Chris Perez Howard was born in 1940 to Mariquita Aguon Perez and Edward Neal Howard. When the Japanese invaded Guam the following year, his father, a US Navy sailor, was taken away as a prisoner of war, leaving his mother and family to care for Chris and his younger sister. By the war’s end, Mariquita would, like hundreds of other CHamorus during the occupation, become a victim of Japanese brutality. As a result, Chris would have few memories of her and soon after his father’s return to Guam at the end of the war, would be taken away from Guam and not return for more than two decades.

In the 1970s, Chris would return to Guam and begin to conduct research into the life and death of his mother. He pored through military archives and also interviewed family and friends, who helped him put together a literary portrait of her as an intelligent and resilient CHamoru woman. In 1982 he published a biography for her titled, “Mariquita: A Tragedy of Guam.” For two generations this was one of the few pieces of CHamoru literature used regularly in Guam’s public schools and has become an inspiration for countless writers and artists, seeking to learn about their own roots or confront the trauma of their past and transform it into something powerful and meaningful.

In the 1970s and 1980s Chris joined different emerging CHamoru activist groups and was a founding member of The Organization of People for Indigenous Rights (OPIR). In 1982 he joined Robert Underwood and Ron Teehan as the first CHamorus to travel to the United Nations and testify before the UN’s Fourth Committee on the question of Guam’s non-self-governing status. Chris also worked for the Commission on Self-Determination and helped to organize its public education efforts on political status change and Commonwealth. In the 1980s, through working with Senator Chilang Bamba, he became one of the loudest voices in support of CHamorus receiving reparations for the atrocities they endured under World War II Japanese occupation.

Howard would go on to publish two more books, “Edward” a biography retelling his father’s experiences as a prisoner of war and his struggle to deal with the trauma for the remainder of his life. Earlier this year he published his final book “Juanit” which tells the story of a mixed race young CHamoru woman who struggles to find her own identity.

In speaking about what drew him to write and also become a community activist Chris said, “A lot of these complex issues may not be resolved over my lifetime, but I honestly couldn’t live with myself, if I wasn’t doing something to forward the Chamorro cause…One victory that’s lasting however, is that once our people are educated on their political rights, they’re never going to give them up. I find it personally gratifying to play a small part in such an important endeavor.”

Chris Perez Howard died this week at the age of 82. U såga gi minahgong.