In the folklore of Guam, the water buffalo, or carabao, is depicted as a big, lumbering beast that is a stoic and dependable family pet and friend. Carabao are believed to have been brought to Guam from the Philippines by the Spanish during their colonial occupation from 1668 to 1898. The widespread use of the carabao in agriculture, transportation, and daily life may have been further entrenched when the colonial government instituted economic reforms, including the distribution of land and cattle to islanders in the 1820s (del Valle 1991, 21). In the twentieth century, the gentle carabao became an iconic figure in the local landscape and in the writings and images documenting Guamanian life. Many people now assert that this imported animal is an adopted and adapted foreign “technology” so thoroughly “localized” that it has become a symbol of the Chamorro, the indigenous people of Guam (Diaz 2000).
In 1913, Marjorie Sewell, who visited the island of Guam as a young girl with her family, recollects listening to the story of “Why the Carabao Can Only Squeak” told by an elderly Spanish missionary. In the story, Mother Mary is singing the Christ child to sleep when a vocal carabao joins the song. Mary removes one shoe and bops the carabao on the nose for his rudeness, thus explaining why the animal still speaks with only the quietest of voices. This unique tale demonstrates how missionaries contextualized Christian characters to the island setting. Further, the fact that this story was published by an American woman who had visited Guam as a child illustrates the challenges of identifying authorship in many of Guam’s folktales.
In these stories, the carabao is often found wallowing in mud, bellowing out his opinion, blinking his agreement, and challenging other animals to races. One might say that the carabao has made itself a home in whatever place and in whatever story it finds itself. The humble carabao often serves the purpose of delivering the story’s moral, or its main etiological claim (why something is the way it is). In one of these tales, a mischievous Chamorro boy switches the skins of a cow and a carabao who have removed them before swimming in the ocean. When the animals return after dusk, they dress in the wrong skins, thus explaining why a cow’s hide is too big and wrinkled and why a carabao has a tight-fitting hide, allowing it to run fast.
Some of the most beloved stories depict the carabao as the trusty sidekick, and even partner in crime, to a clever Chamorro boy. In stories set in the Spanish colonial era, Guam’s Chamorro trickster, Juan Malo (variously called Juan Måla, Juan Mala, and Pedro Malas), is able to outwit others, but especially those thought to be smarter or more powerful then himself. In one of these stories, Juan Malo’s carabao has submerged itself in the Spanish governor’s lily pond. When the governor yells to have the carabao moved, Juan replies, “That I cannot do, Magalahe. Both my carabao and I need work. In fact, I’m afraid that if we do not obtain it, my carabao won’t budge an inch and will die amongst the lily pool. Your Grace knows how stubborn carabao are!” (Van Peenen 2008, 29). Blackmailed with a carabao, the governor gives Juan the job of watching his three pigs, which he promptly eats for dinner. To escape, he walks his carabao backward, away from the house and into the jungle. Soldiers do not consider following the tracks going toward the house, and Juan and his carabao escape with full bellies, smelling of lilies. Many scholars have commented on how these narratives demonstrate a kind of covert resistance to Spanish colonial authority. One scholar asserts, “In Juan Malo and his carabao, we have the living symbols of Chamorro pride and patriotism” (Van Peenen 2008, 36).
While these folktales are indeed both a fun and significant record of the carabao’s historical importance on Guam, contemporary evidence also abounds. Carabao are ever present at local fiestas, holidays, and island cultural events. Many tourists take pictures of themselves perched atop a carabao. In 2003, the U.S. Navy announced that it would cull a herd of 300 wild carabao from the island. The response was quick and passionate. A groundswell of grassroots activism led to a compromise: a carabao roundup and adoption program. Many entered a raffle to win their very own carabao to take home as a family pet. Brought from the Philippines by Spanish colonizers, the carabao is still a large part of the shared memories of Guamanian islanders. No longer critical to transportation, the carabao was once as ubiquitous to daily life as the pickup truck is today; and yet, this large and docile water buffalo, and the stories about it, remain a significant feature of the cultural landscape of Guam.
Andrea Sant
See also Chamorro Sirena, a Guamanian American Tale; Taotaomona and Suruhanu
Further Reading
del Valle, Maria Teresa. 1991. The Importance of the Mariana Islands to Spain at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Mangilao, GU: Micronesian Area Research Center.
Diaz, Vincente. 2000. “Simply Chamorro: Tales of Demise and Survival in Guam.” In Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History, edited by Robert Borofsky, 362–382. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Sewell, Marjorie. 1913. “The Magic of Guam.” Atlantic Monthly 111: 649–652.
Torres, Robert Tenorio. 2003. “Colonial and Conquest Lore of the Marianas: A Critical Commentary.” Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2 (1–2): 23–30.
Van Peenen, Mavis Warner. 2008. Chamorro Legends on the Island of Guam. Mangilao, GU: Micronesian Area Research Center.