That was the message from University of Guam history professor Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua who spoke yesterday morning to the members of the Rotary Club of Guam Sunrise.
He said he hopes Gov. Eddie Calvo is serious about pursuing a self-determination plebiscite, but emphasized it must be preceded by a comprehensive education program to prepare people for the vote and the alternatives to be offered.
“Everything about the way Guam is can be pointed to its territorial status,” Bevacqua said. He asked, “So why is it then that … these issues (decolonization, political status) are dealt with as if they are very marginal, something only the activists care about?” He asserted that Guam’s status and relationship with the United States is a huge part of Guam-life.
Bevacqua interviewed more than 100 Chamorros during research for a master’s degree, asking the question: “Why is it that, despite living in a colony, Chamorros are so resistant to even the discussion of decolonization?” After talking with these Chamorros, trying to get their thoughts, Bevacqua said what he learned was that Chamorros, both here and in southern California, “know very little” about self-determination, and “didn’t seem to understand the issue very well.”
A Chamorro rights activist who writes about political-status matters, Bevacqua asserted that “the United States is against any political status change, for all of its territories. “For years they’ve just tried to steer all of them onto a path where they just kind of stay where they’re at.”
Whenever Guam deals with the federal government on sensitive issues such as self-determination, or war reparations, it finds the easiest thing for Washington to do is nothing. He cited the failure of Guam’s Commonwealth Act, some 14 years ago, as an example of the difficulty Guam faces. “If commonwealth (as a political status) had gone forward, it would be interesting, really interesting” — to see how the past 20 years might have been different.
Bevacqua indicated he favors free association as a new status for Guam, and is personally in favor of only Chamorros voting in a plebiscite. He said if the U.S. Congress would enable a plebiscite for the indigenous people of Guam, it would be better than Guam pursuing a self-determination vote unilaterally.
“I hope Calvo is very serious about this,” Bevacqua concluded. “We’re going to have the island talk about what our future is. We’re all going to come together and we’re going to figure this out. He has the chance to kind of lead the island, and say we’ve been stuck in this position too long. Where do we want to go next? What do we want? What can we do?”
