Our story began with a mix of uncle Jesse Manibusan's Homeland album and the feeling of mahalång (yearning for something). Brothers, Jeremy and Jay Castro, had a deep yearning for meaningful connection to their Indigenous culture and has since introduced them to many inspiring CHamoru culture practitioners and important CHamoru mentors.
About us
We're a social enterprise, which means we aim to generate profit and use that profit to uplight our community. We create digital and physical experiences that share the welcoming spirit of hafa adai and the social reciprocity of chenchule. Together, let's embrace the adventure of learning, giving, and connecting.
About us
Hafa adai todu hamyu. This means "welcome everyone" in my father's native language of CHamoru. Most of my learning about my CHamoru heritage happened as an adult. And I distinctly remember the moment I realized that our ancestors were Pacific voyagers. I read stories of how we jumped from wave to wave as if we were dolphins. I felt powerful, proud, and a huge sense of honor to be part of the people that descended from the deepest part of the world.
There's a line written by 17th century Spanish and English colonizers that I distinctly remember; they described our ancestors as "The natives are very ingenious beyond any people in making boats...and therein they take great delight... I do believe they sail the best of any boats in the world.”
Looking at us now, 400 years later. We are the descendants of Micronesian navigators. We're still ingenious beyond imagination. And we still take great delight in everything that we do. Through living with inafa’maolek (striving for harmony) and respetu (showing respect), our navigational paths have brought us to the Hafa Adai Collective.
We’re a community of designers, educators, engineers, entrepreneurs, and activists. By coming together like the popular table sauce fina’denne', we each bring a specific flavor, enhancement, and complement to our collective knowledge and experiences. Our fina’denne’ is made of simple ingredients, but when added to your magic, together we can empower the community and celebrate our vibrant cultures and traditions.
Saina ma'åse'
Jaybyrd Castro, familian Je'je'
You can learn more about my CHamoru ancestry by listening to this podcast episode.
Mission
Vision
Philosophy
Values
Team
Council of elders
Our mission is to encourage harmony by sharing hafa adai, the CHamoru greeting embodying warmth and unity. Let's spread its spirit and embrace the adventure of learning, giving, and connecting.
We envision a future where Indigenous people are connected through place and culture, no matter where they are in our big, beautiful world. Together, co-creating an economic ecosystem ofchenchule(social reciprocity) built to support and empower our culture and its people.
Our philosophy is rooted in the past, present, and future CHamoru people and values. We uphold the 7 Generations Thinking, where we design for the 3 generations before us, the current generation, and the 3 future generations.
We recognize and honor those already doing this work. We hope our learnings and contributions can also benefit, empower, and celebrate you.
We strive to model the behavior of the following CHamoru values:
- Chenchule’: Social reciprocity
- Akseptasion: Willingness to accept and understand qualities in others
- Mina’tatnga: Courage
- Maolek Kotdura: Having good judgment
- Respetu: To show respect to others
- Inafa’maolek: Compassion and harmony
- Inagofli’e: Friendship
- Minagahet: Honesty
- Responsapbilidat: Responsibility
- Mana’ayuda: To assist each other for a common goal
- Gineftao: To be generous
- Minesngon: To work hard to reach goals even when it gets difficult
- Hulat Maisa: To work hard to control your thoughts and behavior
Jay Castro is a design leader and social advocate in the tech industry. For nearly two decades, he's helped bridge gaps with language and design through mutually beneficial partnerships, product strategies, and community engagement.
"I feel like a descendant of a modern-day CHamoru explorer who's been gone long enough. And that the time is now to collectively bring back our acquired skills and learnings to our people.”
Jeremy Castro is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Brand Marinade, a Chamoru-owned creative agency. Jeremy has created gallons of fina'denne' for family and friends to enjoy, but he's also the inspiration behind the Fina'denne' song by CHamoru artist Sabyu, and the momentum for our brand.
“Fina'denne' is a traditional Chamoru sauce made of simple ingredients... but when paired with other foods, fina'denne' brings out the best qualities of them. This is how we want to live our day to day lives—bringing our skills and energy to our community to bring the best out of everyone involved. All it takes is a mix of some simple ingredients to create something extraordinary and then apply that mix to the culture we love."
Benny Anderson is a technologist, developer, and language learning advocate. He serves on the board of the Hafa Adia Golf Classic and with his family, he's actively relearning the CHamoru language.
"I want to help our communities showcase the beauty of our language and culture through technology with the hope of making it easier to learn our history, to speak our language, and pass it."
This our board. No age requirements to be on our board. Our board rotates every 5 years.
Joanna Duenas is a seasoned business leader and community activist who has focused her life’s work on helping businesses, nonprofits. and community-based organizations through organizational change and transformation.
"We aim to create, curate, and facilitate the sharing of ours and others products and services focused on cultural preservation and economic development for Indigenous communities. We are united in our love of Chamoru culture–especially the food and language. By coming together like the Chamorro condiment Fina’denne', we create a space for others to likewise come together to share their knowledge, experiences, talents, and treasure as well.”
Kalani Joe Castro is a creative and wise elementary school student in Alameda, California. He learned to blow the kulu (conch shell) at the age of 6 and within 1 year Master Navigator Pwo Larry Raigetal said of Kalani “Wow, that kid can blow the conch like a mad man!” He’s also Jay’s eldest child.