Inarajan community helps create village mural

by Michele Catahay

Guam - The Guam Visitor's Bureau has been working with the villages to create murals with hopes for people to understand what each village has to offer. KUAM News we went down to Inarajan to see how residents there are doing to make their mural unique.

President of the Historic Inalajan Foundation Judy Flores says when the concept to brand the village through a mural came about, villagers weren't sure how to go about doing the project. Flores says they found it difficult to find the right place in a perfect area, saying, "Of course, all the villages are doing their murals. We kept thinking we don't have any walls. What can we do? At that same time we're also trying to do something about these abandoned buildings."

Flores says she approached the committee to purchase special boards and attach them to the buildings. She says there is so much history to the village that not too many people know about.  "We're going back to my time, not before the war, but in the early 70's back in the 60's and the way I remember families living there and who they were. So what we're doing is showing the kids for example, we're going to the first house saying, 'OK, Flores family: this is your grandmother and this is how I remember her.'," she said.

In the meantime, Engaging Youth Coordinator for Historic Inalajan Angie Taitague says many volunteers showed up to help paint the mural today. Groups include students from Inarajan Middle School, the youth program, the University of Guam and the Paulino Family, who once ran a store in the treasured building.  "A lot of the paintings are done by the groups of the village of Inarajan," Taitague explained.  "They want to learn, they see the pictures and they ask Auntie Judy a lot of questions like, 'Did they really wear that?' and 'Did he really do that?'"

Flores says she hopes for the mural to be completed before the village fiesta, which takes place at the end of the month.