Memoirs of the Reagans after the White House
Adela Filiu Ferguson went to America to define her dream with abiding faith in God, sheer guts and grim determination—clutching her midwifery diploma. On her date with destiny, a great…
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Pangasinan Brotherhood: A gathering of courage and determination
ON Sunday, June 27, the Greater Dagupan Association of California (GDCAC) celebrated its 25th year anniversary at the Double Hilton in Rosemead. Beginning at 6pm and within the hour, from…
The humor and extravaganza of the opera
I CAN never quell a stir of fascination, dread and longing when the house lights dim and the curtains part. But the enjoyment of an opera can begin, not with…
If she could only see her son now
Remembering President Cory’s era BENEATH her simple ways exist a determined heart, a fine mind and a commitment to the rights of her people. My years with her were times…
Sonata for fatherless daughters
He left me with a houseful of daughters, who are very young and adorable with the world on their side. In the face of adversity, we are not permitted to…
Inside this great city of ours
LOS ANGELES—Every so often, a major Fil-Am celebration with so many great minds, descends on this city. It would be a fitting time to highlight an inspiring unique portfolio that…
The photo is the message
Words are mere grace notes. All my life I have dealt with words. They are adequate for many of our purposes, indispensable for most. They can be immeasurably beautiful and…
Kalayaan Incorporated commemorates Southern California’s Independence Day Ball
We have passionate adherents of the yearly Independence Grand Ball and precedents flash yearly increase of revelers from the Fil-Am Community…that represents, if not affects collective thoughts, ideas, in order…
Everybody is a story
All my life I’ve dealt with words. I live in a world of stories. Stories are not replicable because our lives are unique, which gives us value and meaning. Yet,…
Quiet angels with gentle hearts
THERE is a quiet army of gentle women who wear their tact like a uniform. They look after elderly people with long-term needs. Whether in a high-rise, multi-storey building, a…
Notes for a daughter who turned 50: It is called hormonal mischief
IT is a new perspective coming into view in every woman’s major life passage: A midlife agitation, literal and poignant. First, the gushing, like the reddening of a dying tree…
Celebrating 117th Independence Day Ball
June finds the Fil Am community gearing up for graduations, weddings, Father’s Day, vacation plans and the ubiquitous Grand Independence Day Ball—five of them, within almost a fortnight. At the…
Breathing the scent of May at Glendale Grand Santacruzan
The Flores de Mayo (also known as Flores de Maria), a month-long custom and celebration, which is steeped in history and religious beliefs culminates with the Santacruzan—the grandest and the…
One Sunday night at the emergency room
All of LA County’s sufferings come through the doors of the emergency room. Accidents, shootings, heart attacks, beatings, rapes, suicides—just as gory and heart stopping when I was covering the…
The Grand Induction Ball of the Los Angeles-Makati Sister City, Inc.
THERE is little to compare with the excitement over the Los Angeles-Makati Sister City, Inc. Induction Ball on Sunday, May 3. What are we looking at beyond the choreography of…
To be a mother
IN the legends I have read that males invented to explain life, it was said that the first human creature was a man called Adam. Eve arrived later, to give…
The legacy fight
LAS VEGAS – Inside the MGM Arena, before a sellout crowd and millions of eyes watching in their homes, nothing prepares you for that “Fight of the Century.” Everything collided…
A paradise for the misbegotten
LAS VEGAS—Shakespeare did not live in the age of malls, but The Bard would have recognized this city in any age, for what it is. Nick Tosches described Las Vegas…
A magnificent conductor takes FASO to Broadway
IT was as big, as rich, as romantic as any Broadway extravaganza—full of dazzling orchestral verve. A superior conductor nicknamed, Bob, shook Alex Theater and made it tremble as hundreds…
The Fist and the Heart of the Prizefighter
Manny Pacquiao is not just a prized fighter, he is the Pambansang Kamao (the nation’s fist). His heart is open for all of us. The boxing arena has all the…
The friendship of Alma Alvarez: San Diego’s pearl
San Diego: The alpha lunch. The stage setting for our first lunch at the Coronado Hotel was planned as no big deal. It lasted two hours. “This is good,” she…
Trini P. Foliente: Intrepid but gracious trailblazer
The story of this interview is special. I’ve spent high interesting hours, abandoning political questions as Trini Paredes Foliente, vice president of the LA-Makati Sister, Inc. talked exclusively about casual…
Maestro Dexter Grey: One day in the Great Wall of China
This is a little back story. It is about that day Piano Virtuoso Dexter Grey, dubbed The Maestro in the literary world of music and its horizon, created a splash…
Sally Jamorabon: The human heart of a teacher
The prestige is always there. Teaching is a very serious pursuit where one starts with a calling and lives it as a purpose. “Those who can, do; those who can’t…
The riddles of life
I don’t know the answers to the big questions of life. But everything is relative, everything has a story. Yes, I’ve met amazing souls, and the lights fill me—flattering lights…
Behind the bylines of AJP
IT was an exquisite comfort to gaze at the building occupied by Asian Journal Publications, Inc. – upright and permanent, yawning with the rest, in a block of prime real…
FACLA @ age 70
It will be an unbridled celebration of sight, sound and scene that will collide with the Filipino-American community of Los Angeles at Temple Street on April 25-26. It will be…
The vampire of family life
MEMOIRS after memoirs, celebrities reveal unhappiness hidden beneath all the glitz and glitter. Of voids they fill up with drinking; broken marriages, failed relationships, troubled childhoods, frustrating careers, bereavement—all sources…
Spring once more
Spring has sprung. It is upon us in a scent that grows deeper, dizzying, improbable. It is too heady, too provocative to be diminished. Seeping through open windows, under doors,…
Lydia V. Solis: On the threshold of a great job with the PWUAASC
This piece began as an act of friendship. But because friendship has no biological purpose, no economic status, savored without rules that turned out to be a sparkling conversation—with pauses…