Land and culture

I write you today as I feel that our community is being led to believe that we will somehow lose our culture should Article 12 be done away with. I wasn’t born in the Northern Marians. I never lived on Guam. I spent over 25 years of my life living in the mainland but I am every bit Chamorro as those of you that were born and raised here. Being born and raised in Los Angeles, California, I was exposed to the many cultures that the world had to offer. The neighborhood I grew up in was a melting pot of culture with Japanese-Americans, Mexican-American, African-American, Filipino-Americans, and Korean-Americans. I thought, as a child, how neat it was to go to my many friends’ house, meet their parents and witness their different lifestyles and eat their different types of foods. I got to indulge in authentic Japanese ramen, Mexican refried beans with tortillas, African-American chitlans and collared greens, Filipino chicken adobo (although mom’s estufao was always better), and Korean bulbogi with kimchee. I was the luckiest kid being exposed to all these fabulous cultures and eating all this wonderful food.

Not only was I impressed by these many cultures, my friends also thought that my culture was intriguing and unique. My sister and I were the only Chamorros at school. When I was asked what my nationality was, no one knew Chamorro and was very inquisitive about my culture, including the teachers. I loved having to explain that my dad is from the island of Saipan and my mom from Guam. I loved it so much that whenever we had Social Studies projects I always wanted to do them on the history of the Mariana Islands. My friends loved coming over to my house. They always said our language was peculiar and that they noticed a lot of Spanish words. We would have to explain why our last name was Santos and why our numbers were in Spanish. The best part was feeding my friends, as they loved our food. As we all know, we Chamorro love to eat but even more love to feed our friends and guest as this is part of our culture. My classmates loved kadun pika (but not so spicy), kadun katne and most especially chicken kelaguen. Mom always had to make kelaguen and titiyas for my friends and she enjoyed doing it. And my friends loved to drown their food with finadene!

Even though I grew in Los Angeles, my parents passed down the Chamorro culture and all its wonderfully unique customs and traditions. Mom and Dad may have primarily spoken English to my sister and me but grandma was always around and she didn’t speak any English. She always spoke Chamorro to me hence my ability to speak and understand Chamorro today, although my wife says my fluency is “apling” or broken. Growing up, my parents instilled in us respect for others and respect for elders. We would go to baptismal parties or finakpo novenas in Long Beach and I had to “amen” all of the elders. These events had all the local food, local music, and local culture. Even when I had my confirmation in the Catholic Church, my uncles brought a pig to our house and roasted it in the backyard over an open fire for the party. My friends were amazed when we actually roasted a pig in the backyard! I am very fortunate because although I was not raised on the islands, I am a very proud Chamorro. I have three beautiful children (and one on the way) with a wonderful Chamorro wife and we will raise our kids with the same love and respect our parents taught us. We will instill our culture in them because that is all we know.

I am even more fortunate because I inherited land from my father and I have enough NMD blood (I am only 50 percent since my mother was a non-NMD) to actually own my inheritance. Ultimately, as a property owner on Saipan, I do not want to be told how to dispose of my property. My wife is 100 percent NMD but she chose to marry me even though I am only 50 percent. This union makes our children 75 percent. Realistically, it may be the case that our children will marry someone with less than 100 percent (like my wife did or my father did) or even 0 percent NMD. It would be most unfortunate if my descendants eventually will not quality to own their inherited land the way I do.

Furthermore, I find it sad that some individuals feel that I will somehow lose my culture if I sell my land to a non-NMD. Selling my property to non-NMD will not result in me and my family losing my culture. What it will do is allow me to sell the land, if I wish to do so, for its actual worth so I can afford my children the education they deserve and the prosperity we all strive for. Otherwise, I may be stuck with selling it to another NMD for a much lower price since the buyer knows there is a limited market of sellers and so he can dictate the price. We should be less concerned with non-NMDs taking over our islands as much as we should be concerned about NMDs taking advantage of the situation and leaving many landless at very little cost to them.

Many of you know me and now know a little about me. I will live on our beautiful island of Saipan until I live no more. I don’t come from a wealthy family and I have no special interests. Having options to do whatever I want with my personal possessions and property should not be dictated by others and deceitfully telling the masses that we will lose our culture if we sell our land to outsiders is cavalier. My culture did not come through my land; it came through the efforts of my family to keep our heritage alive through me.