{"id":231554,"date":"2016-07-06T06:06:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T20:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=231554"},"modified":"2016-07-06T06:06:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T20:06:53","slug":"master-blacksmith-wants-capitalize-renewed-interest-blacksmithing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/master-blacksmith-wants-capitalize-renewed-interest-blacksmithing\/","title":{"rendered":"Master blacksmith wants to capitalize on renewed interest in blacksmithing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Master<\/a>
Master blacksmith Francisco Cruz Lizama answers questions fielded by students when he visited Kagman High School last week as part of the project by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council and the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Festival of the Pacific Arts in Guam sparked a renewed interest among the youth on ancient customs and ways of Pacific Islanders: blacksmithing and traditional navigation and master blacksmith Francisco Cruz Lizama wants to capitalize on that.<\/p>\n

Lizama, who was on Saipan last week visiting several schools, said he\u2019s glad that a number of young people expressed interest in learning about blacksmithing. \u201cThis is what our ancestors have been doing and I\u2019m glad that it is peaking again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is good for the youth to take interest. Like in Guam, before there were no traditional seafarers or navigators, now there\u2019s already an association and they are also building canoes. I make tools for them, tools that they use to build canoes,\u201d said Lizama.<\/p>\n

He added that he is the only remaining master blacksmith in the Marianas\u2014Guam and the CNMI. \u201cBefore, a long time ago, there were also two blacksmiths here on Saipan but they\u2019re gone. There\u2019s nobody left here to continue it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s one of the reasons why he came to Saipan, to see if there are some who would be interested to learn the trade. \u201cThat\u2019s why I devoted my time coming over here, to see if somebody would also take an interest. I\u2019m very glad and more than willing to teach them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interest is there but one must also love the art. If kids here wanted to learn, I\u2019m more than willing to teach. In the olden times, this is how we make a living. The blacksmiths make the tools and we buy it,\u201d said Lizama, who\u2019s been a blacksmith for 27 years.<\/p>\n

Lizama added that he has already taught 17 people, three of which are female and one only 14 years old. He only wanted one thing to the person who wanted to become one of his students one must really be interested and serious to learn the art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very serious person. I take teaching passionately. If you miss a few sessions, then you\u2019re gone. I can\u2019t waste my time on you since I want to put an effort in teaching those who wanted to learn,\u201d said the 74-year-old Lizama, who trained under master blacksmith Tun Jack Lujan.<\/p>\n

But he needs to schedule his lessons since he could only teach a certain number of people. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit dangerous because I need to keep an eye on what you\u2019re doing. One slip or one mistake, especially if a piece of hot metal flies, and it can burn through your skin. I emphasize safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lizama answered a number of questions from students when he visited Kagman High School last week.<\/p>\n

The Northern Marianas Humanities Council, with the help of the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council headed by Antonia Tudela, made possible Lizama\u2019s visit to Saipan. Alice Igitol is the SNIMC vice chair with Lareina Camacho as secretary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Festival of the Pacific Arts in Guam sparked a renewed interest among the youth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":231555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12361,419,12362,67],"class_list":["post-231554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-francisco-cruz-lizama","tag-kagman-high-school","tag-marianas-guam","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231554","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}