As soon as they set foot in the Mariana Islands, the Spanish decided they wanted to change the CHamoru natives’ diet and sexual behaviors to fit what they considered a “civilized’ way of life.
So what was it about the food and sexual behaviors that they deemed needed to change? Historians Veronica Peña Filiu and Enrique Moral de Eusebio provided details in their research titled “Sex, Food and Colonialism in the Mariana Islands.”
The Europeans and the CHamorus interacted for the first time in March 1621 when Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet stopped on Guam on the way to the Philippines.
The Spanish looked at the islands, saw the locally available food such as tubers, yam and taro, and interpreted this as proof of poverty. The authors cited Juan Lopez de Velasco, a royal cosmographer in the 16th century, who described all of the Mariana Islands as “poor and miserable,” lacking livestock or birds except for turtle doves and seagulls. Velasco also described one island with rice, sweet cane, ginger, potatoes and other foods without iron or metal. Another cosmographer echoed Velasco’s account, building the Mariana Islands’ reputation as a “poor and barren land.”
To “civilize” the islands, the Spanish believed it was necessary to introduce new foods like wheat and maize and to bring in cattle. They observed how the CHamuros cultivated small gardens to grow rice and other local tubers and concluded that it was not the most effective way to use the land.
The Spanish noticed that the CHamuro men, who were skilled fishermen, spent too much time fishing and decided that this way of life had to change. They wanted the locals to focus on European-style agriculture and raise cattle instead. To implement this, they relocated the CHamuros to new places called “reducciones” which were more suitable for farming and raising cattle. The Spanish then “forced” the CHamuro people to plant maize, rice and root crops to ensure an abundance of food.
The CHamorus who resettled in the reducciones began changing their diet and eating more maize and pork.
At the end of the 17th century, the governors and missionaries took control and forcibly relocated CHamoru populations to a few villages in Guam.
The Spanish imposed a new food production system and subjected the CHamorus to hard labor. They were obliged to till the farm and raise animals to produce food for the military stationed on the islands. In addition, the governors and the magistrates exploited the CHamorus, assigning them more work such as hunting animals, fishing, preparing salt and rice, and producing alcohol.
Sadly, the governors and magistrates did not provide food for the CHamorus, leaving them to go hungry during the workday. Because they spent so much time working for the governors and magistrates, the native people didn’t have time to cultivate their lands and produce their own food.
The wives provided food for their husbands, while unmarried men took turns gathering food for one another. They looked for food in the bushes or uncultivated areas, finding items that were part of their original diet. Thus, despite the introduction of new food, the local population continued to eat breadfruit, yams, fish and taro.
As for changing the Chamorus’ sexual behaviors, the Jesuits noted how easy it was for the CHamoru people to dissolve their marriages. They were also horrified by the young CHamorus' premarital sexual practices at public houses called “guma uritao.”
Unmarried CHamuro men and women lived in a guma uritao before finding wives and husbands. Young men learned skills for manhood, such as fishing, canoe building, tool-making and navigation, in the public house. They shared this space with young women selected by their clan to provide “premarital sexual instruction” as part of the men’s training.
There were at least one or two public houses in each village. The Jesuits were appalled that young men and women engaged in promiscuous sexual relations without anyone intervening. They turned to the militia for help to end the practice. Eventually, public houses were burned.
The CHamoru people did not like it. In retaliation, they rebuilt the public houses that had been burned, despite warnings from the government. Each time a public house was burned, young CHamorus retaliated by going to a Spanish settlement and burning the Jesuit church and school. Eventually, the Spanish succeeded in eradicating the public houses.
But despite their attempts to use force, the Spanish colonizers failed to completely change the CHamoru way of life. The local people preserved aspects of their diet and continued eating what they had before the Spanish arrived.
Raquel Bagnol is a longtime journalist. She worked as a reporter for Marianas Variety on Saipan and Island Times in Palau. Send feedback to gukdako@yahoo.com
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