Lagrimas Untalan

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Lagrimas Untalan
Member of the Legislature
In office
1954–1956
Personal details
Born1911
Hagåtña, Guam
Died1997 (aged 85–86)

Lagrimas Leon Guerrero Untalan (1911–1997) was a Guamanian educator and politician. She served as a member of the Legislature of Guam between 1954 and 1956.

Biography[edit]

Untalan was born Lagrimas Pereira Leon Guerrero in Hagåtña in 1911, the youngest of seven children of Mariana and Francisco Leon Guerrero.[1] After leaving school she became a teacher, a job in which she pushed for greater use of the Chamorro language in education.[1] During her career she assisted the Fijian educational authorities with developing its curriculum.[1] She also translated Stand Ye Guamanians into Chamorro.[1] She married a fellow teacher Luis Palomo Untalan in 1950. Their son Ramon died in infancy, after which the couple adopted two children.[1]

In the 1954 elections for the Guamanian Legislature she ran on an independent ticket alongside Cynthia Torres and Carlos Taitano.[2] Their campaign meetings saw female attendees pelted with eggs and accused of prostitution. However, all three were elected, with Untalan finishing seventh and Torres fifteenth.[3] In 1956 she was one of the founders of the Territorial Party.[1]

Untalan retired from teaching in 1970, after which she continued her community work. She died in 1997.[1]

References[edit]