Ricky: A Life Worth Sharing, Volume I

Before he was a businessman, senator, and governor, Ricardo J. Bordallo was simply “Ricky,” a young CHamoru man from Guam, the island he loved. The first volume of a two-part series, Ricky: A Life Worth Sharing is Bordallo’s account of his early life, as told to his cousin C. Sablan Gault. From an idyllic village childhood to the horrors of the occupation during WWII and the shifting cultural and political landscape of an island transformed in the aftermath of war, Ricky explores the formative experiences of one of Guam’s most well-known public figures.

Ricardo J. Bordallo, “Ricky”, was born to Balthazar Jeronimo “BJ” Pangelinan Bordallo and Josefina Torres Pangelinan on December 11, 1927, in Hagåtña, Guam. His parents were both members of the Pangelinan “Kotla” clan. Like his father BJ, a pioneering political leader and businessman, Bordallo went into business and politics. He landed the first distributorship of Toyota vehicles outside the U.S. and eventually built Ricky’s Enterprises, featuring real estate, finance, and other ventures in addition to his new and used automotive sales business. In politics, Bordallo was instrumental in the establishment of the Democratic Party of Guam and served as its first chairman. He served seven terms as a senator in the Fourth through Tenth Guam Legislatures (1956-70). He was Guam’s second and fourth popularly elected governor from 1975-79 and 1983-87 respectively. He and his wife Madeleine Zeien Bordallo, who served as lieutenant governor of Guam and Guam delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, share a daughter, Deborah, and a granddaughter, Nicole. Bordallo died on January 31, 1990, at the age of 62.

C. Sablan Gault was born in Guam to Navy Chief Vicente “Benny” Leon Guerrero Sablan and Antonia Pangelinan Cruz. Gault worked as a reporter and feature writer for the Pacific Daily News under the byline C. Sablan Gault. In 1983, she became Governor Ricardo J. Bordallo’s press secretary. Between 1987 and 2008, she also served as Senator Madeleine Bordallo’s press officer; a writer and editor for the Political Status Education Coordinating Commission; communications director for Guam Congressional Delegate Robert Underwood; and deputy press secretary to Delegate Madeleine Bordallo. Gault authored and self-published two romance fiction novels, A Mansion on the Moon and The Quonset in Tutujan. Gault and her husband David, a Vietnam Veteran and Army retiree, live in Agaña Heights. They have three children and six grandchildren.