July 10, 2024

Let the Games Begin

July 10, 2024/ Staff

The Olympic Games is about to begin in Paris from July 26-August 11; the Paralympics on August 28, also in Paris. For the first time, a bumper crop (28 in both competitions) of Filipino athletes are participating and some actually have a path to winning. Watch out for these names: EJ Obiena (pole-vaulting), Eumir Marcial (boxing), Carlos Yulo (gymnastics- men), and Kayla Noelle Sanchez (swimming).

2024 marks 100 years of Philippine participation in the Olympics and PF Correspondent Myles Garcia, a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians, gives us a brief history. The country's medal haul, however, is meager: 2 golds and a smattering of bronzes in the Olympics, and 1 medal in the Paralympics. Let's hope Paris will work its magic on our athletes in this year's games.

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Van Cliburn is arguably one of the greatest pianists that ever lived, a rock star in the classical music world with sold-out concerts worldwide, screaming fans and a ticker tape parade in New York City that dwarfed those of beauty queens and sports champions. In the 1970s, during the martial law years of Marcos the first, Van Cliburn was a mainstay in the multinational coterie of first lady Imelda. Read cultural writer Pablo Tariman's account of this great pianist's Philippine connections.

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There are more than 8,000 Filipinos living in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia in Canada and the community mounts one of the most colorful and collaborative celebrations for Victoria Day and Philippine Heritage Month (June, as declared by the Province of British Columbia). Fil-Can writer Megen Quigley reports.

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Continuing our recurrent feature on the Bridge Generation of the Fil-Am community, the generation's chronicler Peter Jamero features Joe Talaugon, born in 1930, raised and settled in California. Joe's mother was Chumash Indian and he is active in both the Fil-Am and Native American communities.

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We round up this issue with an op-ed piece by author/educator/activist Walden Bello on the high-stakes political divorce of the Marcos dynasty of the north and the Duterte dynasty of the south.

[Video of the Week] Stockton Museum Showcases Filipino American Heritage

In The Know

Why Asian Americans care about China’s maritime aggressions
https://asamnews.com/2024/07/04/indo-pacific-diasporas-in-america-against-chinese-expansion/

A trans immigrant living with HIV finds hope and sanctuary in San Francisco

https://www.sfaf.org/collections/status/a-trans-immigrant-living-with-hiv-finds-hope-and-sanctuary-in-san-francisco/

Leonardo DiCaprio supports call to protect Masungi Georeserve
https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/2024/7/3/leonardo-dicaprio-supports-call-to-protect-masungi-georeserve-632?

Online rumours of civil war in Philippines tied to China’s covert agenda
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3266870/online-rumours-civil-war-philippines-tied-chinas-covert-agenda?

Butaka chair, Baliwag mesa altar, and more: Here are things you must know about Filipino heritage furniture
https://www.tatlerasia.com/homes/architecture-design/filipino-heritage-furniture?

Anti-Asian Hate Watch

EXCLUSIVE: At least 13 Bay Area senior citizens robbed or attacked in neighborhood in 1 week
https://abc7news.com/post/exclusive-least-13-oakland-senior-citizens-attacked-robbed/15026452/?

Lost Kinjo: Anti-Japanese hate reached a fever pitch in Oakland
https://asamnews.com/2024/07/05/how-oaklands-two-japantowns-disappeared-in-the-face-of-racism/

‘Just the beginning:’ Las Vegas police establish AAPI Alliance
https://asamnews.com/2024/07/01/las-vegas-police-implemented-new-aapi-alliance/

Funding provided by the State of California.

July 03, 2024

Love and Hate

July 03, 2024/ Staff

When we were in elementary school in the '50s, Philippine Independence Day was celebrated on July 4th, the same day as the US. We also sang the American national anthem after we sang "Land of the Morning," the Philippine national anthem in English. It was just a little over a decade after WWII ended and the Americans were still hailed as our saviors.

When the Macapagal administration (1961-1965) changed the date of Independence Day to June 12, the date in 1898 when our ancestors declared our independence from Spain, it triggered an examination of US-Philippine relations, quietly and sporadically at the onset, then evolving into strident anti-Americanism during the Vietnam War and the student protest movement in the early '70s. Martial law suppressed the stridency and the alliance between the US government and the Filipino people continued. Just like any relationship, it went through the peaks and valleys of love and hate.

In a nutshell:

Love: when the US opened its doors to large-scale immigration of Filipino professionals and their families, leading to the emergence of a 5-million-strong Fil-Am community;

Love: when the US supported and enabled the exile of Marcos in 1986;

Hate: the US bases in Clark and Subic were closed down by Philippine Senate fiat in the early '90s;

Hate: President Rodrigo Duterte's very public anti-American pronouncements that accompanied his pivot to China;

Love: President Bongbong Marcos' current embrace of the Mutual Defense Treaty with the US against Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

Tomorrow, July 4, is another Filipino-American Friendship Day. Perhaps it's time for a reexamination to hold the historic relationship of the two countries on an even keel -- an alliance of equals now, not as colonized and colonizer or master and subject.

Stories This Week

Unsung Heroes Of A Secret Mission by John L. Silva

Play Plunges Actor Alexandra Hellquist In Unresolved Debate by Anthony Maddela

She’s A Farmer And She’s Okay by Ian Layugan

Carlos ‘Totong’ Francisco II: Art On His Own Terms by Primo Pacis

Bologna And Milan: Random Encounters by Criselda Yabes

Read Again:

When Hilario Met Sally: The Fight Against Anti-Miscegenation Laws

A Reunion of Strangers

Historical Memories Are Made of These

[Partner] Attorney General Bonta Releases 2023 Hate Crime Report, Highlights Continued Efforts To Combat Hate

[Video of the Week] How Did Philippine Art Connect Us Globally?

In The Know

‘It’s not all about the medals’: Olympian Margielyn Didal and her skateboarding journey
https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/sports/olympian-margielyn-didal-skateboarding-journey?

Philippine villagers smear mud on their bodies to show devotion to St. John the Baptist
https://apnews.com/article/philippines-bibiclat-mud-people-festival-john

Bini’s Charm and The Road To P-Pop Stardom
https://coverstory.ph/bini/

Years Later, Philippines Reckons With Duterte’s Brutal Drug War
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/29/world/asia/philippines-drug-war-duterte-justice.html?

Anti-American Hate Watch

Family members of woman pushed into S.F. BART train say death is shocking culmination of their worst fears
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/woman-shoved-bart-train-homeless-arrest-

Healing Anti-Asian Racism – The HOPE Framework
https://siliconeer.com/current/healing-anti-asian-racism-hope-framework/

Asian American History is US History, So Why Don’t Schools Teach It?
https://ethnicmediaservices.org/stop-the-hate/asian-american-history-is-us-history-so-why-dont-schools-teach-it/

Bachelorette Jenn Tran speaks out against racist comments
https://asamnews.com/2024/07/01/jenn-tran-bachelorette-racism/

Cops hunt creep who hurled racist insult at Asian man before bashing him with thermos
https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/06/29/cops-hunt-creep-who-hurled-racist-insult-at-asian-man-before-bashing-him-with-thermos/

Funding provided by the State of California.

June 26, 2024

A Love Song's Sad Story

June 26, 2024/ Staff

Next to the Philippine National Anthem, the song "Dahil Sa Iyo" is probably the most familiar song among Filipinos of a certain age who have lived through the kundiman era, the Imelda Marcos era, and even the Nat King Cole/Lettermen (among others) times when they sang the song to please local audiences. Composed by Miguel Velarde Sr. with lyrics by Dominador Santiago, "Dahil Sa Iyo" got its first public airing in the 1937 movie, "Bituing Marikit."

In 1940, the song "Because of You" was introduced in the US and garnered a lot of traction for years in movies and recordings. PF Correspondent Myles Garcia did a deep dive into the provenance and the chords of both songs and, in consultation with a Filipino composer/musician, confirmed that both songs shared the same chord progression 75% of the time. Read all about this "appropriation" issue and the sad tale behind it. Hearing and singing the song will not be the same again.

*****

A memoir in poetry. That's what community leader and LGBTQIA+ activist Therese Rodriguez did in her newly launched book, Paranaque to New York City: 50 Poems. PF contributor Elaine Elinson gives us a taste of this "poetry of witness" which hopefully will lead you to savor the rest and help the Rodriguez-led Asian and Pacific Island Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA) in the process. (There's a QR code at the end of the review you can scan to buy the book.)

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Project Phil is a US-based nonprofit whose vision is to help Filipinos obtain education which it views as the way out of poverty. Founded in 2017, the 501(c)3 organization has already given out about 500 scholarships in the Philippines. For the schoolyear 2023-24, over 108 scholarships for high school and college students have been supported. Educator/writer Elaine Joy Degale reports.

*****

There's nothing hoodlum-y about Bugoy Drilon. In fact, the singer/performer is a standout when it comes to connecting emotionally with his audience, according to PF contributing writer Gary Ferrington.

Read Again:

Racism: Reflections of a Bridge Generation Filipino American

Fortune’s Call: Albert Samaha’s Family Saga

[Video of the Week] What Is Filipino Food?