A Talayero Tale reader by the name of Jose A. Cruz, Jr. asked a good question on our guestbook…."Why don't the Chamorro's on Guam teach and speak the Chamorro language to their children?"
I thought about this question for weeks trying to come up with a good answer. An answer that will be fair not only to you readers but also to myself.
It is so easy to put the blame on someone or some event in our history. Many Chamorro people have pointed the finger at the Americans. After all, they were the ones who punished the young Chamorro generation for speaking the Chamorro language in school back in the 1950's.
If you are content with that reason then I suppose you need not read further.
Just so you understand where I am coming from, the following is a personal account of how my mother lived through the Japanese Occupation of the 1940's, the re-colonization of Guahan after the World War II, and the raising of her children from the late 1950's to the early 1970's. With this in mind, perhaps I can better relate to you the topic of discussion.
By sharing her life you may come to understand the Simple truth of the English speaking Chamorro.
For every issue there are two sides. The most popular side is where blame can be pointed. In this case, the Americans or state siders are the ones we are pointing to. As I said earlier, they were the ones who required the young Chamorro generation to speak English in school. My mother used to tell me the teachers will use a ruler to strike the hand of a student if the Chamorro language was spoken in school. Allot of people argue this was "THE" main reason for the decline in the Chamorro language.
For the sake of keeping the course of History straight, let us go back to the 1940's and the Japanese occupation of Guahan. During the war, my mother was but 7 years old. I remember her telling me about how the Japanese soldiers would slap anyone whom spoke any language other than Japanese. You have to take into account the War lasted four long years.
After the Liberation of Guahan, my mother was still of school age and attended school under the Americans who liberated us. This brings us up to the issue of reprimanding the Chamorro speaking student with ruler strikes to the hand. Could you honestly believe a punishment such as a ruler strike could change the course of a spoken language of several hundred even thousands of years? Mind you, this was not a matter of life or death.
The argument I don't hear is why doesn't anyone bring up the Japanese occupation as part of the reason the Chamorro language is dying out. Why are we so adamant to place the blame on the Americans? Where does the truth lie?
What makes this issue a complex one is that it involves monumental events so close in time. Guahan in the 1930's was a tranquil island. The early 1940's brought the War into our homes and suffering to our people. The dream of Liberation became a reality in the middle 1940's.
Now the truth…..
I was fortunate enough to remember what obstacles my mother had to endure growing up on Guahan. I recall discussing the issue of why we don't speak Chamorro in our home.
For the sake of preparing you to accept my mother's reasoning behind her English speaking Chamorro children, you must first understand THE ENTIRE GENERATION of Chamorro children born from the late 1950's to the 1970's were not subjected to the kind of treatment (ruler strikes) of the previous generation.
The Chamorro's born in the era mentioned in the above paragraph (according to my Mother) were spoken the English language for the sake of higher education. Many Chamorro's in my Parents generation must have had some secret coalition to speak English to their children knowing one day we would need these skills to achieve our goals. They felt that the English language was the tool needed to assure a successful future. In many respects, they were correct.
Parent don't always seem to make sense so when mother told me HER reason, I simply shrugged my shoulders and accepted it. That was 20 years ago and I must say being able to speak, write and comprehend the English language allowed us to be where we are today. If I told this to my children, I'm sure I'll get a response similar to this : "duh…..hello…..earth to dad"
Funny thing, as I was writing this tale I had a great thought about encouraging our children to speak the chamorro language again…….why don't we bring out the ruler and strike their hands if they speak English in school. This method of punishment was blamed for the almost "near extinction" of our language. Perhaps the same method could be used to bring it back,eh? (a thought to ponder!)
Your comments would be greatly appreciated, please take a moment to sign our guestbook.
And oh, if you don't ….."bai hu panak I kanai mu" ("I'll spank your hand!")
Esta…..
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