This cache is located near a previous cache and the Pedro Martinez family cemetery where the first CHamoru priest, Padre Jose Torres Palomo, is also buried. While the gates are now secured to maintain and protect the integrity of the area, one can peer through the gate and see this historic spot.
Who was Padre Palomo? Born in Hagåtña in 1836, the son of Don Silvestre Inocencio Palomo y Rodriguez, a man of Spanish-CHamoru ancestry, and Doña Rita de Torres. In 1856, when Palomo was 20, his parents died during the small pox epidemic, which killed 60 percent of the population in less than one year. This convinced Palomo to enter the priesthood. Palomo began his studies for the priesthood at the San Carlos Seminary in Cebu, Philippines and was ordained a priest on December 11, 1859 at the private chapel of Bishop Romualdo Jimeno of the Cebu diocese. Padre Palomo returned to Guam in 1860 and was assigned to the village of Hagåtña. Bishop Jimeno visited the Mariana Islands six years later, traveling to several Mariana Islands in a canoe. The bishop’s visit prompted greater Augustinian attention to Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and the Caroline Islands. Padre Palomo was reassigned to Saipan where he served for two years before returning to Guam. After 16 years he was again assigned in 1887 to work on Saipan, Tinian and Rota until 1895 when he returned to Guam, first at Hågat and then permanently in Hagåtña. Throughout his career he was dedicated to the welfare of the CHamoru people. Padre Palomo’s standing among CHamorus in Guam was evident in a complaint by Governor Luís Santos Fontordera (1891-1892) that CHamorus would wait until they had consulted with Palomo before they would respond to and obey official orders from the Governor. Palomo was widely regarded as one of the wisest and most educated men in Guam and was fluent not only in Spanish and CHamoru but also in English, French, and Carolinian languages. June 1898, US Captain Henry Glass of the USS Charleston seized Guam on his way to reinforce the American Navy in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. At the time, no one in Guam was aware that Spain and the United States were at war. Palomo and a few other men went out to the Charleston in a boat to greet the US ship and were the first in Guam to learn about the Spanish-American War. They were taken captive and taken to the Philippines. When the Americans assumed control of Guam after the Spanish American War in 1899, the first Naval governor of Guam, Richard P. Leary, asked the Spanish priests on the island to leave. However, he allowed Palomo to remain in Guam. Palomo became friends with Leary’s aide Lt. William Edwin Safford, furthering American understanding of the CHamoru people and history of the island. Administrative tactics during the early US administration in Guam were more rigid than those employed by the Spanish. This resulted in social tension. Palomo was instrumental in easing those tensions. Although the American Naval governors did not consider the CHamorus capable of governing themselves, they nevertheless called upon the advice of several CHamoru elders, particularly Palomo who was looked upon as a key representative of the people’s voice. In 1909, St. Pius X named Padre Palomo the first CHamoru priest to hold the title of Papal Chamberlain, with the title of Very Rev. Monsignor, on the occasion of the his Golden Jubilee in the priesthood. This honor was conferred in recognition of the superhuman effort he made to preserve the faith in the island at the beginning of the century. He died after a massive heart attack on 3 July 1919. Father Palomo was 82.
(excerpts from: www.guampedia.com and an article by Audreva JP Taitano and Shannon J. Murphy)