August 07, 2024

Flexing Our Muscles

August 07, 2024/ Staff

It’s exhilarating to see Filipinos excel in Olympic sports be it via the homeland or the diaspora. We’re ecstatic over Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo’s historic two Olympic gold medals for the Philippines and the bronze medals of Filipina boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas. We’re kilig (thrilled) as well over half-Filipinos Lee Kiefer who bagged a gold in fencing for the US, and gymnast Jake Jarman who won a bronze for the UK.

It’s a good time as any to remember another international pathbreaker in sports, the late tiny but mighty tennis star Felicisimo H. Ampon. In Felicisimo ‘Mighty Mite’ H. Ampon: Tennis Giant, writer Rey E. de la Cruz recalls how the ace from the working class broke “social, racial, physical, and political barriers” to put the Philippines on the world map of tennis.

Greater Filipino presence is also rising on the international concert music stage. On July 7, 2024, the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra (MSJO) made history by nabbing its third gold medal in the 16th Summa Cum Laude Youth International Music Festival in Vienna.

Just three days earlier the youth orchestra won the Grand Prize in the Bratislava International Music Festival in Slovakia. Talk about bravura performances. Writer Pablo A. Tariman reports on MSJO’s feats in Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra Conquers Europe.

Take a break from our extremely talented compatriots’ exciting European triumphs and do a side trip to France’s Charante-Maritime region. Go island-hopping and lighthouse-traipsing with writer Criselda Yabes. It will soothe muscles worn out from watching top Olympic athletes do the real straining.

Finally, be athletic or simply go about wearing 1587 Sneakers, a new brand created by sneaker industry veteran Adam King to celebrate the first arrival of Luzones Indios or ancestral Filipinos in America. Activist and award-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas explains his enthusiasm for the venture in Walk the Talk in 1587 Sneakers.

[Video of the Week] Puso sa Paris 2024: Carlos Edriel Yulo
[Bay Area Event] Building Communities: A Tribute to Our Manongs and Manangs

In The Know

The Philippines' first male athlete to win Olympic gold prompts outpouring of #PinoyPride
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/carlos-yulos-gold-medals-filipino-paris-olympics-rcna

Philippines at the Olympics: Villegas settles for bronze after losing to Cakiroglu
https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/40752383/aira-villegas-olympics-boxing-bronze

Nesthy Petecio bags Olympic bronze in loss to Polish boxer in semis
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/sports/boxing/916323/nesthy-petecio-semis-2024-paris-olympics/story/

National Artist Virgilio Almario writes poem for EJ Obiena, other Filipino athletes
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandculture/916103/national-artist-virgilio-almario-writes-poem-for-ej-obiena-other-filipino-athletes/story/#goog_rewarded

Filipina Am executive chef retiring from White House after 29 years
https://asamnews.com/2024/07/31/cristeta-comerford-from-manila-cooked-for-five-presidents-and-countless-world-leaders/

Purple Yam, a Filipino Institution of Brooklyn, Is Closing
https://ny.eater.com/2024/8/1/24211388/purple-yam-closing-restaurant?

Filipino students win at 65th International Mathematical Olympiad in UK
https://mb.com.ph/2024/7/20/filipino-students-win-at-65th-international-mathematical-olympiad-in-uk

Anti-Asian Hate Watch

Man sentenced in brutal 2022 killing of Manhattan woman in her Chinatown apartment
https://gothamist.com/news/man-sentenced-in-brutal-2022-killing-of-manhattan-woman-in-her-chinatown-apartment

Filipino-American man pelted with frozen eggs, ethnic slur near Mesa College
https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/filipino-american-man-pelted-with-frozen-eggs-ethnic-slur-near-mesa-college?

Racial slur used on sign at Grocery Outlet in Sacramento
https://asamnews.com/2024/08/02/racial-slur-in-store-signage-anti-japanese-anti-asian/

Funding provided by the State of California.

July 31, 2024

Our Houses of Spirits

July 31, 2024/ Staff

Who among us can’t sing Bahay Kubo, an anthem of Filipino childhood written by National Artist Felipe Padilla de Leon celebrating the simple virtues of a humble nipa hut with a bountiful vegetable garden? Contributing writer Claire Mercado-Obias (A Tiny But Mighty Home) writes about the book Our Nipa Hut by Fil-Am librarian Rachelle Abalos, who shares her memory of growing up in the Philippines in a modest home that kept them safe through life’s challenges.

A sharp contrast to the nipa hut are the magnificent ancestral mansions of the rural gentry in Houses that Sugar Built: An Intimate Portrait of Philippine Ancestral Homes by Gina Consing McAdam and Siobhán Doran. Contributing writer Vic Salas (Up Close and Architectural: Houses that Sugar Built) reviews the book of stories and photographs that intimately explores the grand aspirations, both architectural and cosmopolitan, of the sugar barons that built them.

Of course, all homes simple or grand have to withstand nature’s mercurial temper, as shown by the most recent deluge that brought record floods to Metro Manila and other environs. Writer Rossana Lopez reminds us that devastating inundations also eat away at spiritual foundations: “Why do we put up with this?” asks Rossana, decrying the recurring disruptions to life and comfort that inclement weather brings (What the Rains Wash Away). She observes that the vaunted resilience of Filipinos can be self-defeating.

Can be self-defeating, it must be clarified, because resilience has indeed been a necessary part of many Filipinos’ life stories, such as the one contributing writer Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr. relates (War and Deliverance) of family members who had to rebuild their lives, and successfully so, from the ashes of the Second World War in the Philippines.

[Video of the Week] Olympic Pole Vaulter EJ Obiena

In the Know

Immigrant nurses “penalized” for quitting work reach settlement
https://asamnews.com/2024/07/26/stay-or-pay-traps-filipino-immigrant-nurses-says-lawsuit/

On remote island, Chinese patrols disrupt Filipino livelihoods – and gender roles
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2024/0723/south-china-sea-philippines-china-thitu-feminist-equality

Two members of a Washington family sentenced for selling fake Alaska Native art in Ketchikan
https://alaskapublic.org/2024/07/12/two-members-of-a-washington-family-sentenced-for-selling-fake-alaska-native-art-in-ketchikan/

Meet Fil-Am Olympic gold medalist in fencing Lee Kiefer
https://usa.inquirer.net/154198/meet-fil-am-olympic-gold-medalist-in-fencing-lee-kiefer?utm_source=usa_gallery_feat_story

Rugby Sevens bronze medalist Alena Olsen on her proud Filipino American heritage
https://www.instagram.com/megreyes_/reel/C-D1LOSypFi/

In SF Central SOMA, a beloved vehicle is driving the neighborhood’s Filipino revival
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-central-soma-filipino-19599903.php?

Anti-Asian Hate Watch

Here are With LGBTQ+ Hate Crimes Rising, How is California Responding?
https://ethnicmediaservices.org/stop-the-hate/with-lgbtq-hate-crimes-rising-how-is-california-responding/

Senate hopeful Adam Schiff reinforces support for AAPI communities in Oakland outreach
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/adam-schiff-oakland-aapi-19596772.php

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff visits Wausau
https://www.wjfw.com/news/second-gentleman-doug-emhoff-visits-wausau/article_adb1a6e8-4c6f-11ef-b109-2332a6486180.html

Funding provided by the State of California.

July 24, 2024

Our Oxygen

July 24, 2024/ Staff

For a bare-bones operation like Positively Filipino, contributing writers are the oxygen of our existence. There are over a hundred of them listed on our website. Some are friends and former colleagues, but a large number started out as total strangers who reached out to ask if they could write for PF.

Take Dr. Patricio Abinales, a friend of ours from our alma mater, who is now with the University of Hawaii in Manoa. Jojo is one of our regulars, willing to take on assignments, eager to write reviews of books dealing with Philippine politics (among others). In this issue, he looks at a newly launched book, Unrequited Love: Duterte's China Embrace, by ace journalists Marites D. Vitug and Camille Elemia.

Gary Ferrington, a retired University of Oregon professor, is one of those who wrote to us out of the blue, asking if we were interested in profiles of three young, relatively unknown Filipino singers. Gary is a writer for Oregon ArtsWatch and identifies himself as an advocate for emerging artists. We have published two of his articles (on Francis Greg and Bugoy Drilon) and we have his third -- and final -- contribution this week, on a gifted Cebuano cover singer, Anthony Uy.

Odette Foronda, based in Toronto, is a world traveler and adventurer, who regularly contributes enticing travel essays that include her stunning photographs. Here she focuses on her adventure in Siargao in Surigao, one of the Philippines' most visited destinations for water sports.

With these three and the more than 100 other contributing writers, Positively Filipino survives and thrives as a chronicler of the Filipino diaspora, and a valuable repository of some of the best journalism pieces ever written.

We are ever so grateful.

Stories This Week

China And Duterte: ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ by Patricio Abinales

Fil-Ams Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 59 by Mona Lisa Yuchengco

Anthony Uy: A Musical Journey Rooted In Family And Faith by Gary Ferrington

Why Did The Chickens Go To Siargao? by Odette Foronda

[Video of the Week] Sylvia La Torre, Diomedes Maturan and Bobby Gonzales