Chamorros --The Other "Indios"

 Five Hundred years ago today the armada of Magellan was in the vicinity of the Philippine Sea heading towards a destination that many believe was entirely unknown to the Captain -- But there are those who also insist that Magellan perhaps had known before the existence of a group of islands located approx 600 nautical miles north of the original target, the fabled Spice Islands. Was this group of islands (later would be called the Philippines) a historical coincidence, accident whatever? Or was it just a clever ruse of a Captain to calm the fears and apprehensions of his crew in venturing further to the "unknown"?

A few days of stay on another island, in what was now the Marianas, gave Magellan and his men a somewhat rude introduction to the varied cultures and people in the region. --Incidentally, at present time, there are Filipinos who debate with this question: Are Filipinos Asians or Pacific Islanders?
This year's commemoration of the European discovery of the Philippines is also giving us a wider idea of what used to be the Spanish possession in Asia and the Pacific as the Marianas and other island groups were also incorporated into the so-called Spanish East Indies -- Manila was the administrative center.
Like our other neighbors in the region, we share many things in common; language, culture, and even cuisine with the native people of the Marianas, Guam in particular. Collectively called Chamoru (Chamorros), early Spanish chroniclers also labeled them as "Indios" -- Something we also share with them and with many other people and cultures who came under Spanish colonization.
The commemoration of the 500 years of Discovery and the arrival of Christianity in the country needs to be seen in another light to fully grasp the many aspects of the momentous events -- This is blasphemy perhaps to others but I believe that one main role of historians is to bring out the injustice done in the past to natives who were subjugated by other powers.


(Guampedia)- A village scene depicts the difference in caste through body language and building structures. Also illustrated is the lack of body coverings as being unnecessary. Bachelor’s houses were houses for young Chamorro men in the Mariana Islands from ancient times until the late 1600s. A village scene of the Ancient Chamorros illustrated by J.A. Pellion from Freycinet’s Voyage Autour du Monde, Paris, 1824


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