Yeah, it is an election year all right. (1)

Sifting through the major Philippine news outlets today netted me the following article:

—

Fil-Am Republican delegates: Palin’s values similar to Pinoys

By LENN ALMADIN-THORNBILL, ABS-CBN News North America Bureau | 09/04/2008 11:46 AM

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — As Republican delegates got ready to officially nominate John McCain and Sarah Palin as their presidential and vice-presidential candidates Wednesday night, Filipino-Americans who attended the convention were as excited and proud as everyone else.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am being a Filipino, coming from a little village in Pangasinan. I am very, very excited rubbing elbows with all of these delegates from all over the country,” said Fely Quitevis, delegate and chairman of the Nye County (Nevada) Republican Central Committee.

Quitevis is the only Filipino-American delegate from the state of Nevada. But her opinion about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter’s pregnancy is as clear as the bright lights in Las Vegas.

“There’s nothing wrong about that. That happens sometimes to some families. I’m really, really, really proud of her as a pro-life. She is not denying the fact. If it happened to some other people, probably they will have an abortion. But I’m so glad that she is a pro-life, and that’s the right thing to do. I’m a pro-life myself,” she said.

Thirty-three-year old Clare Climico Venegas is a guest delegate from California, and a registered Democrat-turned-Republican.

She says much of the Republican party’s values really resonate with her as a Filipina. And having Palin in the ticket is a great bonus.

“I look at the Philippines and I look at how many women are in leadership and obviously at the head of government. To see this happens…and if she wins, it will be amazing for Americans and Republicans,” said Venegas, who is also executive director of Lincoln Club of Orange County, California.

Guest delegates cannot nominate but are allowed to attend the convention.

Mel Alfarero is also a guest delegate from California. This is his fourth convention and says he never felt more inspired. Palin, he says, is the right running mate for McCain.

“Her nomination is historic. Very smart woman, strong character and she represents the women of this country,” Alfarero said.

One exciting detail: Rachael Lampa, who performed Tuesday night at the convention, is a Filipino-American. Contemporary Christian music magazine named her as the number one new female artist.

And as expected, it was President George Bush and Democrat-turned-independent Senator Joe Lieberman who fired up this convention Tuesday night.

These delegates, including Filipino-Americans, got a boost from a night full of speakers who reminded them that it’s their party that chose a female vice presidential candidate. And that energy came through, as expected, when Governor Palin went on the convention stage Wednesday evening.

—

Of course, it didn’t take me long to find an article about the other side:

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Fil-Ams important to Obama campaign–supporter
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 15:33:00 09/08/2008

MANILA, Philippines — The estimated four million Filipino-Americans are important to Democratic Party presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama because they are concentrated in the so-called swing states of Florida,
California, and Nevada, a supporter told INQUIRER.net Monday.

In an interview with Georgia McCauley, chairperson of the Democrats Abroad-Philippines who just returned to Manila after attending as a delegate to the Democratic
National Convention in Denver last week, thus called on all Filipino-Americans to vote for Obama.

Obama, McCauley said, understood the needs of Filipino-Americans in issues concerning immigration and Filipino veterans of World War II.

She pointed out that Obama, from Hawaii (which has a big Filipino-American population, particularly Ilocano) and who has spent a great deal of time in Indonesia, “has strong interest and understanding” of the concerns of Filipinos and Southeast Asians.

In Hawaii, McCauley said, Fil-Am Democratic members and volunteers “have been the backbone of our outreach campaign” — phone-banking, bringing food, and getting things done.

Asked about specific foreign policy toward the Philippines that might change with Obama as US President, McCauley said that while no specific policy initiative toward the country might be expected now when the campaign was still ongoing, an Obama presidency would expand foreign aid.

McCauley said Obama was for international support and coordination. And given that the Asian Development Bank is headquartered here, she said an Obama presidency should bode well for both the ADB and the Philippines.

McCauley has known Obama’s mother in Hawaii for more than 25 years.

And she vouched for the candidate’s being a “low-key, calm, and peaceful” father who “loves his girls.”

Asked why she thought Obama was so popular among Filipinos closely monitoring the US elections, McCauley said Filipinos loved him for being “positive, upbeat, and simple.”

“They are surprised and excited that this man who is not wealthy has taken on the most important leadership role in the world, a presidency that is transcending race. And islanders, the Filipinos in particular, understand that,” she said.

Asked how the choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party is going to affect the race, McCauley said statistics showed that vice presidents were not a deciding factor among the voters.

Some opinion makers said that Palin was taking some Democratic votes.

“I don’t find that she has depth of experience I am comfortable with. I would be surprised if the voters are comfortable with it too. Her policies and positions are diametrically opposed to the Democratic Party’s. [Palin as vice presidential candidate] is not something that we’re worried about,” McCauley said.

McCauley, who is asking the estimated 200,000 Americans in the Philippines to vote for Obama, also requested them to register for overseas voting at the www.votefromabroad.org.

She said the time it would take between the request for the ballot and the receipt of the ballot would be a short two weeks so she urged them to do so right away before the October 1 deadline.

Asked about Obama’s own lack of experience in governance, McCauley said: “I think they’re extremely misinformed. The experience a person gets is over a lifetime. [Obama] has been a community organizer who was able to register 100,000 voters.”

Palin has criticized Obama precisely for this. She said that while she might have been a mayor of a small town, she was some sort of a community organizer, but with responsibilities.

McCauley countered and said that the best gauge of experience would be “judgment, ability, and strength of character.” She said Obama was able to exercise these when he came out against the war on Iraq.

“What is more important than saving lives?” she asked, noting not only the sacrifice of Americans for Filipino-American lives, but those of Iraqis whose lives were either taken or disrupted over “slim evidence” that the country had weapons of mass destruction.

“The judgment factor supersedes all the other qualifications,” she stressed.

McCauley said Obama’s choice for vice president, Senator Joseph Biden, was another proof of his good judgment.

Biden, she said, was not only experienced in foreign policy, but was also in touch with small communities and everyday folks’ needs like “how life shifts depending on whether jobs or tax benefits are available.”

“Biden is an excellent complement to Obama. They make a superb team,” she said.

Early on in his career as state legislator, Obama, according to McCauley, has been point man for getting laws passed.

“He’s the one we go to get things done across party lines,” she said, quoting another Illinois state legislator. She called the inexperience label “an illusion and some fiction.”

McCauley also pointed to Obama’s experience working to better the status of low-income women and their families by improving the tax laws, and amending discriminatory death penalty laws.

Asked if the United States was ready for a black president, McCauley said Americans were “absolutely ready for a competent president.”

“We should quit wasting time on race and gender and focus on leadership. Race and gender don’t do anything to help anybody. We need to have competent leaders who have a vision, can engage people, can work together with people to make meaningful change,” she said.

She conceded that the Democratic Party would not be able to engage everyone.

“If they are not comfortable with [Barack being black], then that’s their problem. We need to move forward…We can’t stop because race and gender. That’s not how to make progress as a human race,” she said.

—

I’m feeling that there will be more articles such as the ones above as we get closer to Election Day.  When something interesting comes online I’ll pass them on to you all.  And I don’t have to tell you to please be informed and VOTE this year, no matter where you are on the political compass.

One thing I will say though: There was an Obama booth at FPAC yesterday.

apl’s BEBOT: FRONTPAGE OF LA TIMES

Thanks to Ryan Rubianes for the heads-up!

Anyway, the article appeared in the Column One section of today’s front page, which is usually geared towards the minorities, ethnicities, and smaller stories of Los Angeles.

Filipinos’ hip-hop anthem

Allan Pineda of the Black Eyed Peas honored his homeland with a rap in Tagalog. ‘Bebot’ has become a surprise phenomenon.
By David Pierson, Times Staff Writer
November 22, 2006

Hey, man, all of you listen

to me Here comes the real Filipino

Came from the barrio — Sapang Bato

Went to L.A. and labored

In order to help my mother

Because life is so hard

But the disposition’s still bright.

—

SO begins the story of Allan Pineda, a member of the hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas, who two years ago wrote a song about his journey from a poverty-stricken district in the Philippines to Los Angeles’ Atwater Village.

The lyrics were personal, written entirely in Tagalog, the dominant language of the Philippines. Pineda wanted to recount his experience as a Filipino American but wasn’t sure how much the song would resonate with others — especially the Black Eyed Peas’ teenage fan base.

The song, “Bebot” (Tagalog slang for “hot chick”), appeared on the Black Eyed Peas’ multiplatinum-selling album, “Monkey Business,” released in June 2005. The album contained several chart-toppers, but “Bebot” — as Pineda expected — wasn’t one of them.

But over the last year, “Bebot” has become a phenomenon in ways Pineda, 31, said he could never have imagined.

The musical story of his immigrant experience has become an unlikely rallying cry in California’s Filipino American community.

With its choppy beat and shouting chorus of “Filipino! Filipino!,” the song became a showstopper at weddings and birthday parties. Teenagers — many of whom don’t even speak Tagalog — choreographed dance routines to it.

But it was the lyrics, not the beat, that had lasting resonance.

The Filipino American community is famous for putting its cultural identity behind assimilation. Though they’re the second-largest Asian group in California behind the Chinese, they have never established set “Filipino” neighborhoods — the equivalent of Monterey Park for Chinese Americans or Little Saigon for Vietnamese Americans. There is a historic Filipinotown west of downtown L.A., but the U.S. census found that less than 15% of its residents are actually Filipino.

Many Filipinos arrive in the United States speaking English, immediately making assimilation easier.

“Part of the problem is we blend in so well,” said Winston Emano, an executive at an L.A.-based public relations firm and a community activist. “We have a rapid rate of assimilation. Put a Filipino in Antarctica, and in one month they’ll be one with the penguins.”

For Emano and others, “Bebot” is a vibrant reminder of their cultural past, an easy-to-digest history of their shared experience.

“It’s a cultural bridge,” Emano said. “Kids say, ‘Hey, he’s talking in my parents’ language.’ “

Pineda was surprised by the passions “Bebot” stirred. So, early this year, he financed two music videos for the song.

The first paid homage to Stockton’s Little Manila, which was the largest Filipino community outside the Philippines in the 1930s and ’40s. It showed how migrant workers toiled to provide money for their families back home and offered a glimpse of the racism early immigrants encountered.

The second video showed Pineda’s early days hanging out in L.A. with his bandmates and mostly Filipino American friends.

The videos were big hits among Filipinos, who plastered Web links to them on MySpace and YouTube.

But Pineda now had a bigger goal. Though his record label felt the videos had limited prospects because they were sung in Tagalog, he hoped to prove the label wrong. He wanted the videos to air on MTV and VH1.

“There’s still a struggle,” Pineda said. “We just got to keep trying.”

When eating, we use our hands

What we eat, chicken adobo

The balut being sold at the

corner

Share the glass already

My friend, let’s start drinking.

PINEDA grew up in a slum outside Angeles City on the island of Luzon. His mother was Filipino. He never met his father, who was an American in the U.S. Air Force, Pineda said.

His first connection to the U.S. came when a charity group found him an American sponsor, who started sending him the equivalent of 7 cents a day to help pay for food. Pineda had problems with his eyes, so his sponsor — a lawyer named Joe Ben Hudgens — wanted to adopt him so he could receive better medical care in the U.S.

His mother agreed, and after seven years of waiting, he arrived to live with Hudgens, a deputy Los Angeles County counsel. It was 1989; Pineda was 14.

Hudgens was living in the Wilshire district at the time but decided to look for a neighborhood where there were mostly Filipinos. The best he could find was a block in Atwater Village, a diverse section of northeast L.A. that included some Filipinos.

“I didn’t want him to be lonely. I suppose I was thinking, ‘Let the neighborhood help raise him like they do in the Philippines,’ ” said Hudgens, now 69.

Hudgens, a single parent who spent long hours at work, encouraged Pineda to have friends over any time. Soon, they were practicing rap and dancing.

“I still don’t quite know how all this happened,” Hudgens said of Pineda’s fame. “He has a performer’s instinct. He loves to entertain.”

Pineda attended John Marshall High School, which, like the surrounding neighborhood, was a mix of cultures. Despite the cultural shift, he was thrilled to be in America. By 16, he was immersing himself in the local hip-hop scene. He went to parties at homes and nightclubs across Southern California, where he made connections that led to the formation of the Black Eyed Peas. The group rose to prominence in the late 1990s with an upbeat brand of rap and stunning dance moves. Their multiculturalism — Filipino, Latino and black members — set them apart.

But Pineda said that despite the success, he still felt a yearning to write and sing about his culture.

He wanted to pen a song about his roots that people could dance to. It took him about two days in the band’s sound studio in Atwater Village. Bandmate Will.I.Am, the group’s producer, came up with the beats and started Pineda on his way by chanting “bebot, bebot, bebot” in the cadence familiar to fans today.

He struggled with the right words, so he called a friend’s mother for translations.

“It was a hard task,” Pineda said. “I’d never written a rap in Tagalog before. It’s hard to rhyme.”

The song is filled with cultural references central to Filipino American life: They celebrate by sharing beer, using their hands to eat the nation’s signature dish (chicken adobo) and swallowing balut, fermented duck eggs still in their shell.

“Every Filipino can relate,” Pineda said.

In the modern video, the band arrives at a party riding a Jeepney, the ubiquitous mini-bus seen in the Philippines. An opening scene shows a doting Filipino mother asking one of Pineda’s bandmates if he wants chicken adobo.

The historic video resonated in other ways. Set in 1936, it begins with Pineda working in a Stockton asparagus field. Pineda said he wasn’t aware of Stockton’s history until he learned about it from the videos’ director, Patricio Ginelsa.

“I was overwhelmed,” Pineda said. “I could relate. They were farmers doing the same thing they do in the Philippines. And their main objective was sending money back home too.”

The Little Manila Foundation has been trying for years to generate interest in preserving the Rizal Social Club and other structures on the decaying Stockton street that once was filled with Filipino farmworkers.

Dillion Delvo, the group’s president, credits the video for a recent surge of interest in his district and efforts to preserve it.

“It’s very powerful for kids to see images of people who look like us from the past,” added Emano. “It opens up an entirely new world to them, one that they certainly can’t find in their history books in school. And it’s come from arguably one of the world’s most successful pop bands.”

Observe all the beautiful girls

Your beauty really drives me

crazy

The sweetness that is never

tiresome

You’re the only one I want to be

with.

UNTIL the song was released last year, the word “bebot” was something of a relic, even in the Filipino American community. Both the modern and the historic videos are filled with beautiful Filipino women dancing.

But as the song became a community touchstone, it also set off a backlash.

Some Filipino women objected to the portrayal of women in the modern video — both the sexy dancing “bebots” and the nagging mother.

Pineda said the portrayal of women in the video is a loving one, based on his memories of growing up.

“That’s the trait right there,” he said. “Go to a Filipino household and the mom is always trying to feed you. They’re always trying to advise you.”

Liza Marie S. Erpelo, 33, a language arts professor in Northern California, said it felt stereotypical to her.

“The mother was doing all this screaming,” Erpelo said. “I giggled at first; then I thought, ‘Why am I laughing?’ “

One of Erpelo’s classes at Skyline College in San Bruno deals with Filipino stereotypes and the cultural isolation many Filipinos feel here. She is now using “Bebot” in her class, prompting heated discussions about the value of Pineda’s song as a rallying cry for the Filipino community.

“What merit does that song have, saying, ‘Hot chick, hot chick’?” she asked.

Whatever the effect, the videos’ sexy look definitely had an MTV flavor. And Pineda and director Ginelsa felt the videos had a shot at both MTV and VH1 despite the fact they were sung in Tagalog.

The “Bebot” team got excited when MTV sent a correspondent to do a segment on the making of the videos.

But the report ran only on MTV Chi, a year-old niche channel aimed at Chinese Americans.

By the fall, Pineda was more sanguine. He was pleased the song was a hit in Asia. He also was touched by the way “Bebot” was embraced by the Filipino community.

“I hoped it would be played in the States, but it is more popular in Asia, which I appreciate,” he said. “The main purpose was to get this out to the Filipino community. People don’t realize there’s a huge one in America.”

You’re Filipino — shout it out

— c’mon

If you’re beautiful — shout it out

— c’mon

If your life is valuable — c’mon

Thank you for your support.

ON a recent Saturday night at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A., Pineda accepted the Role Model Award from the Filipino American Library during a formal gala attended by hundreds who dined on chicken adobo made specially by the hotel kitchen.

Pineda was introduced by fellow Filipino entertainer Tia Carrere, who said, “His story is the American dream.”

“Bebot” began blaring from the P.A. system and the guests jumped to their feet to cheer as the famously fashionable Pineda bounced to the stage in a navy blue suit, pink tie and glossy white sneakers.

After a few words of thanks in Tagalog, Pineda dedicated the award to his Filipino mother and adoptive father, both of whom beamed from the audience.

“I want to thank the Filipino community for embracing me as a Filipino artist in this game,” he said. “I represent Filipinos every day, every second. I’m a proud Filipino.”

Pineda shimmied and leaped offstage as once again “Bebot” filled the room.

david.pierson@latimes.com

Filipino American History Skit Citations

As said in today’s meeting, here are links to the websites I researched when writing the skit. I’ll elaborate more on them when I have time.

Scene 1
Scene 2 a
Scene 2 b
Scene 3
Scene 4 a
Scene 4 b
Scene 5 a
Scene 5 b
Scene 6
Scene 7

The "Bebot" open letter

All TP members should have received this copy of the letter through email, but I’ll post it to the blog for everyone to see.

This letter was written to “Bebot” director Patricio Ginelsa, apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas, and Xylophone Films in response to the 2 videos. Please read this before going to Thursday’s meeting.

—

To Apl.de.Ap, Patricio Ginelsa/KidHeroes, and Xylophone Films:

We, the undersigned, would like to register our deep disappointment at the portrayal of Filipinas and other women in the new music videos for the Black Eyed Peas’ song, “Bebot.” We want to make it clear that we appreciate your efforts to bring Filipina/o Americans into the mainstream and applaud your support of the Little Manila of Stockton. However, as Filipina/o and Filipina/o American artists, academics, and community activists, we are utterly dismayed by the portrayal of hypersexualized Filipina “hoochie-mama” dancers, specifically in the Generation 2 version, the type of representation of women so unfortunately prevalent in today’s hip-hop and rap music videos. The depiction of the 1930s “dime dancers” was also cast in an unproblematized light, as these women seem to exist solely for the
sexual pleasure of the manongs.

In general, we value Apl.de.Ap’s willingness to be so openly and richly Filipino, especially when there are other Filipina/o Americans in positions of visibility who do not do the same, and we appreciate the work that he has done with the folks at Xylophone Films; we like their previous video for “The Apl Song,” and we even like the fact that the Generation 1 version of “Bebot” attempts to provide a “history lesson” about some Filipino men in the 1930s. However, the Generation 2 version truly misses the mark on accurate Filipina/o representation, for the following reasons:

1) The video uses three very limited stereotypes of Filipina women: the virgin, the whore, and the shrill mother. We find a double standard in the depiction of the virgin and whore figures, both of which are highly sexualized. Amidst the crowd of midriff-baring, skinny, light-skinned, peroxided Pinays ­ some practically falling out of their halter tops ­ there is the little sister played by Jasmine Trias, from whom big brother Apl is constantly fending off Pinoy “playas.” The overprotectiveness is strange considering his idealization of the bebot or “hot chick.” The mother character was also particularly troublesome, but for very different reasons. She seems to play a dehumanized figure, the perpetual foreigner with her exaggerated accent, but on top of that, she is robbed of her femininity in her embarrassingly indelicate treatment of her son and his friends. She is not like a tough or strong mother, but almost like a coarse asexual mother, and it is telling that she is the only female character in the video with a full figure.

2) We feel that these problematic female representations might have to do with the use of the word “Bebot.” We are of course not advocating that Apl change the title of his song, yet we are confused about why a song that has to do with pride in his ethnic/national identity would be titled “Bebot,” a word that suggests male ownership of the sexualized woman ­ the “hot chick.” What does Filipino pride have to do with bebots? The song seems to be about immigrant experience yet the chorus says “ikaw ang aking bebot” (you are my hot chick). It is actually very disturbing that one’s ethnic/national identity is determined by one’s ownership of women. This system not only turns women into mere symbols but it also excludes women from feeling the same kind of ethnic/national identity. It does not bring down just
Filipinas; it brings down all women.

3) Given the unfortunate connection made in this video between Filipino pride and the sexualized female body both lyrically and visually, we can’t help but conclude that the video was created strictly for a heterosexual man’s pleasure. This straight, masculinist perspective is the link that we find between the Generation 1 and Generation 2 videos. The fact that the Pinoy men are surrounded by “hot chicks” both then and now makes this link plain. Yet such a portrayal not only obscures the “real” message about the Little Manila Foundation; it also reduces Pinoy men’s hopes, dreams, and motivations to a single-minded pursuit of sex.

We do understand that Filipino America faces a persistent problem of invisibility in this country. Moreover, as the song is all in Tagalog (a fact that we love, by the way), you face an uphill battle in getting the song and music video(s) into mainstream circulation. However, remedying the invisibility of Filipina/os in the United States should not come at the cost of the dignity and self-respect of at least half the population of Filipino America. Before deciding to write this letter, we felt an incredible amount of ambivalence about speaking out on this issue because, on the one hand, we recognized that this song and video are a milestone for Filipina/os in
mainstream media and American pop culture, but on the other hand, we were deeply disturbed by the images of women the video propagates.

In the end we decided that we could not remain silent while seeing image after image of Pinays portrayed as hypersexual beings or as shrill, dehumanized, asexual mother-figures who embarrass their children with their overblown accents and coarseness. The Filipino American community is made up of women with Filipino pride as well, yet there is little room in these videos for us to share this voice and this commitment; instead, the message we get is that we are expected to stand aside and allow ourselves to be exploited for our sexuality while the men go about making their nationalist statements.

While this may sound quite harsh, we believe it is necessary to point out that such depictions make it seem as if you are selling out Filipina women for the sake of gaining mainstream popularity within the United States. Given the already horrific representations of Filipinas all over the world as willing prostitutes, exotic dancers, or domestic servants who are available for sex with their employers, the representation of Pinays in these particular videos can only feed into such stereotypes. We also find it puzzling, given your apparent commitment to preserving the history and dignity of Filipina/os in the United States, because we assume that you also consider such stereotypes offensive to Filipino men as well as women.

Again, we want to reiterate our appreciation for the positive aspects of these videos ­ the history lesson of the 1936 version, the commitment to community, and the effort to foster a larger awareness of Filipino America in the mainstream ­ but we ask for your honest attempt to offer more full-spectrum representations of both Filipino men and Filipina women, now and in the future. We would not be writing this letter to you if we did not believe you could make it happen.

Respectfully,

Lucy Burns
Assistant Professor
Asian American Studies / World Arts and Cultures, UCLA

Fritzie De Mata
Independent scholar

Diana Halog
Undergraduate
UC Berkeley

Veronica Montes
Writer

Gladys Nubla
Doctoral student
English, UC Berkeley

Barbara Jane Reyes
Poet and author

Joanne L. Rondilla
Doctoral candidate
Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

Rolando B. Tolentino
Visiting Fellow, National University of Singapore
Associate Professor, University of the Philippines Film Institute

Benito Vergara
Asian American Studies / Anthropology, San Francisco State University

—

Go here to see reactions from Patricio’s Myspace blog.

Here is an article that talks about some of Patricio’s experiences while making the video.

—

Don’t forget, Thursday’s meeting is in ACC 205, not Tommy’s Place.

filipino food - overlooked by the rest of the world

Ashley told me about this recent article in the Honolulu Advertiser entitled “Lost in Translation.” No, it’s not about the movie, but rather about why Filipino cuisine has remained almost exclusively within the Filipino community. (Example: Go to the Max’s in Glendale and see how many non-Filipinos eat there daily).

An excerpt from the article (the rest can be seen here):

–

…As a Filipino who loves the food of his culture, Flores has argued for years that it’s time for Filipino food to break out. But as a businessman, he’s concluded that the only place you can be successful with a Filipino restaurant is in a neighborhood where many Filipinos live. A chain called Jolly Bee (um, that’s not how you spell it) has done well in Filipino communities in California, for example. (not necessarily — look at the abstract of this 2002 LA Times article here.)

“But you don’t see a Filipino restaurant in Kailua. You don’t see one in Hawai’i Kai,” he said. “You see Filipinos eating in Chinese restaurants, but you don’t see Chinese eating in Filipino restaurants. It’s just how it is.”

NO UPSCALE ATTENTION

Nor has Filipino food made it into the high-end mainstream, where deconstructed, dandied-up versions of local dishes enter the $20-a-plate circle.

If there’s anyone on O’ahu who could give Filipino cuisine a haute makeover, it’s Elmer Guzman, the Maui-born Filipino chef trained by Emeril Lagasse and Sam Choy. But when Guzman went out on his own last year, he opened The Poke Stop, a take-out place focused on seafood.

“I thought about it and thought about it,” he said of the high-end Filipino restaurant idea. “I knew it wasn’t going to work. Maybe in San Francisco; not in Hawai’i.” Given the already narrow audience for big-ticket dining, and the general lack of understanding of Filipino food, “you’d be taking a big chance.” This despite the fact that many, many of the line cooks in top restaurants are of Filipino descent, he said.

Guzman also was concerned about communicating the subtleties of his culture’s “soul food.” On the surface, many Filipino entrees have a sameness: they begin with onion and garlic, they’re simmered or boiled, they feature a lot of vegetables, they’re flavored with different meats or seafoods, plus dried shrimp or fish sauce. To those who know the difference between pinakbet and sari-sari, both vegetable stews, the nuances are obvious, but they’re likely lost on the rest of the audience, he said.

Guzman featured a few Filipino-style dishes when he was chef at Sam Choy’s Diamond Head Grill — adobo leg of duck with crispy skin, for example. But, he said, “the thing about it was, visually, you don’t have the wow. You might have the flavor, but not the wow appearance. People eat with their eyes.” There’s also the fact that the minute patis — the fish sauce that’s the Filipino cooking equivalent of shoyu in Japanese cuisine — hits the heat, it sends out a powerful scent, one that some diners might not appreciate.

Guzman’s comments hint at another point that may explain why Filipino food has not spread: Many entrepreneurial immigrants have been willing to doctor the foods of their home, toning down potent flavors and eliminating unfamiliar ingredients, to make the food acceptable to a Western audience. But, said Stephanie Castillo, a filmmaker and lover of her mom’s Filipino cooking, “I don’t think Filipinos thought of their food as something to be marketed….”

the official bebot music videos

Take a look at the official video of the song “Bebot” by the Black Eyed Peas. It was directed by TP alum Patricio Ginelsa.

There are two versions of the video: Generation 1 (1936) and Generation 2 (present day).

Generation 1:

Generation 2:

Other related videos:

Follow the link to the “Bebot in Little Manila” mini documentary.

The teaser:

Article links:
MTV article
Stockton Record article
Inq7 article (talking about how BEP got the Philippine Presidential Medal of Merit)

an award (plus other stuff)

I went to SIPA’s open house merienda reception today, and I am pleased to announce that TP received this:

Thanks to everyone that contributed to our volunteer work w/ SIPA; we plan to continue doing community service w/ them. Today they unveiled their new Community Arts & Technology Center at the TGYCC and it looks really nice. The kids love it.

–

In other news, I met TP alum Elson Trinidad (Class of 1995) at the open house. He has a website here detailing his musical efforts.

He also says to look out for his fellow TP alum & classmate Alden Villaverde in the recent film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. His IMDB page is here.

Here’s a picture of Villaverde from the East/West Players web site:

cavite — a review

For a film that had absolutely no budget, Cavite was pretty good. It had its flaws, but overall it was a film worth watching.

The protagonist, Adam (Ian Gamazon) is a docks security officer in San Diego. He seemed to be wasting his life away. Then he gets a call from his mom saying that his father died, so he goes to the Philippines to attend his funeral. When he gets to NAIA in Manila, his mom never picks him up. Then a cell phone rings. Someone slipped one in his bag. Adam answers it, and learns that Muslim extremist terrorists (yes, the Abu Sayyaf) have kidnapped his mom and sister and will kill them unless he follows their orders. And so the film goes….

For those who have never seen the slums of the Philippines, this is an eye-opener, because you get to see the grim reality of the poverty in our homeland. The majority of the film was shot in the squatter towns in Cavite. You see all the trash strewn about, all the little kids with tattered clothes, etc. The Muslim terrorist makes Adam, the Filipino-American, go through these squatter towns, telling him not to be afraid, that these squatters are his countrymen. I can’t really describe to you how bad these places are. You just have to see it for yourself. Along with making Adam do more dangerous errands for his cause, he also forces him to experience the heritage he for the most part doesn’t know. I really liked how the directors blended the terrorism/Filipino heritage topics together in this film. (As for how authentic they presented the Muslim situation in the Philippines, well, I have to read up on those massacres they talked about in the movie).

The film goes on at a brisk pace, taking Adam around Cavite; the market, the bank, houses, cockfighting arenas, sari-sari stands….it really only stops when Adam stops to take a breath or argues with the terrorist over the phone. It’s like we’re there with him and we have no choice but to go forward with him. The film goes like this until its climax.

The native music used in the film was pretty good; it lent itself well to the increasing tension towards the end, although it got a little annoying sometimes (they kept reusing some of the music).

The acting….well, as the production story goes, the film was supposed to have a female lead, but the two directors (Gamazon and Dela Llana) couldn’t get anyone to go with them to the Philippines, to the slums, with no bodyguards or anything of that sort. So they rewrote the script and Gamazon reluctantly became the male lead. And his acting inexperience showed (like when he gets angry and stuff).

I liked the voice of the uncredited Muslim terrorist though. Direct and very threatening (well, most of the time — he sang Mr. Suave at a part of the film). It was better that we never saw him at all in the film.

So to me, the best part of the film was the location and the resourcefulness of the directors to pull off a thriller such as this with no budget (they sold their cameras on Ebay after they were done with them to recoup costs). The acting from the main lead could have been better and detracted a bit from the overall film; nevertheless, this is a film worth watching.

Other views:

Positive: LA Times
Negative: The AV Club

Thanks to Amanda, Derrick, Diane, Andrew, Rachelle, and Loraine for coming out and watching the film with me.

be aware

this article is on the april issue of amb — last one…

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On Friday, March 31, 2006 (six days after PACN), I, along with Rodney, Mark, Ashley, and Cristina, went to this event in the Glendale Central Library called “2006 Filipino American Centennial Celebration: A Treasured Past, A Future Enriched.” This was commemorating the first significant wave of Filipino migration to the United States.

The Glendale Central Library’s auditorium could probably fit around 200-300 people. But only 100 showed up, I think. During the event, a film was shown called “Filipino Americans: Discovering Their Past for the Future.” (Some of you may have already seen this film through APASS last October.) After the film, several people commented about how good the film is and how they did not know anything about Filipino-American history until they watched this film.

This got me thinking….How many of you actually learned anything about Filipino / Filipino-American history during your academic career? Did any of your classes mention it at all? Other than the cultural reports I did in grade school / high school and a brief mention of the Philippine-American War in my high-school Western Civilization class (the textbook called it the Philippine Insurrection – that’s not the way to call it anymore), I was never taught anything else about Filipino / Filipino-American history through school.

So how do people become aware of our history and our heritage? Some learn through their families. Perhaps others are lucky enough to have Filipino clubs in high school that make them aware. Perhaps some learn through self-study. But others don’t have these resources. That’s why I was surprised when, at the event, this man (late 20s – early 30s??) came up to comment on the film and the discussion panel and said that he really didn’t know anything about Filipino-American history—until now.

So I encourage you all to be aware. Be aware of Filipino/Filipino-American history so you could tell others about it. Be aware so that you can tell your future children about it. Not a lot of people know about the Filipino-American’s struggle to make a living here in America and all the racism / bad policies they had to deal with. They deserve to know.

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…and so, I end another year of college. Being Community/Culture Chair for this year opened my eyes to the issues surrounding the Filipino-American community in Los Angeles and Filipino-American history in general. I hope that you found this column, the blog, the cultural corner, etc. to be useful in some way.

Thank you all for making this year in TP as special as it is. Thanks for all the memories, from the first meeting to the upcoming formal. Thanks for making SIPA Halloween such a tremendous success. Thanks for making PACN this year as awesome as it was.

Special thanks go to my fellow eboard members; we’ve gone through a lot, and it has been a privilege working with you all. Special special thanks go to El Presidente, Lisa; thank you for your unrivaled leadership of this organization and for helping me out when I needed it.

I wish all the seniors the best and good luck on your future endeavors. To think that I will be in your position in a year….time indeed flies way too fast.

philippines 2005 year in review

ok, so i put a new template in (made by lilia ahner; from blogger templates); i was getting tired of the old one.

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so looking back at the year 2005, this has been one of the more interesting non-major election years the philippines has seen.

it was a crazy year politically, as always. this year arguably saw the greatest threat to arroyo’s administration yet. the threat started at around june-july (the birth of this blog) with accusations backed by (illegal?) wiretapped conversations that pres. arroyo rigged last year’s presidential elections that pitted her against fernando poe jr. (whose 1-year death anniversary just passed a week or two ago). massive rallies were staged, many people within her administration resigned, and numerous impeachment complaints were levied against her; yet somehow, arroyo remains president today.

today the official government website posted a list of arroyo’s 2005 accomplishments (you can download the .doc file here). of course, her critics will dismiss most if not all of this.

other notable news events in the year 2005 include the avian flu scare early in the year, the bagong diwa prison uprising in taguig, metro manila in march (which led to the deaths of several top abu sayyaf (terrorist group) leaders), the implementation of the extended value-added tax law, arroyo forming a consultative commission to look into changing the 1987 constitution (charter change), and the straining of philippine-u.s. relations due to rape accusations of a 22-yr. filipina against 6 u.s. servicemen in subic late in the year.

a decent top stories review from the manila standard today can be found here.

in terms of the economy and business, the philippines, like the rest of the world, had to deal with oil prices surging to unprecedented levels this year. once again, the overseas filipino workers save the day for the philippine economy; remittances are now at $8.8 billion, up 27.1% from $6.9 billion in 2004. the philippine peso is now at around 53 to the dollar, a 5.7% gain from the beginning of the year. it wasn’t all good though; high inflation and lower than expected farm output and electronic exports temper the good news a bit….

a good rp business year in review can be found here.

in terms of culture and entertainment, philippine arts and entertainment are being directed even more by young people. a good summary of what happened this year can be found here.

interesting fact: in metro manila, the major shopping malls (megamall, robinsons, greenbelt, and the like) report a 12% increase in sales; supposedly, most of the items sold were of better than before.

in the field of sports, filipinos everywhere closely followed the exploits of boxing star manny pacquiao, who has elevated himself to megastar, “national hero” status. although he lost to erik morales earlier this year, he is set to take him on again early 2006. also, the philippines won a staggering amount of gold medals in this year’s southeast asian games which they hosted.

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within the filipino-american community, it’s hard to get a year in review together from what i can get from the web, but from my own observations here in l.a., it was a good year. even more filipino-oriented establishments are popping up in areas where filipinos are prominent. the philippine television station gma have launched their international station, gma pinoytv, in l.a. this year (as well as san francisco) to go along with what abs-cbn already has here in tfc.
politician ruby de vera finished third place for councilmember of district 14 in los angeles (mayor villaraigosa’s old position in the eagle rock/glassell park area). all the fil-am community events i went to this year (consulate family day, fpac, veteran’s day parade, and numerous sipa events) went smoothly and have been great successes.

and that’s 2005 in a nutshell.

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so thanks to everyone who has read this blog since its inception. since it’s the end of the year, if any of you have any suggestions as to how to improve this blog, what i should cover more (or less), etc., please let me know. i haven’t received any outside contributions yet to this blog, so if you have something to say, let me know too….

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here’s to wishing everyone in troy phi a happy new year.
may 2006 be the greatest year of our lives.