December 03, 2025

Along Comes Nostalgia

December 03, 2025/ Staff

As we hold our collective breaths when we watch what's happening in our homeland, let's take a needed break.

FilAms in the Bay Area, particularly baby boomers, were treated to a nostalgia trip last weekend with the Philippine International Aid (PIA) sponsoring the showing of an indie film, Along Comes Larry. Larry is Larry Ramos, the first Filipino to garner a Grammy as part of the New Christy Minstrels in 1963. He went on to join The Association, a group familiar to Filipinos who grew up in the '60s with such hits as "Cherish," "Windy" and "Never My Love." We sang along and swayed to these songs not knowing that one of the soloists was a Filipino-Hawaiian, Larry.

The documentary by broadcast journalist Rick Quan, as PF correspondent Cherie Querol-Moreno reports, was illuminating to the more than 500 guests who watched it, most of whom were hearing about Larry Ramos for the first time. But the treat wasn't just the movie -- it also included a performance by the remaining members of The Association! Grayed and somewhat frayed now, the members of the group, minus Larry who passed away in 2014, still thrilled with their harmonies.

It was indeed a weekend that warmed hearts and souls. More significantly, it benefited the PIA, a non-profit whose 39 years of existence is not only distinguished for its longevity, but for the 70,000 or so disadvantaged children in the Philippines who have been able to go to school because of PIA.

Would that we have more -- of groups who really make a difference, of people who continue to do their part in uplifting the lives of our kababayans, of filmmakers who make consequential movies, and of music makers who sing songs that make us happy.

A Taste of Home in Every Bite: The Valerio Family’s Baking Legacy
https://filipinosinthe6ix.com/valerio-familys-baking-legacy/

November 26, 2025

Happy Thanksgiving in a Challenging Year

November 26, 2025/ Staff

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again

When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes

-Claude Michel Schonberg, Les Miserables

It's still more than a month before 2025 ends. What a challenging, exhausting year it has been, both in our homeland and in our adopted country. An annus horribilis in the true sense when disasters upon disasters -- both natural and man-made -- piled up, leaving us questioning if there really is a thing called hope. Or redemption.

But in the past week alone, if you look at the stories in the US and the Philippines, there are glimmers of light beyond the proverbial dark tunnel. Consider: #MamdaniTrumpvisit #MarjorieTaylorGreene #Comeycase #Houseresignations #Trumpapprovalrating #DPWHarrests #HarryRoquerednotice #ZaldyCowarrant #Romualdez;iability #Batopendingarrest #anticorruptionrallies #antidynastybill to name a few.

Pebbles in a mountain of assaults to our sanity and well-being, true, but hopefully these are trends rather than glitches. Up to us to continue to sing the music of a people who will not be misled again. Huwag na tayo magpabudol.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

This Week’s Stories

FilAms Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 73 by Mona Lisa Yuchengco

A Play for Over-Texted Americans by Anthony Maddela

Ramon Orlina, ‘Father of Philippine Glass Sculpture’ by Rogelio Constantino Medina

Filipino Films Triumph at International Film Festival Manhattan ‘25 by Elaine Joy Edaya Degale

[Video of the Week] Filipina American Herstory

November 19, 2025

A Lively Day With Our Nobel Laureate

November 19, 2025/ Staff

It has been a disturbing, infuriating, ire-inducing nail-biter of a past few weeks in our homeland. (It's hardly any better in the US.)

Investigations, accusations, scandals and lies are assaulting the sanity of those who have been assiduously monitoring the situation. As young Filipinos make their voices heard through social media, rallies and even during sports events, we wonder where all these will lead to. Will there be more revelations of scandalous corruption? Will there be prison sentences, as majority of Filipinos are clamoring for? An EDSA 4 people's uprising? A regime change?

Confronted with such existential question marks, it was quite a welcome break to listen to Fil-Am superstars Maria Ressa, veteran journalist and Nobel Laureate, in conversation with community icon/Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas at the University of San Francisco. Not that Ressa's presentation was less disturbing (there's nothing comforting about AI and social media scrambling our brains with disinformation). But the difference was that the level of rhetoric was elevating, the discussion truly informative. PF contributing writer Lorna Lardizabal Dietz provides a summary.

Also in this issue, Manila-based contributor Manuel "EG" Hizon profiles Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, one of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award recipients. Fr. Flavie, as he is fondly called, went through hell-on-earth as a drug addict before he found his vocation as a Catholic priest. He has since devoted his time and passion to helping the downtrodden, particularly fighting for justice for victims of the Duterte regime's extra-judicial killings. During his acceptance speech at the award ceremony, Fr. Flavie dramatically brought out a list of the victims -- a lengthy document that spilled out beyond the lectern into the stage, illustrating that there were tens of thousands that perished.

It's always good to be reminded that there are Filipinos who inspire with their intellect and their commitment to the common good.