Carlos Santos Perez

Softcover, 96 pp.

Craig Santos Perez, a native Chamoru born and raised on the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam), migrated with his family to California in 1995, and does not return home until fifteen years later. from unincorporated territory [guma’] emerges from the tension between arrival and departure to map the emotional and geographic cartographies of migration. Featuring a variety of poetic forms (including lyric, narrative, documentary, and conceptual poems, dramatic monologues, and prose essays), the poet highlights the everyday struggles of staying connected to native origins and customs, while adjusting to new American cultures and terrains. Furthermore, this collection draws attention to, and protests, the violent currents of colonialism and militarism currently threatening Guåhan, a US territory since 1898 and a “strategic” location of US geopolitical power in the Asia Pacific region. Drawing from history and politics, culture and family, from unincorporated territory [guma’] memorializes what the Chamoru people have lost through military occupation and out-migration, and insists that we must raise our voices to protect and defend what we have left of the places we call home.