Q&A formats aren’t always my favorite. They’re sometimes used as an easy out by journalists who don’t want to craft a full narrative. But this time, I’m making an exception — because the four people I spoke with responded to questions about history with insight and care.
Let me introduce them first:
Dr. Robert A. Underwood – historian, activist, scholar, former Guam delegate to Congress and UOG president. His track record isn’t just long; it has had a significant impact.
Dr. Anne Hattori – professor of history at UOG and the first CHamoru woman to earn a Ph.D. in hHistory. She’s a major voice in Pacific and Micronesian studies.
Victoria Leon Guerrero – director of UOG Press. She’s helped shape a powerful body of Pacific and Guam literature through publishing.
Shannon Murphy – former journalist and longtime director of Guampedia. Since 2002, she’s led efforts to document Guam’s history through an indigenous lens.
These are people I trust with tough questions — about who gets to tell history, how, and why it still matters.
Q: How do you verify or challenge historical narratives?
Dr. Anne P. Hattori
Hattori: It takes patience and a critical eye. You gather as much evidence as you can to test assumptions. Often, you’ll find the dominant version of history is lacking in nuance — or just wrong.
Sometimes cultural knowledge gives you that sense. A story doesn’t sound quite right, so you dig deeper. Other times, you find sources that directly contradict accepted narratives. That’s where the real work begins.
Underwood: You have to expose the frameworks people use — liberator and liberated, rescuer and rescued. These are narrative defaults. When we don’t question them, they become embedded in our thinking and become invisible. That makes them even harder to challenge.
Q: What parts of Guam’s history do you think are most misunderstood or underrepresented?
UOG Press Director Victoria Leon Guerrero
Hattori: The so-called “'ancient”' period is often romanticized or flattened. People describe our ancestors as brave, healthy, and strong — but rarely as scientifically advanced. These were people who built with mathematics, fished with specialized tools, tracked stars, and navigated the ocean. Their sophistication gets lost when we judge by appearance or colonial assumptions.
Leon Guerrero: Guam’s history of resistance to colonialism is overlooked. There’s a myth that CHamorus have never resisted — that protest is disrespectful. That’s just false. Especially during Spanish rule, CHamoru women were stripped of names and roles in the historical record. Their agency was erased.
Underwood: Strategic importance is a concept we don’t analyze enough. It’s shaped how Guam is viewed, governed, and even how we see ourselves. Liberation, democracy, and CHamoru agency are all tied to that — yet often misunderstood or oversimplified.
Q: What challenges do you face in doing this work?
Guampedia Director Shannon Murphy
Hattori: Time is a major challenge. You need it to chase leads, gather sources, and build understanding. It’s also hard when elders don’t see themselves as keepers of knowledge — when in truth, they are. The details of everyday life hold the richness of our history.
Murphy: Funding is a constant struggle. We need resources to pay people to do research and make sure the work reaches classrooms and the public. Our team at Guampedia works hard to bridge that gap through community partnerships and educational outreach.
Q: Why is this work urgent or important now?
Hattori: Because history lets us make informed decisions. If you keep using the same failed recipe and expect a better result, that’s a problem. Knowing what’s come before — and what worked — matters.
Leon Guerrero: For many of us, school taught us more about distant places than our own. That kind of disconnect limits our imagination. Publishing our stories changes that. It shows young people that their lives and histories matter — and that they can shape what’s next.
Q: Who inspired you? Who do you think of as the first or most important historians of Guam?
Former Delegate and UOG President Robert A. Underwood
Hattori: Dr. Underwood was a spark for me. I started teaching Guam history and quickly realized I needed to learn more. That led to graduate studies and eventually a Ph.D. He’s still a role model.
Murphy: I started with Dr. Marjorie Driver at UOG’s MARC, then Dr. Underwood and Dr. Hattori. Later, Malia Ramirez and many others showed me the depth of our oral traditions. I’m grateful to all of them. But I also think of the original historians — our storytellers, farmers, healers, and musicians — who kept our culture alive.
Leon Guerrero: My family — parents, grandparents, great-aunts and uncles — inspired me early on. Then I learned from Robert Underwood, Hope Cristobal, Anne Hattori, Pedro Sanchez, and Michael Lujan Bevacqua. All have shaped how I think about storytelling and history.
Underwood: We’ve had great reporters and chroniclers, like Tony Palomo. Then we’ve had academic historians — Vince Diaz, Anne Hattori. And of course, there are always people who think they know but don’t.
Q: What do you hope the next generation remembers — or rediscovers?
Hattori: That our history isn’t just a collection of artifacts. It’s a story of intelligence, resilience, and survival.
Murphy: That they don’t need a superpower. That we — this generation and the next — can take care of these islands ourselves. That we already have what we need in our culture and community.
Underwood: I want them to see themselves as agents of their own future. The current narratives about Liberation and Democracy often position us as passive — thankful for what we’ve been given, rather than bold in asking for what we deserve. That needs to change.