{"id":188918,"date":"2015-01-08T04:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=188918"},"modified":"2015-01-08T04:00:58","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T18:00:58","slug":"descendent-brings-jesuit-skull-back-guam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/descendent-brings-jesuit-skull-back-guam\/","title":{"rendered":"Descendent brings Jesuit skull back to Guam"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAGATNA,\u00a0Guam<\/strong>\u00a0(AP)\u2014A descendant of a Spanish Jesuit missionary, who was killed on\u00a0Guam\u00a0in 1684, has traveled from Spain to\u00a0Guam\u00a0in the spirit of prayer, reconciliation and friendship.<\/p>\n

Nearly 330 years after a Chamorro uprising killed Father Manuel de Sol\u00f3rzano, his descendant, Manuel L\u00f3pez Casquete, brought the missionary\u2019s skull and pages of original letters he wrote while on\u00a0Guam\u00a0to the island.<\/p>\n

University of\u00a0Guam\u00a0anthropology Professor David Atienza, who has been conducting research about Sol\u00f3rzano, said three machete cuts in the skull are visible, which are consistent with accounts of his death.<\/p>\n

Other Jesuit missionaries, who were on\u00a0Guam\u00a0at the time of his death, sent Sol\u00f3rzano\u2019s skull back to Spain.<\/p>\n

Casquete, who arrived on\u00a0Guam\u00a0Sunday, returned to the island to retrace his ancestor\u2019s footsteps. Academic researchers Andres Oyola Fabian and Jose Maria Oyola Perez, also from Spain, are accompanying Casquete on his trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here not to recall wounds, but to heal them,\u201d Casquete said. \u201cI cannot feel hate, but in fact, the exact opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hope Cristobal, who facilitated a press conference at the archdiocese\u2019s Chancery office, said the skull\u2019s arrival on\u00a0Guam\u00a0marks the first time in island history that a relic shows how Chamorro people fought back during the Spanish-Chamorro War, which began in 1671.<\/p>\n

The only accounts of the war have been from Jesuit letters, Atienza said.<\/p>\n

The skull will be on display at several events during the week, including: a round-table discussion at the Cathedral-Basilica, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, and a round table at UOG on Saturday, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. The public is invited to attend all events.<\/p>\n

Bringing Casquete, Fabian and Perez to\u00a0Guam\u00a0has been in the works since August 2013, Atienza said.<\/p>\n

The trip has already been an emotional one, Casquete said.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Returning to\u00a0Guam\u00a0with the skull) is a very important moment,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a very emotional moment when we were landing. We want to make part of a history bigger than us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casquete, Fabian and Perez will be visiting\u00a0Guam\u00a0until Jan. 5, 2015, and when they leave, Sol\u00f3rzano\u2019s skull will return to Spain with them.<\/p>\n

According to a release by the archdiocese\u2019s Chancery office, taking pictures and videos of the skull is prohibited.<\/p>\n

Restrictions by the International Council of Museums, the American Alliance of Museums, and\u00a0Guam\u2019s\u00a0State Historical Preservation Office prevent photos and videos of human remains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HAGATNA,\u00a0Guam\u00a0(AP)\u2014A descendant of a Spanish Jesuit missionary, who was killed on\u00a0Guam\u00a0in 1684, has traveled from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[51,251,445],"class_list":["post-188918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-guam","tag-spain","tag-uog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}