Marriage Migrants and the Price They Pay

This week, we situate our stories in two of our Asian neighbors, the first as a source of financial succor at the cost of marital practicalities, the second as a place for discovering new sites and experiences.

Manila-based journalist and community activist Rochit I. Tañedo covers the fate of Filipinas who choose to marry South Korean husbands in their quest for a better life for their families. In "Pinay Migrants Gasp for Air in South Korea's Closed Society," the realities of mixed marriages in a society that both embraces and looks down on the concept are poignantly described.

In "Taking It Easy in Japan Islands," PF Correspondent Criselda Yabes takes us with her on her meanderings in the land of Mount Fuji, goddesses and public baths.

From another PF Correspondent, Serina Aidasani, comes a profile of noted pianist Charisse Baldoria, who also sees herself as a writer, photographer, composer and cultural worker whose compositions salute her cultural roots as a Filipino.

Some compelling stories are in our In The Know lineup this week:

Reuters journalists win Pulitzer for reporting on Philippine 'drug war'
https://www.rappler.com/nation/200391-reuters-journalists-win-pulitzer-2018-report-war-on-drugs-philippines

How a secretive police squad racked up kills in Duterte's drug war
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/philippines-drugs-squad/

The Filipino tribe that hangs its dead from cliffs
http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20180405-the-filipino-tribe-that-hangs-its-dead-from-cliffs

Meet Davao's Willy Wonka who put PH chocolate on the world map
http://news.abs-cbn.com/life/04/17/18/meet-davaos-willy-wonka-who-put-ph-chocolate-on-the-world-map

12 Longtime Pampanga Businesses That Are Still In Existence Today
https://kaplistorian.blogspot.com/2018/04/78-12-longtime-pampanga-businesses-that.html

Our Happy Home Cook recipe this week comes from Chef Barb Batiste, whose Big Boi restaurant in LA we featured last week. Here's her own recipe for Chicken Adobo.

For our Video of the Week, we feature Houston-based Filipino Food Truck, “Flip n' Patties.”

The Writer, the Teacher, and the Chef

Acclaimed Filipino American author/playwright Jessica Hagedorn scores another literary accomplishment with the staging of her 1990 novel, The Gangster of Love, at Magic Theatre in San Francisco starting today. PF contributor Elaine Elinson did an exclusive interview with the author about her creative process and wrote "Jessica Hagedorn Brings The Gangster of Love from the Page to the Stage." The play, 20 years in the making, runs through May 6. Positively Filipino readers get a 20% discount so read the story to find out how to get tickets. 

Special education teacher Joey Cumagun was among 18 exceptional teachers chosen from hundreds nationwide to participate in a program sponsored by the American Battle Monuments Commission. He chose to research on the life of Sgt. Teofilo Yldefonzo, a Bataan Death March veteran who was the first Filipino to win an Olympic medal. Yldefonzo's life story and Cumagun's own converge in PF contributor Manzel Delacruz's  account entitled "Understanding Sacrifice," a fitting continuing tribute this month to Filipinos called to valor. 

If you're craving Filipino food in LA, there are many restaurants to choose from. A new one seems to be holding its own in West LA -- Big Boi Restaurant, run by Chef Barbara Batiste who eschews trendy fusion and sticks to traditional flavors. PF Correspondent Anthony Maddela reports.

Last week we featured Chicagoland's E + O Food and Drink Restaurant and Chef Angelo Lubiano's Pork Belly Adobo recipe for our Happy Home Cook. This week, we feature another of his creations, Chicken Sisig.

For Video of the Week, online comedian Jeppy Paraiso is back with “Tita's Rant on Daylight Savings Time.”

And here's our In The Know compilation this week for your reading pleasure:

Why We Need To Remember Stockton, California’s Filipino American Legacy
https://www.buzzfeed.com/paolamardo/stockton-california-little-manila-center-vandalism-history?utm_term=.wnV3b2D9Z#.yvO0ay56D

Cambridge Analytica boss Alexander Nix dined with two of Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign advisers in 2015
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2140782/cambridge-analytica-boss-alexander-nix-dined-two-rodrigo

FALEO: Home on a mission of love
http://www.manilatimes.net/home-mission-love/380915/

36 of the Most Beautiful Words in The Philippine Language
https://www.buzzfeed.com/isabellelaureta/kilig-sa-harana?utm_term=.tgYW0VwrB#.ucmY0v4VX

Colonialism in a Can
https://www.tastecooking.com/colonialism-in-a-can/

Remember Bataan!

On April 9, 1942, from the depths of Corregidor island, this beautifully crafted but heartbreaking message written by then-Captain Salvador P. Lopez (much later ambassador and UP president) was read over "The Voice of Freedom" by Lieutenant Norman Reyes:

Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and blood-stained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy.

The world will long remember the epic struggle that the Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coasts of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged on land, and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and America, these intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance should bear.

For what sustained them through these months of incessant battle was a force more than physical. It was the force of unconquerable faith -- something in the heart and soul that physical adversity and hardship could not destroy. It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in those most priceless of all our human prerogatives.

Our men fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the almost superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last, in the face of overwhelming odds.

The decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of an unshakable faith are made of something more than flesh, but they are not impervious to steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come.

BATAAN HAS FALLEN! But the spirit that made it stand -- a beacon to all the liberty-loving people of the world -- cannot fall!

Today, 76 years hence, we continue to pay tribute to the veterans of World War II. Read Again:

http://www.positivelyfilipino. com/magazine/remember-bataan? rq=bataan

http://www.positivelyfilipino. com/magazine/re-enacting-the- bataan-death-march-a-personal- journey?rq=bataan

Our new stories this week:

Anting-anting (amulet) as artwork is the focus of Dr. Michael Gonzalez's review of Michael Arcega's ongoing exhibit at the University of San Francisco's Thacher Gallery.

PF Correspondent Rene M. Astudillo got the surprise of his life when his tongue-in-cheek piece on "selfitis" in his satirical blog, The Adobo Chronicles, was picked up by an academic journal and actually became the subject of an academic paper. Indeed, life can imitate satire.

From Chicagoland, PF Correspondent Rey de la Cruz writes about the upscale E + O Food and Drink Restaurant, highly rated by Zagat, that offers Filipino dishes. No surprise because it's owned by a Filipino. The restaurant shares with us its own recipe of Pork Belly Adobo, our Happy Home Cook feature of the week.

We hope our links to a variety of stories will keep you In The Know:

6 Filipino female scientists who are improving the way we live
http://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/2018/04/02/filipino-female-scientists.html#.WsMZL1v5nFE.facebook

How to Transfer a Land Title from a Deceased Parent in Philippines?http://www.affordablecebu.com/load/real_estate/how_to_transfer_a_land_title_from_a_deceased_parents_in_philippines/43-1-0-30273

'America Is Not the Heart': Elaine Castillo's debut novel offers a tender portrait of Filipino-American culture
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-america-is-not-the-heart-elaine-castillo-0404-story.html

Reflecting on the Legacy of Doreen Gamboa Fernandez
http://fnbreport.ph/features/reflecting-on-the-legacy-of-doreen-gamboa-fernandez-mickyf-20170401/

For Video of the Week, Rappler's correspondents share the dangers they face while on the job.