WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.690 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.690 --> 00:00:03.750 align:middle line:84% This is called A Love Letter to the Chamorro People 00:00:03.750 --> 00:00:07.200 align:middle line:90% in the 21st Century. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:12.120 align:middle line:84% "Dear, I will begin this in the middle since all of my letters 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:16.770 align:middle line:84% have always been to you, even if you haven't realized it. 00:00:16.770 --> 00:00:17.980 align:middle line:90% Go back and look. 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:23.460 align:middle line:84% You'll see all of my imaginings, my histories, my deaths 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:26.520 align:middle line:84% and rebirths, my love and heartbreak. 00:00:26.520 --> 00:00:28.170 align:middle line:90% All of my words. 00:00:28.170 --> 00:00:33.480 align:middle line:84% My wind blown hair, my lemon sticky wrists, my fish bones, 00:00:33.480 --> 00:00:36.720 align:middle line:90% slings, feathers, and offerings. 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:41.370 align:middle line:84% My twig fires and heaped mounds of husks. 00:00:41.370 --> 00:00:45.450 align:middle line:84% My paint dipped elbows and muddy feet. 00:00:45.450 --> 00:00:48.660 align:middle line:84% The bowers I weave into a home scented bowl 00:00:48.660 --> 00:00:51.330 align:middle line:90% that might call you to me. 00:00:51.330 --> 00:00:54.240 align:middle line:84% The way I can sometimes chant down the sea 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:58.560 align:middle line:84% and coax a wave to carry my heart to you. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:01.020 align:middle line:84% The salt on my thighs, the clutch 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:04.390 align:middle line:84% of shells I carry in my deepest pockets, 00:01:04.390 --> 00:01:07.950 align:middle line:84% they are always for you, addressed to you. 00:01:07.950 --> 00:01:11.160 align:middle line:84% So you'll understand, I hope, if I pick up 00:01:11.160 --> 00:01:16.590 align:middle line:84% where we last left off, which is always that horizon. 00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:20.070 align:middle line:84% Who but a horizon so keenly feels 00:01:20.070 --> 00:01:24.030 align:middle line:84% how we are kept at each other's distance? 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:27.510 align:middle line:84% Because much more than wind carries so many of us 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:29.250 align:middle line:90% away from our islands. 00:01:29.250 --> 00:01:33.540 align:middle line:84% Because we are made to consider our oceans as walls. 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:36.300 align:middle line:84% Because we fumble the jar lid of tongues 00:01:36.300 --> 00:01:38.700 align:middle line:90% we've been made to bury. 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:41.310 align:middle line:84% Because our sails have been burned. 00:01:41.310 --> 00:01:45.060 align:middle line:84% Because our grandmothers have been raped and worse. 00:01:45.060 --> 00:01:49.560 align:middle line:84% Because the bones of our beloved are being paved over and over 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:52.090 align:middle line:84% with layers of poison and dollars 00:01:52.090 --> 00:01:56.310 align:middle line:90% that bear faces not our own. 00:01:56.310 --> 00:01:59.460 align:middle line:84% Because the news tells us who we are not. 00:01:59.460 --> 00:02:01.980 align:middle line:84% Because our families are separated. 00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:05.910 align:middle line:84% Because distance means we cannot always conjure the scent 00:02:05.910 --> 00:02:08.100 align:middle line:90% of our auntie's cheek. 00:02:08.100 --> 00:02:12.150 align:middle line:84% Because we are visited by our ancestors in dreams. 00:02:12.150 --> 00:02:16.140 align:middle line:84% Because we are visited by our ancestors in waking life. 00:02:16.140 --> 00:02:18.360 align:middle line:84% Because our nieces and nephews struggle 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:22.590 align:middle line:84% to remember the last time we visited. 00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:26.850 align:middle line:84% Because two more of our sons and daughters have enlisted. 00:02:26.850 --> 00:02:29.640 align:middle line:84% Because their enlistment might return them whole, 00:02:29.640 --> 00:02:32.340 align:middle line:90% or in pieces, or not at all. 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:36.300 align:middle line:84% Because diabetes has taken another pair of our eyes. 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:40.440 align:middle line:84% Because we cannot tread on pieces of our own land without 00:02:40.440 --> 00:02:41.790 align:middle line:90% clearance. 00:02:41.790 --> 00:02:45.870 align:middle line:84% Because we keep words like clearance and deployment 00:02:45.870 --> 00:02:50.310 align:middle line:84% and strategic and stationed in the bowl with our keys 00:02:50.310 --> 00:02:53.310 align:middle line:90% by the front door. 00:02:53.310 --> 00:02:56.670 align:middle line:84% Because we can count to 1,000 in Spanish. 00:02:56.670 --> 00:03:00.630 align:middle line:84% Because we can count to the apocalypse in English. 00:03:00.630 --> 00:03:03.390 align:middle line:84% Because our crow song has vanished. 00:03:03.390 --> 00:03:05.580 align:middle line:90% Because our trees are blighted. 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:08.070 align:middle line:90% Because our reefs are targets. 00:03:08.070 --> 00:03:12.810 align:middle line:84% Because we are always in the path of military maneuvers. 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:17.060 align:middle line:84% Because I must write to you in English. 00:03:17.060 --> 00:03:18.680 align:middle line:90% Because we are trending. 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:22.100 align:middle line:84% Because our faces are lit up with the glow of emojis, 00:03:22.100 --> 00:03:25.040 align:middle line:90% each shedding a single tear. 00:03:25.040 --> 00:03:27.980 align:middle line:84% Because our petitions do not go viral. 00:03:27.980 --> 00:03:30.800 align:middle line:84% Because Cara only half jokes about investing 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:32.330 align:middle line:90% in bunker supplies. 00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:34.880 align:middle line:84% Because Michael is being fitted with a lapel mic 00:03:34.880 --> 00:03:37.010 align:middle line:90% for the 20th time today. 00:03:37.010 --> 00:03:40.250 align:middle line:84% Because Clarissa splits herself open 00:03:40.250 --> 00:03:43.310 align:middle line:90% to talk story about Litekyan. 00:03:43.310 --> 00:03:45.350 align:middle line:84% Because Desiree is trying to ignore 00:03:45.350 --> 00:03:47.660 align:middle line:90% the planes flying overhead. 00:03:47.660 --> 00:03:50.240 align:middle line:84% Because Dakota is not even going to talk 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:52.940 align:middle line:90% about anything but peace. 00:03:52.940 --> 00:03:55.940 align:middle line:84% Because Ned wants us to share with the world. 00:03:55.940 --> 00:04:00.380 align:middle line:84% Because Arielle is still trying to sell her atulai. 00:04:00.380 --> 00:04:04.400 align:middle line:84% Because Craig debates the value of visibility. 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.960 align:middle line:84% Because our non Chamorro friends text us to say, what a shame. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.920 align:middle line:84% But can they also get that kelaguin recipe? 00:04:12.920 --> 00:04:15.650 align:middle line:84% Because we're shouting into the Pacific. 00:04:15.650 --> 00:04:20.480 align:middle line:84% Because our voices are choked in the fumes of B-1 bombers. 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:22.490 align:middle line:90% Because I could not sleep. 00:04:22.490 --> 00:04:24.530 align:middle line:90% Because I could not eat. 00:04:24.530 --> 00:04:28.490 align:middle line:84% Because I do not want to get my mind off of things. 00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:30.830 align:middle line:90% I am writing to you. 00:04:30.830 --> 00:04:32.840 align:middle line:84% I close my eyes against the morning 00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:36.110 align:middle line:84% sun in my garden, where I reach out to you across space 00:04:36.110 --> 00:04:38.460 align:middle line:90% and time and I hear you. 00:04:38.460 --> 00:04:41.150 align:middle line:84% I hear you laughing and loving and crying, 00:04:41.150 --> 00:04:45.950 align:middle line:84% in despair and resistance, in anguish and abhorrence. 00:04:45.950 --> 00:04:48.140 align:middle line:90% What's more, I feel you. 00:04:48.140 --> 00:04:51.440 align:middle line:84% The salt in our blood carries droplets of the ocean. 00:04:51.440 --> 00:04:53.960 align:middle line:84% No matter where we are, inside us 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:58.500 align:middle line:84% is a liquid web connecting our beating hearts. 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:03.440 align:middle line:84% I am quiet so I can perceive your tugs, the delicate density 00:05:03.440 --> 00:05:05.750 align:middle line:90% of your tingles. 00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:09.260 align:middle line:84% And I want you to know that I'm always scared, 00:05:09.260 --> 00:05:11.360 align:middle line:90% but I'm always hopeful. 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:15.410 align:middle line:84% Because I can feel you, I can feel our collective fear. 00:05:15.410 --> 00:05:18.800 align:middle line:84% We are proud, so we sometimes deny fear, 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.800 align:middle line:84% keep it hidden like a lozenge under the tongue. 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:26.420 align:middle line:84% We are resilient so we know that it will dissolve. 00:05:26.420 --> 00:05:30.710 align:middle line:84% And when it does, we will still be here tending our plants, 00:05:30.710 --> 00:05:36.530 align:middle line:84% casting our nets, shaping our canoes, writing our bodies 00:05:36.530 --> 00:05:38.960 align:middle line:90% into existence. 00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:44.330 align:middle line:84% I am writing to you, ma~ne'lu, aunties, uncles, nenies, 00:05:44.330 --> 00:05:47.900 align:middle line:90% cousins, kin, all of our saina. 00:05:47.900 --> 00:05:53.480 align:middle line:84% I'm writing to tell you that I see you, I hear you, 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:58.610 align:middle line:84% I feel you, I love you, and you matter. 00:05:58.610 --> 00:06:01.070 align:middle line:90% I hope this letter finds you. 00:06:01.070 --> 00:06:06.280 align:middle line:84% Until we can gaze together upon a horizon full of sails, 00:06:06.280 --> 00:06:07.220 align:middle line:90% Lehua." 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:08.900 align:middle line:90% 00:06:08.900 --> 00:06:11.080 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much.