There was a group in the day, they were called Menudo, and they were like super big pop group that visited Guam and we were able to open up for their show.

And that was just fascinating to see that people who had traveled here to perform and then have us on stage and open up for them was just very exciting.

My advice to young performers is just keep doing what you're gonna do.

If you really have the heart for music or recording or whatever performing arts that you might enjoy, Strive for it, work hard at it, and just continue to do it.

If you feel like it's something that you can impart to many generations from now.

Who knew that I would be sitting here 40 years?

Oh my goodness, 40 years later having to tell a story that happened so many years ago.

And if we had not had taken those opportunities to say "yes, we'll do this" and really enjoy what we were doing, I would not be here to to tell this story.

Just think that if it' something that you want to do.

Then you do it.

Because if you don't do it, who is?

The Guam Sirenas.

Yes, I am part of a group.

A CHamoru recording artist group.

At the time, I was about 16 years old and my sister was 15 and my cousin was also 15, so we just enjoyed performing.

We took some traditional classes with private lessons for dancing and learning how to hula and tahitian and we decided to add some singing to it and at the time I really enjoyed singing.

I was part of a young group band.

In the day, they used to call them the Pala Pala Band.

We would be hired for different events like christenings or baptisms or weddings.

And we were a top 40 band.

And so I started to sin in this band as a lead vocalist along with my sister.

And then my uncle had this great idea to really capture the CHamoru language and CHamoru song.

Early on, once an album was being produced, we already had the idea of this song.

We already knew ho we were going to choreograph it, and when it is our original song.

It was our original dance.

And that's just something once you learn it and you have it with you, you can just step onto the stage.

Granted, your voice is warmed up and you just get up there and you perform and it's like just coming straight out of- into our choreography.

And so I would say a lot of it was just our heart and our desire to perform.

The people who were watching us.

They enjoyed our songs.

They joined us in dance and and just being excited about seeing three young girls getting up there and singing CHamoru language at such a young age.

We probably were the the premier of The CHamoru Music and Dance.

Our albums were recorded in Manila, We didn't have a lot of funds so we would really have to take whatever time that those studios, were allowing their schedule for us to come in and to do our own recordings.

So there was some shortcuts and we went there during the 8 to 5 hour.

We were there after hours when the rates probably were- it fit our budget.

And so we would be we would spend like five or six nights in the studio out in Manila trying to work on our recordings.

And my Uncle Fred Dela Cruz, he was just a go getter.

He really went out and scouted for our music.

He worked hard at trying to get at least ten songs per album.

At the time there were not many recording artists.

This is in the early eighties, and he knew a lot of the performing musicians.

Back in the day like Candy Taman, Bokkongo, JD Crutch, Marianas Homegrown, Johnny Sablan, Gus and Doll, Flora Baza Quan, Jimmy Dee.

We got to perform on stage with Jimmy Dee as well.

And then when my uncle had this idea to to just make more recordings in CHamoru song, we asked for the shot of it that "Hey, let us record this!"

So he gathered some songs from different songwriters.

And so we're really just appreciative for all of those musicians who really lent their hand and their heart to allowing the Guam Sirenas to share in their song and the CHamoru language.

I went to Agueda Middle School and I really enjoyed sports.

I played softball, volleyball, basketball, and cross-country.

I was just like, "Okay, I'm- I was sporty" and I played volleyball at Notre Dame High School.

I was fortunate to belong and be on the team for the Notre Dame Royals where at least for the three years that I was at Notre Dame that we had the title of champions.

And winning titles in volleyball it's just as much as producing an album.

As a coach, being in junior high or in high school coaching, you're given a program that in ten weeks you will have your last game.

And the last game usually of the ten weeks is a championship weekend.

My children went to St.

Francis so I became their rugby coach.

It was a good starting point for me.

I was a young coach at the time and then my girls moved to Academy and they played rugby at Academ and again I became their coach.

And so I just kept growing with them through the sport And rugby is a sport that is any athlete can play.

I coached rugby for about ten years and I first started out watching my son play, watching him enjoy it.

And then I decided, I want to jump onto the field and I want to play rugby.

And so I did.

I started running, starte learning how to catch the ball, started to learn the rules and the regulations and and just being more skilled.

From the first day of them coming out, I would tell them, "In orde to be a successful rugby player, you need to have commitment.

When you have the commitment and you have the skill and fitness, you won't be asking me, 'Coach, how come I'm not playing?'

because if you do those first two things.

You are definitely going to be a starter on the team.

You're going to be an impact player.

You're going to be a player that I'm going to look to to say, 'Hey, you need to ge out on the field now and join.'"

As a performing artist and following music, there's a tempo and the tempo is 4/4, 3/4, 2/4.

When you are out in the field, I have a cadence Three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

not doing anything with the bal within 3 seconds, 3 to 1, then Three, two, one.

then you better pass it or you better get somewhere else.

If you think you can go somewhere all by yourself, you are going to end u being in traffic or be laid out and losing the ball.

So you've got to be mindful of who's going to be there to support you and pick you up.

To this day though, it's so rewarding to see that these girls, they come out and they're like, "Hey, coach!

Hey, coach!"

Taking a player that has not a clue abou how to even throw a rugby ball and turning them into a rugby player is just so wonderful to see how you can take someone like that and make them into a good, skilled rugby player.

You can really bring your team to victory.

It may not be a championship, but you know that you are victorious when you have all those athletes on the field who can absolutely bring a great rugby game.

In the 80's, between performing in the evening and working at night, I also worked during the daytime and I work at a department store and I happened to be in the record department.

And one day a customer walked in and just kind of thumbed through our LPs; 33s.

He looked at the 45s.

He went to our cabinet that had the cassettes in it, and then he just just walked out of the record department as as quickly as he had come in there just to kind of thumb through the LPs or something that might have caught his interest in there.

That was the first time that I met Eddie Calvo.

It's very strange how we met.

I kept seeing him.

I performed at night.

I was part of a band this time, no longer The Sirenas.

Now, I was a young adul and we started to sing and play in a band, a local band called Tropic Blend.

And we had a contract down at Reef Hotel for four nights a week.

And so that's where I would work in the evening, and I would work during the day at the department store.

And one night he's in the club and I saw him again.

And how mysterious is that?

That it would be not after our third or fourth visit that I would actually- was introduced to him by a mutual friend.

So yes, that's how I met Eddie Calvo.

I was looking through some photo albums that I had and there were images of when I was in 4th grade at C.L.

Taitano.

And I was chosen to be the flag bearer in 1976 and this flag bearer we still see to this day at our Liberation Day parade.

So because of being part of that ceremony, of being a flag bearer, we were welcomed at Governmen House and we met the Governor.

And the photo that I have just shows the Governor greeting me.

When I was performing as a Guam Sirena, They asked us to perfor a gubernatorial campaign song.

Bordello-Reyes; we sang their campaign song and at their inaugurations, the Sirenas were actually asked to to perform the Guam Hymn and the national anthem.

After that we were invited by Madeleine Bordallo up to the Government House just in appreciation for what we had performed for the inauguratio and throughout their campaign.

It was just so interesting how just the few times that I had gone up to Government House previous in my life, I don't know of other opportunities that others were given that I was.

So I would say I was really lucky and blessed to have those opportunities.

When we moved into Government House, it's a big white house.

It had things that belonged to the house that just stay there.

The private quarters are on the second floor.

So up there is where we would be able to make it our home.

our home.

It was exciting.

It was scary.

It was so new and just so historical.

The first thing that really struck me about the house is the double door at the front of Government House have the Guam seal on it.

And I walked in through the double doors and just thought "Wow, what does this all mean?"

Because it's just so amazing.

A lot of people helped to get me through that front door, get my husband through that front door, because I wasn't walking there because I did something.

It was because people did something.

It struck me as very intimidating that, "Oh wow, what's going to be expected of me?"

And I looked at the doors and I just put my head down.

Just like this.

I took a deep breath and I said, "Wow.

What?

What is happening?"

I was filled with so much emotion and so much- all kinds: happy, scared, nervous.

There isn't any type of feeling that I didn't have at that moment just by looking at those double doors.

And when I walked out from them, I just felt like I was, Very confused.

I didn't know, okay, what am I supposed to do now?

So I just tried to take with me to Government House what I knew I had a family, I had a husband, and I had my faith.

I surrounded myself with my family because all our lives, we- I mean that's what I did.

I was home with them.

I drove them to their sporting events.

I picked them up from school.

I coached their sports.

I did everything alongside my children.

We had six kids in the 90s, And so when I moved into Government House, three children were still with me.

So I would consider myself lucky that I wasn't moving in there by myself to a big house, but still was able to at least maintain some type of, personal life because, yes, it did come with, unknown responsibility or response that I could give to support my husband as the Governor.

On the second floor, there's a balcony.

And on the balcony I used to just sit out there, especially in the evening hours and you could just see all the lights on Guam.

I'm looking up towards the north side and I could see Barrigada heights and just thousands of lights.

And I thought, this home belong to all those people out there.

This is it's such a big feeling.

It's so overwhelming to look out into those lights at the time for me and say, "Our family has extended."

So be aware that when you move into this house that your famil will be extended tremendously.

Islandwide for sure.

That's so stunning to think about my faith I am so lucky that God loves me, that He is a part of my life, my family's life.

There was a statue that was given to me when I was living in Maite; Our Lady of Fatma.

The instructions were to receive the Fatima statue and after 9 day novena you let her go ou and she'll visit another house.

And being a young mom with six children, I was just- didn't take the time to to sit down and do the nine novenas.

I should have, but I just didn't.

And so the statue remains with me.

Our lady of Fatima, it was given to me by one of my dear aunts and when I moved into Government House.

I just continued to reach out to find a way to not be so nervous.

To not be so stressed out or feel like I'm just being burdened.

So I really took a lot of time to pray the rosary and to our Lady of Fatima so that I can also be a mother to not only my children and my grandchildren, but even more families that we were able to reach while we were living in Government House when my husband was the Governor.

And to be a Catholi also takes a lot of commitment, lots of discipline, of being prayerful and practicing our faith.

Sometimes we may not like what we should do But a lot of times we should just know that these are the things that we should be doing by making those sacrifices to be disciplined and to say yes to God.

Because that's what gets me confused about not being faithful, is not saying yes to God.

If there's anything that I could ask any of you, is if you're a Catholic, stay Catholic.

If you are searching, look for someone who is a Catholic and join them in in how to become a Catholic.

I am a poor sinner, but I know that with prayer and being faithful.

Not just to say I believe in God, but I believe God.

When you believe God and you follow in His ways, the faith is what is going to help you believe in God.

I am not perfect in no way.

And as a Catholic, we mus continue to ask for forgiveness and to impart to anyone here as a saina is that we have a life of eternity if we follow Jesus Christ.

What brings me joy is knowing that we can even help a person.

Most recently, our Angels in Need program was able to assist our sixth child and through the advice of their pediatric doctor, worked with our coordinator o our program, Angels in Need to assist this child and a family, a mother or a father traveling to go off island for much needed medical help.

Something that our hospital is not able to to help with this child.

And so these days I volunteer with the hospital volunteers.

I am a member of th Catholic Daughters of America.

I have a foundation, the Rigalu Foundation, and I'm also a member of the Guam Women's Club.

These clubs are non-profit clubs They go out into the community or they have programs that help those who are in need and who are vulnerable.

And answering the needs of those at the time when they really need it.

And seeing them come back and say "We made it back."

And their joy is what brings me joy.

Sometimes if I've been out in an area and there's a a duo or duet that are singing, they might ask me to come up and do a number with them.

Those are nerve wracking because I knew what it took to rehearse and to perform and to be called up on stage.

I think that is very nerve wracking to me.

I feel like I should have rehearsed before I went out because maybe I expect as a performer to give my top.

And if my voice is not warmed up, I won't be able to reach that note.

But yes, I do still sing and I think I will always enjoy singing.

When our family gets together, probably at least once a month, we do get the karaoke going.

It's a big challenge, because my husband Eddie, he loves to sing, so he gets like eight song and then somebody will get two and he'll get another eight songs.

So he's the king of the house.

He gets to sing as many times as he wants, but My husband, Eddie Calvo, brings me joy.

This man I've known for over 38 years and we've just celebrated our anniversary in February.

He brings me joy.

Though we just have grown.

Just, you know, we are very comfortable in our ways right now.

We are so lucky that we have our children and our grandchildren.

I have six wonderful grandsons: Eden, Sabian, Isaac, Malachi, Lincoln, and our new baby, Daryl.

So six grandsons bring me joy.

We just are just so excited that we are blessed to have such a healthy and happy family with them.