TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Old Photographs and Memories

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Old Photographs and Memories - Memorabilia photos of Cecilia Brainard

My childhood's home I see again;
And sadden with the view;
And still as memory crowds my brain;
There's pleasure in it too. ~ Abraham Lincoln
(My old photo album/scrapbook has this quote and attributes it to Abe, but I'm not sure)

My old pictures are fading fast. They've traveled far, the last shreds of memories from a distant time and place. Most weren't great photographs to start with, small-sized black-and-whites that will soon disappear. I've scanned a few to save a bit of that past.

Let's see if I have the energy to scan more in the future --- or maybe I'll just surrender the images to the universe.

~~~
In the top picture, I was 19 in a Hawaiian fashion show.

The next photo is my only baby picture, and I was probably six months old when this was taken in Talisay, Cebu. I'm with my two sisters and brother;

The next picture shows my sister, brother and me (when I was around seven years old);

The group picture was taken at a costume party in Cebu. This was the Vietnam War Era and the three Americans were stationed in Mactan Airforce. I'm the one kneeling, second from the left. Sometimes I wonder what happened to those young men, if they survived the war;

There's a page from my album/scrapbook with Tau Alpha Frat (UP) memorabilia. I was a freshman at the University of the Philippines. I'm third from the right on the step, and second the left patting my hair;

The last photo was taken at a Flamenco performance in Spain. My mother, sister, and I toured Spain, seeing places like the Granada, Sevilla, Toledo, and other places. I still remember my mother and I standing on a hill and looking across to the Alhambra at sunset - what an incredible experience!

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.