By Cristina DC Pastor Early this year, he burst into the community in an intense, almost invasive way. An upstart lawyer who grew up dirt-poor in Davao selling banana cue to help his family. His story, shared more than 7,000 times, grabbed social media attention. He is now on radio, sharing immigration insights, dispensing advice. […]
“We condemn the attacks on the people of Marawi. We also condemn President Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao.” With this statement, Ren Clacer, chairperson of GABRIELA New Jersey, added her voice to the May 26 community vigil in solidarity with the people of Marawi. Clacer and about 30 other left-leaning activists gathered at […]
By Pol Tiongson For every enslaved or trafficked immigrant that Marivir Montebon has painstakingly given a permanent voice in her book, “In the Belly of the Beast,” there are probably a hundred equally tragic secrets taken to the graves. Immigrants’ laments are at times only talked about behind closed doors or even denied by the […]
By Cristina DC Pastor Filipino Restaurant Week – two weeks actually – is winding down. It was a great excuse to visit restaurants that are off the beaten path, or to try Pinoy food fused with another culture’s culinary concoctions. In the last two years that I’ve made FRW an occasion to hang out with […]
MoMA presents a survey of Philippine film from around 2000 to the present, a period known as the Third Golden Age of Philippine cinema (following the first golden age, in the 1950s, and the second, from the 1970s to the early 1980s). The Philippines’ current wave of sustained creativity is unusual in its diversity of […]
By Tricia J. Capistrano Although we’re full Filipino, when I was growing up in Manila, my family was often invited by a Chinese Filipino family for a celebratory lauriat. My grandfather worked for Mr. Yao Shiong Shio, a successful Chinese Filipino businessman. And during Mr. and Mrs. Yao’s birthdays, they generously invited my grandparents, my […]
By Kristen Booze U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service Two years ago, I married into a Filipino-American family, and have learned a bunch about the culture through my magnificent mother-in- law and all of my new Filipina “titas” or “aunties.” Very early on, I witnessed how Filipinos often show their love through […]
By Cristina DC Pastor In the 1970s, a group of Fine Arts students from U.P. exhibited their paintings at the garden estate of noted neurologist Dr. Joven Cuanang in Antipolo outside Manila. It was martial law, and none of the established galleries in Manila wanted to showcase art that unmasked the ugliness of poverty or […]
By Tiara Camille Teruel They were the unsung heroes of our household. The protectors of our children and the sounding boards of our parents. They woke us up in the morning, made us food, bathed and dressed us and got us to school every day. They cleaned our homes, watered our gardens, bought our groceries, […]