Hope Cristobal just forwarded me a most excellent article from the website antiwar.com, about Guam’s long-standing struggle to hold a plebiscite on its political status. As usual, Guam’s efforts to pull itself out of colonial subservience are being met with disdain (15 US senators recently passed through Guam without bothering to greet the island’s lawmakers) and now even a lawsuit.
“Guam may be a forgotten outpost of empire, a resting place for Uncle Sam’s boot as he performs a “Pacific pivot,” but the Guamanians’ desire to regain control over their destiny ought to be a lesson – and an inspiring example – to the whole world.”
I struggle to understand why Guam should have a plebiscite. Guam was owned by the Spanish who relinquished the island and other territories to the United States following a brief war.
Should you find a way to change my point of view you would have a difficult time arguing a plebiscite that allows for a Chamorro-only vote.
Guam has not been a Chamorro island since the days of Magellan when the conquistadors raped and killed off all of the men and saved the women for assimilation.
After more than four centuries of colonial rule under the Spanish, Guam’s population ceased to be Chamorro. While there is a considerable number descendants who remain, Guam is now an island with a culturally diverse population.
Should there be a plebiscite, the voting base must be made up of the citizens of Guam and not the distant relatives of people who existed hundreds of years ago.
To exclude any resident based on ethnicity would be akin to the same sort of oppression that was brought about by Spanish rule.
Brad, Have you seen The Insular Empire film yet? I think it will help to illuminate some of these issues for you.
As to why Guam should have a Plebiscite – when the US took Guam from Spain, it promised to, eventually, let the natives decide on their own government. In other words – the US signed a treaty promising to allow them to do so. And yes, the US has renigged on countless treaties with Indigenous people over the past 200 years, but that’s not an excuse.
To correct your history: the women the Spanish ‘saved for assimilation’ never completely assimilated – and while they may no longer be Tao Tao Tano, they are very distinctly Chamorro. The Chamorro language – the umbilical cord of culture – is still an Austronesian language, with its own syntax and grammar, and not Spanish (though it incorporates many Spanish words). The Americans, in fact, have done far more to destroy Chamorro culture than the Spanish ever did.
As for why a Chamorro-only vote: simply put, because it’s part of the Organic Act. Again – a promise made to the people of Guam by the United States Congress. Note too that the “people of Guam” are defined as those LIVING ON GUAM in 1950. It’s not a racial basis, or even a cultural one – simply a reflection of the fact that this particular group of people had not been able to choose its government for over 500 years, and that when Congress finally deemed the time would be right, those people (or their descendants) would be the ones entitled to vote. The problem lies not in the fact that the vote is Chamorro only, but in the fact that the Congress and the DOI have stalled the plebiscite for so long, and that the DHS has continued to allow people to settle on Guam and call it home, without letting them know that they are potentially only there temporarily.