What Is Senator Angel Leon Guerrero Santos Latte Stone Memorial Park?
This park celebrates the cultural heritage of Guam’s CHamoru people!
What Makes It Historical?
On November 24, 1953, Governor Ford Quint Elvidge established the Parks, Monuments, and Museum Committee to research and preserve Spanish and CHamoru historic sites. One of his efforts was to set up a park in the capital of Hagåtña to showcase Guam’s latte stones! These goblet-shaped megaliths, made of a pillar (haligi) and capital (tasa), can be found throughout the Marianas Islands. From about 900 CE to the arrival of the Spanish in 1521, these huge stones were supports for buildings, which may have been canoe houses or food storage or public spaces, though so much time and cultural erasure has happened since they were in use that much is up for debate!
Despite what has been lost to history, latte stones are still a core part of CHamoru cultural identity, and so it was here, amid the latte stones brought here from the village of Mepo’, that Senator Angel Santos founded Nasion CHamoru (Chamorro Nation) on July 21, 1991! This grassroots organization became the center of the CHamoru sovereignty movement, aiming to break more than four centuries of colonial rule and reclaim Guam as a CHamoru nation, even if it meant appealing for a United Nations Charter of independence! While Guam remains a U.S. territory to this day, talk of the island’s independence is now mainstream, and since 2004, Latte Stone Memorial Park has carried the name of the founder of the movement!
How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?
- Volunteer with the Guam Preservation Trust!
- Donate to the Guam Preservation Trust!
- Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!
How Do I Get There?
SW of William O’Brien Drive and Highway 33
Hagåtña, GU 96910
(Take Me There!)
When Should I Visit?
Whenever the mood strikes you!
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