Family is her driving force

Grace “Pitu” Sablan Vaiagae arrived at the coffee shop where we had agreed to meet after her guesting stint at a morning radio show. She sat down, took a sip of her café latte and said, “It’s been a busy couple of weeks but I am glad to meet you.” And in a nod to how everything have been at a breakneck pace for her and knowing that she’s on a short break from the campaign trail, she immediately got the ball started with, “Just call me Grace.”

Vaiagae is running for the post of representative for Precinct 3 under the CNMI Republican Party banner in a special election to fill the seat that has been vacant since July due to the untimely passing of her brother-in-law, former representative Ivan Alafanso Blanco.

Vaiagae spent many years off island—she was 18 when she began to join outreach programs for the church that brought her to Tinian, Rota, and Guam. Yet even after she moved to the U.S. mainland, she continued being active in many initiatives that benefited the CNMI community. “So it felt I never really left home,” she said. So when she came back to Saipan, she dove right in to her first love—volunteer work and being part of outreach programs.

According to Vaiagae, there are times when your family knows more about you that you yourself and that included being able to expand her capacity for service by represent the people of Precinct 3.

She said the Sablan and Vaiagae clans knew that she can have a bigger impact on the community and that even her sister Carmen, the widow of Ivan Blanco, knew that she is the perfect candidate to represent the people of Precinct 3. “When I moved back home in 2016, they’ve been asking me to run for public office because volunteer work in the community and being an educator myself, working for and with the community is a big part of my life…but then I had to put that on the back burner…but I didn’t stop working and initiating projects on the side. …When my sister reached out to me and asked if I would run, she made me see what my family sees in me,” she said.

What did Carmen say that convinced her? “My sister said ‘You were very close to my husband. In fact, he’s been molding, coaching you and mentoring you for a reason. …I’m asking you because you’re the only one that knows what he’s passionate about and you’ve been a champion in some of the projects that he’s done for the community.’ I said yes because my sister asked and because we needed to continue the work for the people. …A lot of his projects have already started and some are already drafted and planned…and we were going to carry on,” she added.

Vaiagae is half-Chamorro and half-Pohnpheian. Growing up, she said she was surrounded by love, compassion and direction that she carried with her wherever she is and in whatever she does. She said she was taught by her father to be a people for others and by her mother to be a nurturer.

“My father was an educator who had a heart for service and people. He worked for his cousin, the former mayor George Sablan at the Mayor’s Office and he had a heart for people because he did not see disparities as he believed to ‘treat others like you want to be treated.’ …There was never a time that he boasted of his lineage or about his Sablan family. He was a humble man. He passed away in 2008 and one of my best memories of him was that he was all about Westernization and yet the culture component was still strong and he was keen on keeping tradition and language alive in the family,” she said.

She describes her mom, on the other hand, as a Proverbs 31 woman—a scripture in the Bible that says women must be God-fearing, loving, and nurturing. “My mom was a housewife and…my dad made me understand the important role of being a housewife at a time when I was young, passionate and ready to conquer the world. …He said it was akin to a full-time job that no one can take on and replace and this made my mother the strength of the family. She raised me and my siblings very traditionally and made us love languages. We spoke even the Pohnpheian dialects because she had a strong belief that strength comes from knowing our origin, knowing your roots,” she said.

Viagae credits her sister for teaching her to have belief in herself but one of the most profound lessons she’s learned was from her brother-in-law, Ivan Blanco, himself.

“Ivan had a slogan that goes, ‘It’s five o’ clock somewhere’ and it means that meaningful work should be finished by 5 or do what you have to do before the clock hits 5. But one of the things I admire about him is that his work as a statesman continued even after 5. …He may leave his hat in the office after work, but [his work] carried on with him and his colleagues and to the people that reached out to him,” she said.

“…My life is really about family. Every family knits the community and the all the islands. …I believe there is a reason for everything, that God equip you for wherever you need to be. …Right now, I am here, doing the work that needs to be done and to continue the initiatives for Precinct 3.”