Guam Culture

The CHamoru people are Indigenous to the Mariana Islands, with roots going back at least 3,500 years — among the earliest known Pacific Islander settlements. Their pre-contact culture centred on matrilineal clans, seafaring, and the latte stone — the distinctive pillar-and-capstone structures still found around Guam today and used as a cultural symbol of CHamoru identity.

Guam's more recent history layered outside influence on top of that foundation: Spanish colonial rule from the 1600s, US governance beginning in 1898, a brutal Japanese occupation during World War II, and liberation by US forces in 1944 (commemorated every July as Liberation Day, one of Guam's biggest annual holidays). Present-day CHamoru Guamanian culture reflects all of it — Spanish surnames and Catholic traditions sit alongside American institutions and a distinctly Pacific Islander way of life.

CHamoru (also spelled Chamorro) is Guam's Indigenous language, co-official with English and part of an active revitalisation effort — taught in schools and visible on government signage island-wide. Everyday greetings like Håfa Adai are used constantly, by locals and visitors alike.

Traditional CHamoru music and dance carry stories about ancestors, land, and community — historically passed down orally rather than written. Craftsmanship includes weaving and carving, much of it inspired by the ancient latte stone tradition, and is regularly on display at village markets and cultural festivals.

Food is one of the clearest windows into CHamoru culture. Staples include red rice and kelaguen (a tangy, citrus-marinated dish of grilled chicken, seafood, or beef), typically served alongside barbecue and gollai (a vegetable side). Coconut appears constantly — including as the centrepiece of dedicated festivals in Agana Heights and Inarajan, where a Coconut Queen is crowned each year.

Village fiestas, held throughout the year on patron saints' feast days, remain one of the most authentic ways to experience CHamoru hospitality — large, open, home-cooked spreads that visitors are genuinely welcome to join.

March is CHamoru Heritage Month, marked island-wide by cultural events, and includes the Humåtak Guam History & CHamoru Heritage Day Festival in the historic southern village of Umatac — a multi-day celebration of the island's Indigenous roots and colonial-era history.

Beyond March, the Chamorro Village Night Market in Hagåtña runs weekly and is the most accessible single introduction to CHamoru food, music, and crafts for a short-stay visitor.

Guam's territorial flower is the Puti Tai Nobio, known in English as Bougainvillea or the paper flower — a thorny, vine-like plant that blooms year-round in red, pink, purple, orange, and white, and is common along fences, parks, and the streets of Tumon. The CHamoru name translates roughly to "it hurts not to have a boyfriend," a reference to its thorns.

Bougainvillea was introduced to Guam in 1910 and is not actually native to the island — it's since become naturalised and, in some areas, considered invasive. There have been legislative efforts, in 2014 and 2018, to replace it with Bikkia tetrandra, a flower native to Guam, but both proposals failed and Bougainvillea remains the official territorial flower.