I HAD the privilege of meeting and befriending dear Guelo Fadang — Thomas Mendiola while serving as an agriculture and community development cooperative research and extension agent at Northern Marianas College on the small island of Rota (Luta in Chamoru language).
We met Guelo Fadang and his beloved wife Aning while admiring a sacred Ficus tree beside their home. The door to their home was literally always open. Guelo Fadang was a consultant at the Luta Mayor’s Office and was an extraordinary oral historian. He stated that Magellan and his men were the thieves in the Northern Mariana Islands! Apuyu Tasi, the Mariana Trench is the deepest place on Earth. It is the belly of the ocean.
Guelo Fadang taught us that duendes — fungi are little children — people who did not make it in this life thus they became mushrooms. Payon duendes are bioluminescent fungi on Luta. Guelo Fadang’s mother, Suruana was a medicine woman and she taught him very well.
We traveled with Guelo Fadang and Aning to Mt. Sabana, the highest point on Luta examining plants along the journey.
I dedicate this brief account with love and respect for a highly noble and knowledgeable being. His memory is a blessing, and his goodness enriched so many lives on Luta in the Northern Mariana Islands. Guelo Fadang is dearly missed and cherished.
BY AMY EISENBERG, PH.D.
Center for World Indigenous Studies Associate Scholar
University of Arizona
