yahhh we got a whole month suckaaasss



Fact for October 1
Question: Did you know who invented the flourescent light? Answer: AGAPITO FLORES invented the flourescent light in the early 1940's, thus the name FLUOR-RES-CENT. Source: Information adopted from Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) Instruction Kit 1992



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_American_History_Month

That's a strong people right there.


www.myspace.com/abenghorn
www.myspace.com/northernarcatl

give us more!

where is dawgeatah?


www.myspace.com/abenghorn
www.myspace.com/northernarcatl

there is a Philippine model because we were soo tough

http://www.manatarmsbooks.com/excerpt.html

*this keyboard at work keeps sticking*

y'alls insurgency. If you have to go out, that's the way to go out.

And then y'all got it back. Not alot of people can say they got back 'control' from the US.


www.myspace.com/abenghorn
www.myspace.com/northernarcatl

with the insurrection and People Power after Marcos

so spaniards could see if pilipinos were carrying weapons at formal occassions.

im tellin you we are a dope ass peoples

lol

but it is filipino/american history.

i don't remember which war it was (this is according to my uncle) but filipinos are the reason for the term "leather necks" for u.s. soldiers as well as the reason the .45 caliber bullet was developed.

so, the story goes, the bullets back then weren't "potent" enough, meaning the filipino soldiers could take a few slugs to the chest, and still get close enough to slash the u.s. soldiers' necks with machetes. as a result, the soldiers started wearing thick leather straps on their necks and upgraded to .45 cal bullets. also, during this time the term "boondocks" was coined. when u.s. soldiers asked natives where filipino rebels and soldiers were hiding, the natives replied "bundoks", the tagalog term for mountain. hence, the american soldiers mispronounced it and used it as the term for rural or back water.

oh, and also, this:

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/clo/435960923.html

I'll have to remember that to drop as a random fact on someone one of these days lol

I didn't believe him at first.

"Don't make me go Obama Binladen on yo ass!"-Aunt Nessa

..he stole the idea from a blackman!

October and May.

that's what we get for being the docile lil brown brothers...


if ya'll played nice you would have gotten 2 months too...

instead of ya'lls short ass month


LOL

then just how good is that?

Best to have that ol' Moro spirit and TAKE what's rightfully yours.

is was brought back by GIs after WW2.

if anyone else cares: http://playahata.com/hatablog/?p=2227

i'm always fascinated by an African presence anywhere.

We are EVERYWHERE! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_diaspora

I've met some Filipinos who've told me that African history, as it relates to Filipino history, is taught in Filipino schools. Or at least in the schools they attended.
There are many more informative pieces on the web. No, this post is not about taking away from the celebration of Filipino history (i love y'all) I merely want to illustrate that when celebrating the history of any ethnic group one must acknowledge all peoples contained within it.

well a mixture of Pan theistic naturists

and muslims lol

throw some vinegar and soy sauce in a pot with chicken garlic and bay leaf

boil


done

:(

i know the recipe...just dont wanna cook it

the kapampangan (food snobs of the philippines and where my dad's side is from) way:
-saute garlic, 2 tbsps. vinegar, and cracked pepper until it's aromatic
-add chicken and cover. let simmer on low-medium heat until cooked and juices fill almost half the pot.
-in another pan - saute another 2 tbsps. vinegar, cracked pepper, garlic w/ 1 chopped onion and 2tbsps. soy sauce
-add that mix to the original pot and simmer w/ bay leaf.
-for added texture deep fry some potatoes (i like using yukons) and serve over rice.

food snobs is correct. both my mother and father are from there, and it's so evident at our family get togethers.

my dad is the cook of the house. she doesn't like to cook as much as he does and would rather avoid arguments with him on how things are done. lol.

>my dad is the cook of the house.

http://www.da.gov.ph/updates/waterless.html

will change the sushi game

pretty wild, and 100% natural.

lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage#Asian_and_Black

shut up koku lol

There was this cute looking Nigerian/Pinay lady. Me and the homie called her "Special Delivery".

she mustve been gorgeous

<--- "When times get hard I just pull out my card WITH THE SMILEY FACE! Invite him over to my place!"

http://www.rareformnyc.com
http://www.myspace.com/shinobishaw
http://www.last.fm/user/ShinoShaw/

.:D

I wish a muthaf**ka would........

yay


???eV???•..

even then

lol... i think its the same email that has been rolling round for years


still its new to them!

oh gawd.

cant wait, cept i got a bachelor party same night, hope they order it.

.

some one got you shook?

i hope

.:D

Fluorescent Lamp Inventor
Many Filipinos acknowledge Agapito Flores as the inventor of the fluorescent lamp, which is the most widely used source of lighting in the world today. The fluorescent lamp reportedly got its name from Flores. Written articles about Flores said he was born in Bantayan Island in Cebu. The fluorescent lamp, however, was not invented in a particular year. It was the product of 79 years of the development of the lighting method that began with the invention of the electric light bulb by Thomas Edison.

Among the other inventors who claimed credit for developing the fluorescent lamp were French physicist A. E. Becquerel (1867), Nikola Tesla, Albert Hall (1927), Mark Winsor and Edmund Germer. French inventor Andre Claude was recognized for developing the fluorescent tubular lighting systems. Yet, he was not officially recognized as the inventor of fluorescent lamp. It was reported that the General Electric and Westinghouse obtained Claude's patent rights and developed the fluorescent lamp that we know today.

According to Filipino scientists, fluorescent lamp was not named after Flores. The term fluorescence first cropped up as early as 1852 when English mathematician-physicist George Gabriel Stokes discovered a luminous material called "fluorspar", which he coined with "escence". The National Academy of Science and Technology also dismissed Flores being the inventor of fluorescent lamp as a myth. "No scientific report, no valid statement, no rigorous documents can be used to credit Flores for the discovery of the fluorescent lamp. We have tried to correct this misconception, but the media (for one) and our textbooks (for another) keep using the Flores example," a Filipino scientist wrote in her column at the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The fluorescent lamps were introduced into the U.S. market in 1938. Still, Filipinos recognize Agapito Flores as the inventor of the product that illuminated the world.

lol


you were supposed to keep that in the fam!

da fuck??

>
lmfao

by another flores: inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa120297.htm

heretofore, i am pronouncing flourescent "ploraissent".

i am also indebted to filipinos because two of them made me, yo. they f***in' MADE me.

>i am also indebted to filipinos because two of them made me,
>yo. they f***in' MADE me.

plus all that other crap they play on tfc

my mom always watches it ..I especially hate the theme song ( a song I know they made in miliseconds) *smh*


and how they gon exploit the underprivileged ppl for entertainment like that..

i went to l.a.'s festival of pilipino arts and culture last month
i looooove tinikling
_______________________________________________

http://loteriachicana.net
http://flickr.com/photos/cindylu

Like you just have a random conversation and suddenly, "Hey! They colonized us, too! It's a small world, man."

--Maurice

"then the americans came" "US TOO!!"

-LA times once said that filipinos are the largest asian american group in california
-my prof. said that filipinos were also sold into slavery in the country the same time as africans.
-there was a filipino man in the group of farm workers that founded LA
-for the strangest reason filipinos and black folks get along really well...must be cuz we deep fry everything

and don't forget about pilipino muslims! most people are familiar with light skinned, christian pilipinos. the muslim religion was embraced by pilipinos when it was first introduced. christianity was forced upon pilipinos.

i was originally looking for the "no filipinos or dogs allowed" sign but found the current avy instead.

>-my prof. said that filipinos were also sold into slavery in
>the country the same time as africans.
>-for the strangest reason filipinos and black folks get along
>really well...must be cuz we deep fry everything


AND!!!!! y'all play basketball.... pretty good I might add for a bunch of short people

AND!!!!! y'all dance...........

AAAAAAAND!!!! y'all DJ ........

most people are
>familiar with light skinned, christian pilipinos.


yeah about that...the filipinos I grew up with family friends,etc were usually darker (myself included) and for the longest time I didn't realize my own ppl were usually light ..I kept thinking they were Chinese :/

it's so sad that it took me so long to realize it

if you open it in pshop and reverse the color you get what it really looked like



----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

>-my prof. said that filipinos were also sold into slavery in
>the country the same time as africans.

>-for the strangest reason filipinos and black folks get along
>really well...must be cuz we deep fry everything

...I'm black and one of my tightest homeboys is Filipino. What's crazy is that he didn't know many black people before he joined the Army. Now we both hang with each other a lot. 'Mattafact he was the first cats to invite me to hang out with him and friends when I was new to the unit.







Avatar: Eye of the Beeholder

Check out summa dis artwork AND NEW PICS:
http://www.myspace.com/sirapexthegreatest

Uncle Wordy's Advice: Pay me! Dig?

and all the brothas want our ladies

she fixes my teeth while watchin GH and singin motown songs

I have Elvies on lock for this entire month!

Well, moreso... longanisa is pork-filled crack.

:/

--Maurice

i might even cook

In 1902, the U.S. Congress passed into law the Cooper Act which made it AGAINST THE LAW for Filipinos to:

a) own property
b) vote
c) operate a business
d) live in an "American" residential neighborhood
e) hold public office
f) become naturalized American citizens
Imagine that?! It was later repealed (the exact year is not known).




Source: Information adopted from the National Filipino-American Empowerment Conference 1997 brochure.

I luh y'all!

yes mr. rogers nelson is part Filipino...

lists of notable Filipino Americans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Filipino_Americans
http://www.filipinoweb.com/notable.html

http://happytreefriends.atomfilms.com/

(c) Bags

I never knew. I thought the celeb list went:

Rob Schneider
Vanessa Minnillo
Vanessa Hudgens
Tia Carrera
Lou Diamond Philips (?)
Buzz Belmondo

you get what I'm saying.

Prince takes us to a new level!

we have our claim on dance music history too dammit!

new york's godfather of salsoul!

smh

lol.

but no, i never acknowledge prince as being filipino.

then who do we got? Rob Schnider?

http://fuck-your.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/insightclopediabrown
http://www.myspace.com/dumhi
http://www.youtube.com/group/okayplayer
http://www.last.fm/user/DawgEatah
R.I.P. 3rd i

nm

I feel ashamed to like it because I know it became part of the Marcos propaganda movement. But damn, that's a lovely song. Almost sounds like a bossa nova tune.

Apparently (please confirm?), those are also the last three words of the national anthem.

i mean, you think the rest of us aren't going to keep this up for the next two months?

HOARD on these boards for years...

along with battousai and rawsouthpaw whose names did not fit above.

time for y'all to step.

glenn was fun on the boards

came from that thread...

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=18&topic_id=78965&mesg_id=78965&listing_type=search

to see that things change.

i got two swipes for y'all. the first is a press release about a nurse who was harassed at H & M in Chicago. the second is about an insult leveled at nurses trained in the philippines.

and i'm all out of anger.

Asian American Institute Represents Filipino American Nurse

Harassed by H&M Employee

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

September 24, 2007
Contact: Myron Dean Quon, Esq.
AAI Legal Director
Cell: 773-865-6742
Work: 773-271-0899
myron@aaichicago.org

(Chicago, IL) - Asian American Institute filed a discrimination complaint with the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations, seeking redress for Frannie Richards, a Filipino American nurse who suffered anti-Asian and sex-based harassment at the Magnificent Mile H&M department store. The harassment included "mail-order bride" comments, ridicule concerning Ms. Richards' ability to understand English, as well as mocking "ching, ching, chang" noises by an H&M employee.

"Anti-Asian, xenophobic, and misogynist verbal attacks still happen on a daily basis," said Asian American Institute Legal Director Myron Dean Quon. "Asian American women, like Ms. Richards, should never have to deal with this type of harassment, in Chicago no less."

This past September, when Ms. Richards entered H&M to go shopping for clothes, she had no idea that she would be the victim of a hostile and threatening environment. "As a registered nurse and retired U.S. Air Force Reserve Staff Sgt., I knew that I had to enforce my civil rights, for myself and other Asian American women. Because H&M refused to discipline this employee, I immediately thought of my own female relatives and friends. The workplace usage of disparaging anti-Asian slurs should require the termination of that H&M employee."

Quon noted that Asian Americans should be able to visit retail establishments and other businesses without having to endure a humiliating and offensive environment. Asian American Institute will represent Ms. Richards based her claim that H&M violated the City's Human Rights Ordinance, when the employee harassed Ms. Richards and also when in it refused her request to file a formal complaint. Chicago's anti-discrimination ordinances guard against discrimination, including anti-Asian and sex-based discrimination, when the discriminatory incident takes place in Chicago and involves employment, housing, public accommodations, credit, or bonding.

Myron Dean Quon is the attorney on Richards v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, Case #07-P-100.

# # #

The Asian American Institute ( www.aaichicago.org) is the region's pan-Asian nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the Asian Pacific American community through advocacy, by utilizing research, education, and coalition-building.

DALAWANG SWIPE:

http://radiantview.com/blog/2007/10/02/the-tv-showdesperate-housewives-insults-filipino-doctors-in-america/

The TV show,”Desperate Housewives,” Insults Filipino Doctors in America

Alas, our medical schools in the Philippines are highlighted in a “Desperate Housewives” episode at ABC.com — and not in a good way. This time, it’s a racist comment about Filipinos and their credibility in the American medical scene. I don’t particularly care for “Desperate Housewives.” OK, I watched its first season, then shifted to “Grey’s Anatomy.”

My sister’s blog, AboutMyRecovery.com, has a video clip of this particular offensive scene, courtesy of the blog, “Mindy’s watching too much TV.” We had received many e-mails yesterday about this incident as well. Doesn’t this remind you of the Claire Danes and her “cockroach” comment about Manila?

Let’s check out the e-mail I received from the PICANO yahoo group.

From: Kevin Nadal
Date: Oct 1, 2007 4:46 PM
Subject: Filipinos Denigrated on ABC’s Desperate Housewives
To:

Dear Kababayan and Allies:

I heard through the grapevine about a remark made on an episode of
“Desperate Housewives” last night. The scene entailed Teri Hatcher’s
character (Susan) at a hospital, being told by her gynecologist that
she might be hitting menopause. Susan replied, “Can I just check those
diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some
med school in the Philippines.” If you go to abc.com, you watch the
full episode and witness the scene at about 18:50 minutes into the
episode.

This type of derogatory remark is not only unnecessary and hurtful,
but is also unfounded, considering the presence of Filipinos and
Filipino Americans in the health care industry. Filipinos are the
second largest immigrant population in the United States, with many
entering the U.S. and passing their U.S. licensing boards as doctors,
nurses, and medical technicians. In fact, the Philippines produces
more U.S. nurses than any other country in the world. So, to belittle
the education, experience, or value of Filipino Americans in health
care is disrespectful and plain and simply ignorant.

As Filipino Americans, we need to band together to ensure that this
type of hateful message is not allowed to continue on our television
and radio airwaves. Given the recent amounts of media attention that
has been given to Michael Richards (against African Americans), Isaiah
Washington (against gays), and Rosie O’Donnell (against Asian/ Chinese
Americans), it is ridiculous that this type of hateful speech made it
through various screenwriters, the show’s producers, the show’s
actors, and ABC itself. Yet, this isn’t the first time that negative
remarks have been made about the Philippines or Filipinos in the past.
In recent years, we’ve heard one too many “dogeater” comments by
“comedian” Joan Rivers on the red carpet or in her standup act, and I
believe that it is about time that we stand up for ourselves, so that
this type of hateful speech never happens again.

Please join me in expressing your concern, disappointment, and/or
disgust to the producers of ABC.com. You can sign the petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/ or you can reach them directly
abc7@abc.com.

And please feel free to forward this widely to other Filipinos/
Filipino Americans/ Asian Americans/ and other allies.

Sincerely,

Kevin Nadal,
Filipino Performance Artist/ Activist

i haven't watched a single episode of that show and this gives me even more reason not to.

It's reassuring to know we've gone from fighting Pres. McKinley to fighting Teri Hatcher. We might as well have K-Fed raise our sons and daughters.


http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=94508

Malacañang to 'Desperate Housewives': Apologize for slur

The furor over a slur uttered against Philippine medical schools on the premier episode of the fourth season of the American TV show "Desperate Housewives" has prompted a response from Malacañang Palace.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the TV show belittled the abilities of Filipino doctors and sent a message that Philippine medical schools produced "substandard, inferior" medical practitioners.

The offending remark was made by one of the show's desperate housewives, Susan Mayer (played by American actress Teri Hatcher). In one scene Mayer asks for the credentials of the gynecologist who examined her and told her that she was approaching menopause.

Mayer said, "Can I check those diplomas 'coz I just want to make sure that they're not from some med school in the Philippines." The premiere episode, which has been posted on YouTube.com, drew criticisms from the Filipino community on the Internet.

Senator Rodolfo Biazon meanwhile has proposed a ban on the popular TV series. Biazon, who chairs the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, said he doesn't watch the show himself but pointed out that a ban on the show or a boycott by Filipino viewers are possible responses.

Earlier, Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the slur will tarnish the good image of Filipino doctors in the international community. He added that the slur was both irresponsible and without basis.

The Philippine Consulate in New York has said it will send a letter of protest to ABC Network and ask for an apology for the slur. The move came after the consulate office received complaints from the Filipino community, particularly health workers, in the US about the show.

Angry doctors

"It's not good for us. They shouldn't have said those words, because we all know that there are good doctors who graduated in the Philippines. That's uncalled for," PMA president Dr. Jose Sabili told ABS-CBN's morning show "Umagang Kay Ganda" on Monday.

Earlier, the president of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) said he will urge his counterpart in the US to demand an apology from the people behind the TV series.

Sabili, who was attending the World Medical Associations General Assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark, said he will seek an audience with the president of the American Medical Association to compel the TV producers to issue an apology for the insulting remark.

The doctor said the slur might even create a rift in the relationship of the two medical associations.

"I will meet with the president of the American Medical Association to air our feelings and ask them to tell that they should not insult doctors in the country," Sabili said.

Sabili said the PMA will study the possible cause of negative perceptions of medical schools in the Philippines. He said "diploma mills" and negative writeups of medical schools in local newspapers could have contributed to the negative perception.

"I have to verify this. We will definitely act on this because this will destroy the reputation of Filipino doctors," he said.

Online petition

Filipino Americans have expressed their outrage over the remark and have launched an online petition demanding an apology from ABC Network.

The petition also demands that the episode be edited to remove the "ignorant and racist" remark. As of 4:16 pm (Manila time) some 15,533 people have signed the petition.

The petition also points out the major contribution that Filipinos and Filipino Americans make in healthcare in the United States:

" statement that devalues Filipinos in healthcare is extremely unfounded, considering the overwhelming presence of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the medical field. Filipinos are the second largest immigrant population in the United States, with many entering the U.S. (and successfully passing their U.S. licensing boards!) as doctors, nurses, and medical technicians.

"In fact, the Philippines produces more U.S. nurses than any other country in the world. So, to belittle the education, experience, or value of Filipino Americans in health care is extremely disrespectful and plain and simply ignorant. Many of the hospitals in major metropolitan areas of the U.S. (and the world) would not be able to operate without its Filipino and Filipino American staff members."

Jay Ngo, a Filipino health professional from Riverside, California in the United States ABS-CBN News that the episode was an outrage, saying, "the healthcare industry, including the best hospitals, is full of Filipino medical professionals."

Forum reactions

The message board of the "Desperate Housewives" website is being peppered with threads regarding the issue.

One poster, using the alias "hunnybee07" wrote:

"America has been very fortunate to have been served by many nurses and physicians. It is quite ungrateful of Americans to make such remarks. Even if it were meant to be a joke, it apparently hurt an entire nation. The Filipinos deserve an apology. One day, when you are old, it could just be a Flipino nurse by your bedside and then you would know why you should have taken back any insults against Filipinos, especially Filipino medical practicioners."

Another poster, "MommyDO12", who claims to be a doctor in the US said:

"As a Filipino-American who is both a doctor and trained here, I get that your comment is quite ignorant. True, many Americans go overseas for medical school because they could not get in to schools here. However, there are a GREAT number of Americans and Europeans who go to so called "third world" countries because the education there is cutting edge AND affordable. I'm up to my eyeballs in student loans.

"Why do you think Americans are now rushing to the Philippines and India for surgeries unavailabe here in America? There are hip surgery techniques that have been developed there that result in less recovery time and have less mortality.

"Please, get educated before jumping onto the obvious bandwagon of "get over it" because you can't possibly understand being berated. Even my husband, who is caucasian, took great offense to the comment and is the one urging me to stop watching the show in protest."

One poster, who used the alias "berikyut", was long on passion but fell short on English skills.

"What the hell...Talking but about the philippines in your premier... "Let me see your degree making sure is now from somewhere in the philippines"? For you information if you go to hospitals most nurses/doctors there is from philippines & is hard worker & very good...So I suggest you think about your comment before you say it or if it's a joke It should be funny ( that is why it's a joke) DUH!!! I usually like you in the show specially watching you in superman before...NOW forget it....that's why you never win an emmy!!"

This prompted a reply from "Dr.Java02" asking, "Do the nurses/doctors learn grammar and spelling over there?"

With that development, do Filipinos now need to prove that they can master English grammar as well as Western medicine?

here's the ones i check:

http://abuggedlife.com/
http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/
http://5thirtyone.com/
http://pnoybboy.wordpress.com/
http://homepage.mac.com/jdalisay/blog/
http://www.pinoyurbanblog.com/
http://www.pinoyblogero.com/
http://www.sprampblog.com/
http://www.thewilyfilipino.com/blog/

what say you? mayroon pa?

List em up, fam



http://fuck-your.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/insightclopediabrown
http://www.myspace.com/dumhi
http://www.youtube.com/group/okayplayer
http://www.last.fm/user/DawgEatah
R.I.P. 3rd i

OF ASS WHOOPING!

and i hear it was opening here in socal, but no official word yet.

http://www.mybarong2.com/article.php?art_id=1082&osCsid=9a9b846d98d9e631bb3b6d807511ed3e

In honor of my filipino folk: Mahal Kita.

you have a "barrel man" in your house, you may be filipino...(you know..the wooden man...when you lift up the barrel----schwing!!!)
you wash your clothes by hand, you might be Filipino.
you use walis tambo and walis ting-ting, you just might be Filipino.
you nail all photographs on your walls in the living room, you're a Filipino.
you have a very good sense of maniana habit, you might be Filipino.
you smoke in your house
you put up your knee while eating
you eat kanin and ulam using your hand
you are pakialamero
you say Sugarol, babaero at tumador
you are chismosa
you say Comfort Room instead of Restroom.
you say For Take Out instead of to go.
you point w/ your lips, then you might be a Filipino.
you say open or close the lights, then you might be a Filipino.
you nod upwards to greet someone, you might be a Filipino.
your nickname is "boy", you might be a Filipino.
you ask for a Colgate instead of toothpaste, you might be a Filipino.
you say "Canteen" instead of cafeteria, then you must be filipino
you eat under-developed duck eggs.
you call it a "ballpoint" or"ballpen" , not a "pen"
you pronounce the word ALREADY as OLREYDI.
you say, Kodakan, instead of take pictures.
you do "mano po" to older people in the house you're about to enter.
you refer to to your refrigerator as "pridyider"
your grandma smiles and her teeth are all red because of "nga-nga"
you say "pliers" when you meant "fliers"
you say "bitch" when you meant "beach"
you pronounce "hippopatamus" and "comfortable" in a funny way
you say "Boose" for "bus"
you cover your sofa with bright red and green blankets
you have a Last Supper quilt tacked on your dining wall
your "walking doll" is still new even though it was bought years ago because your mom kept it in the china cabinet and never let you play with it.
you drive a Mercedes-Benz with maroon seat covers
you hang a rosary on the rear view mirror of your car.
you have a Santo Nino shrine in your living room.
you buy the karaoke system first before the stereo and TV
you have an out of tune piano and nobody in the family ever learned to play.
you know what "chocolate meat" is
you say chok-o-late.
you have a "Weapons of Morroland" shield.
you didn't hear or understand something and your first expression is "HA?".
you're standing next to big boxes at the airport.
you say 'hoy' to get someone's attention.
you like peanut butter with chocolate.
you make para on a bus.
your car churps like a bird when it's in reverse.
you turn around when you hear somebody say "psssst."
you instinctively grab a toothpick after a meal.
you order the langunisa meal on a PAL Balikbayan flight.
you laugh seeing somebody slip.
you burp when you're busog (or after sipping a beer)
you call somebody "psssst."
you smile/grin a lot even for no reason,
you sit by squating down and leaning your elbows on your knees.
you use a Bolo to cut the grass in the yard.
you refer to keorosene as "white gas."
there are pairs of flip-flops outside your door
you have power failures every day at the same time that you can set your watch to.
your biggest frying pan is shaped like a wok.
you own both a rice cooker, and an air pot.
you refer to "Accent" and all other forms of monosodium glutimate as "Ajinomoto"
you go to a department store, and try to bargain the price.
you drink with your friends and share the same glass, and pass it around.
you have a cartful of corned beef during a sale.
you say kutex instead of nail polish, you are one too.
you are stumped when asked what kind of bread in a deli.
you're the plane passenger with the largest hand-carry luggage.
you scratch your head when you don't know what you're doing.
you don't want to eat the last piece of food on the plate, but offer it to others.
you say "she" when you should say "he"
you say "ano" this and "ano" that
you put your hands together and point them in the direction you are walking to pass between other people
you say that everybody is your cousin/niece/nephew/aunt/uncle/...
you have a big Buddha at home for good luck( not the serene Buddha like what the Thais have, but the big, fat, laughing one with those pesky little kids crawling all over him).
you bring a "baon" to work everyday, you're probably a Filipino.
your ice cold beer really has ice cubes in it.
you eat balut and wash it down with beer to bulk up.
you have a parol hanging outside your house during the Christmas holidays.
you say things sorta backwards like towelpaper instead of papertowel and stick bread instead of breadsticks.
you say guper instead of gopher.
you eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
you say "aray" instead of "ouch ".
you look up and say "ha!" when somebody says "what's up".
you write "Filipino" but pronounce it as "Pilipino".
you can sustain jokes like this one indefinitely.
you often say 'Bulaga!' when you want to scare someone.
you fire your gun like crazy on new year's eve
you drive a jeep with your family name written on the back.
you preceed anything pluralized with "mga."
you put a little bowl of patis on the table for dipping, and your guests complain "who farted."
you cover your living room furniture with bed sheets.
you have toyo circles on your table cloths.
you wash and reuse disposable styroFoam cups, forks and spoons and of course, aluminum wrapper (Reynolds wrap) or cover paper plates with waxed paper so you can reuse it.
you cover your carpet floors with plastic liners, you might be Filipino.

>you nod upwards to greet someone, you might be a Filipino.
>your nickname is "boy", you might be a Filipino.

two more reasons why Filipinos are black.

>you say 'hoy' to get someone's attention.

LOL!!!!!!! We have a joke about this in my circle of friends.

(looks around for my copy) but off the top, its missing the

you have a giant wooden fork and spoon hanging on your wall

http://fuck-your.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/insightclopediabrown
http://www.myspace.com/dumhi
http://www.youtube.com/group/okayplayer
http://www.last.fm/user/DawgEatah
R.I.P. 3rd i

OK, OK, that one's so wack, we'll let y'all have it!

and learning the thriller moves? easiest halloween in years. gonna get all my cousins and friends to do it too.

?!?

Back in the 1920's and '30's, the ratio of men to women was 20 to 1 (because of World War I). In some places it was 40 to 1. Because they were Filipino, they were not allowed to marry white women. In the state of California during 1926, the local authorities imposed anti-miscegenation laws on Filipinos. Filipinos had to drive out of state in order to marry white women.



Source: Information adopted from the National Filipino-American Empowerment Conference 1997 brochure.

http://www.littlemanila.net

i LOVE y'alls women i can't even lie they know how to hold it down. HOLLA if you in the T-dot.

you mean Mississauga, right? half my highschool is flip...

Yall got some baaaaaaad ass women.. props..

wow, i didnt know we had our own month!

lol

last time i went back hom (10 yrs ago) they didn't sell that shit no more. my lolo said the reason was cuz the chickens were eating them and dying. i call bs on that though...

we should have a fiesta :)

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=18&topic_id=78965&mesg_id=78965&listing_type=search

its quite entertaining even the 2nd, 3rd time around. glad it was 'chived.

at least under this name...

where the f*** (wft) was i for that? not that i'd have been all up in that; i'd have posted once and lurked the other 400 posts. that was cool reading!

I was working...

:(


Im glad that you guys took up the slack though

Fact for October 4
Did you know that the Governor of the State of Hawai`i is a Filipino-American named Benjamin Cayetano? He is the highest ranking Filipino-Americna in politics to date.

posted above

... but erryone knows mad filipinos in this country are doctors and in my experience very well respected in that field. so the joke just comes off as racist.





http://fuck-your.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/insightclopediabrown
http://www.myspace.com/dumhi
http://www.youtube.com/group/okayplayer
http://www.last.fm/user/DawgEatah
R.I.P. 3rd i

it's nothing personal lease, btw


*shutz up now*

haven't you been to one of our parties?

.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kevin Nadal <knadal@...>
Date: Oct 3, 2007 11:09 PM
Subject: ABC Apologizes
To:

10/03/07

To members and supporters of the Filipino and Filipino American community:

I just wanted to inform you that ABC has apologized through a statement
that they released to the Associated Press. The story can be read here:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TV_DESPERATE_HOUSEWIVES?SITE=TXWIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Some people may think that this apology is NOT enough, and if you don't, I encourage you to take action, in whatever way you feel passionate and/or reasonable.

Some people may think that this apology IS enough, and if you do, then I encourage you to remember this each time you think that your voice cannot be heard.

In about 55 hours, 43,500+ Filipinos and Filipino supporters across the globe took part in this petition (at time of writing this email), which shows that we as a people can come together and advocate for something in which we believe. But maybe now, we need to advocate for bigger and more prominent issues, like poverty in our homeland, oppression of our own people, immigrant rights of Filipinos across the Diaspora, or corruption in the government.

We must not be complacent; we must always advocate for positive change.

In solidarity,

Kevin Nadal

-------------------------------------------

Oct 4, 1:07 AM EDT

'Housewives' Filipino Joke Draws Ire

By LYNN ELBER
AP Television Writer
AP Photo
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Entertainment Video
Advertisement
Multimedia
Emmys Fashion
Latest TV News
Former 'Price Is Right' Employee Sues

Ferrera Named Hispanic Woman of the Year

Sesame Street DVD for Injured Veterans

Bonaduce Investigated in Battery Case

Televangelist's Husband Denies Abuse

Buy AP Photo Reprints

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A scene in TV's "Desperate Housewives" that used Philippine medical education for a punchline prompted angry calls from viewers, an online petition demanding an apology and criticism from Philippine officials.

In the season premiere that aired Sunday on ABC, Teri Hatcher's character, Susan, goes in for a medical checkup and is shocked when the doctor suggests she may be going through menopause.

"Listen, Susan, I know for a lot of women the word `menopause'" has negative connotations. You hear `aging,' `brittle bones,' `loss of sexual desire,'" the gynecologist tells her.

"OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren't, like, from some med school in the Philippines?" Susan fires back.

Viewers called the network to complain but the number of callers wasn't available, an ABC spokesman said Wednesday. As of Wednesday evening, more than 30,000 names were attached to an online petition seeking a network apology.

"A statement that devalues Filipinos in healthcare is extremely unfounded, considering the overwhelming presence of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the medical field," the petition read in part.

ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Co., responded with a statement Wednesday. ABC said it was considering editing the episode.

"The producers of `Desperate Housewives' and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines," the statement said.

"As leaders in broadcast diversity, we are committed to presenting sensitive and respectful images of all communities featured in our programs," it concluded.

The TV episode even became an international incident, with reports on it topping Philippine news shows and drawing newspaper headlines as officials there registered their displeasure. Filipinos could judge the scene for themselves when it was posted on YouTube.

In Manila, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he was writing the producers of the show to seek an apology and note the country's "vehement protest." Senior cabinet member Eduardo Ermita told reporters that an apology should be sought "on behalf of our Filipino professionals."

Kevin Nadal, 29, a Filipino-American college lecturer who lives in New York, posted the online petition calling ABC to task for the scene.

"I had to rewind it over and over again to make sure I heard it right," Nadal said in an interview Wednesday. He watched the episode online after hearing about it from a friend.

"I was immediately offended and, really, just hurt. These days, people are supposed to be more sensitive or more aware of what's considered appropriate," he said, adding that he was hearing from people worldwide who were distressed by the scene. He appreciated ABC's apology, he said, but said he also wanted to see the dialogue removed from future airings and DVDs.

Nadal also suggested that the show's producers and ABC executives could make a more substantial gesture than an apology, through scholarships or donations for Filipino and Filipino-Americans and community groups.

Filipinos and other minorities also should be depicted on TV as "prominent, positive role models," Nadal said.

---

Associated Press writer Oliver Teves in Manila, Philippines contributed to this report.

---

Major General Edward Soriano of the U.S. Army, a Filipino-American, became the second highest ranking Asian Pacific American in active-duty miltary service this past July 1997. Major General Soriano was born in Pangasinan, Philippines, and moved to the United States during the 1960s. He joined the army after graduating from San Jose State University with a degree in management. He also holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of Missouri.

with fresh balut, dinuguan, etc. sure, the prez can keep a straight face when colbert is razzing him, but what's he gonna do when he tastes that sourness only sinigang can deliver?

my bad. on second thought, i hope that dude never has the pleasure of eating filipino food.

plus i just managed to work up my hunger.

balut and dinaguan is big league stuff. we might scare him away too soon. you gotta tease them with the adobo and lumpia. then when they're not expecting it, offer them the "chocolate meat"

"damn, this chocolate meat is kinda spicy, and doesn't taste like chocolate at all. what else is in it?"

and that's how filipinos will take over the world.

It didn't start with Manny folks...

http://www.mybarong2.com/index.php?aPath=39

how many here are non-filipinos that have filipino SO's?

my SO of many many years is dominican. never once had a filipina SO. not sure why.

just kidding. i love gen and she is probably more pinoy than you. lol.

i always wonder why. i tell myself it's because i always try to wife filipinas and i have fun with non-fils.

so according to the blog below, Manila ranked low in politeness (totally debunking our hospitality stereotype! i love it!). so now the mayor of Manila signed a city ordinance declaring 10/20 Thank You day. guess it's not really national, but couldn't it at least have been called Salamat Day?

http://abuggedlife.com/2007/09/27/a-toblerone-thank-you-via-free-music/

Yeah! I didn't know that! Where the Filipino's in Chicago?
Would anyone be interested in joining the Young Filipino Professionals?

www.myspace.com/leaheva

i like his aggressiveness. it's judicious.

We gotta start it up again...

Halfies should count too.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=7681808

http://warnet.ws/img2/190/girls/4/4.jpg
http://warnet.ws/img2/190/girls/4/14.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/2328/08medpc9.jpg
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8382/10medyh7.jpg

How come I have never heard of her?

she was miss nov 2005
i'll inbox you more pics

I didn't know she was a halfie though.

*chest swells with pride*

aint she some okp?

wurd?

Myspace lanks?

oh i see, you're putting the penis into philipenis. (my bad, lesbians. i see you lookin, too.)

**NWS**


http://misacampo.com/media/store/6.jpg

http://misacampo.com/media/store/18.jpg

ay nako!

you can say that again!

I met that girl before

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=55000&display_order=3&sub_display_order=6&mini_id=54986

Vette dont you girl work for Hist Chan, maybe she had something to do with this.

about her job. main topic of convo has been the baby shower for my cousin. lol.
but yeah she probably did work on that. i have to set that to tivo thanks!

When's Lilly Thai's birthday?!

this is what we get for using this post to objectify.

moral schmoral. this ain't about morals, it's about politics.

and i hate activists.

but tell me there's a real difference between:

a. dissing pinay nurses for being unqualified to work in the US.

b. pinays getting shat upon at department stores.

and

c. showing images of pinays for the sole purpose of admiring their beauty or sexual characteristics.

i'm not saying i don't have sexual desires--i consume porn on the daily--but i keep that shit to myself. instead of parading it around with an utter disregard for the political consequences.

>this is what we get for using this post to objectify.
>
>moral schmoral. this ain't about morals, it's about politics.
>
>
>and i hate activists.
>
>but tell me there's a real difference between:
>
>a. dissing pinay nurses for being unqualified to work in the
>US.
>
>b. pinays getting shat upon at department stores.
>
>
>
>c. showing images of pinays for the sole purpose of admiring
>their beauty or sexual characteristics.
and
d. Smacking that pinay for not opening the dorr quick enough in the UAE ( i felt bad though)
>
>i'm not saying i don't have sexual desires--i consume porn on
>the daily--but i keep that shit to myself. instead of parading
>it around with an utter disregard for the political
>consequences.
>

im all for "hot asian women" posts. but no need for it here. we already have an anchor. lets try to use this for something different. lets stay focused.

i hope we're good for more than a supply of fine chicks and fluorescent bulbs. and yo-yos.

and my bad for taking away from this post's intended purpose.

good look spivak

Like traditional Filipino cuisine fused with modern cuisine techniques and what not.

Then I remember...

I'm not a chef.

I'm sure they got them shits on the west coast.
I wonder how they do business-wise.
Cuz Filipino's LOVE a good deal, and I ain't sure how they'd react to small portions that look like art on a plate.
I'd eat that shit though.




http://fuck-your.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/insightclopediabrown
http://www.myspace.com/dumhi
http://www.youtube.com/group/okayplayer
http://www.last.fm/user/DawgEatah
R.I.P. 3rd i

but is hard to pull off, imo. there's cendrillon in soho, and here in san diego there's ben's, which opened in the gaslamp and has a place in national city. i think you're right about small servings. i also think pinoys looking for a hearty meal won't look there, and the taste may still be too out there for non-pinoys. so they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

in makati, there's a fusion place in the greenbelt mall i liked. we had bangus lumpiang shanghai and osso bucco adobo. i forget what else we had but i did enjoy it.

what combos did you have in mind?

And by that i mean it sounds like it tastes like a little bit of heaven





http://fuck-your.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/insightclopediabrown
http://www.myspace.com/dumhi
http://www.youtube.com/group/okayplayer
http://www.last.fm/user/DawgEatah
R.I.P. 3rd i

its tiny and to tell the truth, not too much desire to go back. not sure why. just didnt seem worth the price. i have been meaning to go back.

I like that place. Adobo is good. Halo-halo is the truth. Owners are real nice too - they talked to us for a good 15 min during dinner.

haven't been to it.. plan to check it in december when i go back for x'mas:
http://www.polenglounge.com/

Check out this place called Kuma Inn. Get it? *kumain* Anyway, it's a Thai-Filipino tapas joint. Good food...

It's on the lower eastside...

you gotta get that mix *just* right otherwise it'll taste like crap

at a FIRE fundraiser/reading ( i performed :)

i wish i at least had the chinky eyes i mean damn

well we can tell

Peace Everyone,

It's my first time posting up in the General Discussion section. Usually I just lurk on the message boards, especially on the Okay Artist and the Lessons (I post up once in a while).

Didn't know October was Filipino History Month....that's dope! Here in LA, they just had the FPAC (Filipino Pacific Asian Culture) Festival last month; it's a big thing here.

Anyways, shout out to all the Pinoys in here....keep reppin.

Rhettmatic
Beat Junkies
Visionaries

myspace.com/rhettmatic
uber.com/rhettmatic

PS. If anyone is actually interested, I'll be in NYC for the CMJs from Oct. 17th to the 20th. I'll be djing at APT with Rich Medina on the 17th, and I'll be djing with my fellow Beat Junkie J.Rocc at the Knitting Factory which I believe it's on the 19th, along with Percee P. Haven't been in NYC for almost 7 years (last time I was in NYC was for the Rock Steady Anniversary and the Word Of Mouth tour in 2000).

you getting down on there, with them in 2007 symbolizes so much in terms of pinoys, LA/area, and hip hop and i can definitely read into that. for real, much respect for holdin it down as long as i can remember, and i'm 31. we had a dope convo in fat beats a few months back about the native guns and the kind of radio/market forces they had to deal with or ignore. seriously y'all, this cat and his crew are like 20 years into making internationally recognized contributions to hip hop! they're chill about it but i'll woof it up for em. there was a la weekly article about this, i'll try to find the link.




----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

how are things in LA? man i haven't been to LA in a while...when I lived there during the college years I used to head to FatBeats and bug you and Babu all the time, lol.

>how are things in LA? man i haven't been to LA in a
>while...when I lived there during the college years I used to
>head to FatBeats and bug you and Babu all the time, lol.

Damn....you said Babs and me @ Fat Beats...hahah. Well, I still work there every Thursday.


Thanks for the love....shout out to RawSouthPaw as well. Yeah, I remember that conversation. Thanks for the big ups as well.

LA is good....we're pretty spoiled over here. Our Hip Hop scene and music in general is good. Radio sucks right now, but word has it, that the Fantastik 4 (J.Rocc, Mr. Choc, Truly Odd, & C-Minus) might make a return to radio. So that's a big plus for Hip Hop and LA radio.

We (the Beat Junkies) still got our NIGHTLIFE club event going @ the Knitting Factory. I think we're like 7 years strong now.

Cats here are just been busy making moves.

Like I said shout to all the Pinoys/Pinays in the house....

Rhettmatic
Beat Junkies
Visionaries

uber.com/rhettmatic
myspace.com/rhettmatic

also, we need to get him back here. *puts on bittersweet*

i think ive seen rholi rho with an okp shirt once.

Fact for October 9

Immediately after the Katipuneros (freedom fighters) won their independence from Spain, the United States began to impose its own brand of neo-colonialism on the Filipinos. It is known in U.S. history books as the "Philippine Insurrection," but is hardly ever taught in schools. The Filipino American War lasted from 1898 to 1902, and in those 3 years: 70,000 Americans died & 2 million Filipinos were killed.

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, Korea, and China, the United States military began recruiting Filipino troops - both stateside and in the Philippines. With the promise of US citizenship and pension once the war was over, the Filipino contingent was key in the US utilizing guerrilla warfare, etc. to regain control of the country. In 1946, the US government passed the Recission act, denying the benefits they were promised as being part of the US Armed Forces. Living vets and members of the Filipino American community have banded together in solidarity to fight for these rights, gaining nationwise attention.

For more info. click here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/sfeature/bataan_filipino.html

http://inouye.senate.gov/97pr/97pr75.html

i hear such mixed things about it. waiting for it to make it to cable.

i just think its hysterical in old war movies when they have (what is supposed to be ) Japanese soldiers all speaking in Tagalog...

SMH..

And do you know that there is a dialect in the Visayas which has incorprated the Japanese accent into the language...


so that all the R's are replaced by L's?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Los_Ba%C3%B1os
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Cabanatuan

for a grad school project, especially since there's some compensation legislation in congress right now that bush told gma he would sign.



----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

-filipinos were affected by hurricane katrina. many of the original documents and artifacts that documented us first arriving in new orleans were distroyed in the disaster.

Late pass on the thread,
Gotta check in.
I knew it was Filipino History Month though (just found out about it earlier this year.)
You know I've been trying to research and I haven't found anything referencing Prince as being part Filipino. I think I even read somewhere that he made it up once. If he is I'd claim him, Prince is the SHIT!

lol

.

>
...Some stay dry and others feel the pain

I get the "Man, you people swear EVERYONE'S Filipino" response.

his homie rhettmatic mentioned that on here before



----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

i have links there.

Venancio C. Igarta, an artist, is the first and only Filipino to be exhibited at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. He took the New York City art world by storm in the 1940s. He is featured in the October 1997 issue of FILIPINAS MAGAZINE.

for that contribution on THE GETBACK...

you are a credit to your race

Gotta represent for my peoples!

mee tooo

Unknown to many Filipinos, through the Treaty of Paris (April 11, 1899), Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million, thus ending over 300 years of Spanish colonization. That was quite a bargain for the United States

7,000+ tropical islands roughly the same land mass as the state of louisiana in a key location to establish military presence in Asia.

only slightly bigger dicks. But a win is a win.

"... Filipinos (citizens of the Phillipines) were found to have an average penis size that is slightly larger than that of a Caucasian."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penis_size

the white boys were afraid of miscegenation back in the day...

and his world record freestyle- bananas, first i've heard of such a record(s)


http://youtube.com/watch?v=be9oSIZf2dc





----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

When Filipinos came to the United States in the early 1900's, they had to compete against other ethnic groups to earn a living. Tensions grew between white Americans and Filipinos. White Americans blamed Filipinos for taking their women and their jobs. For this reason, many hotels, restaurants, and even swimming pools had signs that read "POSITIVELY NO FILIPINOS ALLOWED!" Sometimes they read, "NO DOGS ALLOWED!" This eventually lead to the passing of the Tydings-Mcduffie Act of 1934, which limited Filipino immigration to the U.S. to 50 per year.

This guy kicks ass!

Filipino martial arts, escrima, gets noticed in hands of a master
Michelle Devera Louie, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
More...
As Carlito Bonjoc Jr. gets his arms going, it's best to get out of the way.

Like way out of the way.



The blur of hands wielding wide, stocky knives interspersed with flashes of reflected sunlight is a hypnotic, fluid movement. It's a bit like watching a finely choreographed dance.

But what Bonjoc is demonstrating is the little-known Philippine martial art of escrima. The other difference: He does it from the seat of his wheelchair or with the aid of crutches.

The 46-year-old escrima master was born with spina bifida, a congenital spinal cord defect that can affect the lower body and result in paralysis, yet he doesn't tolerate pity.

"There are so many people out there that have physical challenges," says Bonjoc, whose calm composure contrasts sharply with the intensity of his gaze. "Some are born with it; we're the lucky ones because this is what we grew up with. We learned to deal with this early. Now, with the reality of war, we have a lot of young people that come back from the war with some of their body parts missing, or some get in a car accident and lose a limb or become paralyzed, and those are harder to take because they had all their physical abilities growing up and then all of a sudden it was taken from them. That must be much harder than what I had."

Bonjoc was born on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and immigrated to Stockton when he was 9. At school, bullies picked on him because of his physical condition - "kids would hit me and then take off running because they knew I couldn't chase after them" - and his difficulty with English. When he was in college, he lost his right leg to infection.

Escrima, he says, is what gave him the confidence to stop the bullying, though it didn't start out that way.

"I wanted to get even," says Bonjoc. "When I was younger, I used to get frustrated, and all somebody had to say was that word, 'cripple,' and the next thing I know, I'm swinging. All the martial arts goes out the window, and I'm just swinging. But over the years, because of the discipline I gained from the martial arts training, I got away from all that. I didn't have to be vengeful."

The way Bonjoc learned escrima is typical of how the martial art form developed: passed down from father to child in an oral tradition. It's because of this lack of early documentation that the origins of escrima, and its aliases (eskrima, arnis and kali), can vary from Indonesian martial arts to Chinese mariners to Spanish conquistadors. What is clear, however, is that a centuries-old fighting style did develop before Spanish colonialism, and it was indigenous to the Philippines.

Bonjoc says escrima is most notable for its ability to use the same fighting moves either with or without a weapon and for the weapons themselves. There are only two types: sticks and knives.

Bonjoc is a fourth-generation escrima master who's traveled the world as a guru as well as on the tournament circuit. His family's system, Cadiz Lapu-Lapu, is named in honor of Bonjoc's great-grandfather, who settled the town of Cadiz, and Chief Lapulapu, the Philippine hero who killed Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan.

Cadiz Lapu-Lapu is just one of many styles. Considering that the Philippines is a nation of 7,100 islands, and that villages developed their own ways to defend themselves that they then handed down, there are innumerable escrima systems.

Though he has his own school in Stockton, Mata sa Bagyo (or Eye of the Storm), he travels to San Jose's De Anza Park every other Sunday to help a buddy teach escrima. It's only fitting that Bonjoc chose October, which is Filipino American History Month, to focus on promoting escrima.

"It's handed down from generation to generation, and if we don't continue to do that, it will be lost."

He's getting a boost from mainstream media as well: the History Channel's "Human Weapon" recently devoted an episode to escrima. The show's Web site also lists escrima along with Muay Thai and judo under its martial art disciplines.

TV and YouTube won't be the only places to see escrima, though. Bonjoc's dream is to form a nonprofit and travel the nation as a motivational speaker with a team of disabled martial artists.

"I'm here to help educate people not just about the Filipino culture and the Filipino martial arts culture, but also to understand that we all have differences and just because somebody is different from you physically or mentally, that doesn't mean that person is not a human being.

"That person has a worth, and they have creativity, and if you just look close enough, you will see that and you will see that person for who he is."




Escrima resource

The following is a small sampling:

Worldwide organizations: Doce Pares International ( www.doceparesinternational.com) and World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation ( www.wekaf.com).

Bay Area: Authentic Bela Diri Martial Arts Group ( www.authenticbeladiri.com), Bay Area Martial Arts Academy ( www.stickmanescrima.com/Teaching.htm), Oakland Eskrima Club ( www.oaklandeskrima.com), International Eskrima Serrada Association ( www.sultanuddin.com), Modern Arnis Remy Presas International Organization (modernarnis.com), Senkotiros ( www.senkotiros.org).

Filipino Martial Arts Digest: Quarterly magazine headquartered in Fallon, Nev. Its Web site offers lists of state-by-state schools and associations. www.fmadigest.com.

De Anza Park training: Free biweekly class led by Louie Ambriz and Carlito Bonjoc Jr., Princeton Drive and Meridian Avenue, San Jose. Next session (weather permitting): Noon Sunday. (209) 221-1306.

Mata sa Bagyo: www.bagyo.net.


To see a video of Carlito Bonjoc Jr. in action, go to sfgate.com/ZBEW. Learn more about Filipino American History Month on Pinoy Pod at sfgate.com/podcasts.

i think a follow-up question would be how/where you grew up.

while i grew up in the bay area, my mom was/still is pretty antisocial, and we weren't over in daly city, but on the far reaches of the east bay (benicia/concord). still lots of flips that way, but we were on our own as my mom preferred.

what that means for me is that only as i came into adulthoood that i began to probe into our family history as well as our filipino history. started reading and thinking about all of it. started trying to learn tagalog. started trying to cook sinigang and adobo and tocilog.

now i've reached a point where i don't have to try too hard. it's a part of my life--i try to pay attention to some news in the philippines, i try to go back when i can. but there was a time when all of it was foreign to me, and it did take quite an effort to reconnect the dots of my past.

what about you?

Man, that's like asking me if I make it a point to breathe.

PILIPINO, KAHIT KAILAN, KAHIT SAAN!

.

and was surrounded by tons of relatives mostly on my dad's side. we all live 5 minutes from each other. as a result - being filipino was pretty effortless. it wasn't separate from any other part of my life. as battousai said - it's like breathing. even living in brooklyn now - it's still effortless. now i don't jump and go to every filipino event (i'm not as involved as i used to be), but i don't think that makes me any less pinay than those who scream and shout it.

which make krystal's closing in manhattan okay.

i'm thinking of bayan cafe, grill 21, and pistahan.

but yeah, go concord! full disclosure, i was a de la salle snob.

i go to renee's kitchenette on roosevelt across from perlas ng silangan. owned by a family friend. where's bayan? i've seen pistahan but heard it's a little pricey.

as for de la salle - what class? i have cousins who are carondelet class of '96 and 2003. i was a public school child meself - clayton valley '97.

are you in ny now?

i think bayan cafe is somewhere in the vicinity of madison park or 23rd st at least, but not sure. i saw pistahan right off the 1st Ave L. but haven't tried either. i did like grill 21--the food was so-so, nothing spectacular, but they have a cute interior design. at least there's more of an aesthetic than other places. it has a sit-down menu, not point-point, so it's pricier.

i wish i lived in ny! i'm in san diego and was just up there visiting my mom.

oh wow! dls class of '97 here! if only i knew any filipinos at the time, i may have run into you. but like i said, i wasn't part of the school cliques as much, even if i did have a huge crush on the lapus girl. just wasn't connected into being pinoy at the time.

thankfully things have changed.


>i go to renee's kitchenette on roosevelt across from perlas
>ng silangan. owned by a family friend. where's bayan? i've
>seen pistahan but heard it's a little pricey.
>
>as for de la salle - what class? i have cousins who are
>carondelet class of '96 and 2003. i was a public school child
>meself - clayton valley '97.
>
>are you in ny now?

.

so just reading the reviews for grill 21 turned me off. bayan looks promising though.

but the food was decent. its really just a hole in the wall. but i dug it. its a good place if your hankering and in the neighborhood, dont make it a destination tho.

small place, maybe seven tables. but they were packed, with mostly non-us.

unless it's in halo halo or spam/corned beef

but laing that tastes like it's out a can..i would vomit. and ask for a refund.

when i went back to the motherland. my parents like a lot of others who immigrated here didnt care to teach us tagalog.

my building in washington heights was mostly filipino, odd i know. but the rest of the neighborhood is domnican and jewish.

now none of my cousins born here know so much as a curse word. im okay. better when im drunk. but i can get by in the philippines. ive alwasy had cousins nearby (my pops has 21 kapatids, not all the same mother) so i always identified with being filipino. i love going back. ive been back only 3 times. love it everytime. not sure i can live there for more then a year but i do love it there. so yeah i identify

immigrants in yr building? or does it go further back than that?

lol. i wonder if my tagalog is better when i'm drunk, too. if only i weren't treated like a child when i'm among older filipinos, maybe i could converse with them after some of that black label they pass around.

gusto speaks better tagalog than me.

in the 70s, one family moved in and referred all the other families (other coworkers and such)

its interesting to see how we all started but how some defiantly went the american route and some went the filipino-american route.

i too had to withstand the ridicule of practicing my tagalog infront of the elders. they thought it was cute. until i started to understand all their convos. now forget it. just keep it up man.

i'm an anomaly.

i was born and raised in PI til i was about 8 but can't speak my dialect and barely understand it. i grew up in sf and currently live in daly city around hella filipinos. i've had my personal battles with identity but i look at it like this.

i wake up every morning and look in the mirror knowing i'm filipino and was born in PI. elders can clown on me for not knowing the language but they can't take away that i was born there. i treasure my memories of growing up there.

back to the language thing. i don't speak a lick of my dialect. i got my work voice that sounds like a square ass white boy. i speak the local street dialect near perfect which helps me get along with black and brown kids.

i've had filipinos tell me "you're the blackest filipino i know" but everything i do is filipino-american. i can't help it. it took me a long time to realize that.

.

i found out early high school that we didn't speak tagalog at home, lol

well grew up with apo and ingkong speakin' it so it was passed down. my moms is from mindanao, but learned so she can communicate with everybody on my dad's side.

don't we always sound pissed off? lol.

picked up on tagalog as well - since somehow that's the lingo my parents use with each other more than kapampangan.

do u know where in pampanga your family's from? mine's from santa rita.

>well grew up with apo and ingkong speakin' it so it was
>passed down. my moms is from mindanao, but learned so she can
>communicate with everybody on my dad's side.
>
i was born in angeles city, pampanga right near clark air force base. i still remember my address: 10-7 dulce st. santa maria village ii, angeles city, pampamga, philippines. nah i'm fronting. i saw it written on a balikbayan box my mom was making.

that's where my mom's side is from. my dad is from isabella, ilocos. we left when mt. pinatubo erupted back in 91. all military familes from subic naval base and clark afb were asked to evacuate when that was going on. when i get "deep" i'll say i have pinatubo ashes running through my veins.

>don't we always sound pissed off? lol.
>
me and my kap peers think the dialect sounds like "clucking." "potang bengi" and "aaliyah" are my favorite phrases, lol.

word! my mom is from close by. florida blanca. my pops is from arayat. i can't speak or understand tagalog cause it was never spoken at home. back in toronto (where i was born & raised), the church i went to (iglesia) had tagalog services which i'd sometimes attend, but couldn't understand a lick of what they were saying. but i can understand kapampangan like it was my first language...just can't speak it. weird, i know.

anyway, i feel bad that i dont know how to speak my parents dialect because w/ my son being black/filipino, i have nothing in terms of language to pass down to him, and it kills me to know that in my family, my parents dialect ends with me.

the only real vivid memory of manila that i have is, sadly, of a sesame street on ice show, especially big bird. my mom tells me i used to understand tagalog back then, but lost it because she didn't enforce it and i went to school in the states.

i didn't go back until two years ago, meaning it had been over two decades. i felt way more like a tourist than someone who belonged, from the way i dressed to the way i walked. i was only there for two weeks, though. i wanna go back, of course.

I'm gonna admit I'm not the most typical Flip out there. I don't speak a whole lot of Tagalog, I don't run with nothing but Filipinos, and when I'm at a Filipino event I don't perfectly fit in. But I don't perfectly fit in anywhere. I just am what I am. No one's ever really bothered to fit me in to one group, whether it's Flip, white, hip hop, rock, whatever. I just do what I do the way I do it and that's me.

But being Filpino is still part of my life everyday. I wake up everyday and know and love where my folks come from. Any time I'm with fam I know how I get down. I eat Filipino foods more than a couple times a week. Just cause I don't scream and shout it doesn't mean I don't know what I am.

hope the question wasn't seen as accusatory of anything. just curious because i struggle with it, too.

I do wish that I've gone back to the PI more often. I wasn't born there, I was born here, but only been able to go back twice. I went back last summer though and it was all love.

I've missed out on this, so I hope to catch it this time around. See you there!

October 25 - 28, 2007
Thursday - Saturday: 8pm; Sunday: 3pm
THE NEW LATC, Theatre 2
514 South Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Starring: Arthur T. Acuña, Bernardo Bernardo, Ramon De Ocampo, Jojo Gonzalez, Paolo Montalban

For Tickets: 323-461-3673 or online at www.thenewlatc.com
Regular Price: $28 | Student/Senior/Groups: $15
For groups, call 213-489-0994

The Romance of Magno Rubio is the OBIE Award-winning story of heartache and dreams. Set in the central valleys of California in the 1930’s, the play tells the tale of Magno, a short Filipino migrant worker who longs for love.

Each night before going to bed, he peruses his collection of Hollywood magazines, dreaming of his own Silver Screen romance. One night, he finds a lonely-hearts ad for Clarabelle, a woman from Arkansas who is looking for a pen pal. Believing he’s found the answer to his dreams, he hires a co-worker to write his blonde beauty.

Working dawn ‘til dusk, picking asparagus by the pound so he can buy love by the word, Magno’s infatuation with Clarabelle grows with each letter received. He proposes marriage and wires money for his fantasy girl to come to California so they can start their new life together. But as Magno soon realizes, reality and dreams don’t always align

----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

*Warning, long ass reply follows:

What I think my man TREND is trying to get at here is knowing our Culture better. It's gonna be pretty hard to deny you're "Filipino" strictly based on the way you act or how much you know of your "people." You can still be Filipino without knowing your culture, is a Scottish person that grew up in North Dakota not Scottish because he doesn't speak his native language or eat Scottish foods? (*insert Rex Navarrette Scottish/Filipino joke here.)

I think I can speak for all of us (at least most of us who are a little older) when I say that we've all been through that point of our lives when we've wondered about our origins and our history as a people. Most of us that's grown up here in the US has probably worked through some difficult identity issues, we've never been fully embraced by the majority of minorities here and we definitely haven't been accepted by the white population either. Most minorites still view us as part of the Asian stereotypical "model Minority" when in fact we're quite different from the majority of Asian races out there (despite of and probably because of our mixed origins from various different Asian and non-Asian races) and we're also not quite accepted in some circles as "Asian." I know alot of Filipinos that have been guilty of this association too, they're quick to respond that they're "Filipino" and not Asian, probably because of said stereotype.

So for quite some time most of the Filipinos that grew up here in America haven't had a singular identity to attach to, and it doesn't help that we haven't really had many significant Filipino-American role models around (big ups to Ernie Reyes Jr. and Q Bert for holding it down!) Some of us compensate for this by isolating ourselves with only Filipino friends, going to the "Filipino Association" parties and forming our identity with just being Filipino in America. Some of us go through the motions of discovering other circles, trying different things - hanging with the punk rock kids, breakdancing with the hip hop crowd etc. and in the process of finding acceptance here we tend to neglect and even deny alot of our Filipino Culture. We start to tell our parents to not talk Tagalog in front of company or hide our Filipino dishes from our friends (*see The Debut) and we start to hide anything ethnic about us in our search for acceptance. Sooner or later we all start to realize that we are what we are, and our Culture is slowly dying because of our neglectance. I don't think I need to tell you guys that there's a severe lack of information on our history and Culture prior to outside colonization, and our verbal history is almost nil. I've seen this urge to find out about our roots swell up inside of me and a few others around me and I think that's the point I've been trying to get at in this long ass reply.

It's interesting because I see parallels in this with the Afro-centric movement of Hip Hop in the early 90's. It differs in the fact that there was more information available to the black community about their history, and the fact that they had Hip Hop. They had a public, unifying forum to pull together all the people across the Nation to this Afro-centric view. Hip Hop brought them all together at roughly around the same time to help them all re-discover their roots, but we never had that unifying force for us. We never had a significant presence in Hip Hop, or in any other Media for that matter, and that coupled with the lack of avenues for discovering our Culture basically led to all of us pretty much coming to the same conclusions on our own at different times. But I think alot of us still fall through the cracks because of this lack of organization. There's still many of us out there that never bother to take that search despite the growing need for it inside of them. And I also think that alot of us get caught up with trying to be "too Filipino" without knowing what that actually is. We need to strive to know more about us and our history while not being too ethnocentric at the same time. Being proud you're Filipino and Knowing you're Filipino are two seperate things that can co-exist at the same time, but if we take it too far we run the risk of it becoming racist instead of it becoming a celebration of our culture (*see the Natzis.)

Sorry to ramble but this shit has been on my mind for awhile and I never really had anywhere to get it off my chest. Love it or hate it it's here. I think for future reference (and for future Filipino History Months) we should strive to organize and make a group effort of celebration, maybe meeting up across the nation as groups of young Filipino-Americans discovering and spreading the knowledge of our culture. I think we can all agree that we need a seperate forum from our parents' gatherings to meet and socialize and organize as Filipino-Americans. Let's have our Filipino-centric movement,but let's make it never end (and please no rope necklaces with Philippine Island-shaped medallions.)

Peace.

^This is a powerful post^

the college-age and 20something filipinos are going to be the ones to define what it means to be filipino-american for generations to come.

i believe it. i'm taking the responsibilty even if i don't know the language.

>*Warning, long ass reply follows:
>
>What I think my man TREND is trying to get at here is knowing
>our Culture better. It's gonna be pretty hard to deny you're
>"Filipino" strictly based on the way you act or how much you
>know of your "people." You can still be Filipino without
>knowing your culture, is a Scottish person that grew up in
>North Dakota not Scottish because he doesn't speak his native
>language or eat Scottish foods? (*insert Rex Navarrette
>Scottish/Filipino joke here.)
>
>I think I can speak for all of us (at least most of us who are
>a little older) when I say that we've all been through that
>point of our lives when we've wondered about our origins and
>our history as a people. Most of us that's grown up here in
>the US has probably worked through some difficult identity
>issues, we've never been fully embraced by the majority of
>minorities here and we definitely haven't been accepted by the
>white population either. Most minorites still view us as part
>of the Asian stereotypical "model Minority" when in fact we're
>quite different from the majority of Asian races out there
>(despite of and probably because of our mixed origins from
>various different Asian and non-Asian races) and we're also
>not quite accepted in some circles as "Asian." I know alot of
>Filipinos that have been guilty of this association too,
>they're quick to respond that they're "Filipino" and not
>Asian, probably because of said stereotype.
>
>So for quite some time most of the Filipinos that grew up here
>in America haven't had a singular identity to attach to, and
>it doesn't help that we haven't really had many significant
>Filipino-American role models around (big ups to Ernie Reyes
>Jr. and Q Bert for holding it down!) Some of us compensate
>for this by isolating ourselves with only Filipino friends,
>going to the "Filipino Association" parties and forming our
>identity with just being Filipino in America. Some of us go
>through the motions of discovering other circles, trying
>different things - hanging with the punk rock kids,
>breakdancing with the hip hop crowd etc. and in the process of
>finding acceptance here we tend to neglect and even deny alot
>of our Filipino Culture. We start to tell our parents to not
>talk Tagalog in front of company or hide our Filipino dishes
>from our friends (*see The Debut) and we start to hide
>anything ethnic about us in our search for acceptance. Sooner
>or later we all start to realize that we are what we are, and
>our Culture is slowly dying because of our neglectance. I
>don't think I need to tell you guys that there's a severe lack
>of information on our history and Culture prior to outside
>colonization, and our verbal history is almost nil. I've seen
>this urge to find out about our roots swell up inside of me
>and a few others around me and I think that's the point I've
>been trying to get at in this long ass reply.
>
>It's interesting because I see parallels in this with the
>Afro-centric movement of Hip Hop in the early 90's. It
>differs in the fact that there was more information available
>to the black community about their history, and the fact that
>they had Hip Hop. They had a public, unifying forum to pull
>together all the people across the Nation to this Afro-centric
>view. Hip Hop brought them all together at roughly around the
>same time to help them all re-discover their roots, but we
>never had that unifying force for us. We never had a
>significant presence in Hip Hop, or in any other Media for
>that matter, and that coupled with the lack of avenues for
>discovering our Culture basically led to all of us pretty much
>coming to the same conclusions on our own at different times.
>But I think alot of us still fall through the cracks because
>of this lack of organization. There's still many of us out
>there that never bother to take that search despite the
>growing need for it inside of them. And I also think that
>alot of us get caught up with trying to be "too Filipino"
>without knowing what that actually is. We need to strive to
>know more about us and our history while not being too
>ethnocentric at the same time. Being proud you're Filipino
>and Knowing you're Filipino are two seperate things that can
>co-exist at the same time, but if we take it too far we run
>the risk of it becoming racist instead of it becoming a
>celebration of our culture (*see the Natzis.)
>
>Sorry to ramble but this shit has been on my mind for awhile
>and I never really had anywhere to get it off my chest. Love
>it or hate it it's here. I think for future reference (and
>for future Filipino History Months) we should strive to
>organize and make a group effort of celebration, maybe meeting
>up across the nation as groups of young Filipino-Americans
>discovering and spreading the knowledge of our culture. I
>think we can all agree that we need a seperate forum from our
>parents' gatherings to meet and socialize and organize as
>Filipino-Americans. Let's have our Filipino-centric
>movement,but let's make it never end (and please no rope
>necklaces with Philippine Island-shaped medallions.)
>
>Peace.
>
sigh *tucks away her philippines shaped pendant inside her blouse*

gO PACQUIAO!

i was born in milwaukee. grew up in the midwest, mostly in colorado. aside, i spent a couple years in rome as a kid. and although these regions may seem like filipinos may have been few and far between, i was always around them in aggregate because of church (iglesia), so i had my share of surrogate extended family, so to speak. the older generations didn't get into it with me about filipino culture and history. i was raised up on the children's britannica and s***. sometimes, quite frankly, i don't think i know anything except for the food and my massacred versions of the dialects (tagalog & kamampangan; tarlac, stand up! lol.). or that we're a kind and hospitable people, or that we have within us a capacity to speak truth to power. but those are rather non-specific things.

i've visited the philippines three times, and each time i was primarily in provincial areas (nueva ecija, zambales, tarlac). and maybe that has shaped my opinion of who we are, essentially. i think we are a humble and good people, machisimo notwithstanding, and not given to materialism and luxury because we never had much in the way of that. and we damn well ain't stupid; we're underemployed.

but i hold that in contrast to filipino-americans and even "globalized" filipinos in the philippines and wonder where in the middle i fall. because i find myself ridiculing people for trying to be this and that; meanwhile, i see it in myself. not that i was trying to be the other; it's just what i grew up on. and maybe they need to be who they need to be to get by. and i can't hate because it was in my home when i was young. i couldn't ignore those porcelain statues on our shelves. it sort of reinforces the disconnect i have with the specifics of what it is to be filipino and filipino-american. i don't know any music that is *ours* in the way that jazz is uniquely american -- it's just our take on what already exists. in the same vein, i'm probably never going to wear my best barong to a job interview.

personally, it's difficult to sort all that out, as i'm sure it is with most americans who struggle with their identity (the vast majority of us aren't really from here, after all.). it's like i can tell what is or isn't filipino, but at the end of the day, i can't say i'm filipino myself. i can say, however, that i'm filipino-american, but i still don't know what that is, exactly. if our generation (i'm 24) is the one that defines what it is to be filipino-american, then i apologize in advance for my nebulous contribution.

that was pretty scatterbrained.

> Sooner
>or later we all start to realize that we are what we are, and
>our Culture is slowly dying because of our neglectance. I
>don't think I need to tell you guys that there's a severe lack
>of information on our history and Culture prior to outside
>colonization, and our verbal history is almost nil. I've seen
>this urge to find out about our roots swell up inside of me
>and a few others around me and I think that's the point I've
>been trying to get at in this long ass reply.
>




Nice post. But I'm not so sure if it's so much our (assuming you mean "our" as us present day Fil-Ams) negligence though. I'm sure a lot of us hunger to learn about our pre-colonization history/culture. But is it really our fault that the colonizers rocked that sword and cross so well to effectively wipe out most of the culture? Another thing, there was no Philippines prior to colonization. The Spanish were the ones to really unite the different tribes together. The fact that there were so many separate groups illustrates why there would be a lack of information. Even if we did have that history, it wouldn't necessarily be MY history...yenno?

Very true, but although colonization is at the root of the problem our own neglect of our culture will slowly cause it to fade. They might have almost wiped out our culture but if we don't take it upon ourselves to educate and spread what little knowledge we have left of it then who will? I'm not blaming us (present day Fil-Ams), but ignoring our history doesn't exactly help - our neglect didn't cause the problem, but it will finish it. And I honestly don't believe that enough of us hunger to learn about our pre-colonization history/culture.

"...The fact that there were so many separate groups illustrates why there would be a lack of information. Even if we did have that history, it wouldn't necessarily be MY history...yenno?"

Very true as well, but this tends to illustrate my example about how some Filipinos do not even consider themselves Asian. We need to take ownership of our people as a whole - it's like those certain Filipinos who don't consider their "darker mountain Filipino" counterparts a part of their race. I think we all know about the unspoken view by most Filipinos that lighter skin is better (ever have family members complain that you're getting too dark?)
You don't see too many African Americans denying their Egyptian heritage because they didn't live in Egypt do you? Or the Japanese denying they're Japanese and claiming allegiance in accordance to which island they live on? I'm an American and a "Chicagoan," but I'm not saying parts of US history don’t apply to me just because it didn't happen in Illinois you know?

We need to celebrate and spread our culture as a whole, as a race. We can't keep separating ourselves by provinces or tribes, and it'd be damn near impossible to pinpoint our individual tribes anyways (shit, I probably have too much Chinese/Japanese/Spanish/Malaysian blood down the line to do that for myself.) I'm proud to call myself an American, a Filipino AND Asian. This is Filipino History Month, so let's celebrate ALL our history as a people.
Peace Unity and Respect to all.
(*excuse the cheese)

>Very true, but although colonization is at the root of the
>problem our own neglect of our culture will slowly cause it to
>fade. They might have almost wiped out our culture but if we
>don't take it upon ourselves to educate and spread what little
>knowledge we have left of it then who will? I'm not blaming us
>(present day Fil-Ams), but ignoring our history doesn't
>exactly help - our neglect didn't cause the problem, but it
>will finish it. And I honestly don't believe that enough of
>us hunger to learn about our pre-colonization
>history/culture.

Co-sign. Although I would knock out the "pre-colonization" specific and just leave it as "history" in general. I'm guessing that there's not a plethora of community groups/classes dedicated to education in Chicago?

>"...The fact that there were so many separate groups
>illustrates why there would be a lack of information. Even if
>we did have that history, it wouldn't necessarily be MY
>history...yenno?"
>
>Very true as well, but this tends to illustrate my example
>about how some Filipinos do not even consider themselves
>Asian. We need to take ownership of our people as a whole -
>it's like those certain Filipinos who don't consider their
>"darker mountain Filipino" counterparts a part of their race.
>I think we all know about the unspoken view by most Filipinos
>that lighter skin is better (ever have family members complain
>that you're getting too dark?)
>You don't see too many African Americans denying their
>Egyptian heritage because they didn't live in Egypt do you?
>Or the Japanese denying they're Japanese and claiming
>allegiance in accordance to which island they live on? I'm an
>American and a "Chicagoan," but I'm not saying parts of US
>history don’t apply to me just because it didn't happen in
>Illinois you know?

Hmm...Let me try again. My point about all the different tribes was really just asking the question, "Where does Philippine history start?". Since the unification of all those different groups was the result of colonialism, it would seem to make the most sense (for educational purposes)to start the history there. Otherwise, how far back do we go? Back to Adam and Eve? Back to Lumawig?

I think the example about America and Chicago (I don't really know about African or Japanese history) doesn't really fly because Chicago was the result of America, not the other way around. Therefore other parts would apply to you because you were a part of that history. These tribes have established their own unique identities prior to colonization. Just look at the differences in language in the Philippines to show you how unique these tribes were.

It would be nice to be able to accept it as a whole and have a cookie cutter take on Philippine history, but I don't think that it can be oversimplified as just a matter of geography.

This isn't to say that the little we do know about pre-colonization history is worthless. Fuck yeah we should be teaching it and educating one another. But I can understand how some people wouldn't see it as relevant.

>We need to celebrate and spread our culture as a whole, as a
>race. We can't keep separating ourselves by provinces or
>tribes, and it'd be damn near impossible to pinpoint our
>individual tribes anyways (shit, I probably have too much
>Chinese/Japanese/Spanish/Malaysian blood down the line to do
>that for myself.)

If we don't separate ourselves by provinces and tribes then we'll lose that history as well. No?

>I'm proud to call myself an American, a
>Filipino AND Asian. This is Filipino History Month, so let's
>celebrate ALL our history as a people.
>Peace Unity and Respect to all.
>(*excuse the cheese)

Next time make sure that cheese is on some hot pan de sal, or in ice cream with corn. Mais con queso ice cream is THAT shit!

I'm not saying we discount the individual histories or ignore them to make the whole, I’m saying that all is inclusive in what we consider "Philippine History." I think you're considering history as just after colonization, I'm curious about all of it. All of our history from the first people inhabiting any and all of the islands currently called the Philippines.

>It would be nice to be able to accept it as a whole and have a cookie cutter take on Philippine history, but I don't think that it can be oversimplified as just a matter of geography.

I don't consider including ALL of that history as "cookie cutter," it seems more complete than considering the history of just individual tribes or what not. It's like a whole pizza sliced up, we see how all the pieces make the whole. Cookie cutter implies it being a piece; I don't think a whole could ever be a piece. American history is considered as a whole, so is Japanese, African, French etc etc but it's not like they lose their individual island/state/provinces etc identities. I don't see how geography is an oversimplification. As a matter of fact it seems more difficult to include all the individual separate histories as a whole than just considering your own history and not the others.


>If we don't separate ourselves by provinces and tribes then we'll lose that history as well. No?

We can still celebrate our individual provinces and tribes while celebrating that we as a people are whole. It is after all called Filipino History month, not Luzon history month, Mindanao history month etc. Does it really seem beneficial to separate each and every Filipino in America by the direct province/tribe they originate from and have them celebrate their history separately from the rest of the "Filipinos?" Where's the Unity in that?

And to not consider any part of our history relevant seems to defeat the purpose of the month, especially considering how little we already know. We are a diverse people with roots in many different countries and races, that’s what makes us so unique and special. We cannot figure out who we are as a whole without including the individual pieces that made us up, but we also can’t deny that we ARE a whole people, a people united by struggle, geography or just by a simple name.

Peace

Okay I think we’re losing focus, because I never said anything about the celebration of Filipino history month.

To retrace our steps… in your original post you were saying that we should make more of an effort to learn more about Filipino pre-colonial history. I’m saying that’s difficult because there were so many different groups of people that compose “pre-colinial history”.

By the term cookie cutter, I mean nice and neat. Not a piece. I don't think we can have a nice, neat, complete history.

I mean you can argue that since we’re so mixed that it’s important for us to know everything we can about everything that’s happened since the first person set foot on the Philippines, but that seems a little impractical. The 170 native languages (not dialects) in the Philippines show you how different the groups were. Is it really fair to rubber band them all together and slap a “pre-colonial history” sticker on it?

Let’s use the Native Americans as an example: Does it make sense to group Eskimos with the Seminoles even though they had different identities and probably little to no interaction? Not really. Just because they live in same geographic area of what is now the present-day United States doesn’t make them one united group.

Same thing with the Philippines, does it make sense to group the Ibanag with the Moros, who had different cultures with probably little interaction with each other just because they are both from the same geographic area of what is now the present-day Philippines?

Using the geography of where those groups resided is oversimplying the fact that these were unique groups of people. That's like saying that Dilated Peoples sound the same as Sa-Ra just because they're on Okayplayer.

Like Vette said, our fragmented history is what unites us. And as you were alluding to, we should celebrate and embrace our shared identity because we are one people. But our shared history only goes back to a certain point. There IS a starting point. Prior to that, the people that composed us were unique and individual groups of people. As a matter of practicality it makes sense to say that the history began with colonization. Otherwise, how far do you have to keep going back?


---------------------------------------------


On a side note: I'm really glad that you and I having this discussion and I co-sign other folks' posts on appreciating this thread, specifically spivak's

"and in some ways, what's most important is to keep asking these questions, to keep reminding ourselves that it's crucial to think of these things, even if we disagree, even if we change our positions. to grapple with this, in some ways, really speaks to our postcolonial condition. to play with the idea of being filipino--to have fun with this serious matter. this is how i know i'm filipino. that and a love for all things ube."

All I'm trying to get at is despite all our differences we are all Filipino and should be considered and celebrated as such. The Native Americans are a good example, because those individual tribes as a whole are still considered "Native Americans." You can be Seminole and still be considered Native American as well.

I'm not saying we're 100% alike and should be treated as such, but Dilated and Sa-Ra are still Okayplayers and share that common bond. (*Big ups to Evidence who ripped it last night at the LB Chicago show, without throwing up mind you!) They can share the history and triumphs of OKP without losing their individual sounds and identities.

I also think that Vette said it best when he said our fragmented history is what unites us. I agree that we can't have a nice complete history, but it will make it a more complete to include everything under the umbrella of Filipino History. Which is all I'm trying to get it, regardless of what we would consider pre-colonial or whatnot shouldn't everything be considered Filipino history? It is often geography that unites people, regardless of how different they are (i.e. West Coasters and East Coasters.) Again I'm not trying to oversimplify, we can celebrate the fact that we are each unique groups of people and still acknowledge the fact that we all make up what it is to be Filipino. I don't think it's oversimplification when we consider everything, which is easier said than done and I can see how it would seem that way from these posts.

I definitely agree on the co-signing. I am really glad we are all having this discussion. A major part of understanding our culture can only come from such conversation. We went from not talking about this at all to having 7 different conversations and arguments about what it is to be Filipino. I think OKP has done a good job of celebrating this Month thus far.

man im nigerian filipina. i didnt get the height....bahhhh.

kamusta mga kababayan!lol

i think out of all the asian groups....filipinos are the ones that looked down upon the most. hence the reason blacks and flips get along so well. its a theory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Richardson_School_of_Law

"...i'm probably never going to wear my best barong to a job interview."

why not? Nipples are a definite deal-closer.

there are so many things that i want to weigh in on ...


but i feel like it would be a diatribe of about 10 pgs long...



im glad that this conversation has happened

kamusta ka?!

anybody else think masayang tanghali bayan is better than wowowee? wowowee is dope, but damn...something about mtb. lol..

CASH OR KAHA?!?!

Mine from Banaue Rice Terraces and the drive to Sagada (hanging coffins). I recommend you all go there if you get the chance. I will try to upload more.
http://picasaweb.google.com/augustojr/BanaueRiceTerraces

read Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson or Orientalism by Edward Said.

It's very easy to point the finger at the United States and Spain. They laid a tough hand in carving the Filipino American identity and separating us cross-culturally. Despite this fragmentation - we are one people. One people who share the common history of fragmentation and a defiant spirit in spite of it. Given this knowledge and the opportunity to fully examine it, it is our generation's (and possibly our children's) responsibility to make sense of it all.

I feel very fortunate that my parents taught me the language, taught me to cook the food, taught me the history, etc. At times it's I'm surprised that many parents in their generation did not do this. And even more surprised when kids my generation talk about how hard it is. It's not that complicated really. And you don't even have to know the language to pass it onto our own children.

It doesn't have to be big and large. We don't need to wear Filipino flags/pendants everyday or attend rallies/write letters. It can be as simple as eating Filipino food with our kids. Watching a Filipino movie or passing on the stories of Juan Tamad. Or even taking them to events where other Filipino Am couples/families are involved. It might even require asking/begging our parents to tell us their stories and help pass on the culture.

We have a golden opportunity to accomplish what so many of our parents could not do - dialogue and provide access to this rich fragmented history as well as add onto our parents' legacy. I would hate for it to go to waste.

>Despite this fragmentation - we are one people. One people who share >the common history of fragmentation and a defiant spirit in spite
>of it.

Love it.

.

starting with facts and general errata

moving to more specific questions about food, claiming people, highlighting events

and, toward the end of the month, flourishing with some of the most pressing questions that have to do with history, identity, and politics

what does it mean to be filipino?
what is the role of history, language, and tradition in being filipino?
what are the political implications in insisting on articulating a filipino identity?
what is the relationship between filipino and other histories? between filipino and filipino americans?

and in some ways, what's most important is to keep asking these questions, to keep reminding ourselves that it's crucial to think of these things, even if we disagree, even if we change our positions. to grapple with this, in some ways, really speaks to our postcolonial condition. to play with the idea of being filipino--to have fun with this serious matter. this is how i know i'm filipino. that and a love for all things ube.

this summer. i was there as a researcher with a small group in the philippines study program. met with folks involved in the peoples movements, UP professors, studied tagalog, spent time with fam, and made lots of photos for my research direction. it was incredible, and i vividly saw myself as a participant and product of colonialism's legacy there, and here.

one of my main goals through purposeful travel/research, documentary photography, my grad studies, education aspirations, and self-examination around a fil-am identity is to do what i can to induce empathy between the filipino diaspora and pinoys back in the PI. and to induce critical awareness in ways that build, and counter the exploitative relationship that has led the PI from one of asia's economic engines to a brain/labor farm. so whether that's in my own family, for example where i am trying to get my little cousins to learn about their relatives' social conditions/history in the midst of their own massive homes, or in the community with my kasamas & orgs doing a number of things, i'm trying to build connections and empathy between folks, while tying in how societal forces can counter that.

when i finally do a write up/photo gallery of our program/trip, i'll throw it in the sig & the sigeplayer list. thanks to okp, vette, and her sigeplayer list, i got to stay with a aussie pinay okp who just moved to manila from australia for a DOPE 3 days with the "creative" community in manila, mostly fellow photographers.






----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

.

it'd be easier to maintain.

so keep an eye out on your emails

google controls my life

We aren't the only ones?!

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=5306972&mesg_id=5306972&page=

joe uses a fork and knife. he told me his mom made them do that. i laughed. lol.

But yeah other folks are hella surprised that I can cut with a spoon. Lol.

i think she hangs them in the garage.

Man...the giants aren't gonna eat in the garage tho!

I was nosy and clicked on yr blog. I see yr up in ny, but doesn't this make you miss the bay?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fXtJRv36ttU

I just moved to jax from sac/sf. I watched that shit today and I got lightweight homesick.

i get more than my fill of b-boys in nyc...snoop around my blog more and you'll see why. ;)

well do they got burritos out there?

read my entry about mexicans in bk.

i thought that was interesting considering the many contributions the bay's made.

I think I just associate Crown City Rockers with The Bay.

What about this vid: http://youtube.com/watch?v=oByNhqlS3mY

they're definitely WAAAAY overdue for a record.

their keyboardist kat is pinay.

I remember being geeked when I saw their "M" logo in Brown Sugar. And Kat Quano is my dreamgirl.

Shit I almost forgot about them, what's good with Crown City Rockers these days?

lol but its so efficient to use the fork & spoon combo!

The 4th wave of Filipino Immigration to the United States began after the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965 and continues to the present day. This allowed the entry of as many as 20,000 immigrants annually. This wave of Filipinos was also called the "brain drain", and consisted mainly of professionals: doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers, as well as the military, Filipinos who continued to join the navy off Sangeley Point in Cavite City, Philippines.
Source: Cordova, Fred. "Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans". Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publushing Co., 1983.

But I got cool Filipinos to keep me company!

OG members have most likely received my email about the change...

New members are welcome

We've been around for about 4 years exchanging news about the Pilipino/Asian American community. If you're interested in joining please check us out at: http://groups.google.com/group/sigeplayers

i picked up a great new book in the PI called "manilamen: filipinos in the new world", UP press 2007. covers filipinos in mexico, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Malo_%28Louisiana%29






----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

i gotta find a good bookstore down here. those shipping fees are fierce.

thanks for posting the title. looks good.

if you can't track it down i can ask them. it's really good. talks about pinoys in the civil war, 1812, etc, lots on them in mexico. oh and i just understood your comment about the play! yeah hope to catch it...



----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

I know Apocalypse Now was filmed in the Philippines, and the extras acted as Vietnamese.

I think the pirates in the Life Aquatic (?) with Steve Zissou were Filipino, too.

Are there others out there?

w/ martin sheen's character traveling up the delta...hence the filipinos being vietnamese.

what do you mean by hiding?

the pirates weren't hidden and filipino pirates are very real...

some abstract figure like a pirate, or conflated into another asian people like the vietnamese.

it's an erasure or hiding of history, methinks, particularly the neocolonial relationship between the us and the philippines.

for apocalypse now

that's just blows my mind

but I don't think it really fits apocalypse now. Using the Philippines to film - and the headache that ensued - is a subtle testament to the different cultural/political issues at play during that time. Martial law. Sheen having a heart attack on-set. Extreme weather conditions that caused major filming delays. Vietnam still fresh in the US public's minds. The relationship between the US and the Philippines. Coppola was able to capture all that tension in Apocalypse, which places it above being just another war movie.

but do you think that was conveyed in the film itself? i feel like the film on its own masks the relationship between the u.s. and the philippines. it's only through hearsay and other texts that we find out all the interesting sidenotes about the production. the film itself tries to pretend you can use filipinos as vietnamese, and south vietnamese for vietcong, and that there are no issues in doing so. it's up to us to make these issues visible and notable for the political implications you bring up.

of course this argument could be made for most hollywood films which show little interest in self-reflexive questioning. so perhaps i'm stating the obvious. but despite how fascinating apocalypse now is and its importance in film history, i don't want to excuse it from the same troubles which plague all other films, and its failure to address those adequately. it just echoes the self-aggrandizing narrative of u.s. history all over again and justifies the exploitation of the philippines once more.

that talks about a lot of tension and problems he faced in filming.

it's really difficult to argue that the film was masking anything especially since the goal of the film was looking at a personal/introspective voyage based on a book that was originally set in world war I. all the other stuff just sort of came up out of circumstance. furthermore, people of different cultures are used to portray cultures other than their own all the time. does forrest whitaker portraying idi amin or don cheadle playing a rwandan make it any less authentic? not really.

sure, but there's a big difference between one person playing a character of a different background and a whole people or community being passed off for another one. the first may have its own issues, but the second just comes across, at least to me, as unsatisfactory and likely racist, especially when they are people of color being represented for mostly white audiences who will perpetuate the "all asians look alike" stereotype.

by the way, that wasn't coppola who released the documentary. it was his wife's footage, and his wife also published her diary of the filming, which also has lots of insight.

i see your point about the personal relationship between the director and his project. but that's a tired narrative, isn't it? the white man whose bloated sense of self excuses his exploitation of the world. isn't that colonialism at its finest?

i'm not saying i don't enjoy the film, or that i don't see what issues it explicitly raises about u.s. intervention, war, colonialism, etc. but it is implicated in those discourses in ways it is not so aware of, in particular how it uses the philippines and the filipinos as the setting for the film's production.

cambodia and vietnam were off-limits. Thailand? Indonesia? Perhaps.

what we have here is a combination of many different issues and like i said in my post previously a lot of the issues were a result of circumstance. i don't even think coppola was thinking about the racial implications of using the philippines/filipinos as part of the film when he chose the philippines. from a director's standpoint - it was probably just a location that best fit the geographical topography he was looking for and all the other issues came to light as production dragged on and problems started to spill out. furthermore, i wonder how much Marcos' influence had to do w/ Coppola needing to use Filipinos throughout the film as Vietnamese.

that speaks to the neocolonial aspects of the event.

it isn't up to me to help coppola choose where it was most appropriate to film. circumstance doesn't serve as an excuse in my book. i know i'm taking a bit of an unrealistic approach, since i'm not considering the filmmaker's decisions, etc.

but to me, those kinds of practical arguments become alibis for exploitation and power. colonialism traded on such alibis: economic opportunity, religious missions, spread of democracy, educating the uncivilized. but ultimately these just covered up the power play and subjugation of people the world over. we could ask, well, what were the europeans supposed to do, given all their economic and political theories? but i don't think we need to be apologists for colonialism or coppola.

you suggest that coppola wasn't thinking about race, and that's exactly it. why wasn't he thinking about race? could it be because it's not his domain as a white man? why is that not his responsibility, or why aren't we holding him accountable for that, especially since he chose to go abroad? his task as a filmmaker does not trump his social position as a white american man. or we could ask, in what ways was the use of cheap labor in the philippines and political rapport between the u.s. and the philippines already taking advantage of racial hierarchy? in what ways does he not need to think about race because it's already been thought in the racial structures which helped organize the project unconsciously?

and i'm not asking these question to take away from coppola's filmic genius or even him as a person. i'm not attacking him at all. i think these are useful questions with which to consider how power finds itself in things as seemingly apolitical as making a film, with the understanding that if we want to make incursions into that power, if we desire to rebuke colonialism because we are concerned with what to do with the philippines, then we need to trace power in all its guises.

>cambodia and vietnam were off-limits. Thailand? Indonesia?
>Perhaps.
>
>what we have here is a combination of many different issues
>and like i said in my post previously a lot of the issues were
>a result of circumstance. i don't even think coppola was
>thinking about the racial implications of using the
>philippines/filipinos as part of the film when he chose the
>philippines. from a director's standpoint - it was probably
>just a location that best fit the geographical topography he
>was looking for and all the other issues came to light as
>production dragged on and problems started to spill out.
>furthermore, i wonder how much Marcos' influence had to do w/
>Coppola needing to use Filipinos throughout the film as
>Vietnamese.
>

but reaching for this one. don't get me wrong, i definitely understand where you're coming from and in many situations i'd be the first to point things out. i think dominant society should be held accountable and be made aware of these problems, but i also believe that everybody shares some responsibility for the mess that is colonial mentality. for the record - i'm hardly the person to apologize for coppola or any rich white guy who made his millions behind a camera. ;) good thing i took a sick day otherwise i wouldn't have had the time to engage in this discussion.

in awhile. thanks for indulging me! guess we're making the most of this anchor.

yo check out http://www.clmnews.com/Entertainment_Sub_Pages/People/TI.html this site has pages dedicated to hip-hop majors such as 50, Jay-Z, & T.I. with news updates around the clock! Plus exclusive mixtapes online FREE!

hit: http://groups.google.com/group/sigeplayers to look around and join!

.

wut up yall! holler at me. i forgot about posts like this... i love yall.

blem my mind to learn this while i was there this summer


----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

were you able to find out how this happened?

it's detailed in the book i mentioned above and was one of the longest of its kind. it resulted in a crazy intercontinental cultural cross-pollination between the americas and the philippines between like the 1500s-1800s. the book shows how it's effects are still very much around in both regions.

there's also arabic and hindi in there among others.





----------------------------
Some of my photos from Cuba:
www.flickr.com/photos/workshopvisuals/sets/729092/

www.printroom.com/pro/workshop

www.myspace.com/rawsouthpaw

JOHN BOOK'S MYSPACE
http://www.myspace.com/crutmusic

THE RUN-OFF GROOVE
http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/114532

BOOK'S MUSIC Podcast
http://booksmusic.podomatic.com/

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
http://www.allmanbrothersband.com/index.php?vst=45730

Get 25% off www.karmaloop.com w/ rep code JR9103 at checkout!!!
Karmaloop now has
CROOKS & CASTLES

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8529/dscn2586he4.jpg

that's all. Oh yeah, adobo kicks ass.