Introduction
Denita Kaipat Yangetmai was born in Saipan at Laly 4. Her father was a doctor and her mother had worked as a maid. Her first language was Carolinian. She attended Sister Remedios preschool, Chalan Kanoa Elementary School, Mount Carmel, Hawaii Pacific College, and got her bachelor’s degree in business administration at University of Hawaii, Manoa. She worked as an educator in the CNMI for years. The Honorable Denita K. Yangetmai is currently serving as a CNMI Legislator in the House of Representatives.
The Young Denita
Q. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
A. We didn’t think like that. I didn’t think of what I might do or become. I was busy playing outside, but of course, I had to learn to do women’s work, like cleaning and sewing. But my mother and oldest brother did the cooking. My mom didn’t want me in the kitchen!
Also, when I was in elementary (probably 3rd grade) I was an “After-school teacher.” My Dad brought a gigantic chalk board & placed it in our 2 car garage. After school, the Laly 4 kids would gather at our garage for a no-diploma/certificate school. (She laughs!) As I think back, I don’t think they were interested at all in what I was teaching them with my very own curriculum of language arts, mathematics, and science. I would take them on field trips around my house observing, studying insects and plants. They only came to my house because my Mom would always have ready-made sandwiches and Kool-aid drinks for all of us. I guess it was my parents’ way of keeping me at home and not roaming far from home. I had forgotten that part of my history until I bumped into some of my “students” & they reminded me that I was their “At-the-garage-Teacher.”
the power of language
Q. Tell me about something from your childhood where you learned the power of language.
A. We spoke Carolinian at home. When I went to preschool, everything was English. I don’t know how I did that. In first grade, I remember I had a Carolinian teacher, one of my aunties, so that was much easier. There was a time, though, in about third grade, when a boy asked me what was that I was putting in my hair. I said “tika.” He said, “what’s tika?” And I said “tika.” It was only tika to me, and I didn’t know then it was also called coconut oil. Even now, I’m still thinking in Carolinian, and sometimes translating in my head.
Q. Did you like to read? What did you read?
A. At home we had little golden books; I remember those. We had a set. And the Encyclopedia Britannica. We had a map on the wall. I would look up a place in the encyclopedia and then try to find it on the map. When I could read by myself, I read Nancy Drew books and Hardy Boys books. Because I liked those mysteries. I would read them at night, under my bed, with a flashlight, when I was supposed to be sleeping. I also remember the book mobile. It would go through our village. At Mount Carmel, I became good friends with the librarian. After Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, I started reading Agatha Christie. All that reading, my mother would get mad at me, scolding me for reading my “dibusionåriu.” That was a Chamorro word.
Q. Did you write as a child?
A. We wrote letters. I used to write to boyfriends, girlfriends, to my dad, my oldest brother. Of course, when I went to college, I sent letters home.
Denita the Storyteller
Q. What do you think makes a good story? What are your favorite genres?
A. I like a story with a happy ending, problem solved. It’s good if the hero is still alive at the end. I am still a fan of mysteries, and adventure.
Q. You’ve written a novel. Tell me about it. What’s the title? What’s the genre?
A. I titled it, “Adventures of Ahil’Tar.” It’s a sea-faring adventure about a navigator traveling around the Pacific, but all the way to South America, too.
Q. How did you come up with the names?
A. That was easy! I drew from my gigantic family tree! Combining Carolinian names into character names.
Q. What prompted you to write a novel; what kept you motivated through the process?
A. I was already in my 50’s. At college, I studied business, but now I wanted to learn the writing process. I wanted to know if I could do it. Because I have another project that’s more important to me that I want to undertake.
Q. What was the hardest part of the process?
A. I ran out of scenes or episodes before I reached my goal.
Q. What was your goal? What helped you reach it?
A. I was participating in NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month. nanowrimo.org So my goal was writing a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days. I used prompts and suggestions from the NaNoWriMo website, and put in my word counts to measure my progress. I attended the write-ins on Saipan, and got ideas from talking with other writers.
future projects
Q. You said earlier there’s another project you want to do. What is that? What works in progress or writing projects do you have on your agenda?
A. My dad really knew a lot about Carolinian culture and history in Saipan. He had done interviews with his elders. He always intended to write a book about his researches and knowledge. Some of my dad’s understanding and knowledge is preserved in chapter 7 of the NMI History book written by Don Farrell, who interviewed my dad. But my dad always got too busy to write his own book. I want to do that for him. I want to leave that legacy.
Q. Anything surprising you learned creating your first novel?
A. Yes. I was surprised I could finish it. I’m surprised how it turned out. I thought it would be a serious adventure, but it turned comic. It’s a nice story and I want to polish it. I was surprised when we had an author’s day at the library, that there were kids saying they wanted to read it.
The Writing Community in the CNMI
Q. You said you got some ideas from talking with other writers. How did you get to know writers in Saipan?
A. I went to the workshops at the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, in October. One of the workshops had a table full of library books and we all picked out a book we’d read and talked about it. It was great to hear what others read and thought. And I was relieved that I had read some of the books, too! So that was a good way to start knowing the others.
Q. What advice do you have to those in the CNMI who could be writers?
A. People should just start getting their stories written, before it’s any later. Get rid of the cellphones and gadgets. At least part of the time. And don’t get stressed or give up when you’re stuck. There is support here (Marianas Writers Movement) to finish your stories.
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Denita Kaipat Yangetmai is unpublished as yet, but we have great expectations for more to come from her!