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OFW mom hopes to raise $833K to prevent son’s beheading
By Cristina DC Pastor Around this time, most Filipino mothers would be thinking of the holiday spread, the gifts to buy, and perhaps the new dress to wear for the Sunday Christmas mass. Not Letty Lanuza, who has been knocking on people’s hearts, pleading for help so that her son Dondon, 37, will be spared […]
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First- and second-generation Pilipinos and the root of their conflict
By A. Mabini For my parents First-generation, by established understanding, are Pilipinos who were born in the Philippines and have migrated to the United States. Second-generation Pilipino Americans are those born in America. I linger between definitions. Although by the above criterion, I fall under the former, I came here at a very young […]
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Tito Bernie
By A. Mabini This is for my dear friend Rhea and her loving family. What can you say to someone with a broken heart? I am normally confident in my ability to comfort a friend in difficult moments but as I paid attention to the sorrow of my dear friend, I suddenly felt absolutely insecure […]
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‘I thought you might like to meet my dad’
By Jocelyn Gonzales “Oh no, don’t do that,” my father said. “Well, how else will I remember what you say?” I replied, as I turned on my recorder and spread out a handful of old photographs. My father had never talked much about his life as a young man in the Philippines, or about the […]
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Christopher-Lee Sampayan, 31
The son of World War II veterans advocate R Sonny Sampayan of New York was killed in a vehicular incident October 2 in Riverside, Calif. Christopher-Lee Sampayan died when a freight train smashed into his BMW at a rail crossing, according to a report by TotalTrafficLA.com. He was 31. Published reports say “the car’s air […]
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‘A Filipino raised by white Americans’
By Cristina DC Pastor The Tagalog word “ampon” is not nearly as evocative of being on the fringe to Lorial Crowder, co-founder of the Filipino Adoptees Network. “Not familiar with it,” she shrugged it off. But while the word literally means “adopted one,” in some Filipino families it could be the child given a home […]
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‘Indai:’ For my mother and her loving heart
By A. Mabini Indai (n.) a beautiful Pilipina. Long legs, yellow shorts, tanned blouse, tender brown skin and a smirk on a picture of my mother in her late 20s reinforced my suspicions that she was a heartbreaker at my age. Today, a soft touch, a weary smile, her favorite duster and a warm heart […]
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Comedian gets serious about love, gay marriage and relationships
By Cristina DC Pastor Nothing about Rich Kiamco’s September 30 wedding to David Gibson is traditional. There’s no wedding planner; the hundreds of gladioli to romanticize the ceremony are grown in the couple’s farmhouse; and the Filipino mother is not exactly proclaiming the happy event to the world. “She doesn’t say anything,” Rich, a standup […]
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First gay Filipino in historic ‘I do’
By Cristina DC Pastor Three days. That’s how little time Dennis Josue, 50, and Daniel Mackey, 53, had preparing for their wedding. For some brides it’s not enough time to find the right pair of shoes. Dennis, who owns Fantasia Floral Design on the Upper East Side, and Daniel, a retired police officer who now […]