Read the article “Rhetorical Dance of Belonging: Chamaole Narratives of Race,
Indigeneity, and Identity from Guam,” and answer the following questions.
What indigenous identity are we talking here?
What happened to this group of people since the US occupation of Guam?
How does this group resist such atrocities?
Here is the abstract:
Abstract: This article is based on an investigation of identity formations of a mixed-race mestisa/mestisu group from
Guam, locally known as Chamaole, who are descendants of both native Chamorros and White Americans (haole). Using a
hybrid research methodology, the author analyzes Chamaole encounters with ambiguity in interviews with three Chamaole
authors and poets: Jessica Perez-Jackson (“Half Caste”), Lehua M. Taitano (excerpts from A Bell Made of Stones), and
Corey Santos (“Chamaoli”). An analysis of their works and their interviews reveals patterns of cultural, genealogical, racial,
linguistic, and political conflicts between Chamorros and White Americans since the US occupation of Guam. The article
articulates how Chamaoles overcome race-based prejudices, celebrate Chamorro resistance, and reckon with White
supremacy, showing that tensions resulting from US colonialism in Guam are magnified in Chamaole experiences.
Applying a Pacific studies model of abundance, it illustrates that Chamaoles embody a repository of genealogical kåna in
which each ancestral line adds power to their lived experiences and offers legitimacy to their Chamorro belonging.
Chamaoles are Indigenous Chamorro people; if they claim their genealogy and their families/communities claim them,
they belong to the Chamorro community. This Pacific studies model of abundance directly challenges racist, White
supremacist, anti-Indigenous deficit models of blood quantum and fractional composition