#guahan

National Poetry Month: Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez (b. 1980) is a Chamorro writer; born in Guam, his family moved to California when he was fifteen. The poems highlighted here are from his 2017 collection from Unincorporated Territory [lukao] published in Oakland by Omnidawn. This is the fourth title in his continuing unincorporated territory series and continues Santos Perez's exploration of Chamorro language, culture, diaspora, as well as the legacy of the U.S. Military bases on Guam. In 2023, the fifth book in the series, [åmot], won the National Book Award for Poetry.

[lukao] – procession – weaves poems centering his wife and the birth of their daughter with, “other processions, including extinction, military buildups, environmental degradation, climate change, violence, and death.” Santos Perez revisits motifs from the first three volumes of the series – including the legends of juan malo, and an endless, ecstatic consideration of SPAM:

My food philosophy / is simple: I eat therefore I SPAM. The name itself stands for: / Specially Processed Army Meal, Sacred Pork And Medicine, / Super Pink Artificial Meat, Snake Pigeon And Mongoose, or / Some Pigs Are Missing.

Santos Perez layers humor, lyricism, personal narrative, social-media-speak, history, myth, Chomorro language, maps, and rhythm to illuminate a complex and rich heritage of Guam, while providing a frank assessment of colonization and militarization.  

Watch Santos Perez perform SPAM's Carbon Footprint at a festival in 2016.

See other National Poetry Month posts!

--Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern