![]() Most associated Pacific Islanders with Polynesia or Hawaii. They had never heard of Micronesia or the Chamorro people - the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, including Perez. ![]() His high school peers in California assumed he was Mexican. They left during a recession in the 1990s. Like many from the Micronesia region who emigrate to America, Perez said his family was in search of opportunity. It’s laid back, but islanders are always aware of the U.S. Like Hawaii - where Perez has lived for seven years - Guam is an island where growth and urbanization is restricted. ![]() Craig Santos Perez recently published his fourth book. Today he does just that, and for the third year in a row, the University of Hawaii Manoa professor has been nationally recognized for his poetry about American colonization, militarization and Guam’s often-ignored history. “I want to write stories that make my people, my homeland more visible … and also write for other migrants like me who maybe felt that same way, who never saw our culture in books or in literature before.” ![]() The tiny island of Guam was nowhere to be found. Craig Santos Perez remembers the day his teacher in California asked students to stand in front of the class and point on a map to where they were from. ![]()
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