~
“The fallen Latte is the sign. It is from within the row of Latte that we feel our strength. It is the
severred capstone that gives us Their message, ‘Ti monhayon I che’cho.’ We will not rest until the
Latte is whole.”—Cecilia C. T. Perez
from Signs of Being—A Chamoru Spiritual Journey
~
“these latde stones
were moved from
the village of mepo
behind the military fence
to a museum—
but then they were moved
again to this park
for tourists[early prelatte period : prior to 1485 bc—500 bc]
“to build i guma’latte’
a traditional house
start with the foundation
the latde—“find a stone that resembles
the haligi, the pillar
then find a coral head from the reef
for the tasa, the capstone“to build larger latde
you have to go to the quarry“first outline the shape of
the haligi and the tasa
in the stone like writing
the bones of a house“then dig
“an act
relative to
changingthe official name
of guamto its name in
ChamorroGuåhan
“to move the tasa and haligi
[we] need rope“peel the bark from
the hibiscus
cut into strips
dry and weave with
your hands
like this[intermediate prelatte period : 500 bc—1 ad]
or get coconut husk
soak and dry
and braid the strands
like this“from
guaha :
there is
have
existthe final ‘n’
denotes
possession ofGuåhan : a place that has
a place of resources
all-encompassing“then [we] pull
the stones from the quarry
pull with your legs pull with
your arms your back pull with
your shoulders pull
from your bones and
breath and
blood[transitional prelatte period : 1 ad—1000 ad]
“pull the stones
to the land
that will hold the househere?
“dig
to root
the haligi
fill the space
with rocks[larger latte period : 1000 ad—1521 ad]
“build a ramp of dirt to
the top of the haligi pull
the tasa and place it
on top“unlike Guåhan
it is difficult to decipher
the base word guam
or its etymologyguam
was predominately referred to as Guåhan
from 1521 until 1898
in 1898 the treaty of paris signed by spain and us
referred to the island asguam
words instill ownership
“when all the latde stones
are placed in parallel rows then
[we] can build the house above“the spanish called them casa
de los antigos
house
of the ancients
before they destroyed them
but many latde stones survived
just like us“the legislature finds that guam
shall herein after be
Guåhanall references to guam shall be renamed
or understood to refer to GuåhanAnd shall be
the official designationof the island
“in the space beneath the house
within the latde stones
you can work
cook
build and shelter canoes
learn to navigate[early historic period : 1521 ad—1700 ad]
“the dead were buried
beneath the dirt beneath the house
woven into the roots of the latde
close enough to protect [us]even if [we] were moved?
“even here
yan pago
hasso
i patgon-hu
hasso
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones