his wife, she will leave the house taking the children and all the household effects. This is from the book, Destiny's Landfall, A History of Guam. And then it goes on to say, if the wife is unfaithful to the husband, this sin is considered less serious for the women than for the men.<laugh>. I love it. I also mentioned earlier Patch, Legaspi also landed in Guam before he went on to the Philippines. It got me thinking why Guam was always the first stop before the Philippines? So it's well documented that it was Magellan's idea to follow the Northeast Tradewinds because they blow strongest from January through March. And this is what helped them get to that part of the world. And ever since he made his journey in the 16th century, ships still use the same winds in the same current and the same route to cross the Pacific. Unsurprisingly, Legaspi also landed in Guam and claimed it for Spain in 1565, but it wasn't really until a century later that they occupied it. The Chamorros were fierce and brave warriors, and they were described to be unimpressed by the Spaniards. And so there was a long period of time when the Chamorros would skirmish with the Spaniards on land. But there was also another group of them apparently that would be trading with the ships. And like the Philippines. This was attributed to separate clans doing their own thing. And then the other connection we have with Guam is that it served as a very important stop on the route of our friend, the Galleon Trade.

Patch: 11:08

Mm-hmm.<affirmative>.

Carmina: 11:09

That was really what established the many frequent interactions between the Spaniards and the two countries.

Patch: 11:16

So Carmina, one of the first recorded permanent immigration of Filipinos happened in 1638. A mutiny broke out on a galleon ship named Nuestra Señora de la Concepciónas it was approaching the region from the Philippines on its way to Mexico because everyone was busy with the fighting on board. The ship crashed and it was assumed that approximately 400 crew members died. Wow. But among those who survived were some Filipinos and Spaniards who never left the island.

Carmina: 11:53

Yeah. One of the shipwreck survivors who never left is a Visayan Filipino Esteban Diaz. And he became so fluent in Chamorro. During his time there, Esteban would meet a Jesuit named Father Diego, Luis De San Vitores, on a ship that stopped over in Guam on its way to Manila. And in the Philippines, father San Vitores learned Tagalog so quickly that he was preaching in it only three months after he arrived. So he must have been some kind of linguistic genius.

Patch: 12:29

Three months?

Carmina: 12:30

I know, right? By the time he arrived in Manila, though most of the Filipinos were already converted and he wanted to establish a mission to save, um, fresh souls, so to speak. So he lobbied pretty heavily to go back to Guam, and it was his obsession for six whole years. He finally got approval to do it and even got a personal commitment from Queen Regent Mariana of Austria, who the Marianna's Islands were named after, after he got the commitment from the Queen Regent and also got funding from the church Father Santiveros hired Esteban to return to Guam with him as his interpreter. He went back there on June, 1668, and it was Esteban who helped the priest translate hymn, prayers and other Catholic teachings into Chamorro. Also, because of Esteban, he was able to preach his first ever sermon in Chamorro on Guam. Another Filipino who was also with Father San Vitores was a teenager, a 17 year old catechist a nd Cebuano named Pedro Calungsor. Father Santiveros' mission was composed of about 5 0 men and Patch. They would be on their own for one whole year until the next galleon arrived. It was composed of not just the two Filipinos that I mentioned, but it also included a Filipino military commander named Captain Juan De Sa nta Cr uz, also some other Filipino soldiers an d l aymen. So at f irst, Patch, they were greeted with open arms, but there would be drama.

Patch: 14:15

Mm-hmm.<affirmative>.

Carmina: 14:15

Remember how we said in our past episode that the Chinese and the Philippines were treated really poorly by the Spaniards? Right? Well, there would be payback in Guam because a Chinese man who came from the Philippines and who experienced all of these inequalities eventually settled in Guam. And he began a smear campaign against the missionary. Guess what his name was?

Patch: 14:41

It's Choco<laugh>.

Carmina: 14:44

I mean, I really tried to find the reason why he was called Choco inexplicably. It's Choco. Yes, you're right.

Patch: 14:57

He was living in Guam for two decades. Right. He was actually shipwrecked there.

Carmina: 15:02

So Choco told the Uras that they would die if they were baptized. Some newborns did die, coincidentally, after being baptized. So there were a lot of confrontations and it took, the Filipino captain Juan De Santa Cruz and his men, some of whom are Filipino soldiers, to protect Father San Vitores during the mission by themselves. Mind you, until the following year when fresh men arrived on the yearly Galleon. So it can really be said that these Filipinos had a prominent role in the Christianizing of Guam. It was Captain Desant Cruz who led the Spanish forces of what would become the Spanish Chamorro wars in 1669. At that time, the Chamorros were mostly against being colonized and converted. So there were really many more battles and deaths after that first encounter.

Patch: 15:57

Choco was very much against Catholicism and spread these rumors. This led to the eventual murder of Father San Vitores and his assistant. During the height of these rumors, San Vitores and Pedro Calungsor were killed in Tumon in April, 1672, after father baptized an infant daughter of Chief Matapang.

Carmina: 16:23

Coincidence, much<laugh>, it's Matapang, which means brave in Tagalog for our listeners who don't know.

Patch: 16:30

So he was a Christian convert at one point, but Matapang believed the baptismal waters would kill his child after his child was baptized. Matapang enlisted a warrior named Hirao to kill San Vitores. But despite San Vitores' death, Christianization continued even more aggressively at the expense of a lot of Chamarro lives.

Carmina: 16:54

Father San Vitores was eventually beatified as a saint and so did the Filipino lay catechist. The 17 year old boy Pedroto your point, things didn't really end at San Vitores' death because San Vitore is no ordinary friar. And because he was no ordinary friar, the Spaniards were unrelenting. Not only was Father San Vitore from the Jesuit order, which was considered the most militant in the Catholic faith, he was also the son of a high official in the Spanish government. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, his mission was considered the Queen Regent's Pet Project. So the reaction to his death was extra, as the young ones would say. And there were many more waves of missionaries and soldiers that followed. The soldiers were composed of many Filipinos. They were usually from Pampanga. And I wondered why it was said that they were very devout practitioners of the Catholic faith. So Patch, our dear friend, Matapang was finally captured and killed by the Spaniards in retaliation for Father San Vitore's death, along with others who had resisted. So in 1680, the Spaniards were beginning to have a very strong foothold in the Marias, and they made Guam their center. That's where they built a lot of the churches and military garrisons. On September 8th, 1681, Chamorro appointees of the newly established Spanish government took the Pledge of Allegiance to Spain. This was the official start of Spanish ruling Guam. And it would last for 217 years. But in spite of that, there continued to be Brave Chamorros in Guam, who mounted a lot of battles against the Spaniards, but they succumbed. So in early 1685, the Chamorro resistance in Guam ended officially and Patch, I don't know if you read about this too, I was so sad for the Chamorros because in every wave of Spanish or other foreign incursions into the islands, the Chamorros were infected by various diseases. Year after year, when the Galleon arrived, they brought a fresh batch of disease such that by the 17 hundreds t he C hamorros were basically decimated from 2000. By 1742, there were only 248 C hamorros left patch.

Patch: 19:44

Oh my goodness.

Carmina: 19:46

And it became so bad Patch that the Spaniards planned to send Filipino families to Guam for quote unquote voluntary resettlement. In 1748, there was a whole boatload of Filipino families that were on a ship on their way to Guam, but the ship sank and everybody drowned. So that wave of mass migration ended there. However, since then, Filipinos continued to be the main migrants to Guam in the form of individuals and small groups of soldiers and military and missionary personnel.

Patch: 20:25

In 1851, 65 Filipino convicts who had been sentenced to death were sent to Guam as farm laborers. And apparently they formed a conspiracy to overthrow Spanish authorities after one month. And as a result, they were returned back to Manila.

Carmina: 20:44

The other significant event that happened happened in 1857, the Governor General in Manila received orders from Spain to establish a prison in the Marianas for civilian convicts called Dedos. And that's when it became a penal colony. So in 18 58, 63 Chinese civilian convicts from the Philippines were the first prisoners to arrive. And then when the hanging of Goza happened as a result of the Kavita mutiny in 1872, Filipinos who were be believed to have been part of that mutiny were also exiled there. And then at the same time, there were internal struggles happening in the Spanish government. So the Spanish dissidents were also sent there<laugh>. And because it was really difficult to escape from the island, these folks weren't really imprisoned in the normal sense that you would think because they lived among the people. However, because of this practice, Guam overflowed with these dedos by mid 1875, and then King Alfonso of Spain in June, 1876 freed all of them, most went back to their homelands. But there were ordinary civilian and military convicts who stayed. Some of them were the educated but radical Filipinos. And they were said to have had a subversive impact on the Chamorros. A lot of the Chamorro women married Filipino men. But interestingly, the Chamorro moms raised their children speaking Chamorro and not Filipino or Spanish. And that's why the Chamorr culture and language survives to this day. There were many Pampangos, Tagalogs and Ilocanos with science and others that infused new customs commerce and vitality into the islands. But despite Filipino influence back in 1898, and even today, there is a distinction between the two ethnicities with Chamorros and many Filipinos still maintaining that distinction. And then to complicate matters even more, the Filipinos on Guam can't really be considered a single entity because they brought with them the complex social dynamic where they formed associations, where they maintained their distinct languages and customs even when they intermarried into the Chamorro society. We've been talking a lot about the similarities between the Philippines and Guam, but unlike the bloody battle of the Philippine American War, I think you have something to share, which is a distinct difference. Right? When the US occupied Guam.

Patch: 23:39

On April 21st, 1898, Congress declared war on the Spanish Empire and following fierce battles, including in Manila Bay, places like Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines became American possessions. Grabbing Guam as well would be a wise move for the US. Captain Henry Glass was given the order and seized the small island. So on June 21, he came across a small harmless Japanese merchant ship. Their ship fired 13 cannon blasts, but the fourth did not return a single shot. And this struck the Americans as pretty odd. They dispatched a boat to the Japanese ship to investigate. But while they were doing this, another boat started rowing toward the vessel, which carried a Spanish flag. Glass his men were kind of confused.

Carmina: 24:34

Mm-hmm<affirmative>,

Patch: 24:35

They lowered a rope ladder and the Spaniards boarded, they were very happy for the unexpected visit by the Americans and they were very grateful to them for saluting to the Spanish flag with the cannon fire. Um,

Carmina: 24:52

Hello!

Patch: 24:53

<laugh>. And they admitted they were out of gunpowder. Well, captain Glass informed the Spaniards that they were actually prisoners of war and that's when they were taken aback. They were very surprised.

Carmina: 25:06

<laugh>, I can just imagine the scene playing out

Patch: 25:09

<laugh>. Exactly. So they were wondering how could they be prisoners of war when there was no war. Apparently Spain had made no attempt to notify Guam's garrison of the war. All messages at that time were delivered by ship. And the last ship heard from the mother country was seven days before the war was declared.

Carmina: 25:34

So I guess it's good that the occupation of Guam was bloodless, but it's also what allowed the US to really establish Guam as their military post while they were battling the Filipinos. It's just all so complicated because one of the other things that happened after World War ii, like everywhere else, Guam was devastated by the war. And then the Americans recognized the strategic importance of Guam to their military operations. And so for a long, long time, Guam was under US Naval Command. And a lot of the things that had been happening in Guam since the advent of the American occupation, there was like the Spaniards not really in service of the people in Guam, but was more to aid US military operations. They made a lot of decisions that unfortunately contributory to the tensions between Filipinos and Chamorros. So for example, a lot of Filipino laborers were imported to Guam. And that was to to help the US naval force to increase their footprint basically on Guam. That created a very cheap labor force. Not only the military, but also American businessmen took advantage of this cheap labor that started a lot of the early, um, resentments between Filipinos and, and the people of Guam. And even if sadly the Filipino workers were treated poorly by both the military and American businesses, they still kept coming. And that's how they became the largest ethnic minority on Guam. So added to this is the people of Guam, since the early 19 hundreds had been petitioning for the government to allow Guam to have US citizenship. And of course all of the racial tensions in the US kind of trickled down to Guam. So for example, in 1907, racial segregation was made official on Guam. But in spite of that, there were a lot of intermarriages between US soldiers and Chamorro women. A lot of Guam's efforts were thwarted by the US Navy because they were really the biggest beneficiaries of Guam staying the way it was. Finally, in 1950, the organic Act was signed into law by President Truman, but it didn't really go all the way in terms of what Guam was aspiring for. It was described as a partial decolonization. This act did not give them all the traditional functions of citizenship. Like as you mentioned earlier, they can't really vote for US presidents and they cannot access all federal and social benefits. So these restrictions really made them second class citizens and it only conferred congressional but not constitutional citizenship to those who were born on the island. After April 11th, 1899. Their children and all Spanish and other nationalities who lived there on that date, excluded from this, are foreign non-residents who were mostly Filipinos. The US Navy advocated very loose processes and admitting Filipino workers in to Guam. So there were many instances where formal requirements really were not met. But because of the labor shortage, the Americans really had to rely on Filipinos, not just in construction, but in later years, even in medical personnel.

Patch: 29:17

Aside from the war, the island is also devastated by a lot of typhoons and this resulted in a lot a loss of lives and homes and the destruction of the islands infrastructure. As a result of that, even as recent as a typhoon in 2002, the need for reconstruction and rebuilding have drawn a lot of Asians, particularly Filipinos to the island.

Carmina: 29:42

We don't have enough time to go into all of the nuances and intricacies of these, but it does kind of make me sad that there's still simmering tensions underneath the surface. I hope that we're able to overcome that because we share a very deep and linked history with each other.

Patch: 30:03

You know, as you said, we do share a lot of history and DNA, so to speak.

Carmina: 30:08

Mm-hmm.<affirmative>.

Patch: 30:09

So I was curious what our contributions to Guam. We brought the kalabaw or the carabao, the water buffalo<laugh>. Yeah. As we know, it's the most popular animal we use in labor in the Philippines, right?

Carmina: 30:23

Mm-hmm.<affirmative>.

Patch: 30:24

And they also use the milk as dairy.

Carmina: 30:27

Speaking of animals, there was a Spanish governor General, his name was Governor Tobias, who brought a herd of deer called Service Marianos from the Philippines in 1771 and set them free in Guam. They're called Binadu in Chamorro. They've survived through the centuries and are still hunted on Guam today.

Patch: 30:51

Another export was Carabao Mangoes, a specific species of Philippine mangoes.

Carmina: 30:57

We also brought sugar cane, cotton, pineapple.

Patch: 31:02

We also introduced tuba or the coconut liquor, sap liquor rather.

Carmina: 31:07

I was gonna say that cuz it's so much fun. Alcoholic drinks.

Patch: 31:11

<laugh>. I thought you were gonna whip out like a bottle of uh, tuba.

Carmina: 31:16

I'm sorry to disappoint. Yes. The chamorros learned how to make tuba from the Filipino soldiers that arrived apparently all the way back from the time of fathers San Vites. Unfortunately. But in the vein of vices, we also introduced tobacco<laugh>.

Patch: 31:34

Wait, I thought we were trying to unite the two.<l augh>.

Carmina: 31:39

We were such bad influences.

Patch: 31:42

Some of the food that we have introduced is the pancit, the Chinese noodles.

Carmina: 31:50

Mm-hmm.<affirmative>.

Patch: 31:51

Lumpia or spring rolls.

Carmina: 31:53

I have one. I have one.

Patch: 31:55

What<laugh>?

Carmina: 31:57

This one we share with the Koreans too. Spam.

Patch: 32:01

Wait, we introduced it, or the American?

Carmina: 32:04

Well, we just have it in common with both Korea and Guam because of the military influence. Right. There's hundreds of recipes,<laugh> that are specifically Gumanian involving spam and I can't wait to try some of them. Okay, so Patch one episode just simply isn't enough. I didn't know if you know this, we're called Pacific Cousins by some.

Patch: 32:29

I didn't know, but I was going to say I feel like somehow are like our cousins.

Carmina: 32:34

<laugh>. Right.

Patch: 32:36

With that, we'd like to say Si Yu'os Ma'åse' which means thank you in Chamorro. Ingat! Thanks for listening to FilTrip with Carmina and Patch. Support FilTrip through Patreon or PayPal, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever all podcasts are downloaded.

Carmina: 33:04

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Patch: 33:13

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