TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Travel Philippines: More Pictures Cebu and Manila

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Travel Philippines: More Pictures Cebu and Manila

L-R: Terry Escano Manguerra, Lynley Ocampo, Chinggay Utzurrum, Cecilia Brainard, and Chona Bernad

Here are a few more pictures taken in Manila and Cebu.

The picture above was taken at Cebu's La Parilla restaurant where these ladies and I had a lovely Filipino dinner. La Parilla is run by the same owners of Cafe Laguna. It just opened last February in a new building in the new SRP development. La Parilla sits on the coast and offers seaside view and pleasant seabreeze. The food was good and reasonably priced. We enjoyed the lechon, barbacoa (ox tail), crablets, and baked clams.

The picture above shows the American Embassy in Manila. The American Embassy is along Manila Bay near the Luneta. There is usually a long line of people trying to get visas.

I couldn't believe the long queue in front of this Krispy Kreme and another shop in Makati. Krispy Kreme is a donut place.

This is my maternal aunt, Teresita Cuenco Gonzalez, who regaled me with family stories. She is the last surviving sibling of my mother and I try to get as many stories from her.

During this visit she talked about family members like our ancestor Juana Lopez, whose husband or partner is said to be either a Spanish colonel or admiral from the Marianas, although there is also talk that the fellow could have been a Spanish friar. My aunt said it was usual to refer to mestiza children as "frayle's children" which she suggested may have happened in describing Juana's daughter, Remedios. Colonel, admiral, or priest, the fellow seems to have been a Spaniard, and absentee at that.

My aunt also talked about her experiences during World War II when she was still a teenager. She described being in Leyte and walking in the garden of the place they stayed at when the American planes flew overhead, signalling liberation from the Japanese. She heard the planes, thought the planes were Japanese until she saw the American flag in the underbelly of the planes. How happy she and the others were, she said.

This is the portrait of Evelyn Ramirez Bosch who is recovering from a mild stroke and asks for prayers for her quick and complete recovery. She and I had attended both St. Theresa's College and Maryknoll College.

This is all for now.

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Tags: Manila, Philippines, Makati, pictures, photographs
This is all for now,
Cecilia

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.