List of Cities in Guam

"Guam Villages

Make a walk-through of Guam's village. In Guam, the inhabitants do not reside in large cities. There are currently 19 settlements on the archipelago - from Yigo and Dededo in the northern part, through the main settlements of Hagåtña and Mangilao, to Merizo and Umatac in the southern part. The majority of the village are known for their Chamorro and American-Spanish spelling - for example, Malesso' is the name of Merizo.

Several of Guam's towns were already in existence before the advent of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and the foundation of the first ever Portuguese settled village in 1668. A 17th century early atlas of Guam shows nearly 40 towns, most of them along the coast around the isle, although there were probably many other smaller settlements not shown on the atlas.

As a result of the Spain reduction, all of Guam's northerly and centric towns except Hagåtña (and all of Mariana Islands, except Rota) were drained and the inhabitants were compelled to move to the southern capitals of Hagåtña and Pago, Agat, Inarajan, Umatac and Merizo. While many other towns were taken into these areas and while many place names were dropped, many other place-names were retained and are still used today.

In order to extend the rural activity of the local inhabitants, the Navy Department constructed streets and buildings until the beginning of the twentieth c. to motivate the inhabitants to remain longer on their land and to carry on agriculture. Even though many spent more hours in these places, most of the Chamorros remained in the principal towns of Hagåtña and Sumay.

Hagåtña, Agat, Asan, Inarajan, Merizo, Piti, Sumay and Yona. Until 1945 the inhabitants of Hagåtña and Sumay, which had been devastated by the Second World War, had to be reset. While the US administration took large plots of ground to build the Guam army base in the north and south of Guam, the population of Machanao moved to Dededo and the population of Sumay was moved to the new town of Santa Rita.

Hagåtña's inhabitants mostly lived in other towns like Sinajana and Barrigada. Today, Guam's 19 towns are highly populated, ranging from busy and overcrowded towns to sleepier, slow neighbourhoods. Every town is full of story and also has something to give to the occasional Guamese. Please click here for more information about Guam.