UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Chamorros, ghosts, non-voting delegates : GUAM! where the production of America's sovereignty begins Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9x72002w Author Bevacqua, Michael Lujan Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Chamorros, Ghosts, Non-voting Delegates: GUAM ! Where the Production of America’s Sovereignty Begins A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies by Michael Lujan Bevacqua Committee in charge: Professor Yen Le Espiritu, Chair Professor John D. Blanco Professor Keith L. Camacho Professor Ross H. Frank Professor K. Wayne Yang 2010 © Michael Lujan Bevacqua, 2010 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Michael Lujan Bevacqua is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2010 iii DEDICATION Este para Si Sumåhi yan Si Akli’e’ Este lokkue’ para i anitin i hagas matai na Maga’låhi Si Chelef (taotao Orote). Ha gof tungo’ taimanu pumuha i sakman i enimigu-ña. Puede’ ha (gi este na tinige’-hu) para bai hu osge gui’. iv EPIGRAPH No one is as powerful as we make them out to be. Alice Walker v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ………………………………………………………………... iii Dedication ……………………………………………………………............. iv Epigraph ……………………………………………………………………… v Table of Contents ……………………………………………………….…… vi Acknowledgements ………………………..…………………....…………… x Vita …………………………………………………………………………… xv Abstract of the Dissertation …………………...……………………………… xvii CHAPTER 1: GUAM! Where the Production of America’s Sovereignty Begins! Sinthomes, Slogans and Sovereignty ……………………… ………… 1 Decolonizing Space …………………………………........................... 5 Activist and Academic Commitments ……………………………...… 8 From Venerability to Vulnerability ……………………………...…… 15 Giving Guam a “Sovereignty” Head Start …………………………… 19 CHAPTER 2: GUAM! Where One Can Study Sovereignty, Without Sovereignty “It Could All Come Down to Guam!” ………………………………. 21 Mis-Treating Sovereignty ……………………………………………. 23 Introducing the 2008 Democratic Primary ……………………........... 25 The Long Primary that Would Make History ………………………... 27 A Comfortable Colony ………………………………………. ……... 29 The Balance Between Silly and Scary ………………………………. 32 Subjects Supposed to Be in Power, Subjects Supposed to be Without. 36 The Ghost of Guam in Sovereignty ……………………………..…… 41 Sovereign Magic …………………………………………………….. 46 The Naivety of Sovereignty …………………………………….…… 49 Studying America, Without America ………………………………... 57 American Studies ……………………………………………………. 61 The Place of the Pacific …………………………………………….... 65 Sovereignty in the Pacific …………………………………………… 70 Disrupting the American Pacific Fantasy ……………………………. 75 vi CHAPTER 3: GUAM! Island in Need of Reversing the Colonial Gaze Tinituhun …………………………………………………………… 79 Weaponization ……………………………………………………... 80 The Impossible Chamorro ………………………………………….. 88 The Productivity of the Colonial Difference and the Decolonial Deadlock 93 We Are the Ocean ………………………………………………….. 98 Two of the Most Important Places in the World ………………….... 104 The Delicacies of Studying Guam through a Comparative Framework 107 The Ghost of Guam Strikes Back ………………………………….. 111 CHAPTER 4: GUAM! A Trace of American Sovereignty Painting over the Chamorro Experience …………………………… 127 Between Two Bodies of Evidence ………………………………… 134 Traces of Sovereignty ……………………………………………… 138 Zizek and the Supplement …………………………………………. 143 The Details of Empire ……………………………………………… 147 “State-Like Treatment” …………………………………………….. 150 The Personal Evidence from This Dissertation ……………………. 159 CHAPTER 5: GUAM! The Difference Between Invisibility and Banality If Not Puerto Rico, Then Why Guam? …………………………….. 165 Guam as a Secret …………………………………………………… 169 Why Guam? ………………………………………………………… 175 The Sorrows of Empire, the Absence of Guam ……………………. 186 The Rumsfeld Doctrine …………………………………………….. 190 The Limits of Invisibility …………………………………………... 193 Banality Makes Rumsfeld High ……………………………………. 200 Implicating Empires ………………………………………………... 203 Owning Colonialism… …………………………………………….. 207 First Guam, Then Diego Garcia, Then the World …………………. 212 CHAPTER 6: GUAM! Sovereignty and its Discontents at the United Nations Guam (Not) at the United Nations …………………………………. 215 Sovereignty as per Senator John McCain ………………………….. 219 Defining Sovereignty ………………………………………………. 227 The UN ……………………………………………………………... 229 The Grand Journey of Progress …………………………………….. 234 Seeking and Contesting Sovereignty ………………………………. 240 The Palauan Example ………………………………………………. 247 The Progressive Myth ……………………………………………… 254 vii The Native Nail That Sticks Up ……………………………………. 261 Sovereignty is as Sovereignty Does ………………………………... 266 A Ghostly Non-Place ………………………………………………. 269 Solvency and Irrelevance ………………………………………….. 277 Testing, One Two Three, Testing ………………………………….. 280 CHAPTER 7: GUAM! Laboratory of Liberation and Non-Voting Delegates A Fire-Breathing Guam Mention …………………………………… 284 What This Chapter Includes ………………………………………… 288 Why Agamben Rules ……………………………………………….. 291 Making a Sovereign Community …………………………………… 295 Qualifying Agamben ……………………………………………….. 298 The Fake Vote Issue ………………………………………………… 299 Spreading Democracy or Defending the Real Americans ………….. 303 America’s Constitutional Crisis on the Edge of Asia ………………. 307 Where America’s Sovereignty is Reproduced ……………………… 311 Exceptional Imperialism ……………………………………………. 315 Transitioning Towards Liberation ………………………………….. 317 Laboratory of Liberation ……………………………………………. 319 Embracing Your Empire ……………………………………………. 324 Finakpo’ …………………………………………………………….. 329 CHAPTER 8: GUAM! Through Sovereignty Towards Decolonization Tinituhun ……………………………………………………………. 331 A Grandfatherly Detour …………………………………………….. 331 From Powerlessness to Inauthenticity ………………………………. 337 Bush on Sovereignty, Part Two ……………………………………… 339 The Delicacies of Sovereignty ………………………………………. 341 The Lack of a Location of Chamorro Culture ………………………. 344 Dancing Around Inauthenticity ……………………………………... 347 Filling the Colonial Void ……………………………………………. 356 Wall Street Spam and Chamoru Dreams ……………………………. 360 Reburying the Chamorro ……………………………………………. 362 Guinifen Chamoru …………………………………………………… 367 The Predicament of Sovereignty ……………………………………. 370 Another Sovereignty Dead-end ……………………………………… 374 Trapped Within the Latte ……………………………………………. 378 Terrorists and Time Traveling ………………………………………. 381 Chasing Cars ………………………………………………………… 386 What do a Fruit Bat and a Turtle Have to do With…? ……………… 394 Colonialism and Multiculturalism …………………………………… 399 The Cultural and the Political ……………………………………….. 403 viii Finally Fanon ………………………………………………………… 406 Fanon’s National Idiosyncrasies …………………………………….. 408 The Importance of National Culture ………………………………... 410 The Most Dangerous Class …………………………………………. 412 Finakpo’ …………………………………………………………….. 419 CHAPTER 9: GUAM! A Case of Conventional Amnesia Almost Free From Sovereignty ……………………………………... 421 A Ghost With A Notebook ………………………………………….. 421 A Place on the Floor ………………………………………………… 425 Conventional Amnesia ……………………………………………… 431 Getting No Respect …………………………………………………. 433 The logic of the cultural …………………………………………….. 435 Multiculturalism and Tokenism …………………………………….. 440 Finakpo’ i Finakpo’ ………………………………………………….. 444 Bibliography …………..………………………………..…………………… 447 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Gof magof yu’ na munhåyan este na makkat na che’cho’-hu. Mafañågu este na dissertation gi un hinasso duranten un “anti-war” na miteng gi 2003 giya San Diego (Matuge’ put este gi i mina’singko na kanto). Desde ayu na tiempo, hu na’fanhuyong ayu na idea gi meggai na manera gi meggai na lugat: pinagat, påpet, fina’nu’i, kuentos, tinige’ blog yan guinife. Todu ayu siha na dikike’ pat dongkålu na pidasu siha, ayu na empe’ dissertation siha, manmana’dadaña’ gi este na sen makkat na tinige’-hu. Suette yu’ na ti matai yu’, achokka’ fihu siniente-ku na siña lumalalangu yu’. Achokka’ guaha tiempo gi este na hinanao-hu, sinieñte-ku na taibali este, pat makkat dimasiao, annai mafåtto yu’ (put fin) gi i finakpo’, hu komprende ta’lo i bali-ña. Meggai na malasgue’ giya Guahu gi este na hinanao-hu. Malasgue’ i hila’-hu, sa’ mañodda’ yu’ bos para bai hu usa kumentos put asunton colonization yan decolonizaton . Malasgue’ lokkue i titinos-hu, sa’ tumo’a i idea-hu siha. Este na dissertation , ha represesenta i finat na hiniyong i trese años na umeskuekulå-ku guini giya Guahan yan gi lagu giya California. Annai lahoben yu’, ya tumutuhon ha’ yu’ gi i che’cho’ activist yan i kinalamten pulitikåt put asunton Chamorro siha, guaha manuge’- ku ni’ hu chuchule’ ha’esta ki på’go. “Kada minetmot linahyan u tutuhon ni’ un sinangan ha’.” I hinengge-ku put este na idea, matulaika didide’, lao presisisu ha’ yan impottånte este, kalang un finayin pulitikåt. Ti siña ta tungo’ kontiempo hafa i minagahet na sinangan ni’ para u yokyok i guafin “minetmot linahayan.” Lao este na chinatsiguru ti i finakpo’ (i ettimo na sinangan). Puede ha’ gi este na tinige’-hu, meggai x na sinangan, meggai na idea, meggai na tinige’ ni’ siña