Welcome to
the Marianas
Festival offers
By Rob Perez
Chamorro music and food
Star-BulletinIt takes more than seven hours and $600 to fly to the Mariana Islands from Honolulu. But this weekend you can listen to the music and sample the foods of the Western Pacific chain without leaving Oahu.
A Chamorro music festival -- a first in Hawaii -- is set for Friday and Saturday nights at Fort Shafter. It includes a mini-fiesta of foods from the islands.
The indigenous people of the Marianas, which are about 3,800 miles west of Hawaii and include the island of Guam, are called Chamorros. An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 live in Hawaii.
The festival is dubbed "Puengen Minagof" (An Evening in Paradise). The Radiants, a popular Guam band, will perform, along with musicians K.C. DeLeon Guerrero and Frank "Bokonggo" Pangelinan. All play contemporary Chamorro music, a mix of island country, rock and reggae.
The Chamorro community in Hawaii is sponsoring the festival to raise money for Chamorro studies at the University of Hawaii, according to Faye F. Untalan, a UH faculty member. Community members are preparing most of the food.
"The support of the community has been really overwhelming," Untalan said.
An Evening in Paradise
When: 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday.
592-0300; or Guam Medical Referral Office, 973-2904.
University of Hawaii journalism student
Jocelyn Calma contributed to this report.
