By Tricia J. Capistrano On August 21, 2023, the 40th anniversary of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination, Dr. Rolando Solis posted a photo of himself, a radiant Cory Aquino, Solis’ wife, Dr. Margarita Conanan-Solis, and Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino. The photo was taken in May 1980 in front of the Solis residence in Dallas, Taxas. Ninoy Aquino […]
By Allen Gaborro James R. Arnold’s book, “The Moro War: How America Battled a Muslim Insurgency in the Philippine Jungle, 1902-1913,” turns our attention to a historically-obscure war, obscured by studies done in the service of elitist and colonial interests. That war was the Philippine-American War of colonization (1899-1902). In the aftermath of that war […]
By Juan Mariano Magdaraog Knight of Rizal, New York Chapter One hundred twenty-seven years ago, the man whose life and legacy we celebrate and emulate paid the ultimate price for his convictions. 127 years. Can you imagine how far we’ve come? Close your eyes for a few seconds, briefly paint the picture in your mind […]
By Cristina DC Pastor …Today, Eduardo de Vega is the Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers supervising the repatriation of Filipinos out of war-infested Gaza-Israel, drawing inspiration from his late dad who had a storied career in government. Guillermo de Vega was Presidential Assistant to former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1975 when he […]
By Lynn Topel There have been claims that in 1763, in a little-known fishing village on Lake Borgne in Louisiana called St. Malo, Filipino fishermen built houses on stilts, learned to live with the elements, and energized the local shrimp industry. Nearly 9,000 miles away, Filipinos in Louisiana were a long way from home. However, […]
By Allen Gaborro Philip Bowring, a longtime journalist well-versed in Asia-Pacific affairs, puts forth his study of the history of the Philippines up to the advent of the post-Duterte period, “The Making of the Modern Philippines: Pieces of a Jigsaw State.” In reading Bowring’s book, we discern that the past can be retroactively instructive to […]
By Allen Gaborro Filipinos have little patience for the past. They keep up the appearances of speaking to the past, of communing with it. However, Filipinos under this cover, to source a postmodernist’s response, “devour its absence”. When are Filipinos going to realize that their democracy was not exactly created equal with others, that this […]
By Wendell Gaa “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds…” the very text from a piece of Hindu scripture which ran through the mind of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the globally heralded scientist who led the Allied project which gave birth to the world’s first nuclear weapon that ended the Second World War in […]
By Tricia J. Capistrano “You can only have one Filipino friend,” I responded to my Irish American bestie, Nancy, when she asked if she could invite Gigi–a Texas native and Filipino American mom who she met at her son’s high school–when we were making plans to watch the musical “Here Lies Love.” Nancy, Gretchen (Irish […]