Dear Mr. JD Camacho

As the school president, speech coach, and mentor of Maria Fe Andrea Lazaro, I feel I must respond to your letter to the editor regarding the speech prepared by her and her speech team for the 30th Annual Attorney General’s Cup Speech Competition.

To begin with, you clearly misunderstood where she was coming from. As opposed to the “proselytizing tone” you accused her of taking against the CNMI people, she was very graceful in reaching out to everyone in the CNMI, including members of the Northern Marianas Descent Corp., with whom she expressed her empathy and understanding. In fact, she went so far as to say, “As a Filipino, I think it’s important that we do not dismiss…[the] cultural anxieties [of the indigenous people] as racist or xenophobic.” That statement is far from proselytizing.

Furthermore, your assertion that “her simplistic views that our local/U. S. law [sic]…are unjustified” is in and of itself unjustified. She and her speech team offered a critique of the U.S. immigration system that was very much justified by extensive research they conducted for almost three months. In addition to quoting former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, they cited a credible report from the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office that enumerated all the economic benefits of immigration reform.

Their position is further justified by broad support for immigration reform. For example, according to the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, “The overriding impact of immigrants is to strengthen and enrich American culture, increase the total output of the economy, and raise the standard of living of American citizens.”

Support for immigration reform has also been voiced by the Catholic Church. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, has urged the U.S. Congress and the President to act on immigration reform. As he said, “Our current policies are breaking up families in the name of enforcing our laws. That should not be. We should be reuniting and strengthening families—not separating wives from husbands and children from their parents.” Archbishop Gomez added, “Congress and the President have a responsibility to come together to enact reform that corrects this humanitarian problem, respects the dignity and hard work of our immigrant brothers and sisters, and reflects America’s proud history as a hospitable society and a welcoming culture.”

Former Republican governor of Florida and 2018 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has even said this about immigration: “Someone who comes to our country because they couldn’t come legally, they come to our country because their families—the dad who loved their children—was worried that their children didn’t have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love. It’s an act of commitment to your family.” It is from that humane standpoint that Gov. Bush supports immigration reform.

Despite all this support for immigration reform, I admit that it may not be politically viable in this election year. However, as you can see, politically viable or not, Ms. Lazaro and her speech team are not alone in their support of immigration reform.

Likewise, you are not alone in your opposition to immigration reform, and we respect your position. However, we should not mistake the so-called “perks and benefits” offered to foreign workers as the kind of island hospitality that they, foreigners, must revere and that we, locals, can take away at will. Just because you invite a guest into your home does not make it right to treat that guest like an animal that is expected to fawn over you and that you can kick out at anytime. And do not mistake that guest’s desire to stay in your home for his family’s sake as him overstaying his welcome. As Governor Bush put it, they are not doing so to abuse your hospitality; rather, they do it as an act of love. As a father myself, I certainly do not begrudge parents who want nothing but the best for their children.

Besides, whose home is it anyway? Can we, the indigenous people of the CNMI, honestly call these islands home when so many of us have left “for the states,” and those of who have stayed have often elected leaders that ruin our islands? That’s like saying you are the only one entitled to own a home that you yourself abandoned and ruined, even though others are ready and eager to help you repair and upgrade that home for all to enjoy.

No, to me, as the saying goes, “Home is where the heart is.” Or, as Ms. Lazaro said, “A Filipino who gives up the bright lights, big city of the states for his humble home in As Lito has more in common with the Chamorro who has lived in Chalan Kanoa all his life than he does with his Pinoys back in the province, or the local who moved to Boise, Idaho, many years ago.”

That’s why it saddens me that you, or anyone else, would dismiss Ms. Lazaro as an outsider who has no right to call these islands her home. As an indigenous person myself, I am embarrassed and hurt that you would treat her and her family that way, especially when she articulated a very sophisticated and nuanced solution to the anxieties of the CNMI’s indigenous people. She called for a kind of immigration reform that would help “make Chamorros and Carolinians, [become] once again, the majority of the population.”

As indigenous people, we should reciprocate Ms. Lazaro’s empathy, compassion, and humanity with what is at the core of my Chamorro culture: respetu.

Mr. Camacho, I know you share this core value of our Chamorro heritage. I know you must be a respectful man of integrity who is only doing what he can to help his people, and that is something that I deeply respect.

But we must not let our fight for our people lead us down the wrong path. Just like you and many other indigenous people, I am afraid about the future of our people and our islands. I fear that we are losing hold of our language, our culture, and our home. However, as afraid as I am, I cannot help but take to heart what a very wise sage once said: “Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.”

My great-grandfather understood this.

Gregorio Kilili Sablan endured the colonial rule of the Germans and the Japanese. In the Japanese administration, he was held under house arrest and accused of being an American spy. He barely survived the World War II campaign on Saipan, seeing hundreds of family members and friends die in the cold, dark caves of Marpi.

But despite all that tragedy and all that loss, he didn’t give into fear. He emerged from the aftermath of war with neither anger nor hatred in his heart, but with love and compassion for everyone in our islands. He didn’t chase anyone away—not the Okinawan and Korean laborers who were left behind, nor the Japanese citizens who chose life over suicide, nor the American soldiers who were thousands of miles away from their loved ones, nor Chamorros who came here from Guam, nor anyone else who survived the tragedy of war.

As one of the first post-war leaders of our islands, my great-grandfather knew that the only way we could recover from the death and carnage of war was by working together, as Ms. Lazaro put it, “not as aliens, not as indigenous, but as human beings, who share the same hopes and aspirations for a better future for ourselves, for our families, and for our islands.”

My great-grandfather welcomed all. He led all. He loved all

So should we.

Galvin Deleon Guerrero
Garapan, Saipan