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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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NEW YORK, October 14, 2004 --- Recognizing the dearth of materials on the Philippines and the Filipino-American community, the Philippine Forum will inaugurate a multi-media library on Philippine Studies and will launch two books edited by noted Filipino scholar E. San Juan.
The inauguration and the launching ceremony will be held on Oct. 30, at 2:30 pm at the Elmhurst Branch of the Queens Public Library, located at 86-01 Broadway, Elmhurst, NY.
The multi-media library and resource center will be named the Carlos Bulosan Heritage Center, in honor of the Filipino writer who wrote about the Filipino immigrant’s pre-war experience in the United States. Bulosan was arguably one of the most important authors who wrote about racial discrimination and harsh labor conditions faced by newly arrived immigrants.
To be launched on the same day are two books by Bulosan – On Becoming Filipino, a collection of his essays, and Cry and Dedication, a novel about peasant revolt and guerrilla warfare in the Philippines. Both books were edited by E. San Juan, director of the Philippine Cultural Studies Center and former chairman of the Department of Comparative American Culture at the Washington State University. San Juan is also the chairman of the Philippine Forum.
In opening the Carlos Bulosan Heritage Center, the Philippine Forum aims to provide the Filipino American community with a library and resource center that will house materials– printed, audio, video– pertaining to and relevant to the Philippines and the Filipino immigrant community in the Northeastern tri-state area.
Robert Roy, executive director of the Philippine Forum, said Bulosan Center will also sponsor forums, Tagalog classes, workshop seminars and cultural events in line with the Center’s goal of making people of Filipino heritage aware of their roots.
Roy admits that the Bulosan Center still has a long way to go as far as being a complete library yet.
“We still need to stock up on books, audio and video materials,” he said, adding that the Center will welcome donations from the public.
Any books, audio and video materials that the public can donate will go a long way in building the Bulosan Center into a community center for Philippine Studies and research and a repository of information about the Philippines and the Filipino American community, said Roy.
The inauguration and book launching were the Philippine Forum’s way of honoring the memory of Bulosan, whose birthdate falls on November 2. The event was also a fitting way to close the observance of October as Filipino-American History Month.
Among the speakers during the launching ceremony are Professor Kenneth Bauzon of St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, who will deliver a review of the two Bulosan books to be launched; Dr. Jorshinelle Sonza, who will speak on the relevance of Bulosan in present-day realities. There will be also a reading of a Bulosan work during the event, which is open to the public.
After the launching ceremony at the Queens Library, Professor San Juan and staff members of the Philippine Forum will lead participants in a short one-block walk to the Carlos Bulosan Heritage Center for the ribbon-cutting and office warming and refreshment.
The Carlos Bulosan Center is located in the Philippine Forum’s office at 87-08 Justice Avenue., Rm 2E, Elmhurst, Queens.
To get to the Queens Public Library, take a Queens-bound V, G and R trains and get off at the Grand Avenue-Newtown station. Take the Broadway exit and walk towards Justice Avenue. The Elmhurst Queens Library is right after Justice Avenue.
For more information, call the Philippine Forum office at (718) 565 8862.
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NEW YORK --- The group of Filipino and Filipino-American communityleaders, calling itself “The Team” running for president and the 13 board of directors of the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI), claims it is the most qualified to run the annual celebration.
Nimia Lacebal leads the group as candidate for president. The team’s candidates for the 13 seats of the PIDCI board are: Sofia Abad, Ronnie Atinaja, Baby Bleza, Tony Bordamonte, Philip Carreon, Lolita Compas, Raul Estrellado, Emmanuel “Boy” Pangan, Nelsie Parrado, Ave Pimo, Gani Puertollano, Rexie Tagle, and Tambi Wycoco.
The team’s claim to being the most qualified stems from the number of professionals in its ranks: Two doctors of medicine (MDs), three registered nurses (RNs), a mainframe computer technical specialist and systems consultant, two engineers, one master in mining, the other an aeronautical engineer, several marketing and communications services practitioners, and others who were in Philippine or U.S. government service.
For experience, the team claims to have combined 129 years its members logged for the annual Philippine Independence anniversary celebration of 15 years. Among its candidates is a past overall chairperson of the original Philippine Independence Day Committee (PIDC), two former overall vice chairpersons, the current and the past vice president of PIDCI, several former Philippine Independence Day Parade chairpersons, street fair chairpersons, cultural committee chairpersons, general services committee chairpersons (one of them a four-time chairperson), and others who chaired one committee or another.
The entire lineup of officers of PIDCI for the fiscal year 2004-2005 will be elected at large in this year’s delayed elections, a result of PIDCI bylaws being amended twice in the last two months, first by the current Board last July 19, then by the member organizations August 2, before finally being ratified by the membership September 16.
PIDCI is the entity that was incorporated in 2001 to succeed the original PIDCI of 13 years of planning, organizing, executing and managing New York’s annual celebration of the Philippine Independence Anniversary.
The amendments removed the two classes of directors and abolished the position of overall chairperson. Under the ratified bylaws, the president takes the place of the overall chairperson and is elected by the membership at annual elections. Before the latest amendments, the Board elected the president.
The elections for president and the entire membership of the board of directors (13) are on Saturday, October 30, at the Philippine Center, located at 556 Fifth Avenue, New York City, starting at 12:00 noon through 5:00 p.m.
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NEW YORK --- San Francisco-based Fiesta Filipina is teaming up again with Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino to bring the biggest celebration of Filipino heritage to Las Vegas.
For the second year in a row Las Vegas Fiesta Filipina will take over the famed Fremont Street Experience October 22-24 to showcase the best in Filipino culture. Visitors will be able to explore the various vendor booths featuring imported goods, traditional art and Filipino cuisine, and entertainers from all over the country and from the Philippines are scheduled to appear on the festival’s two stages.
One of them, famed Filipina actress and diva, Anna Fegi, will headline Friday and Saturday and be singing the award-winning song, “Kailan Kaya Kita Mamahalin.”
Las Vegas’s own Chastity will perform every day of the festival alongside other local performers Philippine Dance Company of Nevada, Meccamee, Jai, Icy Ilustre, Camille Carr, MSI Martial Arts Academy, who will demonstrate some of their fighting skills, and Palos Verde High School, whose dance troupe will be doing Polynesian dances.
Also to appear are soloists Honore and Christine Adiaz, group BX5, and Binibining contestant Joyce Balaoro. The legendary Fremont Street Experience Lightshow will illuminate Fiesta Filipina overhead each night of event, reminding guests that in Vegas everything is bigger and better.
Since its inception in 1995, Fiesta Filipina has grown to reflect the changes in modern Filipino-American culture while creating a stronger connection with the traditions of the past. The organizers of Fiesta Filipina have brought the festival to Las Vegas in response to its large and growing Filipino population, which has doubled in the past decade. The aim of Fiesta Filipina is not only to build a better sense of community and identity among Filipino-Americans but also to share the rich Philippines legacy with the rest of the world.
For more information on Las Vegas Fiesta Filipina, contact Fiesta Filipina at (650) 871-6647, fiestafilipina@sbcglobal.net or visit their website www.fiestafilipinausa.com.
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