CHamoru Legends retells twelve CHamoru legends and features personal reflections from author Teresita Lourdes Perez, unique illustrations of each legend by Guam artists, and versions of the legends in the CHamoru language by Maria Ana Tenorio Rivera. The book includes CHamoru classics like the story of the siblings who created the universe; the two lovers who were pushed to the edge of a cliff because their union was forbidden; and the tale of the son who leapt an island away to escape his jealous father. CHamoru Legends is the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze Medal recipient for Best Regional Fiction for Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Rim. It is a reversible book featuring the legends in English on one side and in CHamoru on the other. Through multiple layers of interpretation, the book weaves together strips of wisdom and cultural lessons like the leaves used to shape the CHamoru guåfak, or mat, upon which the earliest CHamoru storytellers sat sharing their versions of these timeless tales.

Navigating CHamoru Poetry focuses on Indigenous CHamoru (Chamorro) poetry from the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam). Poet and scholar Craig Santos Perez brings critical attention to a diverse and intergenerational collection of CHamoru poetry and scholarship. Throughout this book, Perez develops an Indigenous literary methodology called “wayreading” to navigate the complex relationship between CHamoru poetry, cultural identity, decolonial politics, diasporic migrations, and Native aesthetics. Perez argues that contemporary CHamoru poetry articulates new and innovative forms of indigeneity rooted in CHamoru customary arts and values, while also routed through the profound and traumatic histories of missionization, colonialism, militarism, and ecological imperialism. This book shows that CHamoru poetry has been an inspiring and empowering act of protest, resistance, and testimony in the decolonization, demilitarization, and environmental justice movements of Guåhan. Perez roots his intersectional cultural and literary analyses within the fields of CHamoru studies, Pacific Islands studies, Native American studies, and decolonial studies, using his research to assert that new CHamoru literature has been—and continues to be—a crucial vessel for expressing the continuities and resilience of CHamoru identities. This book is a vital contribution that introduces local, national, and international readers and scholars to contemporary CHamoru poetry and poetics.

This book preserves a legacy of CHamoru culture and cuisine of the Mariånas islands of Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan from the perspectives of CHamoru authors Gerard and Mary Aflague. The Aflagues share various aspects of the CHamoru culture and over 100 recipes that reflect the islands' CHamoru cuisine. This book is beautifully designed in the Aflague's design style and is vivid in its photography of the islands and the many dishes that they have prepared.

Sirena is a young Chamorro girl who loves nature. She ignores her chores as usual to go swimming in the sparkling river, at a time in Guam's history when all is pristine. Her mother utters a curse that will forever change Sirena's life, unless her godmother can help. Based on a universal “tail” of the mystery and origin of mermaids, Sirena: A Mermaid Legend from Guam, is a retelling of a classic for the next generation of Chamorro children and all to dive into.

New CHamoru Literature highlights an intergenerational selection of eighteen emerging, mid-career, and established CHamoru authors, including an extended feature on master storyteller Peter R. Onedera. As Onedera explains in his essay, “The Dilemma of an Official Word,” Chamorro, Chamoru, CHamoru are different spellings of the same “description used in reference to Guam’s indigenous people and those in the Marianas archipelago for thousands of years.” Within the pages of this rich collection, you will find diverse genres, including poetry, chant, fiction, creative nonfiction, and playwriting. The pieces are composed predominantly in English; however, the opening chant is in the CHamoru language (with translation by the author), other pieces are multilingual, and one poem is composed in CHamoru creole English. The themes range from genealogy to identity, colonialism to cultural revitalization, ecological connection to environmental injustice, love to sexual abuse, and belonging to diaspora. This anthology will introduce readers to the Mariana archipelago and the vibrancy of CHamoru literature, culture, histories, migrations, politics, memories, traumas, and dreams.

For the first time, Navigating CHamoru Poetry focuses on Indigenous CHamoru (Chamorro) poetry from the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam). In this book, poet and scholar Craig Santos Perez navigates the complex relationship between CHamoru poetry, cultural identity, decolonial politics, diasporic migrations, and native aesthetics.

Spoken Chamorro is designed to enable the student to learn to speak and understand the Chamorro language the way native speakers do in their everyday activities. This second edition has been revised to incorporate the spelling conventions adopted by the Marianas Orthography Committee in January 1971, and suggestions made by teachers who have used the text in the classroom. The basic material in the text remains unchanged, the work of the author and Pedro M. Ogo, principal of Rota Elementary and High School, who is a native speaker of the language. As much as possible, the lessons exclude regionalisms, presenting the language as it is heard generally on Guam, Saipan, Rota, and elsewhere throughout the Mariana Islands.

A reference grammar of the Chamorro language.

Learning a language isn't an easy task, even if you're the type who's more linguistically inclined. However, when one is learning a rare language such as Chamorro, the indigenous language of the Mariana Islands, using it in everyday conversation can be extremely intimidating. In "Everyday Chamorro: Chamorro Language Phrases for Beginners," you'll find a variety of tips, common phrases, and cultural tidbits that will help you on your way to achieving your language goals. Whether you're learning Chamorro because it's part of your heritage, for pure polyglot curiosity, or just to learn a few phrases to be a polite visitor to the Marianas, "Everyday Chamorro" can be used as a resource in navigating a variety of basic conversation topics from travel and family interaction to everyday tasks and more.

This revised edition of the standard history of Guam is intended for general readers and students of the history, politics, and government of the Pacific region. Its narrative spans more than 450 years, beginning with the initial written records of Guam by members of Magellan 1521 expedition and concluding with the impact of the recent global recession on Guam’s fragile economy.