10/13/2026
🌺 A Letter from Your NTCA Secretary
Si Yu’us Ma’åse- From the Bottom of My Heart. It’s long but stay with me.
Sometimes, something happens that reminds me exactly why we do what we do at the North Texas CHamoru Association. This morning, my mom, our NTCA President, shared a story with me that touched my heart so deeply, I knew I had to share it with you.
Angie Paet, our beautiful bone carver, also known as Hinengge, knew my grandmother, Remy Toves, because her dad and my grandma moved in the same circles as singers and musicians. Angie sent my mom a video and pictures of the 1991 book “Legacy of Guam: I Kustumbren Chamoru” by Manny Crisostomo- yes, THE Manny Crisostomo, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist!
Inside that book was a photograph of my late grandmother, Remy, and my Auntie Jocelyn. A photograph from 35 years ago.
And here we are, decades later, with Manny unknowingly photographing my grandmother’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren at the San Antonio Liberation celebration. Four generations of our family, connected through a photograph, our culture, and a legacy that continues to live on.
At our own Guam Liberation celebration, we also captured four generations together- my mom, her daughter Remy, granddaughter Cerinity, and great-granddaughter TĂĄsi.
I can't help but get emotional thinking about it. My grandmother's legacy is still growing, and we are blessed to be part of carrying it forward. I hope she would be proud of what we are doing, and I hope my own grandchildren and their grandchildren will one day look back at what we are building and feel proud of where they come from.
Stories like this remind me that we are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing.
NTCA is about so much more than festivals, workshops, and celebrations. It's about creating spaces where families reunite after years apart, where people discover connections they never knew existed, and where stories of our elders continue to be shared. It's about reminding our people that even thousands of miles from home, our little island of Guam still has a beautiful way of bringing us back to one another.
To everyone who has attended our events, shared a story with me, volunteered, supported our cultural practitioners, or simply shown up to be with your people- thank you. You may come for the food, music, and celebration, but you might leave with a new connection, a rediscovered memory, or a piece of your family history you never knew was missing.
And I am so grateful that we get to be part of those moments.
Our elders planted the seeds. We are nurturing what they started. And one day, the generations after us will carry it forward.
That is the legacy we are building. Not just for us, but for every generation still to come. We were all meant to be here. We were all meant to meet. Right at the right time.
Bula Guinaiya.
Your NTCA Secretary
Christine Sanchez
Para i manåmko’-ta yan i mañaina-ta; para i famagu’on-ta yan todu i generasion siha.
For our elders and ancestors, our children, and all the generations to come.
