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Concert producers Robert and Melissa Mendoza and the soundtrack of their lives
By Cristina DC Pastor The couple that headbangs together produces concerts together. Because they can, and because the power of music sends good vibes throughout the 40-year marriage of Brooklyn couple Robert ‘Ogie’ Mendoza and Melissa Rubio Mendoza. From Manila to New York, this couple has bonded through Karaoke singing, watching theater musicals and, of […]
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Free tickets for balikbayan travelers
Two of the Philippines’s biggest names in business are teaming up to launch a balikbayan promo that gives loyal customers the chance to fly for free. LBC, the leader in “Padala,” and Philippine Airlines, Asia’s first airline, launched the “LBC Moves with PAL Balikbayan Promo” that gives their loyal customers free tickets to the Philippines. […]
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Down Memory Lane on Roosevelt Avenue
By Cristina DC Pastor The long and disorganized stretch of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens — reachable by the 7 Train — was both familiar and unusual. Payag Restaurant at the corner of 52nd Street is now empty. Somewhere on 69th is Rosario’s Ihawan, a new and pleasant-looking restaurant. Rene and I were lured by the […]
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The life, the legacy, and the woman behind Reginald F. Lewis
One of the greatest love stories that has fascinated Filipino Americans is that of immigration lawyer Loida Nicolas Lewis and the legendary Reginald F. Lewis, who would become the richest African-American man in the 1980s. The two met on a blind date some 20 years earlier. Loida was then an up-and-coming lawyer who had just […]
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The frenzy over Bitcoin and the Filipino ‘biglang yaman’ mentality
By Rene Pastor A long-time friend who lives in California asked what I thought about Bitcoin. I replied with a laugh, “You too?” I have read how many people, especially in Asia, are both intrigued and enamored by this digital currency. Across the Philippines and Hong Kong, Bitcoin has become an enchanting game of chance, […]
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NYC’s retail sector is ailing; how FilAm businesses transform and adapt
By Cristina DC Pastor For 20 years, Fantasia Floral Design was an Upper East Side flower shop that catered to Manhattan’s high society. Until April of 2016. Owner Dennis Josue did not renew his lease because the landlord wanted to raise his rent by 3 percent. He was paying $5,200 a month for a 300-square […]
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Duterte and PIDCI among Top 10 stories for 2017
By Cristina DC Pastor 2017 was the year people relied on The FilAm as a news source on Rodrigo Duterte and PIDCI, or the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. Too much blood has spilled as a result of the Duterte Government’s war on drugs, and uncontrolled fraud and thievery has exposed PIDCI as an organization […]
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Malagos Chocolate: Not quite Willy Wonka but close enough
By Cristina DC Pastor DAVAO City — Paul Hubahib, 13, and his sister Andrea, 7, were nibbling chocolates with their mother and cousin when I spotted them. What’s offbeat is they’re munching on chocolates they just made. At the Malagos Chocolate Laboratory, anyone — especially children like the Hubahib siblings – can make his/her own […]
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Davao’s Banana Republic
Why did the banana go to the doctor? Because it wasn’t peeling very well! – Popular banana joke By Cristina DC Pastor TAGUM City, Davao del Norte — We saw no ill-looking bananas as we cut across the Hijo Resorts plantation here in a van. Only robust, healthy Cavendish varieties hanging from rows of drooping […]