From Farm Worker to Warrior

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A Fil-Am kid browned and brawned by months of farm labor under the sweltering California sun realized that preparing for war is hardly a dinner party. Read what it's like to be in a boot camp as America enters the Vietnam war theater.

A multi-province introduction to unique and unexpected Filipino dishes can either whet or blunt your appetite, but it will always be fodder for interesting conversations. How can you not talk about chopped pig cheeks, fermented shrimp that emerge days later smelling rotten but delicious with roasted fish, and pork blood cooked with tamarind juice and fish sauce? How about beating a live chicken to death until its blood rises to the skin surface, before roasting the now-dead fowl -- feathers and all -- on an open flame? 

Are we hungry yet?

Not exactly palatable but a new book written by a German author about a German development worker who returns to the Philippines to look for his old love, only to be confronted by a nightmare scenario that engulfed a revolutionary movement. The novel is fiction but based on real life. Riveting story, disturbing but important reading.

Are DINKs the solution to the Philippines' rapid population explosion? Find out what they are and how they think.

Our Video of the Week is a timely anthem for unsettled times: “Di Niyo Ba Naririnig?”

[Read It Again]

Ten Lesser-Known Photos from the Martial Law Years That Will Blow You Away by FilipiKnow

What If Magellan Had Survived Mactan? by Penélope V. Flores

In The Know

‘We Haven’t Learned Our Lesson’: Victims Recall Martial Law in the Philippines
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/asia/philippines-victims-marcos.html?

What you need to know about the Love Bus, the revived 70s PUV returning to roads
https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/389025-what-you-need-to-know-love-bus?page=2

Study identifies hardwood used in Juan Luna's 'Spoliarium'
https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/283118-juan-luna-spoliarium-hardwood-used?

Sean Rhyan's toughness rooted in his Filipino heritage
https://www.packers.com/news/sean-rhyan-s-toughness-rooted-in-his-filipino-heritage-2025

The colonial mindset: A review of 'Magellan'
https://mb.com.ph/2025/09/14/the-colonial-mindset-a-review-of-magellan?

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Staff

The Delano Grape Strike

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September 1965 was a milestone year for American farmworkers in California. On September 8 of that year, the historic Delano Grape Strike began, initiated by Fil-Am union leaders Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz and Pete Velasco. On September 16, the Mexican workers joined the striking Filipinos. It took five years before the American grape growers yielded and the strikers declared victory. As photographer/chronicler David Bacon wrote, "The strike was a watershed struggle for civil and labor rights, supported by millions of people across the country, breathing new life into the labor movement and opening doors for immigrants and people of color."

Historian/writer Alex S. Fabros, Jr. was there in Delano (and before that, Coachella) as part of the grape-picking workforce when the strike began. In part 4 of his series on that historic year, he gives an insider view of what was happening in the Filipino worker camps in preparation for the strike, as well as the strike's early days. His actual participation lasted only 10 days though because he was drafted into the US military to fight in Vietnam. On September 19, 1965, as his fellow farm workers continued their march towards rewriting American labor union history, Fabros was on his way to boot camp to begin a life that defined his personal history.

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Staff

Our Manongs' Coachella

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For millennials and GenZers, Coachella in Southern California means an annual pilgrimage to the massive music and art festival of most Aprils since 1999.

For farm laborers in the 1960s, including Fil-Am writer/historian Alex S. Fabros, Jr. writing part 3 of his memoirs about his years as a farmworker, the Coachella Valley meant hard daily labor harvesting grapes. But the place meant more than just farms in labor movement history: it was here where the stirrings of what later exploded as the Delano Grape Strike of 1965-1970 began. (Note: The Delano Grape Strike, initiated by Fil-Am labor leaders Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz, began on September 8, 1965. It lasted until July 29, 1970.)

Fabros' story of what happened in Coachella in 1965 is an important labor movement chronicle and a significant chapter of his love life as well. 

And more of Fabros' writings, after attending PF's tribute to the second batch of manongs and manangs last August 24, he wrote a poem for the ten honorees. Fabros was one of the awardees in 2024, the first time the event was held.

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Another love story: when celebrated Filipino master violinist Gilopez Kabayao was making his debut at Carnegie Hall at age 20, Corazon Pineda was still an infant. But that didn't stop their fates from meshing -- she, growing up a piano virtuoso, became his favorite accompanist and eventually his wife and the mother of his three children. Their love story spanned half a century, as told by PF contributing writer Maria Carmen Sarmiento, ending only when Kabayao passed away last year at age 94. 

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Who wants to go on an African safari? Who doesn't? Our intrepid traveler/writer/photographer Odette Foronda finally embarked on her dream adventure at age 70 and she tells/shows us how it went.

[Read It Again]

From Spain to Delano—The Radical Roots of Farm Workers Unions by David Bacon

Nelia Sancho: The Last Conversations by Lynett Advincula-Villariba

[Video of the Week]

Coachella 565 - Another Chapter in Filipino American Labor History

In The Know

DOCUMENTARY: Mula dagat hanggang sikmura
https://www.rappler.com/environment/documentary-fish-loss-daram-samar/

You’re Not Alone: Survey Says Millennials and Gen Zs Use Travel to ‘Mentally Reset’
https://www.esquiremag.ph/life/travel/klook-travel-pulse-survey-2025-a7940-20250504?

‘Magellan’ Review: Gael Garcia Bernal Plays the Famous Explorer in Lav Diaz’s Exquisitely Shot Challenge of an Arthouse Epic
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/magellan-review-gael-garcia-bernal-lav-diaz-1236229407/

Yes, These Churches in the Philippines Were Built With Eggs
https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/lifestyle/churches-philippines-built-with-eggs-a2765-20220614-lfrm?

Young Fil-Am Dance Crew Conquers US Stage
https://www.facebook.com/reel/781715634392041

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Staff