Memoirs Pasifika

This is the final episode of Season 1, so we decided to make it a bit different than the others by highlighting portions of interviews from past episodes that didn’t make the final cut, but that we still want to share with you.

Sometimes these clips provide more context or a cool anecdote for a topic we delved into in a prior episode. Or, in other cases, they offer greater insight into the personal development of the interviewee, or their emotional state at the time of the events in question. And sometimes they speak at length about a different historical event or topic altogether than what the interview was officially about, but it still covers something we think our audience – you! — might find interesting.

Our anchor for this episode is Tony Azios, the producer / director of Memoirs Pasifika, but you’ll still hear questions being asked by several of our previous anchors who conducted most of those interviews. Tony is also a reporter, documentary filmmaker, and instructor at the University of Guam's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. 

Subscribe to the podcast and follow us on social media. Visit our website (MemoirsPasifika.com) to explore archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

• Sen. Mary Camacho Torres
• Dr. Laura Marie Torres Souder 
• Vicky Ritter
• Gordon Ritter
• Lt. Governor Pedro Agulto Tenorio
• Lt. Governor Joshua Tenorio
• Pwo Larry Raigetal

Music:

• Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song - Ryan Shook

Team:

• Producer / Host - Tony Azios
• Audio Engineer - Ryan Shook
• Intern - Annie Fay Camacho

This is Part II of Episode 6, "Revival of Traditional Seafaring in the Marianas." Part I was released in late October 2021.

Through interviews with master navigators and their students, Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua discusses how, beginning in the 1980s, CHamorus began to relearn the ancient seafaring skills lost here to colonization — and how the revival of these traditions goes hand-in-hand with the CHamoru Renaissance and decolonization movement.

Our anchor for this episode is Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua. He's an historian and teacher of CHamoru, the indigenous language of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and serves as curator of the Guam Museum.

Subscribe to the podcast and follow us on social media. Visit our website (MemoirsPasifika.com) to explore archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

• Sandra Iseke Okada
• Dr. Larry Cunningham
• Pwo Rob Limtiaco
• Pwo Larry Raigetal
• Vanessa Toves

Music:

• Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song - Ryan Shook
•  Puluwat Hymn - Spirit of Micronesia

Team:

• Producer / Host - Tony Azios
• Audio Engineer - Ryan Shook
• Intern - Annie Fay Camacho

Through interviews with master navigators and their students, Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua discusses how, beginning in the 1980s, CHamorus began to relearn the ancient seafaring skills lost here to colonization — and how the revival of these traditions goes hand-in-hand with the CHamoru Renaissance and decolonization movement.

This is Part I of a two-part episode. Part II will be released in mid-November 2021.

Our anchor for this episode is Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua. He's an historian and teacher of CHamoru, the indigenous language of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and serves as curator of the Guam Museum.

Subscribe to the podcast and follow us on social media. Visit our website (MemoirsPasifika.com) to explore archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

• Sandra Iseke Okada
• Dr. Larry Cunningham
• Pwo Rob Limtiaco
• Pwo Larry Raigetal

Music:

• Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song - Ryan Shook
• Star-Path Chant - Spirit of Micronesia
• Navigators of Puluwat - Spirit of Micronesia

Team:

• Producer / Host - Tony Azios
• Audio Engineer - Ryan Shook
• Intern - Annie Fay Camacho

In recognition of Pride Month, Dr. Vivian Dames tells the story of Guam’s campaign for marriage equality through interviews with several people who played a role in the historic effort. They discuss how the movement gained momentum, the broader significance of the eventual legal victory, and current issues regarding LGBTQ rights and opportunities here.

Dr. Dames is a retired professor of Social Work/Women & Gender Studies at the University of Guam with interest in community organizing, social justice, and social policy. She has been engaged in advocacy and community organizing related to social work and the human services, as well as prison reform, land use, welfare and economic justice, militarization, and marriage equality.

Subscribe / follow us on social media, and from wherever you stream podcasts. Visit our website (MemoirsPasifika.com) to explore archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

• Benjamin Joseph “BJ” Cruz
• Tim Dela Cruz
• Lt. Governor Joshua Tenorio
• Bill Pesch
• Rev. James Moore
• Lasia Casil
• Jaydeen Lujan
• Lauryn Lujan

Music:

• Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song - Ryan Shook
• Wait - NVRDRMNT
• Talisman - Air
• One - AnthonyKozar.net
• Various Tracks - Explosion in the Sky

Team:

• Producer / Host - Tony Azios
• Audio Engineer - Ryan Shook
• Intern - Annie Fay Camacho

In our fourth episode, Congressman LJ Castro of Saipan discusses several key moments and debates from the Northern Mariana Islands’ self-determination process of the 1960s and ‘70s, including the Marianas Political Status Commission’s negotiations with the United States government to end the NMI’s status as a US-administered Trust Territory. Through the so-called “Covenant Agreement,” the Northern Marianas were ultimately able to establish the islands as a commonwealth of the United States with greater rights, autonomy, and citizenship.

LJ Castro is a former congressman in the Northern Mariana Islands’ House of Representatives, and is currently coordinator for the NMI’s Youth Congress. Mr. Castro also serves as creative director of Guma' Simiyan Manaina-ta, a dance troupe showcasing Chamorro culture through the performing arts. In 2017, he was granted the Governor's Humanities Award for Preservation of Traditional Cultural Practices, in recognition of his work in promoting culture through song, chant, and dance.

Subscribe / follow us on social media, and from wherever you stream podcasts. Visit our website (MemoirsPasifika.com) to explore archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

• Vicente Naputi Santos
• Manuel Atalig Sablan
• Pedro Agulto Tenorio

Music:

• Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song - Ryan Shook

Team:

• Producer / Host - Tony Azios
• Audio Engineer - Ryan Shook
• Sound Recordist (Saipan) - Brad Ruszala
• Intern - Annie Fay Camacho

In this episode, Dr. Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi discusses Guam’s role as the primary way station for South Vietnamese refugees in the chaotic months immediately following the end of the Vietnam War. April 2021 marks the 46th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon — and the beginning of the massive evacuation and resettlement effort known as Operation New Life.

Dr. Gandhi is an assistant professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (Tovaangar). Her book, Archipelago of Resettlement: Vietnamese Refugee Settlers in Guam and Israel-Palestine, is forthcoming with UC Press in spring 2022. Evyn's grandmother and mother were Vietnamese refugees who were processed on Guam during Operation New Life.

Subscribe / follow us on social media, and from wherever you stream podcasts. Visit our website (MemoirsPasifika.com) to explore archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

• Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo
• Hồ Ngọc Hoa
• Joaquin "Kin" Perez
• Gordon Ritter
• Vicky Ritter
• Bianca Nguyen

Music:

• Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song - Ryan Shook
• One - www.anthonykozar.net
• Septieme - www.anthonykozar.net
• Drifting 2 - Audionautix
• NavajoNight - Audionautix
• Desaprendere (Treatment) - Fourstones
• Tremelo1-gtr - Fourstones

Team:

• Producer / Host - Tony Azios
• Audio Engineer - Ryan Shook
• Intern - Annie Fay Camacho

Happy Women’s History Month and Mes CHamoru! You’re listening to the 2nd episode of Memoirs Pasifika, a podcast series exploring events, movements, and people in modern Micronesian history. In our second episode, Dr. Vivian Dames tells the story of one CHamoru woman, Cecilia Cruz Bamba, who courageously took on the U.S. federal government on behalf of Guam’s World War II survivors and their descendants by championing the causes of compensation for Land Claims and War Reparations.

Subscribe to the podcast, follow us on social media, and visit us at MemoirsPasifika.com to enjoy archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

- George Bamba Jr.

- Dr. Laura Marie Torres Souder

Music:

• Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song by Ryan Shook
• Septieme - by Anthony Kozar / Anthonykozar.net
• Drifting 2 - by Jason Shaw / Audionautix.com
• Namaste - by Jason Shaw / Audionautix.com
• Atlantis - by Jason Shaw / Audionautix.com
• Deep Space - by Jason Shaw / Audionautix.com
• Running Waters - by Jason Shaw / Audionautix.com
• Crashed - by STEREOFLOAT / stereofloat.bandcamp.com/
• The Return - by STEREOFLOAT / stereofloat.bandcamp.com/

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Memoirs Pasifika, a podcast exploring events, movements, and people in modern Micronesian history.

In this episode, Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua tells the story of Governor Carlos Camacho’s eventful trip to Vietnam — at the height of the war — to visit Guam's battle-weary troops during Christmas.

The trip unexpectedly helped shape Guam’s political history, launched a practice among politicians nationwide that continues up until today, and even inspired a hit song!

Dr. Bevacqua is an historian and teacher of Chamoru, the indigenous language of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Subscribe to Memoirs Pasifika, and follow us on social media or visit us at MemoirsPasifika.com to enjoy archival materials related to each episode.

Interviewees:

- Senator Mary Camacho Torres

- Eddie Duenas

- James Brooks

Music:

- Memoirs Pasifika intro/outro song by Ryan Shook

- “Christmas Odyssey in Viet Nam” by Johnny Sablan