30/07/2025
“Fishing is Culture” – Governor Arnold I. Palacios
By: Jim Rayphand
[Disclaimer: Jim Rayphand is the Director of Enrollment Services at the Northern Marianas College; however, the views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly his own and do not explicitly or necessarily reflect, nor represent any policies or position of Northern Marianas College.]
For a man that I really didn’t know very well, Governor Palacios treated me with a level of familiarity and kinship that I can’t easily forget. To say that he left a lasting, positive impression with me is an understatement. I am shocked by his untimely demise and hope that his family and friends can find some peace in the knowledge that so many of us (whom they don’t even know) are holding him and all of them up in our prayers.
I take no pleasure in acknowledging loss of any kind, but (like most people) I can’t deny that I have felt the devastation of loss in more ways than I can count – some losses hit much harder than others. Over the years I’ve had to foster a knack for convincing myself to be happy evenwhen I am clearly sad. Put another way, the line between light and dark is sometimes blurred for me. Generally, I try to see good even in the bad. I wouldn’t call it optimism as much as it is a heightened sense of denial, a kind of defense mechanism against ever feeling too low and there is perhaps no place lower than in the void of missing a loved one.
I’ve adopted as a kind of mantra, “To look life in the face and know that it is what it is” (Virginia Woolf). Such is life that, “We must accept finite disappointment, but we should never lose infinite hope” (MLK).
It does us no good to wallow in the things we cannot control although grieving is a natural part of the human experience.
No doubt this is a random, if not confusing, lead-up to anything about fishing, but this is the best hook I could tie onto in this moment of melancholy. The news of Governor Palacios’ passing hits hard and it just so happens that the last time I heard him speak (at an event honoring CNMI Fishers) he proffered the statement that, “Fishing is culture.”
Perhaps I am too easily moved, or I just overthink, but in that moment my mind splintered off into all kinds of different thoughts like a school of bait fish scattering from the jaws of predators in chase. For such a simple statement, I find it very profound and believe it should arouse some inherent (even if dormant) impulses for most islanders.
In the most literal sense of the word, fishing is indeed every islander’s culture or more aptly the survival mechanism and foundation upon which islander culture was built. I find it sad that so many of Saipan’s islanders are growing up without that understanding much less any desire to understand. Like so many of our inherent blessings as islanders, fishing as a way of life is being outsourced to imports.
I can’t speak for our late Governor – lord knows I wish I could speak with him right about now - but in his own words, “Let’s be clear… we are island people… our parents, our forefathers and mothers have preserved these resources for generations and generations for our people… let us remember that fishing is culture. It is our culture. It’s embedded in our DNA.”
I think he meant too that fishing is culture in the sense that it is not just about catching fish, but about finding strength, dignity, and meaning in the moments that we share. That even in times of struggle and disappointment, there is still value in holding on to the generational customs and traditions that bind us… to each other and to those who came before us. Man sen brabu yan animu i taotao Marianas.
Fishing is one of the greatest avenues for learning to take the bad with the good. Even on the worst of days, a true fisher holds an unyielding, confident expectation of something better to come. The man that I knew, my Governor, certainly could take the bad with the good and he remained hopeful through it all - “A man can be destroyed but not defeated” (E. Hemingway).
I’d be remiss not to point out that Governor Palacios “believed in the power of education and was a steadfast supporter of the Northern Marianas College”
NMC’s President summed it up in saying, “His service was never about recognition: it was always about doing what was right for our islands and for our future… He supported education – not just in words, but in action. He believed in Northern Marianas College and its role in shaping lives and strengthening communities – he was always thinking ahead, always asking how we can do better for the next generation.”
I happen to know that our late Governor would sometimes read my articles when I’d publish them in our local newspapers – on at least one occasion he even told me (with his uniquely deep smile) that he liked what I wrote. It saddens me to think he won’t be reading this one. May he rest in peace.
