There\u2019s a particular kind of power in recognizing something that feels like home, especially when that home has been filtered through distance and history.<\/p>\n
In its newest exhibition, \u201cSo We Leapt \u2013 Para I Hinanao-ta Mo\u2019na,\u201d the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum invites us into exactly that space where the familiar becomes newly visible, and where images captured decades ago still resonate.<\/p>\n
Opening on Saturday, April 18, the exhibition centers on a remarkable archive of photographs captured by U.S. Army photographer Frank Buchman between 1944 and 1946 in Guam.<\/p>\n
Far from formal wartime documentation, many of Buchman\u2019s images depict everyday life, including moments of resilience, routine, and community among CHamorus \u2014 the Indigenous people of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands \u2014 navigating the aftermath of conflict.<\/p>\n
That capital \u201cH\u201d in \u201cCHamoru,\u201d by the way, is intentional and significant \u2014 it reflects a linguistic truth, recognizing \u201cCH\u201d as one distinct letter in this community\u2019s language rather than a combination of two letters.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a small but meaningful assertion of cultural identity that was formally adopted by Guam in 2019, an assertion that echoes throughout the upcoming exhibition.<\/p>\n
The photographs in the exhibition have been meticulously restored and curated by Manny Crisostomo, the only Pacific Islander to receive a Pulitzer Prize.<\/p>\n
Working from a collection of more than 500 prints, negatives, and transparencies, Crisostomo brings a deeply personal lens to the project. He has described his work as drawn to \u201cpeople that look like me, places that are all too familiar and events that form and shape my cultural identity,\u201d a perspective that transforms the exhibition from historical record into something more intimate and immediate.<\/p>\n
This transformative perspective also shines through a companion series of contemporary portraits from \u201cHasso,\u201d a project by Johnny Cepeda Gogo, also on view.<\/p>\n
These images capture CHamoru World War II survivors \u2014 now in their 80s and 90s \u2014 whose faces and stories form a living bridge between Buchman\u2019s mid-century photographs and today.<\/p>\n
The past and present collapse into one another, asking audiences in Long Beach and the rest of Southern California to consider not just what has changed, but what endures.<\/p>\n
A companion book, sharing the exhibition\u2019s title, will be available in limited print at the museum, and the opening will feature a moving communal element: a Guam flag from Gogo\u2019s project honoring World War II survivors and liberators, available for CHamoru survivors to sign.<\/p>\n
Running through August 30, \u201cSo We Leapt \u2013 Para I Hinanao-ta Mo\u2019na\u201d is an act of historical recognition, as well as a reminder that sometimes the most powerful images are the ones that bring us back to places we already know, revealing just how much they\u2019ve always meant.<\/p>\n