The Legend of Taga - The Last Maga'låhi of the Chamorro People

Hear the story of Taga, the last Maga’låhi of the Chamorro people.  Born on the island of Rota (“Luta” in the Chamorro language), which is the ancient and ancestral heart of the Chamorro people.  His father was ruler of the island; great, mighty, and strong.  He raised a number of great latti stones (a type of large stone pillar, or “haligi” in the Chamorro language, with a hemispheric stone cap that served as supports for large homes or huts).  Taga’s father and his sons were giants, but one son was exceptional in his strength and ambition – Taga.

Roughly around the age of 15, Taga rebelled against his father by attempting to overthrow him.  However, he lacked the strength to carry it out.  Taga’s father uprooted a tree and came after him, forcing Taga to leap from the northern tip of Rota to the island of Tinian.  The island was about 65 miles or so from Rota, and it was far enough away for his paternal troubles to ease.

Taga finished his childhood among the people of Tinian, eventually having a wife from the island.  As a young man, he witnessed the beginnings of Spanish interests in the islands – which they would restock their supplies of food and water on their way to places that they believe to hold great treasures such as Mexico, South America, & the Philippines.  It is likely, though no one knows for certain, that this was the catalyst that led Taga on his mission to unify the island under a single rule.

His first step to unifying the archipelago began when he subjugated all of the villages of Tinian & Aguigan (nicknamed “Goat Island”), which is a small island with high cliffs that is very near to Tinian.  After these islands were subjugated, Taga struck north and unified the smaller islands north of Saipan.  Afterwards, he proceeded to strike southward to his home island of Rota.  It is assumed that he saved Saipan for last due to the island being the second largest within the archipelago.  He ignored the largest island, Guam, due to the island already being occupied by the Spaniards.

By the time he was ready to take Saipan, he had built a large latti stone hut/house that was larger than any hut his father built.  According to legend, he had cut the latti stones out of the earth, hoisted them on his shoulders, and set them in place by himself – a magnificent feat, considering each stone weighed at least one or two tons.

When the time came to conquer Saipan, Taga gathered all his warrior magic and made ready to depart.  Around this time, his wife – whom he loved dearly – was in labor with his first child.  The birth proved to be quite difficult.  The suruhånu (Chamorro medicine men; medicine women are called "suruhåna"), kakåna (Chamorro sorcerers), and midwives could not help her.  In order to save his wife, Taga started breaking his own taboos.  He gave his wife the rest of his magic – magic that could have been used to overthrow the villages of Saipan.  He poured all of his magic into her, which resulted in his first child – a daughter - being born.  What little conquest magic he had left, he used on the village of Obyan on the southern coast of Saipan.  After he conquered the village, he proceeded to take over the rest of Saipan – finally unifying the archipelago under a single rule.

Years later, Taga fathered more children.  His last child, however, was the most exceptional.  On the child’s birthday (some say the 1^st, others the 5^th) Taga gave his son the gift of a very large coconut crab (“ayuyu” in the Chamorro language) to play with.  The crab frees itself and ran into a hole under a large palm that grew near the village.  The child ran after the crab and uprooted the tree to take his new pet back.  The sight of his son uprooting the palm tree filled Taga with fear for it was a larger tree than even he could uproot.  Taga remembered his own youth and ambition.

At this point, the Legend of Taga has many variants.  Some say Taga smothered the child in the night.  Some say he picked up the tree and killed his son with it while the boy was at play.  Others say he killed him with one of the latti stones.  Regardless, he killed his son and instantly regretted it.  He wasn’t the only one to be overcome with grief, though, as his wife died of heartbreak shortly after.  His eldest daughter, who loved her youngest brother dearly, starved herself to death while wandering around in the nearby beach.

Taga was devastated by the loss of his wife and children.  Part of his grief was no doubt related to Chamorro beliefs about the afterlife.  They believed that if one suffered a “straw death,” it would lead to the Ancient Chamorro’s equivalent of heaven.  If one suffered a violent death, it would lead to the Ancient Chamorro’s equivalent of hell.

At this time, the Spanish Franciscan missionaries began to visit the islands north of Guam.  Unlike the Spaniards, they decided to stay among the native community while trying to convert the populace.  Taga had heard the missionaries preach before.  He did not oppose them nor was he keen on joining them.  The missionaries early on had made some converts among the high class, but many of the converts turned away from the religion when they realized the Christian message applied to all, not just the higher class.

Suddenly, something extraordinary happened.  Taga decides to go to one of the Franciscan missionaries and requested if he could convert to Christianity.  The reason being that Taga had been to a cave near the village which he said was suddenly filled with “bright light, much fire” surrounding a woman - whom he believed to be the Holy Virgin – who told him to believe what the priests were telling his people.

Soon afterward, he was baptized as “José Taga”.  Not long after, the rest of the Chamorro people followed suit.  However, in doing so, they discovered that the ancestral spirits wanted nothing more to do with them, even when the Chamorros treated them respectfully.  They are believed to have become dangerous to the point where modern-day Chamorros (mostly from the Northern Mariana Islands) would not even pee in the jungle/forest without asking permission/pardon from the ancestral spirits (“Tautaumo’na” in the Chamorro language).

The Chamorro people say that after the mass conversion, the Chamorros began shrinking; they were no longer giants.  They eventually became as small as the Spaniards they came to hate due to nearly 300 years of oppressive rule.