Description
This one-hundred-year history of the island of Guåhan, also known as Guam, charts how Indigenous CHamorus and Filipino migrants navigated and negotiated the expansion of US imperialism and militarism in the Pacific. Throughout the twentieth century, CHamorus and Filipinos living in Guåhan expressed their discontent with the inequities created by the US empire. Instead of partaking in outright anticolonial movements, they advocated for liberal solutions such as individual rights, land ownership, economic opportunities, and US citizenship. In Territorial Discontent, Kristin Oberiano unravels this entangled history and exposes the limitations of liberalism in anticolonial resistance.
Tracing the long history of CHamoru-Filipino relations, from the exile of Filipino revolutionaries to Guåhan to the burgeoning CHamoru self-determination movement, Territorial Discontent grapples with the varied motives that propelled CHamorus and Filipinos to rely on the limited liberal promise of freedom. Oberiano reveals that implementing these solutions for one group too often required the continued colonization of the other, entrenching US colonialism in Guåhan and enflaming tensions between CHamorus and Filipinos. Examining these antagonisms, Oberiano argues that building relationships with the CHamoru virtue of inafa'maolek--"to make good"--can nurture CHamoru-Filipino solidarities and illuminate alternative possibilities for Guåhan's ongoing decolonization movement.
Author: Kristin Oberiano
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 09/29/2026
Pages: 314
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.71d
ISBN13: 9781469693910
ISBN10: 1469693917
BISAC Categories:
- History | Indigenous | General
- Social Science | Indigenous Studies
- History | United States | 20th Century
Tracing the long history of CHamoru-Filipino relations, from the exile of Filipino revolutionaries to Guåhan to the burgeoning CHamoru self-determination movement, Territorial Discontent grapples with the varied motives that propelled CHamorus and Filipinos to rely on the limited liberal promise of freedom. Oberiano reveals that implementing these solutions for one group too often required the continued colonization of the other, entrenching US colonialism in Guåhan and enflaming tensions between CHamorus and Filipinos. Examining these antagonisms, Oberiano argues that building relationships with the CHamoru virtue of inafa'maolek--"to make good"--can nurture CHamoru-Filipino solidarities and illuminate alternative possibilities for Guåhan's ongoing decolonization movement.
Author: Kristin Oberiano
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 09/29/2026
Pages: 314
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.71d
ISBN13: 9781469693910
ISBN10: 1469693917
BISAC Categories:
- History | Indigenous | General
- Social Science | Indigenous Studies
- History | United States | 20th Century
About the Author
Kristin Oberiano is assistant professor of history at Wesleyan University.