Father Courage

Happy Father's Day to all the dads -- and single moms -- out there who, like our contributor Patricio N. Abinales in "Single Parenting an American," is trying to negotiate the rough waters of a kid's tween years combined with some cultural dilemmas. I feel his pain because about two decades ago, I was in the same situation as I wryly recall in my blog this week, "Paternal Instincts." It will be a tough journey ahead for parents like him but time flies and pretty soon the difficult years will just become family anecdotes to laugh about. At least that's always the hope.

It will be the 155th birthday of our National Hero Jose Rizal on June 19 so we are reposting two stories to remember him by: Penelope V. Flores' "Rizal's Great Loves" and John Silva's "Rizal's Cook Remembers a Good Man."

Lifelong activist and first-time contributor Edwin Batongbacal writes an impassioned review of the new book, Women Against Marcos: Stories of Filipino and Filipino American Women Who Fought a Dictator, by Mila de Guzman. Edwin's take is personal because some of the women featured in this book were his mentors who helped shape his political views. We are also including a chapter written by Mila Aguilar, one of the valiant women profiled in the book.

Our Happy Home Cook recipe this week: food blogger and cookbook author Marvin Gapultos' Lying Laing, his version of the traditional Bicolano dish but this time using kale instead of gabi (taro) leaves.

For our Video of the Week, we join the celebration of June as Immigrant Heritage Month with "I Am An Immigrant," a short video featuring celebrities standing by immigrants.

All About Independence

Philippine Independence Day is once again upon us and Filipino communities worldwide are celebrating in various ways to convey to their children the richness of their historical roots and to remind themselves of their Filipino-ness.

Positively Filipino Contributing Writer Myles A. Garcia channeled his nostalgia for his ancestral home and discovered an uncanny historical link to the women who sewed the original Philippine flag in1898. "The Flag of Their Forebears" traces some complicated affinities and provides a brief lesson on the evolution of the Philippine flag.

A story of valor and courage is a must for an Independence Day issue so Read Again historian John Silva's "A Valiant People's Army" featuring rare photos of Filipino soldiers fighting the Filipino-American War at the turn of the 20th century.

Switching now to the 21st century, Daniel Olivan of Kalibrr, a Manila-based recruitment tech startup, profiles Karen Batungbacal who he calls the "mother" of the business process offshoring (BPO) industry in the Philippines. "Touch of Gold" introduces an amazing woman and gives us a primer on one of the most important engines of the Philippine economy.

And in Silay, Negros Occidental, architect and urban planner Nathaniel von Einsiedel takes us on a tour of the "green" house he built for his family.

Our Happy Home Cook recipe this week is for Batangas-style Bulanglang with the famous Batangas fish, tawilis.

With our Video of the Week, we join the world in commemorating the life of the late great Muhammad Ali with a short documentary on the Thrilla in Manila, his 1975 historic bout with Joe Frazier at the Araneta Coliseum. 

Heroes, Food and Special Women

Memorial Day in the US has come and gone, but honoring our war veterans knows no deadlines. We are posting an article from Ben de Guzman, first published in Huffington Post.

Filipino cuisine seems to be gaining a foothold in the United Kingdom as British Filipino chefs, eager to celebrate their roots and put some British twists to their culinary creations, set up pop-ups and even regular restaurants to promote and share their food. One of them is Rex de Guzman, aka Le Happy Chef, who is profiled here by culinary journalist Jacqueline Lauri.

In the US, the Quesada family of Ramar Food International is one of the primary proponents of the Filipino Food Movement. Read Again the story of how the family business, the biggest Filipino frozen food manufacturer and distributor in the Western hemisphere, came about in "Healthy, Fancy, Trendy: Quesada Trio Bring Filipino Tastes Mainstream."

Meanwhile, renowned author and academic Luis H. Francia writes about two awesome women who have published notable books: Gemma Cruz Araneta (yes, the first Filipina Miss International) and his late sister, Sr. Myrna H. Francia of the ICM congregation. Gemma's Hanoi Diary is a historical account of her and her then-husband's visit to North Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War. Sister Myrna, whom her brother describes as not really a "goody goody" person, shocked everyone including her family when she decided to become a nun. She wrote The Party's Over: A Nun for Modern Times before she passed away. Both books are still commercially available and definitely worth reading.

Our Happy Home Cook feature this week: Le Happy Chef's recipe of his Anglicized version of our beloved sisig.

In our Video of the Week, Kristiane Hill shot an 8 mm film during her travels to Manila and Asia around the end of 1920's till early 1930's. Her grandson, Kim Skaarup, uploaded the video.