Chamorro ancestors deserve respect
For at least 30 years, I have immersed myself in the study of our ancestors, the
taotaomonas. I have read every conceivable literature and historical documentation trying to source out an understanding of
our past in order to mitigate a path into the future.
It is funny how most people in Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan portray the Taotaomonas as horrid beings and evil spirits.
These poor ancestors have been morphed as scary ghosts whose main mission was to harm and terrorize the living. The suruhanus
and suruhanas are primarily to blame for this because they tagged our guelo' with every imaginable illness, new and mysterious
and beyond their comprehension. The priests and missionaries, too, share the blame because they have vilified our forefathers.
How ironic that 400 years ago, we venerated our guelo' with sincere passion and love.
We worshiped them. We displayed their skulls on a pedestal in our living room. We buried them beneath our latte homes. We
created chants and songs in their honor so their memory will survive the generations. Believe it or not, the modern-day
Chamori is a by-product of assimilation and cultural dysfunction. The uncivilized people of our past, along with their weird
belief system and nakedness are now completely extinct.
Spanish missionaries told us not to worship our guelo' because it went against the teachings of the new Christian God.
They told us not to pray to our ancestors because only the Christian God should receive that honor. But walk into any church
today and you will find statues of saints that our people pray to. Different? How different can it be?
Life in our uncivilized past was certainly unique and unpretentious. What classifies civility anyway? Wearing pants and
skirts? Is it more civil to be fully attired and then go out and rape someone of the opposite sex? Is it more civil to be
educated and learned and then go out and abuse a loved one? Is it more civil to attend church on Sunday and come Monday morning
go out and lie and cheat a fellow human being?
As uneducated and uncivilized as our ancestors were, such behavior was taboo. As backwards as the animal kingdom was, the
social fabric of our ancestral root would never allow for such dishonor and virtual disrespect.
NORBERT AND GRACIELA PEREZ
Panama City, Panama
