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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 --- For three years now, a group of Filipino American youth fly to the Philippines to study and live for six weeks during the summer break.
This year’s group was the smallest compared to the first two batches. Major reason was the US government’s advisory against travel to the Philippines.
Still, 25 young Filipino Americans refused to be deterred by the travel ban and still signed up with the Philippine Forum’s Philippine Studies Program.
And those who did not heed the US’ travel advisory were glad that they joined the Philippine Studies Program, just like those were in the earlier two batches.
Claire Oliveros, coordinator of the multi-cultural center at Portland Community College, is one of the first 2005 alumni of the program to return from the Philippines.
The summer experience, Oliveros said, was “a holistic approach to understanding Philippine culture.”
As a directed research student, the program allowed her to experience the Philippines and study her field, “Philippine mass movements and the role of teacher activists.”
For his part, Paul de la Cruz of University of Illinois, class of 2003, said “the single most powerful thing my trip gave me was the sense of being one with the people, my own people”.
“I would not change that summer for anything in the world,” said Daya Mortel of the University of Hawaii, and an alumni of 2003. “For the past six weeks we’ve been living in a third world country and we saw how the majority of Filipinos live. Now upon returning to the US, you don’t know how to deal and process all the information.”
Julia Camagong, co-executive director of Philippine Forum, and program director of the Philippine Studies Program said that after the six-week program, students often experience culture shock when they return to the United States.
For Michael Viola, a graduate student at the University of Oregon and alumni of class 2004, the program was as an enlightening experience and agreed that the end part was tough. “It was really difficult to be back,” he said, adding that when the program ended, he felt pulled away from “the sense of community.”
As a result, students of the program decided to form a nationwide Filipino American organization called Sandiwa.
“We refuse to think that was the pinnacle, so we formed Sandiwa to continue the dialogue we started in the Philippines,” said Viola.
Daya Mortel said the group’s mission is to “bring together recent graduates with alumni who have gone through the exposure trips so no one feel estranged or isolated.”
The Philippine Studies Program is designed for Fil-Am students who seldom have an opportunity to study Philippine history, government and culture.
While in the Philippines, the Filipino Americans attend classes, workshops, lectures and forums on Philippine history, culture, and current socio-economic situations and go on guided tours in and around Manila while billeted in a dormitory inside the University of the Philippines.
They also go on trips to Boracay, Cordillera and Payatas.
The previous two years, the program was co-sponsored by the University of California System..
However, travel advisory from the justice department has forced the UC system to pull out from the program.
For more information, visit the website at www.PhilippineStudies.org, or email Philippinestudies2003@hotmail.com.
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AUTHOR Brenda Jones releases her first novel “Nurses Under Fire” that depicts the story of WWII nurses assigned to the jungles of Bataan and the tunnels of Corregidor.
“‘Nurses Under Fire’ displays the courage, caring and sacrifices of the American nurses in Philippines in time of war, and their concern and care for the safety of their wounded patients. The medical and prison conditions during the occupation are clearly and factually depicted,” Rafael A Zaragoza, M.D., a retired urologist based in Dover, Delaware, said.
In her book, Jones depicts the hardship and emotions the nurses felt while held under internment. She describes the compassion they felt towards civilians and soldiers, and despite starvation and illness, used their knowledge of nutrition and positive attitude to aid in their patient’s survival.
Jones has been in the medical profession for thirty years and participated in “Operation We Care,” a mission that allowed her to tour the Philippines and various WWII sites.
The book is a historical novel published by Cherokee Books.
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Edison, NEW JERSEY --- This New Jersey town with a significant Filipino population has a well-kept secret that is no longer a secret among Filipinos in the Northeast tri-state area.
For the past 11 years, the Filipino Friends and Families of North Edison have been holding a summer children’s camp for kids from pre-K to 12th grade.
Alice Coco, summer camp coordinator, said the children’s camp aims to foster Filipino culture among Filipino American youth and to help them develop to become future leaders.
Coco has seen the summer camp grow every year. From the first batch of about 20 participants mostly from Edison, this year’s batch has swelled to 96 participants not only from Edison but also from Jersey City and Princeton in New Jersey, from New York and from as far as Connecticut.
This year’s camp, held from August 10 to 14, had Philippine Festivals for its theme. All throughout the camp, kids attend classes and workshops on Filipino dances, music, drama, arts and crafts, cooking games and history. There was also a storytelling session on the more popular Philippine festivals such as Santacruzan, Christmas, Lent and fiestas.
The first two days of the camp were held at the United Methodist Church and the last two days at the St. Helena’s School Hall. Both venues are located in Edison.
The camp culminates in a cultural show wherein the children will demonstrate the dances, songs and music that they have learned during the workshops.
“The summer camp is designed that way,” Coco said. “The dances, songs and music that they are taught are the ones that they will perform during the cultural show. The workshops are geared to help the children put out a performance during the cultural show.”
Coco said parents’ participation has contributed greatly to the success of the camp.
On camp days, parents, usually mothers, take a leave from their work to help out in the camp. The camp venue is like a clothing assembly line, with parents busily sewing and making the costumes that the children will wear during the cultural show.
And as they say in the North Edison children’s camp, once a camper, always a camper.
Many of the alumni of the camp come back every year to serve as volunteers, some acting as facilitators, some run errands, and some take care of the props needed for the show.
“When former campers come back and serve as volunteers, we feel that we are also successful in training them to become leaders,“ Coco said,
Anthony Coco, 25, Coco’s son and among the first batch of students of the camp, said he learned a lot about the Filipino culture through the seminar.
But the best thing that he learned from the camp was the sense of family, the sense of belonging to a community.
“Everybody in the family helps out in the camp,” said Coco, who now works in Washington D.C. but filed for a vacation just to be able to attend this year’s camp.
This year’s camp was partly funded by grants from the Midddlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts / Department of the State.
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