Tag: Intermediate Stories

Searching for Crabs

On By jay.cheleIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

The next story for our Saturday practice group is about a father and son, providing a warm narrative that frames the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. This will be one of the longer pieces that we’ve used for our group, and for good reason: we get to see both a small slice of the life led by the father-son pair as well as several sets of instructions that detail the fabrication and use of various types of traps and other implements for gathering crabs under different conditions. And on a more personal note, our friend Dabit will be facilitating several Saturday practice sessions in our stead while we take some time for a loss in our family.

As ever, in this post you’ll find the Chamorro text, an English translation, and an audio narration by Jay Che’le. Footnotes to follow. Happy reading!

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The Story of the Evil Old Woman

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

As we near the end of October, we’re fully into the fall here in Oregon. Days continue to shorten, leaves are transitioning through golden yellow and red hues, and the air has taken on a crisp chill. To mark the season, we’ll be reading a particularly spooky story in our Saturday practice this week. This story is about a large family who must contend with an unexpected threat. While mom and dad are away for several days on an errand, the eldest amongst eleven fulfills her duty in keeping everyone safe and ensuring their chores are done by bedtime.

In this post, you’ll find the Chamorro text, an English translation, language footnotes, and an audio narration by Jay Che’le. Happy reading!

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How Customs Were

On By jay.cheleIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

Our practice group recently voted on the kind of content that we’re interested in reading. Two themes came out on top: History and Culture, and this week’s story brings us a bit of both. It’s a short piece from the bilingual education programs of the Northern Marianas that gives a narrative account of Mr. Enrique N. Kisa’s reflections on the past and thoughts on changes he was seeing in the late 1970s. This post includes the Chamorro text, the English translation, and a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le. Happy reading!

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Chamorro Pumpkin Recipes

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro StoriesLeave a comment

Chamorro pumpkin recipes were rare in my home growing up, despite the abudance of pumpkins here in the Pacific Northwest during the Fall season. I do remember the one time my grandmother made påstit (turnovers) with pumpkin filling, and that was a real treat. In this post we will read through some Chamorro pumpkin recipes from the final chapter of the book Manmannge’ Na Nengkanno’ I Manchamorro Yan Taimanu Manmafa’tinas-niha written by Carmen C. Blas. Our Saturday morning practice group has been reading through this book since January of this year, so it’s exciting to finally finish it! As always, this post includes the Chamorro text, an English translation, a Chamorro audio narration by Jorell Meno, and a link to the original source document in the UOG Digital Archives Collection. Happy reading!

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First Encounter With Magellan

On By Schyuler LujanIn Chamorro Stories2 Comments

The history of our islands and people have been framed so often from the Western, colonial gaze that it can be easy to forget the indigenous perspective. March 6th marks the anniversary of when the Chamorro people first encountered – and generously aided – Magellan and his starving crew. Yet it is how Magellan chose to label the cultural misunderstandings between our people and the Spaniards which has so often defined the larger historical narrative. So in this story, written by Brigida D.L. Guerrero, we get to read a rare piece of historical fiction in the Chamorro language that tells of this encounter from the Chamorro perspective. I found this story in the UH Manoa Pacific Languages Collection, and hope you enjoy it! This post includes the Chamorro text and a Chamorro audio narration by Jay Che’le.

The English Translation is forthcoming! I have not posted the translation yet because we I underestimated how long it would take to do and haven’t finished it yet.

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