We’re History—In a Good Way

Yes, it’s Filipino American History Month, and we’re happy to report that the Filipino American National Historical Society Museum in Stockton, California is one year old and doing its job of preserving and popularizing the contributions and experiences of Filipinos in this country (“Fil-Am History Museum in Stockton Turns One,” by Mariel Toni Jimenez).

And just so you know our compatriots haven’t stopped making history, we present dance artist Alleluia “Manai” Panis of Kularts, who just earned the distinction of being the first recipient of the San Francisco Art Commission’s Artistic Legacy Grant. Alleluia is a Bay Area Filipino mainstay who deserves accolades for creating art for her community (“She Who Dances Stories into Being,” by PF correspondent Lisa Suguitan Melnick).

Another history maker, of the gustatory kind, is the wife-and-husband team of Chef Adrienne Borlongan and Jon-Patrick “JP” Lopez, owners of Wanderlust Creamery in Los Angeles. They are texture and flavor pioneers in their own right (“Wanderlust Ice Creamery Knocks ‘Em Cold,” by PF correspondent Anthony Maddela).

Our ever-observant PF correspondent Rey E. de la Cruz got the names, hometowns and photos of kababayans he ran into in Lourdes, France, for Pinoyspotting (“Seeing Filipinos in a Holy Site, But of Course”).

What’s a Filipino website without food? Try this week’s recipe for Gulay Sa Gata by our PF culinary correspondent Elizabeth Ann Quirino.

For Halloween, we revisit Alex G. Paman's “The Vanishing Hitchhiker, The White Lady and Hauntings Across the Seas.”

For our Video of the Week, Mikey Bustos' fun take on Aladdin's “A Whole New World.”

On a sad note in our Global Briefs section, we picked up the news of the passing of a Filipina caregiver during the Northern California fires.

For our In The Know links this week:

Duterte’s police have killed thousands in the Philippines. But this police chief told his officers, ‘Don’t kill.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/dutertes-police-have-killed-thousands-in-the-philippines-but-this-cop-told-his-officers-dont-kill/2017/10/08/dd96df58-9c41-11e7-8ed4-a750b67c552b_story.html?utm_term=.bd98e42b578a

A Chinese Pipe Dream for Manila
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/9e5485f5-c77e-30e9-9e90-6e4dfc723cfb/ss_a-chinese-pipe-dream-for.html?.tsrc=fauxdal

The story behind the Pinoy-made ‘tsinelas’ action figures
http://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/10/21/17/the-story-behind-the-pinoy-made-tsinelas-action-figures

For our Partner post, we feature abstract artist Janine Barrera-Castillo, who's holding an exhibit from October 23-27, 2017 at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center in San Francisco.

Violence and Hope

People with guns kill people. This, in the wake of the mass shooting by one man in Las Vegas that killed 58 victims and injured 546, should no longer be debatable. While gun control is a long time coming from Washington, a grieving Filipino American mother is already doing her part in preventing gun violence. Journalist Pati Navalta Poblete (“My Story of Hope”), who lost her son, Robby, to gunmen in Vallejo, California, nudged herself out of her grief by writing again and, most importantly, setting up a foundation in her son’s name that buys back unwanted guns in her city to be used by artists in their art work. The foundation also sponsors vocational skills programs for young adults and ex-offenders to steer them away from a life of violence.

Armed violence has also disrupted the lives of thousands of residents of Marawi in the Philippines when local adherents of ISIS took over the city, triggering an ongoing battle with government forces that has killed about 700 combatants and civilians and reduced nearly everything to smoking hulks. PF correspondent Criselda Yabes visits the ruined city, peeking through sniper holes at the destruction that has brought its inhabitants, now all refugees, to despair (“In the Rubble of Marawi”).

On a cheerier note, PF correspondent Rene Astudillo writes that Filipino senior citizens are receiving the respect that they deserve in their sunset years, in “A Haven for the Elderly – the Philippines.”

To mark both Filipino American History Month and Domestic Violence Prevention Month, we hope you will Read Again “The War Brides” and “Behind the Charmer May Hide an Abuser” 

And as a fitting countrapunto to the theme of this edition’s lead articles, our “Happy Home Cook” Richgail Enriquez offers bloodless—yes--Vegan Dinuguan.

For this week's [In The Know] links:

Thurgood Marshall's Interracial Love: I Don't Care What People Think, I'm Marrying You
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/thurgood-marshalls-interracial-love-i-dont-care-what-people-think-im-marrying-you/2016/08/18/84f636be-54d5-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_story.html?utm_term=.6e3e0231e085

The Best Island in the World Goes To...
https://www.facebook.com/CondeNastTraveler/videos/10155910653088982/?autoplay_reason=user_settings&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=2&app_id=2392950137&live_video_guests=0

Confronting Anti-Blackness and White Supremacy in the Pilipin@ Community with Acts of Decolonization
https://www.hellapinay.com/blog/2017/9/10/confronting-white-supremacy

Baguio-Sagada-Banaue Itinerary: See The Cordillera Region in 6 Days
https://philihappy.com/baguio-sagada-banaue-itinerary/

For Video of the Week, AJ+ celebrates Fil-Am History Month by featuring the 3 ways Filipinos contributed to America.

An Untold Story

First a love story.  When Erwin Tiongson and Titchie Carandang-Tiongson, history sleuths by avocation, chanced upon an old but well-preserved book on the Philippines, it inadvertently opened up an entire pandora's box of information on a lady lawyer named Nina Irene Thomas of Washington DC. Her connection to Philippine history? She was engaged to Manuel Luis Quezon, president of the Philippine Commonwealth, and would have married him before the politics of (Philippine) independence got in the way. "The Untold Story of Nina Thomas: The American Woman Who Could Have Been First Lady of the Philippines” is not just a profile of an accomplished woman; it's also a look into the thrill of finding history in unexpected places.

Considered one of the wisest and most beloved sages in the Philippines, Washington SyCip passed away a few days ago at the ripe age of 96. PF Correspondent John L. Silva remembers his time with the businessman philanthropist.

An outstanding example of creative nonfiction book that was recently published in Manila is FilAm Laurel Fantauzzo's The First Impulse, a superbly written account of the treacherous murder of two young people in Quezon City. New York-based  Marie La Viña writes a review. 

The tricky issue of assimilation assumes a timely import in this time of overt racism in the Trump era. History professor James Zarsadiaz gives context and his take on the issue in "Playing the Assimilation Game."

Our In The Know links this week:

Stockton’s Little Manila Center Vandalized in Possible Hate Crime
http://fox40.com/2017/10/10/stocktons-little-manila-center-vandalized-in-possible-hate-crime/

Josie Natori: Thriving: Fearlessly Growing a Fashion Empire
https://www.facebook.com/AARPAAPI/videos/1133037133498991/

Exploring an Abandoned Theme Park
https://www.facebook.com/uniladmag/videos/3286581194698250/

How a world concert pianist, with a master’s degree in statistics, helped move CCP forward
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/274884/world-concert-pianist-masters-degree-statistics-helped-move-ccp-forward/

And for our Happy Home Cook recipe: Calamares a la Trillanes, the recipe of the controversial senator of this bar favorite when he was in prison (along with many others) for mutiny. This is among the many compiled in a book called Pulutan: From the Soldiers' Kitchen,recipes concocted by the detained mutineers who had too much time on their hands and an unhampered appetite for food and drink.

For our Video of the Week: Asian American Life's Ernabel Demillo explores the lives of Filipinos who made their way to Ellis Island in New York.