As an anti-colonial activist-poet, there is no denying that Craig Santos Perez highly detests the idea of colonialism. This is evident in the way his poems are structured to deliberately oppose colonialism with the use of words such as ‘cancerous’ and ‘cruel’ to describe it. Perez uses his poetry as a platform to share his anger and concern for how the colonisation of Guam has not only damaged its environment both physically and spiritually but also its people.
The theme Colonisation is relevant because colonisation affected Oceanic countries such as Samoa, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea to name a few. The issue that arises with Colonisation is mostly the culture shift and change that Westerners come with, eliminating traditional protocols and norms. Guam has overtime been politically controlled by Spain, Japan and the US. The US have contributed greatly to the decline in culture, identity and perception of the Chamorro’s.
“Chamorros were dirty, backwards, primitive, unable to take care of themselves, and needed America to save them”
-Underwood, Robert A. “The Colonial Era: Manning the Helm of the U.S.S. Guam.” Islander Magazine, May 22, 1977.
Pictured above:
Military Personnel and Chamorro Family, 1902
One of Pere’z published books; From the unincorporated territory (Guma), highlights the destruction of colonialism. Perez incorporates what it is like to be and feel genealogically connected to an Island, but at the same time be disconnected due to colonisation. At a young age Perez and his family were forced to flee Guam, due to economical matters, however he claims in his poem ‘Off Island Chamorros’ how it was to “feel foreign in your own homeland”. Foreign simply due to how the Americans had changed Guam, both its environment and way of living, that it did not feel like the Guam, Perez had fled from.
“And isn’t that,
too, what it means to be a diasporic Chamorro: to feel foreign in your own homeland”
Alongside, ‘The unincorporated territory (Guam), ‘The unincorporated territory’ (Lukao) also focuses on the colonisation of Guam by the United States of America , addressing the inequality his people have faced or are still facing . This is relevant as he identifies the arrogance and violation of the Americans on Chamorro soil, where his poems allow him a platform to voice his anger and dismay. His poem ‘Family Tree’ focuses mainly on US colonisation and the build-up of its military.
‘The military uprooted trees with bulldozers… planted toxic chemicals and ordinances in the ground…barbed wire fences spread like invasive vines, whose only fruit are the cancerous tumors that bloom on every branch of our family tree’,
This abstract from his poem ‘Family tree’ correlates with the theme of colonization, because it metaphorically describes US as a cancerous disease destroying the environment and people of Guam. The ‘toxic chemicals’ planted into the earth, physically describes the cancer these chemicals have produced, thus intoxicating and even killing locals.
Perez emphasizes the importance of cultural representation, specifically amongst the Chamorro community, and how this will aid to regain political sovereignty and decolonization.
Craig Santos Perez 