Agualin, sometimes Aguarin or Diego de Aguarin, was a CHamoru chief who led a siege of Hagåtña (1676–1677) on Guam during the Spanish-Chamorro Wars. This was the second of three unsuccessful sieges of the Spanish presidio carried out by CHamorus seeking to eject the colonial presence, with the final widespread violence on Guam in 1683. While Spanish colonial history vilified Agualin as being anti-Christian and anti-civilization, a modern reevaluation reframes Agualin as a champion of CHamoru nationalism.
Background
In 1668, Jesuit missionary Diego Luis de San Vitores had arrived and set up the first permanent Spanish colonial presence in Hagåtña. Rising tensions led Hurao to command the first siege of the Spanish presidio in Hagåtña in 1670. This siege failed but the tensions remained, leading to the killing of San Vitores at the hands of Matå'pang in 1672. After an outbreak of anti-Spanish violence in 1674, garrison commander Damián de Esplana conducted a brutal campaign to suppress pockets of insurgency. Francisco de Irisarri y Vivar, who was the first person to have the title of governor of the Spanish Mariana Islands, arrived in June 1676 and continued Esplana's campaign to force CHamoru recognition of Spanish dominion, while harshly punishing anyone who had actually attacked colonial forces.
Biography
Agualin was from Hagåtña and blind. By mid-1676, the Spanish campaign of retaliation and suppression had caused anger among many CHamorus. Agualin had apparently been present during the suppression of an uprising in the village of Orote on the Orote Peninsula. A baptized girl had married one of the Spanish militia against her father's wishes, who then incited an anti-Spanish riot that killed a mission assistant. A column led by Irissari marched to Orote to put down the insurrection, hanged the father, and escorted the new couple back to Hagåtña for their own safety. Agualin was reportedly enraged by the mistreatment of the corpse by the children at the local Catholic school, as ancestor veneration was a cornerstone of traditional CHamoru religious belief.
In the late summer of 1676, Agualin began visiting villages around Guam to make speeches encouraging an uprising, like Hurao before him. The Spanish kept records of a speech by Agualin, in which he stated in part:
Uprising
Agualin and his force of about 500 warriors attacked the village of Ayran on August 29, 1676, burning the church, priests' residence, and religious schools. The force gathered to attack Tepungan the next day, which was the feast day of St. Rose of Lima and a new church was being dedicated. However, Irrisari and his soldiers were attending the ceremony and Agualin decided not to attack when the Spanish were present in force. A week later, a large force attacked the pastor of Orote and his eight guards as they were traveling to Hagåtña. In a careful ploy, a man named Cheref in a canoe arrived at the shoreline and offered to rescue the Spaniards. Once they were well out to sea, Cheref and his companions overturned the canoe and killed the floundering Spaniards with clubs and spears. In mid-October 1676, Agualin and a force of 1,500 men besieged the fort at Hagåtña. However, it still largely observed the traditional forms of CHamoru warfare, which was largely ceremonial and did not involve a large amount of killing. Military action during the siege largely consisted of the CHamoru force standing beyond the range of Spanish muskets, yelling insults, and launching volleys of slingstones. The vastly outnumbered Spanish would occasionally sally forth, at which Agualin's force would retreat from the attack, quickly reestablishing the siege lines once the Spanish returned to their walls. Agualin's force destroyed the cornfield that was the main food source for the presidio, but the Spanish were able to survive by growing crops within the walls and with food smuggled through the lines from pro-Spanish CHamoru, such as Ayhi. The pattern of ceremonial attacks upon the walls continued until late January 1677, when the besieging force simply left.