The Chamoru people of the Mariana Islands

An Excerpt from Fray Juan Pobre's Notations of the Chamorros in the year 1602

They keep peace, love each other, and care for one another. Yet, they are not Christians as we are...

The men and women are hard workers, not lazy, and have little regard for those who do not work. While they are very young, they make their sons and daughters work and teach them to perform their tasks. Consequently, the very young know how to perform their tasks like their parents because they have been taught with great love. So great is their love for their children that it would take a long time to describe it and to sing its praises. They never spank them, and they even scold them with loving words. When a child is offended and angered by what is said to him, he will move a short distance away from his parents and turn his back to them not wanting to face them. They will then toss sand pebbles on the ground behind him and after he has cried for a little while, one of his parents will go to him and, with very tender words, will take him in his arms or raise him to his shoulders and carry him back to where the others are gathered. Then they will always give him some of their best food and, speaking to him as if he were an adult, tell him how he should behave, admonishing him to be good. With such great love, these barbarians raise their children, that they, in turn, grow up to be obedient and expert in their occupations and skills...

They are so peace-loving that, during all the time I have spent with them, as an eyewitness, I have never seen the people of any village quarrel amongst themselves. Surely, this puts the people of our country to shame, for there is hardly a peaceful home, to say nothing of a peaceful village. Indeed, these are such peace-loving people that I hardly know what to say when I see so much of it among savages, yet so little among Christians...

They have other customs that redound to the praise of God and, because of them, I believe he will have mercy on them for they are naturally very compassionate people. On the day an indio is ill and cannot go fishing, his son will appear on the beach at the time the other village fisherman are returning. The latter will know that the father or brother is ailing and, consequently, they will share some of their catch with him. Although he may have a house full of salted fish, they will give him some of the fresh catch so that he will have it to eat that day. The day when the master of the house, or his wife, or a child falls ill, all the relatives in the village will take dinner and supper to them, which will be prepared from the best food they have in the house. This is continued until the patient dies or recovers. At the very least, it is continued nine or ten days. When their houses are old, or when they wish to repair or rebuild them, all the relatives and neighbors in the village gather the necessary materials. On the designated day, they will get together to construct it, even though it may be from the ground up, and within a half day, or two or three days, they will complete the house for him...

When theses indios reach the age of marriage, they have a great fiesta and banquet. After their own fashion, the man gives the woman a dowry, which is customary among all other indios that have been discovered. Kinship bonds, or close relationships are kept between first cousins and onward, between their “godfathers” and “godmothers” and between close friends. Some ties are so close that when one goes to a friends house, whether he is at home or not, the visitor will take whatever he wants from there, as if it were his own. In the same way, he freely takes from the produce of his land or his palm trees, and even from among the things they value most, which are their barcos, their funeas, and their nets. So strong are the bonds among friends that they have a say in everything they do, or do not do. When they meet, they embrace and walk about the village arm in arm, or one with his arms around the others neck. Boys make compacts with one another, and promise eternal friendship, all with the greatest purity-quite contrary to the pitiful and miserable custom that is found in many places in Europe, which is to be regretted, especially among Christians...

In truth, Brother Sancho, these people, whom we call barbaros, are naturally so good in some ways that their conduct will serve as the standard against which the Lord God will judge us all on Judgment Day. Look at what is happening today in many parts of Italy, and even in Spain, sins of which I am guilty of myself...

NOTE: This document of the Chamorus was recently translated. It is an excerpt from Fray Juan Pobre’s notations of our Chamoru ancestors in the year 1602. Translation document provided by Eddie L.G. Benavente.