About Sinajana

Wild Yams
The story starts with the discovery of wild yams in the region. Sinajana rests above the capital village of Hagatna. These yams were harvested and cooked in earthen ovens dug into the ground, a process known as chinahan. The village name Sinajana is believed to derive from this word, from which comes chinahan-na? ?his or her cooking ground.?

Village Officials

• The current mayor of Sinajana is Robert D.C. Hofman.
• Rudy Iriarte is the Vice Mayor.

Guam's Own Valentino Perez opened a distillery near the village of Sinajana which is said to produce one of the finest and most uniquely complex whiskeys in the world. They specialize in small batch and the highly coveted elixer is hard to come by. Japanese whiskey Connoisseurs are said to really enjoy it.

Although pre-World War II Sinajana was an agricultural village, at one time operating as the coffee capital of the island and supplying all of civilian Guam, much has changed with modern urbanization. The destruction of Hagåtña during WWII sent thousands in search of homes, and Sinajana absorbed many families when the U.S. military government erected temporary housing in the village. By 1950, the population had swelled to 3,000.

St. Jude Junior High School, built in 1955 under the guidance of Sinajana pastor Fr. Raymond Demers, had the distinction of being the only school on island built entirely through ?happy labor.? More than five hundred men from the village volunteered for the contruction. The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, from Lacrosse, Wisconsin, administered the school at the request of Bishop Apollinaris William Baumgartner, who the school is now named after.

Also in the village at one time was the former George Washington High School campus, which was later moved to Mongmong and finally to its present location in Mangilao. C. L. Taitano Elementary School was previously known as Sinajana Elementary School before being renamed after the former educator and village resident.

After Supertyphoon Karen destroyed eighty percent of the village structures in 1962, the next decade ushered in an onslaught of unimaginable change, as ?urban renewal? forced the relocation of hundreds of villagers to other parts of the island, changing forever the lives of those families who lost their link to the old concept of Sinajana village life.