Practicing the art of fino’ puti’on

Hafa adai, and welcome to the Fino’ Puti’on blog!

Minanggao Pulan has all the fun Cha-merch (Chamoru merchandise, obviously) to bring our values and pride to the mundane spaces of our lives. While creating Cha-merch is fun, Lia and I want to have a place to share photos, stories, and conversations that inspire us. We envision this blog to be our place to i fino’ puti’on, or engage in star talk. During ancient times, young Chamoru men gathered at i guma’ uritao (bachelor house) and learned new skills. It is said that these men spoke in fino’ gualåfon, or language of the full moon. Historic records from non-Chamorus made note of our men but did not discuss the languages and gatherings unique to Chamoru women. Talk about gender biases! There is no doubt that our young women ancestors had their own means of communication where they too learned from elders and found support amongst each other. Fino’ Puti’on is Minanggao Pulan’s imaginings of how Chamoru women collectively came together in the past and the ways we can build off of this to share in community and new futures. 

This blog is a celebratory space that is meant to make you laugh, find inspiration, and hopefully get you to think about your Chamoru-ness in new and unexpected ways. Lia’s insights as a Chamoru born and bred in the Marianas will give you your daily dose of all things grounded in the home islands. Lia has her ear to the ground and ocean in Guåhan. My insights will be from the Marianas and beyond, and by beyond I mostly mean Aotearoa (New Zealand). I was born in the states and raised in i Sengsong San Diego, California (the Village of San Diego, California). I bring another kind of Chamoru perspective to our star talk, one that is in conversation with the home islands but also very much part of the diaspora. I’m currently figuring out what it means to be a Pacific person in Aotearoa, where Pacific Islander in this context often renders those of us from the northern half of Oceania invisible. We’ll get to all of those deep and meaningful conversations at a later time. All of our experiences of being Chamoru are valid, and hopefully you see yourself in some of these post. Together, Lia and I will show the ways Chamorus stay in connection and support each through our coconut network, which spreads across, through, and around again in Oceania. We hope you enjoy all the content to come!

Si yu’us ma’ase yan saina ma’ase,

Jesi