I recently read an article written my mother on the most prominent historical figure of ancient Guam Chief Kepuha. A statue of his image stands in a very visible area in the capital city of Hatgatna.
He was known as a powerful leader of the Chamorro people who embraced the Catholic faith of the conquering Spanish, and as you can read by my mother’s article below, he was seen as a man of faith and as a hero.
Of course, through the filter of a very biased view of history that favors the western version of events and the dominant society, Kepuha is seen as a stellar example. However, on flipping the picture to the native point of view a different image appears that is not as flattering.
The Spanish set foot on Guam with arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. From that point on, the Spanish held Guam until it ceded it the United States at the end of the Spanish American War in 1898. Like many other areas, Spain force fed their culture and their religion to the native population of Guam and its neighboring Mariana Islands. Along with the cultural onslaught was the wave of European diseases that virtually wiped out almost all of Guam’s Chamorro people.
There was resisitance and violence by pockets of the native population. Two of the most prominent rebel chiefs were Matapang and Hirao. They resisted the foreign attempts on overturning their culture and way of life.
Later both men were vilified for killing the missionary priest, Padre Diego Luis de San Vitores. He and a lay clergy men were sought after by the two chiefs, after they baptized one of Matapnag’s children without his permission. Many of the natives were afraid of the holy water used because of the disease brought by the Europeans. I don’t know the full story and I was not there. However, I believe that Matapang and Hirao have been judged too harshly. They seem to be men defending their lands and homes against foreign and religious incursion. Padre San Vitores was beatified bY the Roman Catholic Church a few years ago which is the final step to receive sainthood.
Chief Kepuha, on the other hand, chose to accept the foreign ways. The original culture of Guam was made secondary, as Chamorros were integrated into the predominated culture of the time. This pattern still exists today.
Perhaps, I judge him too harshly. I did not know him or his heart. However, I only wish that besides Kepuha, Chiefs like Matapang and Hirao should also be respected and bought into our cultural consciousness. They stood up for a culture that many of us want so much to keep alive today. Chief Kepuha is neither Hero nor Traitor. He was a man put into extraordinary circumstances and acted according to his faith.