Miguel Risos Espiritu Photo Collection - Under the American Sun: Camp Roxas Film Documentary

Miguel Risos Espiritu

My grandfather, Miguel Risos Espiritu, migrated to Guam around 1949 with his older brother, Diego Risos Espiritu. My grandfather worked at Andersen Air Force Base in Yigo as a civilian employee doing general clerical and custodial services at the Base Exchange.

He gained U.S. citizenship in 1952 through the Organic Act, allowing him to petition his siblings and, eventually, his children and their families to join him on Guam. My grandmother never became a U.S. citizen, preferring to remain a resident of the Philippines.

My grandfather's life and job career were closely intertwined with the U.S. government. During World War II, my grandfather fortunately survived the Bataan Death March in 1942 and was confined in Capaz, Tarlac, with Philippine and U.S. forces until his release in 1943. He joined the guerilla forces in Cavite and was assigned to the G4 movement. In 1943, he helped rescue U.S. pilots who crashed in the ocean, hid them in the mountains and provided them with food and shelter.

After World War II, my grandfather worked at various U.S. military installations outside the Philippines, including Okinawa and Korea. He arrived in Guam around 1949 by plane and lived here for some 22 years.

My grandfather lived within close proximity to Andersen Air Force Base, most likely in the Marbo area. To ease the loneliness of being far away from home and family, in his spare time he often visited fellow Filipino immigrants living in other parts of the island. Still in our family's possession are countless cards and letters from my grandfather's friends on Guam, evidence of the strong camaraderie among the early Filipino workers.

After his contract expired at Andersen Base Exchange, my grandfather then worked at the U.S. Government Supply Division, where he retired in 1972. Before joining my grandmother in his hometown of General Trias, Cavite, he was able to reunite with the downed U.S. pilots he heroically helped rescue in 1943. He died in the Philippines in 1989 at the age of 78.

--- Mimi Fabila, granddaughter

Name: Miguel R. Espiritu

SSN: 586-01-8773

Born: 1 Feb 1911

Died: 12 Jan 1989

State (Year) SSN issued:Guam, American Samoa, Philippine, or Northern Mariana Islands (1956-1961)

Source Citation: Number: 586-01-8773;Issue State: Guam, American Samoa, Philippine, or Northern Mariana Islands;Issue Date: 1956-1961.

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Original data: Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration.

"Mimi's Island, My Life in Pink," blog site, March 5, 2008

this week commemorates Magellan's landing on Guam. i was reminded of it when i took drive this past weekend to umatac and noticed that there was a little bit more activity that usual. sadly, it seemed rather lackluster. it prompted me to unarchive what little bit of guam history knowledge i was able to retain from the one class i had in high school and went completely blank...other than that magellan landed on these shores, only to be looted by locals and chased away to his fateful death in the Philippines...land of my ancestry.

i've been in a historian type of mood all week...cracking open dusty photo albums and swooning over middle school yearbooks....mostly to gain an understanding of how the hell i got here. there is an exhibit that has been quite the buzz lately and it was a good read in the latest issue of GU magazine - A Journey Home - Camp Roxas and Filiipino American History on Guam. i was intrigued about the story of the mass migration of my predecessors and further discovered that my grandfather was amongst the company of the first filipinos on island. he was not one of those dispersed from the camps but was actually a laborer at what is now andersen air force base. anyway, there is a series of photos which i found quite moving and have now added the preservation of this found history to my list of things to do. here are a few below. (circa 1949)

the original is actually as blurry as shown but what was even better was the note he wrote on the back addressed to my grandmother and her children in tagalog....and it translates to "this is the reality of my labor. all i ask is that you study hard".

as you can see, my papa aged quite a bit while working here and he didn't leave until the rest of his family landed the opportunities he strived for. it weren't for post-war america, i would not be here at all. that's a very poignant reflection. the clearest memories i have of my papa are of him debilitated by stroke and confined to a wheelchair. i was about 9 when he died, almost two decades ago.

i have yet to see the exhibit, which ends soon. the website link above leads you to a 10-minute film that gives you a glimpse of the provocative material being exhibited at the guam humanities council. --- Posted March 5, 2008 1:01 PM

Comments: Papa - he was my first father figure and the love of my life. I still remember the smell of his tobacco. i imagine our lives would have been very different if Papa never made it to Guam. --- Posted by: joie | March 5, 2008 3:13 PM