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Symposium on ‘Spanish-Chamorro Wars’ on March 3
The first 30 years of the Spanish mission in the Marianas beginning in 1668 was a time marked with conflict and division. Father Francis Hezel explored this important period in a recent publication entitled “When Cultures Clash,” in which he argues that the effects of what has been called the “Spanish-Chamorro Wars” were not as devastating as earlier historians have suggested.
His argument will be presented and explored by other scholars from Guam and Spain in a special symposium hosted by the University of Guam Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center on Thursday, March 3, 2016 from 4pm to 6pm in the IT&E Lecture Hall (room 131) of the Jesus & Eugenia Business and Public Administration Building on the UOG campus.
“According to the standard textbooks, this 30-year period was one of utter devastation with forced conversion, rapid cultural change, precipitous population decline, and loss of Chamorro identity,” Hezel states. “Or was it? The Spanish missionaries, at least in the first few years of their work, did not have the protection of soldiers. Later, when troops finally arrived, the priests themselves recognized that the troops could be more of a hindrance than a help to their own work. Then, too, the Chamorro people might have been far more divided than early historians imagined. Some might have eagerly converted for any number of reasons, social and political as well as religious. Spanish records of this period reveal the sharp divisions between members of the Spanish party as well as the polarization in the local population.”
Hezel will present his research on this period at the symposium, where he will be joined by other scholars, who will be asked to react to a number of the historical points highlighted in his publication. The public will also be invited to participate in the conversation.
For more information please contact LaVonne Guerrero-Meno at (671) 735-2150 or lavonneg@triton.uog.edu. (PR)
