Chapter 21 – Chamorros in the U.S.A.

Western powers divided the population of Chamorros artificially after the Spanish American War, with Guam going to the United States, and the rest of the Marianas going to Germany, and then after World War I, to Japan, where it remained until after World War II, when the United States took our islands as well.  We remained part of the TTPI until 1978, and became a Commonwealth in 1986.  However, our kin-ship with Guam as Chamorros has continued.

Chamorros have migrated to the United States since the early 1900s, first from Guam, and then only re-cently from the CNMI.  Many Chamorros have joined the U.S. military branches.  Guam has several mili-tary bases, and CNMI has military reserves and National Guard.  And, as Chamorros have been stationed throughout the United States, many have settled in areas near bases after leaving the Armed Forces, or in other areas.  And, the Census Bureau also counts Chamorros in the military on their military bases during the Decennial Census.

The 2010 United States census counted 88,300 people who claimed Chamorro “race” only, and another 59,500 who claimed Chamorro and at least one other race, for a total of about 148,000.  Part-Chamorros are reported through marriage, when offspring have more than one ethnicity or race from each parent.  If two full Chamorros marry, their children would normally be reported as Chamorro only.

California reported the most Chamorros, at 44,400 or about 30 percent of the total.  While California is the largest state, it is only about 10 percent of the U.S. population, so Chamorros are choosing to live in Cali-fornia in more than predicted numbers, partly because of previous military assignments and continuing generations once settled.  Washington had the second largest number of Chamorros, at 14,800, and Texas was 3rd at 10,200.  These 3 states constituted just less than half of all the reported full and part-Chamorros in the 2010 census.  California also by far the highest number of full Chamorros, at about 24,300, again followed by Washington and Texas. 

The 2000 census showed a similar distribution, but with smaller numbers.  The same three states had the largest numbers of Chamorros reported.  The count was 92,600 total Chamorros – 58,200 full Chamorros and 34,400 part-Chamorros.  While the three states were in the same order for full Chamorros, Hawaii was 3rd in part-Chamorros, at 2,600, surpassing Texas.  The 1980 and 1990 census did not show Chamorros, but instead used the term “Guamanian”, and so it is not clear how CNMI Chamorros would have reported.  But the figures for Guamanian in 1980 were 30,700 and in 1990 were 47,800.  The order was the same for the three largest states in 1990, but in 1980 Hawaii followed California and Washington.

The final tables in this series show the data in alphabetical order for the States, and also include numbers reported as Chamorro in the CNMI and Guam.