This week, we celebrate the vibrant creativity of our FilAm community, from a forthcoming book exploring the manongs and their complicated relationships with taxi dancers in 1930s America, to a viral original song for tennis phenom Alex Eala, to an event showcasing Mindanao-inspired textiles and garments, and a grand dance production honoring our legacy artists and culture bearers. Across generations and artistic expressions, our community continues to enrich the American cultural tapestry in ways both profound and exhilarating. What a fitting curtain-raiser for Filipino American History Month this October!

And yet, even as we celebrate our blossoming cultural life here in America, our hearts remain tethered to the homeland. The Philippines is once again caught in the weighty proceedings of the vice president’s impeachment trial, where a seemingly technical question—the number required to constitute the voting members of the Senate impeachment court—could have profound consequences for the nation’s political future. In this issue, Ben Olivas, Esq. takes us through the constitutional history and identifies two words that, he argues, could have spared the country this controversy.

Finally, it is the time of year to revisit one of the darkest chapters in Philippine history: martial law. For us in the diaspora, the miles between us and the homeland do not diminish our duty to remember, to honor those who suffered and resisted, and to pass their stories on to the next generation. Memory, after all, is not merely an act of looking back; it is an act of standing guard. And wherever we maybe in this world, we must never allow the darkness of that era to be forgotten, diminished, or repeated. [Read Again our stories on martial law below]

This week’s stories:

What Does Two-Thirds of All Members of the PH Senate Mean? And What a Difference Two Words Make! by Ben R. Olivas, Esq.

Love and Hard Times by Titchie Carandang

A Fight Song for Alex by Gary Manalus

From Mindanao Dream-Makers, to the World by Elaine Joy Edaya Degale

A Crowning Ritual for ‘Living Ancestors’ Comes to San Francisco by Priscilla Cortez

[Read It Again]

Note From the Underground by Patricio Abinales

Martial Law Stories: The “Torture” of Playing for Miss Universe 1974 by Ceres Jacinto

My Years with Marcos (Opposing Martial Law) by Jose T. Almonte

Raping Sugarland by Ian Rosales Casocot

[Video of the Week]