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Juan Manibusan the “South Sea Island Bruiser”

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 05 August 2019

    Påle Eric (2017) does a great job of conveying a good part of the story of Juan Manibusan, a CHamoru “Bayinero” (whaler) from the 1800s, so I won’t go into the same details but will add to it from a 1935 article in the Philippine Magazine along with some other interesting observations.

    So I recently came across the article written by Hans Hornbostel and wrote about his personal encounter with Juan Manibusan. Sometime back around 1925 Hornbostel conducted archeological excavations in the Mariana Islands for the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Hawaii. While he was in Rota photographing some pictographs in cave, that is where he met up Manibusan.

    “…I at last reached the cave I was looking for, found the drawings, and proceeded to photograph these interesting pictorial records, when suddenly the light in the cave diminished and, looking toward the entrance, I beheld a man, and what a man he was.

Deep of chest, broad shouldered, narrow hipped, his whole upper body was covered with patches of white hair. The hair on his head was thick and was also white, and although he was a very old man, he still carried himself well. His flesh was firm, and his skin healthy, and he seemed to have retained much strength in spite of his age. I noticed that his nose was badly battered and that his ears were cauliflowered.

    He approached me grinning cheerfully and as I addressed him in a few native words, he answered me in the best Limehouse cockney I had had the privilege to listen to for many a year. I gave him some ship's tobacco to chew, and my, how he enjoyed it! not having had any, he said, since he had arrived on the bloody bleeding, etc., island.

    He told me his story. In his youth an English whale ship had arrived off the island and he was induced by the blandishments of the Bucko mate to become one of the crew. A few days out he resented the mate's manner and gave him to understand it. The mate broke out a belaying pin and the fight was on. The mate by virtue of experience, plus the belaying pin, plus pretty little sea-going manhandling tricks, won, but not before the young islander had inflicted more punishment than that mate had ever had to take before from any man. The result was that the mate, who knew a little about pugilism, took the boy under his wing, taught him as best he could how to handle his fists, and when they reached London arranged a match for him with some third-rate pug. The Chamorro won; match after match followed, and he won them all. The mate decided to quit throwing harpoons at whales in various and sundry seas and seasons, and became the Chamorro's manager. Together they traveled through Great Britain and the continent for many years, for Juan Manabusan [sic] became an excellent second rate prize fighter, known as the "South Sea Island Bruiser." As the years passed, he took unto himself a wife, a bar-maid of Lime-house, London. As he approached old age, his wife died, his children married among their kind in the London slums, and then a great longing, the longing of the old for the environment of their youth, came upon him, and he thought, as so many other old men before him have, that if he could but return to his home, his native land, he would be contented and happy. But it did not turn out as he has so fondly planned, for his island and his people had, by his absence, become as strange and foreign to him as London was when he first saw it from the deck of the whaler.” (Hornbostel 1935, p. 129)

     Given that Hornbostel published this article in 1935, he is mistaken about alleging that Juan Manibusan’s wife (Mary Drennan) dying before Juan (Briola, 2019). Mary outlived her husband. On Ancestry, Mary can be found in the 1930 and 1940 Census of Guam living with their son Joseph’s family and she is also listed as a widow.

   And for you genealogy researchers that may be interested in exploring this further, Juan and his family recorded in England's 1891 Census in the city of Livepool. Juan's recorded birthplace was listed as the Mariana Islands. Based on that Census this particular area of Liverpool seemed like a melting pot of sailors/whalers and families.

Kao Manggåfan Mafongfong si Juan?  

    But speaking more about the Census, in the 1920 Census, right below the recording of Juan P. Manibusan's family and what appears to be witin the same household is Felix M[anibusan] Manibusan's (manggåfan Mafongfong) family. Generally, this is a sign of close family relations and seems like Juan and Felix (born out of wedlock) may have been brothers. Is this a coincidence or is Juan also a Mafongfong? Was Juan's nose badly battered from fighting or was he born with it a disfigured nose? Family lore regarding the family clan name Mafongfong says that it was because of one of the Manibusan brothers had a face that looked like it was pounded in and Mafongfong means to pound.  I too am a descendant of the Mafongfong clan and also have an autosomal DNA match with one of Juan's great grandchildren.  Hmmmm....

References:

Briola, Julian. 2019. Personal communications.

Forbes, Eric. 2017. A Whaler Who Came Back. Retrieved from http:// paleric.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-whaler-who-came-back.html

Hornbostel, Hans G. 1935. Rota Days. Philippine Magazine. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=KC_nAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq=hornbostel+rota+days&source=bl&ots=3evYU58OJJ&sig=ACfU3U0oE5s-gnLUYpWUyt9Y0x2NO2XrcQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpzM2_jeLjAhUKTN8KHTDcDMAQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=hornbostel%20rota%20days&f=false

First International Publication

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 16 July 2019

The Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project is now internationally published on the Genealogy — Open Access Journal website. 

I am still a novice at this stuff (journals and publications). I look forward to all the productive review and critique.

So many things have happened, so I have a lot to say about this special journey.  I know I can be all over the place when it comes to writing about it. I am a life long student willing to learn and share new things.  This has been quite an experience.

I want to thank Dr. Vince Diaz for hooking me up on this special call for papers and Dr. Nepia Mahuika for his invaluable assistance.

Dr. Tahu Kukutai and Dr. Nepia Mahuika were the special edition Guest Editors.  I am very appreciative of their knowledge, support and recommendations. When I reached out to Dr. Mahuika I felt compelled to inform him that I was not from the academic community. He told me not to worry about it. He responded to the effect that he was Maori first before being a Professor. That resonated well and comforted me, yet still nervous. Recognizing that my essay was not within the academic prose norm,  I was elated by their comment that, “it is a powerful example of grass roots indigenous genealogical activism.” I was like wow, I never thought about it in that context.

I also want to thank you all for your encouragement and support. Leveraging this website and social media like FB are powerful collaboration tools.

For sure, I could have never imagined coming this far with the Project. Many lessons learned and certainly more to come.

You can access and download the publication at https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/3/3/38

CHamoru Naming Traditions

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 29 June 2019

(The woman is Maxima Dela Cruz Pangelinan)

Background

Since 2003, I have committed myself on this journey to being one of the caretakers of CHamoru genealogy.  At first, I was naïve because I did not realize how much I did not know about my peoples’ history.  I also did not realize that I had to reconstruct family trees to make sense of our peoples’ stories.  Because of this, I came to learn that it also meant that I did not know the definition of genealogy, which is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages.  It was like a pathetic epiphany. So, here I am continuing to engage in this special awakening and sharing of what I learn as I continue this journey.  Generally, I will blog/write brief paragraphs of my preliminary findings.  Eventually, I am able to weave them into larger stories.  This particular segment covers a few naming practices of the native people of the Mariana Islands. 

Historical Recordings

To date, I have been able to find at least three different recordings from contact to early 1800s.  The earliest recording I came across was from Fray Juan Pobre.  In 1602, Pobre jumped ship and stayed in Luta (Rota) for seven months.  During his sojourn he was able to interview Sancho, a Spaniard that was previously marooned in the Mariana Islands and lived among the natives.  Sancho conveyed to Pobre what he had observed and learned of the native people and their culture.  Pobre (1996) wrote:

“The names which they give themselves from the time they are small are names of fishes or of trees which they use to make their canoes or of other similar things that they value very much.” (p. 182)

June 15, 1668 marks the beginning period of the Spanish colonization.  This is precisely when Father Diego San Vitores and other Jesuits backed by a contingent of Spanish Army soldiers planted themselves in the Mariana Islands in the name of Spain. One of the observations of how some of the native males changed their names was recorded by Father Juan Ledesma (1996) in 1672.

“When the latter [brothers and nephews of deceased male] inherit [main house and land], they change their names, adopting that of the founder or elder of their family, respecting the distinctions between the high, low and middle lineages to such an extent that it is amazing to see in people with so little diversity in clothing and housing accommodation.” (p. 480)

However, prior to the arrival of the Jesuits in 1668, the natives only had an indigenous first name. As the Jesuits began recording their experiences some mentioned the Christian names given to the natives (Garcia, 2004).  After being baptized, their Christian name became their first name and indigenous name became their surname. Kepuha (Quipuha) became known as Juan Quipuha,  Matå’pang’s daughter became known as Maria Assion, So’on became Alsono So’on, Hineti became Ignacio Hineti, so on and so forth.

More than over a century later, it seems that the CHamoru people continued to give their children native first names into the early 1800s.  This recording occurred in 1819 during the French Uranie expedition visit to the Mariana Islands from Louis Freycinet (2003). The expedition lasted three months in the Mariana Islands.  Freycinet recorded that some of the native children were given names based on the talents or personal qualities of their father, or named after fruit, plants, and other things.

At some point during the 1800s, the practice of giving children native first names, for the most part, discontinued.  For the CHamoru people of Guam, Laura Thompson (1947) wrote:

“The godfather and godmother or the parents give the child a name. There is no rule for naming the child, but the first boy is usually christened in honor of a deceased grandfather, a first girl in honor of a deceased grandmother.  In fact, children are often named after their grandparents or godparents or patron saint on whose day they were baptized. Frequently, however, a woman in labor prays to a saint for easy delivery. Then she names the child in honor of the saint.” (p. 244)

Thompson also noted that most “Guamanians” are not known by their names but by their nicknames.

For the CHamoru people of the Northern Mariana Islands, Alexander Spoehr (2000) in 1954 seems to have well captured CHamoru naming traditions of the Spanish colonial period, through and into the initial influence of Americanization.

“Names.—The name given a Chamorro child is selected by the parents. Most given names among the Saipan Chamorros are of Spanish origin, the familiar "Jesus," "Maria," and "Jose" being favorites in the community. The German, Japanese, and now American periods of administration have also left their mark. During German times, "Herman," "Oscar," "Victor," "Wilhelmina," and "Frida" came into favor, though these names no longer are selected with as much frequency. In the Japanese period, the Spanish names continued to provide most of the given names. Japanese names do not fit well into the European name system established among the Chamorros, and I recorded no Japanese names given at baptism. According to informants, in Japanese times when a Chamorro went to a Japanese school he was required to assume a Japanese given name. Students who went on for further training, including those few who went to school in Japan, acquired an entire Japanese name, a process that was looked on with favor by the Japanese authorities as leading to a greater assimilation of Japanese culture. It is doubtful that more than a dozen individuals were affected, however, and they have since resumed their Chamorro names.

Today most Chamorro names are still drawn from the corpus of Spanish-diffused given names. A few names of American origin are making their appearance and others are being Anglicized, for example, "Guillermo" to "William." In most cases single names are given, but a few double combinations have appeared in the last few years, two examples being "Victor Segundo" and "Evelyn Ruth." On the whole, however, the Spanish tradition survives as the main source for given names.” (p. 239-240)

The impact of colonization and assimilation on CHamoru naming traditions is quite apparent. It demonstrates the decline of ancient CHamoru naming practices and the shift towards the influences of the colonizer’s practices.

References:

Freycinet, L.C. (2003). An Account of the Corvette L’Urainie’s Sojourn at the Mariana Islands (translated by G. Barrett, trans.). Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI): CNMI Division of Historic Preservation: CNMI

Garcia, F. (2004). The Life and Martyrdom of the Venerable Father Diego Luis de San Vitores, S.J. (M.M. Higgins, F. Plaza and J.M.H. Ledesma, trans). Mangilao, Guam: University of Guam

Ledsma, J.M.H. (1996). The Native Customs of the Chamorros. (R. Levesque trans), History of Micronesia: Focus on the Mariana Mission, 1670-1673, 5. Quebec, Canada: Levesque Publications

Pobre, J. (1996). The Story of Fray Juan Pobre’s Stay at Rota in the Ladrone Islands in 1602. (R. Levesque trans.), History of Micronesia: First Real Contact, 1596-1637, 3. Quebec, Canada: Levesque Publications

Sphoer, A. 2000. Saipan: The Ethnology of a War-Devastated Island (2^nd ed.). Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Division of Historic Preservation

Thompson, L. 1947. Guam and Its People (3^rd ed). Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou

CHamoru DNA Descendants: First Settlers of Remote Oceania

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 08 April 2019

I Manmofona Na Taotao (First Peoples). Following the trail of Austronesian peoples that have Proto-Malayo-Polynesian linguistic characteristics and current CHamoru DNA studies, the first wave of settlers in Remote Oceania settled in the Mariana Islands sometime between 5,000 and 3,500 years ago from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), likely from Wallacea (Sulawesi and the Moluccas). 

As a result of time, space and isolation, the CHamoru mitochondrial DNA is unique and within the haplotypes E2a and E1a2 (Pre-Latte period). CHamoru people with B4a1a1a that also contains a specific and unique mutation are believed to have come from a separate and second wave of migration to the islands, which parallels the Latte period.

Interestingly as well, other variations of B4a1a1a: 1) are found in Carolinians from Saipan; and, 2) is of the Polynesian Motif and within the timeframe of settlers in Polynesia.

Sources:

1. Geographic map is from Wikimedia Commons. Animation is mine.
2. Vilar, M. et al. 2012. The Origins and Genetic Distinctiveness of the Chamorros of the Marianas Islands: An mtDNA Perspective.