Tun Jesus Cruz Barcinas, was a politician, educator and community leader from the village of Malesso’. Born in 1908 to Jose Santos Barcinas and Ana Espinosa Cruz. He was married to Gertude Duenas Torres, who also worked as an educator. They had seven children.

Tun Jesus’s political career began in prewar Malesso’ and continued into the immediate postwar years. He was elected to the Guam Congress as a councilman, and even won a seat as an Assembly as a write-in candidate. He served as deputy commissioner for Malesso’ prior to World War II and was appointed and served as the village’s commission for eight years after the war.

Tun Jesus first began his career in education as a teacher in 1925 at just 17 years old and continued to teach at different island schools for decades. In addition to teaching, Tun Jesus was also adept at writing and storytelling. His writings were included in the pre-World War II newspaper the Guam Recorder, where he retold CHamoru legends, but also talked about CHamoru cultural practices, most importantly around fishing.

When anthropologist Dr. Laura Thompson conducted her field work in Guam in the 1930s, she lived in Malesso’ and was assisted by Tun Jesus. When she published her work as the book “Guam and its People” she included in it a diary of village life that Tun Jesus had written for her. Later in his life Tun Jesus would be instrumental in helping start the first formal classes that taught children the CHamoru language in Guam’s public schools. He wrote several childrens and also served on the CHamoru Language Commission.

In July 1944, a group of men from the village of Malesso’ rose up against the Japanese in their village in the concentration camp in the area known as Atåte. After killing or driving away in their village, Tun Jesus joined with five others who paddled out in a canoe to the American Navy ships circling and bombarding the island, hoping to get help and inform the US military as to what was happening under the occupation. Following the war, Tun Jesus led his community to honor those who had died and survived the Tinta and Fåha massacres in Malesso’, by erecting a memorial for them that still stands in front of the San Dimas church.

Tun Jesus passed away in 1994. In 1995, the Department of CHamoru Affairs honored him as one of the Manfåyi in their Hale’-ta series “Who’s Who in Chamorro History.”