The movement to preserve the Chamorro language continues on Rota with three different generations of teachers coming together to keep the lessons alive at Sinapalo Elementary School.
Dawno Agbayani grew up in a Chamorro-only speaking household. He attributes that to his mastery of his native tongue, which he now is fighting to preserve as one of the youngest Chamorro teachers in the Marianas. At 20 years old, he teaches at Rota's Sinapalo Elementary School.
Agbayani said, "They said...know who you are, where you come from, and where you are headed. And that is the Chamorro culture."
Alvina King, who taught Chamorro on Guam for 11 years, is in her second year on the job on Rota. She also started teaching at 20, and started learning the language early on through dancing and singing. "It is very rare where we hear our younger generation speak Chamorro. I know that they are capable of understanding our language, but speaking it is hard," she said.
It's that shared struggle that will bring educators from the CNMI together this summer to create more relevant classroom resources together.
"Here on Rota, we have to build our resources. We are putting together a resource that a lot of our CCLHS can be using, but other than that we build our resources ourselves. We put together our lessons," King added.
Those lessons also include creating their own books and involving cultural practitioners from the community to teach their traditions to the young minds.
Tricia Manglona teaches the kindergarten immersion program, which hosts up to 10 students a year after their parents request for their children to be enrolled. "I was fortunate enough to see the old way of teaching and the new generation of teachers and putting the two together and the ultimate goal of this whole program is to perpetuate our language, our culture, our traditions," she said.
Three generations, coming together, nurturing the next generation to take care of their native language.
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