A Meaningful Journey

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Toronto-based intrepid traveler/chronicler/photographer Odette Foronda invites us to experience (not just see) Auschwitz, 70 kilometers from Krakow, Poland and site of the most notorious Nazi concentration camp in WWII. It's not going to be a joyful journey but a meaningful one, an important history lesson in fact, considering current US and world realities. Through her words and photos, Odette poses a challenge: learn and understand what happened in Auschwitz and disprove what she quotes a wise man as saying, that "The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."

FilAm artist and picture book illustrator Niña Mata has come up with a children's book called Girls to the Front, featuring 40 Asian American women from various generations who became prominent in their chosen fields. Of the 40, seven are Filipinas. Find out who they are from Claire Mercado-Obias' review, "Let's Hear It for the Girls."

She may not look Filipino but multi-awarded theater and film actress Sunita Mukhi is as Filipino as sinigang and tinikling. Born and bred in the Philippines, educated in St. Scholastica and La Salle, Sunita, now a US citizen, goes home (to Manila) whenever she has the time because family and friends are there waiting for her. Rogelio Constantino Medina profiles this totally Filipino performer.

Our Video of the Week: to commemorate the 9th anniversary of the arbitral ruling on the West Philippine Sea, a concert at sea was organized by Akbayan. 

Read Again: 

How Filipinos Got Their Surnames by Penélope V. Flores
Quezon Saved Jews from the Holocaust by Ambeth R. Ocampo
Filipino Terms of Endearment by Myles A. Garcia

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Staff

Journeys in Place

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With a force of more than 1 million ethnic Chinese living in the Philippines and over 23 million Filipinos of Chinese ancestry, our homeland can harness "people-to-people exchanges and solidarity ties" to cool down the tensions in the South China Sea, aka West Philippine Sea. This interesting though largely untested proposal is presented by UP professor Eduardo C. Tadem, who honors his Chinese roots in "Blood Could Be Thicker than Water in the South China Sea."

The pandemic lockdown in the Philippines, reportedly one of the strictest in the world, didn't faze five friends with interesting backgrounds to set free their creativity without leaving their homes. Channeling their common love of photography, the five men have come out with Journeyers, an impressive coffeetable book that our publisher, Mona Lisa Yuchengco, has been privileged to get. In "Journeyers: Five Men with Cameras Walk into the World," she give us a glimpse of the journeyers' journeys.

Speaking of journeys, now that the pandemic restrictions have been relaxed, how about visiting Romblon, a relatively untraveled province rich in natural resources and beauty, which has bred a National Artist, among other distinguished native sons. Retired Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr. describes the province's many attractions.

There have been many stories about the Philippine Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon, but here's first-hand testimony about how good a tango dancer he was, from the famous Arthur Murray himself. History buff Erwin R. Tiongson of the Philippines on the Potomac project digs up this fascinating historical vignette in "MLQ Loved Tripping the Light Fantastic at Arthur Murray’s."

In Case You Missed These Stories:

Community leader and broadcast veteran Don Villar on how Filipinos and African Americans worked together in the Pullman Workers Union:

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/how-black-and-filipino-unity-was-forged-in-the-pullman-workers-union

PF Correspondent Elizabeth Ann Quirino on her visit to the Kipping house in Tarlac where Leonor Rivera lived:
https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/leonor-rivera-a-heros-sweetheart

For the Happy Home Cook, here's a post-Valentine treat:

https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/the-happy-home-cook-chocolate-bark-crackers-with-salted-caramel

Our Video of the Week: popular movie star Angelica Panganiban's latest viral video on how to cancel a "mambubudol" from your life

In The Know

Nurses Who Faced Lawsuits for Quitting Are Fighting Back
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-02-02/underpaid-contract-nurses-who-faced-fines-lawsuits-for-quitting-fight-back?utm_campaign=news&utm_medium=bd&utm_source=applenews

MacArthur Given $500,000
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/01/29/macarthur-given-500000/3ad863a3-8caa-4792-b038-d91bb3f804b4/?fbclid=IwAR3b82A37BoZOIlUffZbNLQoG6Q8S3XKjSwMDjLaJzjDzXMTEzFti6v-AZo

Jose Rizal’s Girlfriends and His Naughty Amusements
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/jose-rizal-girlfriends-and-amusements-a00293-20200305?utm_source=Facebook-Esquire&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20220214-fbnp-long-reads-jose-rizal-girlfriends-and-amusements-a00293-20200305-fbold&fbclid=IwAR0bqbvGM6qRVozSEXr74j-wvG4qw2q9LIhtlIjRVrpbSY9rATjF-t5svbY

Those Fabulous Filipino Brothers – the Bascos
https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/those-fabulous-filipino-brothers-bascos?fbclid=iwar2o7l0kdgwzsh-etprfpohlooshqv3ylnbwl_uhsesfq0tavniw3hpnoni 

Sta. Ana Cabaret, Where Manila’s Rich and Famous Partied ‘Til They Dropped 
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/sta-ana-cabaret-history-a2386-20200602-lfrm2?utm_source=Facebook-Esquire&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20220205-fbnp-long-reads-sta-ana-cabaret-history-a2386-20200602-lfrm2-fbold&fbclid=IwAR01BKOFtwk5C6BeG_fZx05OQ8VWHR9F3K5pvrLRAUKOuPY0aCRJi-DKTfs

Dolly Perez: The first lady of landscape architecture
https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/456041-dolly-perez-the-first-lady-of-landscape-architecture

"I didn’t know that these girls were prostitutes. I just thought about them as my aunts."
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/notes-and-essays/-i-didn-t-know-that-these-girls-were-prostitutes-i-just-thought-about-them-as-my-aunts-a2020-20171017-lfrm2?utm_source=Facebook-Esquire&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20220210-fbnp-long-reads--i-didn-t-know-that-these-girls-were-prostitutes-i-just-thought-about-them-as-my-aunts-a2020-20171017-lfrm2-fbold&fbclid=IwAR3UxBpf5JmHypmj3LDvVHHwd1rzPbnSE-FZlydD3irMMzQrCcFIe_uAakU

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Gemma Nemenzo

Editor, Positively Filipino

In the Company of Heroes

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Today is the 142nd birthday of Manuel Luis Quezon, one of the most consequential of Philippine presidents, who presided during the Commonwealth period and is credited with setting the stage for the eventual independence of the Philippines from the US. In recent years, Quezon is remembered for a singular humanitarian act in 1939 that offered 10,000 visas for Jews fleeing from the Holocaust to seek refuge in Manila. Some 1,200 took up the offer, thus creating a Jewish community in Manila, known as the Manilaners. Read more about this in our story below.

Read Again: Stories about the Jewish rescue and its aftermath:

"Quezon Saved Jews from the Holocaust" by Ambeth R. Ocampo
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/quezon-saved-jews-from-the-holocaust

"Memories of Rescue in Manila" by Lyca Benitez-Brown
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/memories-of-refuge-in-manila?rq=jews

"A Rescue Hatched Over Poker, Bourbon and Cigars" by Esperanza Catubig
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/2013/4/a-rescue-hatched-over-poker-bourbon-and-cigars?rq=jews

In two days, we will be commemorating a contemporary Filipino hero, Benigno Aquino Jr., whose assassination on August 21, 1983 led to massive protests that eventually led to the downfall of the regime of Ferdinand Marcos. That fateful journey of Ninoy from his US exile to his landing at the Manila International Airport (which now bears his name) was documented in painful detail by his brother-in-law, Ken Kashiwahara, then ABC News correspondent, who traveled with him. We are reprinting here Ken's story from the New York Times on October 16, 1983.

Also in this issue, retired Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes Jr. writes about Leonor Orosa-Goquingco, National Artist for dance, whose Filipinescas dance company displayed her innovative choreography of traditional Filipino dances.

Likewise, PF Correspondent Elizabeth Ann Quirino profiles Johanna Mirpuri, social media influencer, food blogger and cookbook author. From Johanna's recently released "Simple Salads" cookbook comes our recipe for the Happy Home Cook this week, Summer Garden Caesar Panzanella Salad.

For our Video of the Week, here's a live performance of Fanny, the acclaimed and pioneering all-girl rock band of the early '70s, headlined by two Fil-Am sisters, June and Jean Millington.

A reminder to join us for our next Positively Filipino webinar: