Horse Opera Completes Successful Research and Production Trip to Washington, D.C.

April 15, 2004

In early April 2004, the Horse Opera team (Vanessa, Amy, Matt, and Samantha) traveled to the nation’s capital to conduct research at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and to interview several key people for the film.

Our first stop when we arrived was the office of the CNMI’s Resident Representative, Pete A. Tenorio. We were warmly welcomed and introduced all around the office. Before arriving, Vanessa had spent considerable time talking on the phone to Eddie Pangelinan, one of the architects of the CNMI’s 1976 Covenant with the United States. We interviewed Eddie at Pete’s office, but also near the Vietnam War Memorial, at the Lincoln Memorial, and elsewhere on the streets of D.C.

Representative Pete A. Tenorio was also instrumental in developing the CNMI’s Covenant. He and Eddie served together in the Congress of Micronesia, and both also became members of the Marianas Political Status Commission. We interviewed Pete at his office, visited him at his home, and also were generously allowed to film while he and Eddie attended meetings at the Department of the Interior, and at the lobbying firm of Podesta and Matoon. Pete is currently working to get the CNMI a non-voting delegate to the U.S. Congress. (The CNMI is the only U.S. insular area without any Congressional representation.)

Through our friend and advisor Dan MacMeekin, a lawyer who works on Pacific and Native American issues, we met Ed and Joan King, who talked with us on camera about their experiences in the Northern Marianas at the end of the Trust Territory administration. Ed discussed his legal work with Lino Olopai on cases involving the development of a luxury hotel on sacred indigenous land, and on a challenge to the ballot used in the Covenant plebiscite.

We also had the wonderful opportunity of meeting and interviewing Mrs. Ruth van Cleve, former Director of the U.S. Office of the Territories, who is currently serving on the Guam War Claims Commission. Mrs. Van Cleve graciously invited us to her home, and proved herself worthy of her reputation as a walking library of information on federal-territorial relations!

Guam’s Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo generously met with Vanessa and Amy for an hour to discuss the War Claims Commission, and other current social and economic issues on Guam. Congresswoman Bordallo is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and recently visited Guam’s servicemen and women participating in the occupation of Iraq. We also enjoyed the opportunity of speaking with Neal Weare, one of Congresswoman Bordallo’s aides who helped to arrange the meeting.

Vanessa was struck ill with a nasty bout of the flu (caught from her dear friends Elisa and Rob, who unwittingly passed it to her over Easter supper), so Matt and Amy went without her to meet retired U.S. General Ben Blaz, a former Marine and U.S. Representative from Guam (1985-1993), at a McDonald’s in nearby Virginia. Amy would like to take this opportunity to thank General Blaz for his commitment to the Chamorro people, as well as for his grandson’s gift of a “Robinson Middle School” baseball hat!

We also spent four very productive days at NARA, collecting archival film and video. We found some rare and beautiful 1930s film footage of everyday life on Guam, images of Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base from the Vietnam War era, LOTS of footage from WWII, and considerable material from the Trust Territory period in the Northern Marianas.

Horse Opera would like to thank all those who helped make our D.C. trip such a success, including Matt and Samantha, the entire staff of the Resident Representative’s office, Dan MacMeekin, and Neal Weare. We’re now eager for our next “Insular Empire” adventure – a trip back to Guam and the CNMI during the months of June and July, where we plan to finish the production phase of The Insular Empire: America’s Pacific Frontier.