Some books on Filipino American history

By WALTER ANG
Oct. 26, 2017
USA & Canada Section, Inquirer.net
http://usa.inquirer.net/7557/books-filipino-american-history

SEATTLE — Spouses Dorothy and Fred Cordova founded the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) in 1982 to champion the preservation and public awareness of Fil-Am history.

FANHS lobbied for years for the month of October to be observed as Filipino American History Month in the United States. California officially declared it so in 2009 and Congress followed suit the following year.

In 1986, FANHS established the National Pinoy Archives here in Seattle, a collection of historical documents and photographs on Fil-Ams across the US. It opened the FANHS Museum in Stockton, California in 2015.

It's also established chapters across the country (that can be reached via their respective Facebook pages).

It has also published pictorial essay books on Fil-Am history.

Filipinos: Forgotten Asian Americans
A Pictorial Essay/1763- circa-1963
By Fred Cordova
Published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing in 1983
If you type in "Filipino American history" at online bookstores, this is one of the oldest publications that pop up in the results. A seminal publication in Fil-Am history titles.

Filipinos in ____
(Images of America series)
By FANHS
Published by Arcadia Publishing with editions starting 2001

This series of locale-specific pictorial essay books are charming visual accounts. Children of Fred Cordova's seminal publication, as they were. Editions include Puget Sound, the Willamette Valley, Vallejo, Stockton, the East Bay, San Francisco, Ventura County, Los Angeles, Los Angeles' Historic Filipinotown, Hollywood, Carson and the South Bay, San Diego, Hawai'i, Chicago, Greater Philadelphia, Washington, DC, New York City.

The internet has a trove of articles, videos and podcasts that touch on Fil-Am history. There are also history books, memoirs, and academic books about specific periods, individuals, or geographic areas in Fil-Am history.

But it can be challenging sometimes to decide what precise topics to search online for or find books to read about, without first having a general idea of the broader timeline of Fil-Am history.

For readers who'd like to go beyond the Wikipedia entry and dig a little more, here are some beginners' books on Fil-Am history.

Unlike some available in-depth and topic-specific books, these titles are geared towards general readership and provide an overview Fil-Am history from early Filipino settlers in the northern American continent (even before the US declared its independence) all the way through the different contexts and reasons that spurred the multiple waves of immigration to the US and the growth of the Fil-Am population.

Although some are already out-of-print (sad!), these titles are still available for purchase online, with some even having e-book versions.

Filipino American Lives
By Yen Le Espiritu
Published by Temple University Press in 1995
Though a collection of interviews with Fil-Ams from different sectors, Vietnamese scholar Espiritu's (she married a Filipino) introductory essay is an overview of Fil-Am history.

The Filipino Americans from 1763 to the present:
Their history, culture, and traditions
By Veltisezar Bautista
Published by Bookhaus Publishers in 1998; 2nd edition published in 2002

The Filipino Americans
By Barbara Mercedes Posadas
Published by Greenwood Press in 1999

For context, there is:

History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos
By Luis H. Francia
Published by Overlook Press in 2010

For younger readers, there are:
Filipino Americans
(New Immigrants series)
By Jon Sterngass
Published by Chelsea House in 2007
For teenagers.

The Filipino Americans
(Peoples of North America series)
By Jennifer Stern
Published by Chelsea House Publishing in 1989
For teenagers.

Filipino Americans
(We Are America series)
By Carolyn Yoder
Published by in 2003
For 7 years and up / Grades 2 and up

There is an obvious dearth of publications that are available for general readership; hopefully an article like this one will help remind and jar scholars, writers, illustrators, photographers, editors, and publishers into producing; organizations, businesses and noble patrons into funding; and readers into clamoring(!) for more titles. (Or at the very least, for publishers to keep marketing or start producing ebook versions of existing titles.)

For more recommendations on books about Fil-Am history, approach a librarian or get in touch with Fil-Am bookstores like Arkipelago in San Francisco and Philippine Expressions Bookshop in Los Angeles, or contact the Philippine American Publishers Consortium.

Filipino ghosts to haunt San Francisco theatergoers

By WALTER ANG
Oct. 19, 2017
USA & Canada Section, Inquirer.net
http://usa.inquirer.net/7398/filipino-ghosts-haunt-san-francisco-theatergoers

SAN FRANCISCO — "Mumu," a show about ghosts will premiere this Halloween weekend at Bindlestiff Studio in the SOMA (South of Market) area.

Suzette Sagisi (center) plays Josefina,
who has twin spirits, shown behind her.
Photo by Julie Munsayac.

"We all have ghosts," says Irene Faye Duller, one of the founding members of Susmaryosep & Co., a group of multidisciplinary artists that's co-presenting the show with Bindlestiff Studio. "The show deals with the celebration of death and a meditation of our darker selves."

"Mumu" is the children's diminutive for the Tagalog word for ghost "multo," itself a corruption of the Spanish "muerto" ("dead").

The concept of "celebration of death," Duller points out, is informed by Philippine traditions. "All Soul's Day in our history is not a day of mourning; in the homeland, it is a day to gather, remember and celebrate," she says.

"Since we [here in the US] no longer go in hordes to fill the cemeteries with song and ceremony on November 2nd, the time is very ripe to conceive new rituals and continue a community gathering in the name of our ghosts," she adds.

Crafting the experience

Susmaryosep would like to keep as much of the plot confidential, though it is willing to say that "Mumu"'s story is set in 1977 San Francisco and involves a Filipino immigrant.

It also advises interested audience members to wear comfortable shoes.

Sumaryosep & Co.'s publicity GIF file used in social media for "Mumu."

While the venue can usually seat up to around a hundred theatergoers, this particular production limits each show to only 40 audience members, all of whom will need to obtain online reservations.

The 90-minute production will involve acting and choreography set to music collected by Joel Quizon from original vinyl records from the 1970s.

The soundscape includes influences from disco music and the Manila Sound, the popular music movement in the Philippines from that decade that focused on original Filipino music versus foreign works.

The script and designs for sets, costumes and lighting were devised by the entire group.

Choreographer is Kyle Limin. Featured dancers include Alexandria Diaz De Fato and Cassey De La Pena.

Stories and symbolisms

The show "Mumu" is only one part of a multi-tentacled endeavor.

Another installment of Susmaryosep's work is "#HelloMumu," a project to preserve ghost stories and their telling.

Recent sessions held at Arkipelago Bookstore have included singer and poet Golda Sargento, writer Paul Berrara, and Desi Danganan, one of the founders of the Undiscovered Night Market. Theater directors Allan Manalo of Bindlestiff Studio and Sean San Jose of Campo Santo theater company have also made appearances.

It may seem the efforts are simply to collect ghost stories and to keep alive the practice of communal storytelling. But Duller explains that the larger goal is to forge a deeper connection to Filipino and Filipino American culture and history.

The ghost stories are to serve as metaphors, a jumping off point to think about broader issues. "The bigger theme of the relationship between Filipinos and what haunts us is definitely something we want to continue exploring.

"This exploration of our unknown darkness reveals an intimate story of connection, cultural psyche and death. This is our inquiry of everything that haunts us as a people."

In other words, "What do ghosts symbolize about us and why are we afraid to confront them?"

"Mumu" runs Oct. 27-Nov. 18 at Bindlestiff Studio, 185 6th St., cor. Howard St., San Francisco. Visit Mumu-sf.com.

Aswang and halimaw to hold concert in Sonoma County, Calif.

By WALTER ANG
Oct. 7, 2017
USA & Canada Section, Inquirer.net
http://usa.inquirer.net/7155/aswang-halimaw-hold-concert-sonoma-county-calif

RONHERT PARK, California — About an hour and a half's drive from San Francisco, aswang and halimaw of all sorts will sing at a concert at Sonoma State University this October. In Tagalog no less. But there will be English supertitles.

Charmaine Clamor (left) as Manananggal rehearsing
with composer and librettist Florante Aguilar.

With music and libretto by Florante Aguilar, "Aswang the Concert: Mga Kuwentong Halimaw, Their True Stories" is a dramatized song cycle that debunks the common stories about Philippine mythical creatures such as manananggal, tikbalang, syokoy, lady in white and tumao.

"My co-writer Fides Enriquez and I endeavored to create back stories that tie them with actual historical events. We tend to like events that history books 'forgot.'" Aguilar says.

The concert is free admission and guests can come dressed as their favorite aswang or in Filipiniana attire to celebrate Filipino American History Month.

Music

The concert builds on a previous incarnation of the show when it was workshopped at Yerba Buena Center and Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco in 2013.

"This is the fuller version," says Aguilar. "Whereas the 2013 version approach was one song per aswang, this 2017 concert version has more of a full arc with certain stories told over several songs."

Aguilar's most recent work was composing the percussive music for last year's "Bae Makiling," a dance production staged by San Francisco- based performance group Kularts. Born in Manila,

Aguilar learned to play the octavina in a rondalla group. He studied at University of the Philippines' College of Music and trained as a classical musician. He later moved to New York with a scholarship to study at the Manhattan School of Music, and he received his Bachelor of Music Degree at the San Francisco Conservatory for Music.

Aguilar is an advocate of harana music, songs used in the now-vanished Filipino courtship ritual of serenading. He and Enriquez produced the 2012 documentary "Harana: The Search for the Lost Art of Serenade," where Aguilar returned to the Philippines after 12 years to interview and collaborate with three haranistas from remote provinces.

Misconceptions 

Growing up in Cavite province in the '70s, Aguilar experienced many "brownouts.'" "When there'd be no electricity at night, my cousins and family friends would gather over candle light and tell really scary ghost stories. You can imagine what that does to an impressionable young boy."

Cast records for "Aswang the Concert" soundtrack.
From left, top row: Kyle de Ocera and Leon Palad.
Bottom row: Kristine Sinajon and Giovanni Jose.

Fast forward 30 years later, when Alleluia Panis of Kularts and Aguilar were exploring ideas for a new performance piece, Aguilar immediately thought of the creatures from his childhood.

He wanted to have these creatures come out and tell the "truth" of their stories themselves. "That they're really not what we thought they were," he says. "That some were born out of misconceptions, or they're just humans portrayed as evil by the Spanish friars in order to discredit shamanic figures so they could convert (people) to Catholicism."

"Fides and I don't like the usual horror movie representations of these mythological creatures, we don't think that's interesting. We hope to successfully portray them more as multidimensional figures that would ruin your usual preconceived notions." Multimedia This concert is only one component of a multiformat endeavor.

Sneak-peek videos of rehearsals have already been posted in the production's Facebook event page and a raw soundtrack has been uploaded to Augilar's Soundcloud account.

The concert will also be filmed and the footage will become part of a planned "Aswang" movie production. There is also another staging of the concert being planned.

Cast includes Charmaine Clamor as Manananggal, Leon Palad as Tikbalang, Kyle de Ocera as Isagani/Syokoy, Giovanni Ortega as The Host, and mezzo-soprano Kristine Sinajon as Candida/Lady in White.

Music is performed by the Fandangueros, Florante Aguilar (guitar), Chus Alonso (flute and laud), Sage Baggott (percussion) and Greg Kehret (double bass). Sound engineering is by Chris Bell, lighting design by Kevin Myrick, costume design by Lara Waters.

The concert is presented by Filipino American Association of Sonoma State University. A production of New Art Media in partnership with Center for Babaylan Studies, co-produced by Esperanza Catubig.

Free admission; donations accepted for Center of Babaylan Studies. "Aswang the Concert" runs Oct. 15, 5 p.m., at Schroeder Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, 1801 E. Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, California. Visit FloranteAguilar.com.