Independent Guåhan Teach-Ins for November

Independent Guåhan to hold Teach-Ins in November, to provide updates on Catalonia and a panel on inter-generational activism

Each month Independent Guåhan (IG) holds a Teach-In at the University of Guam aimed at informing the island community about pertinent issues related to Guåhan’s political status and decolonization. This month IG will be holding two Teach-Ins, the first on November 9^th focusing on recent updates on the movement for independence and Catalonia, and the second on November 16^th, which will focus on inter-generational Chamorro activism. Both Teach-Ins will take place from 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM at UOG Humanities and Social Sciences Building (HSS) Room 106. They are free and open to the public.

The November 9^th Teach-In is titled “Som Una Nacio, Nosaltres Decidim: Updates on Catalan Independence.” Long-standing desires amongst the people of Catalonia, Spain for greater autonomy has taken concrete form in recent months. Following violent crackdowns over a referendum on Catalonia’s independence, where the overwhelming majority of voters elected to seek independence, the state declared itself independent last month. This has led to tension and Spain’s dissolution of the Catalan government. This Teach-In will focus on what lessons Guåhan in its own quest for decolonization might learn from recent events on the Iberian Peninsula.

The November 16^th Teach-In is titled “Families for Justice: Generations of Chamorro Activists Tell Their Stories,” and co-sponsored by the group Prutehi Litekyan/Save Ritidian. Plans by the US military to place a firing range in the culturally and environmentally significant Litekyan area of Northern Guåhan has helped create a new wave of local community organizing. The emergence of the Prutehi Litekyan/Save Ritidian is closely tied to the work of Chamorro families who have taken up issues of land rights, demilitarization and decolonization and passed this obligation on from one generation to the next. This Teach-In will feature a panel of activists from three different families, the Garrido, Artero and Flores clans, each of which has spent generations protesting, pushing for land return or calling for Guåhan’s decolonization.