Thursday, September 4, 2025

The Journey by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard -- Weekend Reading in English and Bisaya

 



I am pleased to share a short story that I wrote that grew out of a minor character in my third novel, THE NEWSPAPER WIDOW. THE JOURNEY was first published in Bisaya or Cebuano in Katitikan: Literary Journal of the Philippine South on July 12, 2025. I am sharing the original English version and the Bisaya translation. 

THE NEWSPAPER WIDOW is an acclaimed literary mystery set in Ubec Philippines in 1909.  The novel has forthcoming translations in Arabic, Slovenian, Serbian, and Macedonian. For more information, click here https://ceciliabrainard.com/book/the-newspaper-widow/ .

 ~ Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

 

 


THE JOURNEY

Copyright 2025 by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. All Rights Reserved. 

THE JOURNEY was first published in Bisaya under the title ANG PAGLAKAW in Katitikan: Literary Journal of the Philippine South

Let us start here.

Imagine this: winds howling and toppling over trees, knocking off roof tiles; rain so thick you couldn’t see beyond your arm; water oozing into windows and doors; and she looking out her window and weighing what to do. Was she in a home, a hospital, a small room somewhere? What excuse did she give to explain why she was taking her newborn baby out? Or was she all by herself, with no one, so she could bundle me up, hug me close to her chest, throw covering over us, and step out into the darkness broken only by flashes of lighting in the sky. How far did she walk before she made it to the gate? And past the gate, she walked down the slippery road to the wall where the turning cradle was. Did she talk to me, say goodbye to me before she lay me there? Did she weep when she turned the wheel, listened to the metallic creaking that went on for an eternity until it stopped? She rang the bell, heard it echo within the walls of the Casa San Jose, listened for some movement behind the walls to indicate someone was there to receive me. Did she imagine the wet nurse wiping sleep from her eyes as she shuffled over to the turning cradle? How many heart beats passed before she turned and made her way back out, through the rain, darkness, and dangers that only Manila typhoons bring.

I’m talking about my mother.

            Your mother must have been desperate to give up a beautiful baby like you, people at the orphanage said.

I was soaked and limp like a small dead animal. All but the wet nurse had written me off as dead. But nurse removed my wet blanket and clothes, dried me off, wrapped me in a warm blanket, and she held me close to her breasts for more warmth and so I could smell her milk. She said it took a long time before I rooted for her breast and suckled.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

An Affair to Remember by Paulino Lim, Jr. - Love Stories Series #7


From Cecilia Brainard: I am proud to share PAULINO LIM, JR.'s  short story, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER. This is part of my Love Stories Series featured in my blog. This story first appeared in The Philippines Graphic Reader, June 2, 2025. It is featured in my blog with permission from the author.  



PAULINO LIM, JR. is a professor emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach. He is a recipient of the 2016 Presidential Award for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas—for his fiction and scholarly essays that are constructive criticisms of the political, social, and religious problems in the Philippines. Also in 2016, his alma mater, the University of Santo Tomas, conferred upon him a lifetime achievement honor—the Parangal Hagbong Award—for significant contributions to Philippine literature.



AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

Copyright by Paulino Lim, Jr. All rights reserved.



MONSIGNOR SULLIVAN WAS SEATED at his glass-topped desk, the letter from Vikings Cruise on a linen stationery before him. Should he take up the offer of a free cruise in exchange for serving as chaplain for two weeks on the ship?

He was wearing a black cassock and tinted lenses that highlighted his cropped white hair and shaven surf-tanned face. He looked up when he heard the knock, and said, “Come in. Oh, hello.”

His assistant Father Clive James was in his late forties, with his trimmed brown hair, metal-framed tinted glasses, hair on the chin but not the cheeks. He looked like a surgeon, except for the white alb he wore at the outdoor Mass on the playground of St. Ambrose Catholic School.

“How was Mass on the grass, Clive?”

“Just a couple of Southwest Airline planes that landed and took off from the Long Beach Airport. Deacon Charles delivered the homily.”

“When is he leaving for Florida, by the way?”

“End of the month, during school break.”

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Game by Melissa Salva - Love Stories Series #6

 


From Cecilia Brainard: I am proud to share MELISSA SALVA'S short story, GAME. This is part of my Love Stories Series featured in my blog. Melissa's story developed in a Filipina Women's Writing Workshop, that included Melissa, Susan Evangelista, Cecilia Brainard, and Nadine Sarreal. This is featured in my blog with permission from the author. 

Writing Workshop in Tagaytay 2013 with l-r: Melissa Salva, Susan Evangelista, Cecilia Brainard, Nadine Sarreal


***

MELISSA SALVA  (aka Melissa Ramos) writes fiction, poetry, and children’s books. Her work appeared in national publications as well as in anthologies published in the Philippines, the US, and Singapore. She is the author of five books, including Marawi, Land of the Brave, which was shortlisted in the Philippines’ 6th National Children’s Book Awards. Her children’s book on the Spanish artist Juvenal Sansó is forthcoming.

 ***


GAME

Copyright by Melissa Salva. All rights reserved. 


THE CLOCK on the dashboard read 10:26. KC sighed and climbed out, because being late went against her nature. A time had been agreed upon. If it were merely a suggestion then it would have been vague (“between ten and eleven”) or implied (“brunch.”) She disliked the notion of suggestions. But for the time being, she was willing to wait before asking point-blank. She didn’t want to scare this one away.

None of her previous dates ever showed up on time. None of them referred to their meetings as dates, either. It confused her so much that she always pulled her wallet out when the waiter came with the bill. She insisted on paying her share so aggressively that the men could do nothing but concede. What she wanted to say was, “if this were a date, of course I’d let you pay.” But what came across was, “you didn’t say this was a date!”

After the Ascension by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard - Philippines Graphic Reader December 2024

 


My short short, AFTER THE ASCENSION, was published In December 2024 by the Philippines Graphic Reader


AFTER THE ASCENSION

Copyright 2024 by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

(Short Fiction in the Style of Joaquin Antonio Peñalosa’s God’s Diary)

 

            When the Cherubim settled down and the fluttering of wings turned into soft rustlings, the Father said, “So tell us, My Son, tell us, what happened.”

            The Father knew everything of course, from the time Gabriel greeted Miss Mary, every second, every heartbeat, every breath the Son made: the hammer in His hands when His earthly father taught him carpentry, the wine in the casket, Lazarus arising, the cross leaning heavy on His Son’s shoulders, the nails in His hands as he hung on the cross, the cry to Him—Eloi, Eloi—but He wanted to hear His Son tell the story of His Great Adventure. He wanted to hear His voice. Tell us, My Son.

            And so the Son spoke, and the Cherubim became excited at the boom of His human voice, at the veins throbbing on His neck as His words filled the air, and they marveled at the wounds in His hands glistening as He gestured for emphasize – (His earthly father had taught Him to do that); and the Cherubim tucked in their wings and whispered in great awe, “A Human, the Son is a real Human!”

The Son’s voice echoed throughout heaven and eternity, throughout time and infinity. And the Father and Cherubim listened, enraptured, and they laughed and marveled and wanted to weep. It was not just the Son’s words that moved them, but the sight of the wounds in His hands and feet, and that terrible jagged cut in His side. The wounds had dried blood in the center, and the flesh was red and blue at the edges. (Did the Son’s friend Thomas really ask to touch those ghastly wounds?)

            When the Son got to the part of blood and water gushing from the wound on His side, the Father had to ask, “Son, did you suffer much?”

            “Very much so, Father,” He replied, with forthrightness.

            There was silence for a long bit of eternity. No one had to say, I’m sorry You had to suffer all that pain and humiliation and die next to thieves, because You are the Father’s eternal Son—yes, Son of God the Father, Creator of everything—because the heavenly hosts knew.

            After the profound silence, the Son said, “It wasn’t a piece of cake. I really hated seeing the women crying, especially my Mother, but I had to do it. Only I could do it.”

            There was another hushed silence, after which the Father sighed and nodded, and He bent down to where His Son was seated and gently touched the awful wounds, and He peered through the wound at the Son’s side, and He was surprised that He could see all of mankind; and His heart went out to them.

 


~end~

The Philippines Graphic kindly cited the story at their 25th Nick Joaquin Literary Awards Night.




Read Also

Cecilia Brainard Fiction: The One-Night Stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair  

           Cecilia Brainard Short Short: My Mother's Skirts 

Love Stories Series

          The Mechanism of Moving Forward by Nikki Alfar - Love Stories Series #1

            A Simple Grace by Geronimo Tagatac - Love Stories Series #2 

            The Virgin's Last Night by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard  - Love Stories Series #3 

            Fossil by Angelo R. Laceusta - Love Stories Series #4

          Rose Petal and Tea and an Inn by the Sea by Susan Evangelista - Love Stories Series #5

          Game by Melissa Salva - Love Stories Series #6



Thursday, August 21, 2025

Rose Petal Tea and an Inn by the Sea by Susan Evangelista - Love Stories Series #5

 



From Cecilia Brainard: I am proud to share SUSAN EVANGELISTA'S short story, ROSE PETAL TEA AND AN INN BY THE SEA. This is part of my Love Stories Series featured in my blog. This is featured in my blog with permission from the author. 

***

SUSAN EVANGELISTA, born in Michigan, first went to the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mindoro and Zamboanga. After two years she went back to the U.S., to the University of Wisconsin, and met and married University of the Philippines professor Oscar Evangelista. The couple returned to the Philippines and Susan spent her work life teaching, first in the English and Interdisciplinary Studies Departments of the Ateneo de Manila and then, after “retirement” in 2000, in the College of Teacher Education of Palawan State University. Teaching, she found, especially teaching Creative Writing, gave her much insight into her students’ lives. Concerned about the ignorance of many of her students in matters of reproductive health, she invited her daughter, who was in Public Health, to come to Palawan and together they started a nonprofit which provides sexual health education and clinical services to young people in Palawan. This organization has now been running for sixteen years and is flourishing.


Rose Petal Tea and an Inn by the Sea

Copyright by Susan Evangelista. All rights reserved.

 

            "IN MY COUNTRY,” he said in a soft, steady voice, “they used to burn widows to death on their husbands’ funeral pyres.” 

“‘Used to’ is the operative word, I hope,” she answered lightly, masking the chill his comment sent through her. 

True, she had felt like she wanted to die after she understood that her husband Stefan was absolutely, irrevocably dead. She’d fought the whole thing on every level, hadn’t really accepted the death – so sudden – until the burial was over and everyone went home. And then she mourned. But nearly as soon as her grieving started, she understood that she would come out the other side, forge a new life, find new, if less exuberant, joys. 

But she sometimes felt as if the people around her, even within her own family, didn’t think she had that right. 

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Marcos Takeover Called Tyrannical, LA Times Letter to the Editor, by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

I found these in my old files - an October 1972 letter to the LA Times Editor. It was one of the first public denouncement of the Ferdinand Marcos Dictatorship. 




tags: Philippines Martial Law, Philippine Marcos Dictatorship, Philippine Martial Law, Ferdinand Marcos


EAD ALSO:

The Mechanism of Moving Forward by Nikki Alfar - Love Stories Series #1

            A Simple Grace by Geronimo Tagatac - Love Stories Series #2 

        The Virgin's Last Night by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard  - Love Stories Series #3 

Cecilia Brainard Fiction: The One-Night Stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair  


How I Became a Writer Series

Ian Rosales Casocot 

Caroline S. Hau

 Paulino Lim, Jr 

Tony Perez

Eileen R. Tabios

John Jack G. Wigley

Hope Sabanpan Y





Thursday, August 14, 2025

Fossil by Angelo R. Lacuesta - Love Stories Series #4

 


From Cecilia Brainard: I am proud to share ANGELO R. LACUESTA'S short story, FOSSIL. This is part of my Love Stories Series featured in my blog.  Fossil first appeared in Sarge's collection CORAL COVE AND OTHER STORIES (UST PH 2017).  It was also published in Santelmo Journal (2025). This is featured in my blog with permission from the author. 

***

ANGELO R. LACUESTA is a fictionist and novelist who also writes screenplays and essays. He has written more than ten books and two screenplays, and has won many national awards for his writing. He has represented the Philippines at numerous literary and film festivals and conferences. He is the current president of the Philippine Centre of PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) International. 


His most recent book is the novel JOY, published by Penguin Random House SEA in 2022. In 2024 he wrote and produced the film “An Errand,” based on a short story he wrote, for the Cinemalaya Film Festival. It was selected as part of the Bright Futures section of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). His upcoming novel IRÔ (Milflores, 2025) was selected as one of 10 novels to be presented for possible film adaptation at the “Books at Berlinale” section of the  2025 Berlinale Film Festival. In 2025, “Song of the Fireflies,” a film he also wrote and produced, had its international premiere at the Manila International Film Festival in Los Angeles, California. 

*** 


FOSSIL

Copyright by Angelo R. Lacuesta. All rights reserved.

 

WHENEVER EMILIANO DATOY was drunk he stood up and declaimed in straight English how he had served, as a young boy, at meetings of town elders during the years before the war. The elders he had served themselves had served at the councils in their younger years, in Spanish times and then American times, entertaining traders, envoys and soldiers passing through Nueva Florencia, which had always been a dismal halfway town between the busiest of the island’s ports.

But I remember that when he was sober, Datoy spoke only Bisaya and could not even eat unattended, and he saved his feeble voice for when he needed it to carry from the veranda where he liked to sun himself, across the second floor living room, to his great-grandniece’s bedroom.

She appeared shortly, a dark young girl in her teens dressed in a batik house duster, carrying with two hands a thick, heavy, rectangular thing wrapped in the kind of velvet they used to cover statues on Black Saturday. Upon the old man’s croaked order, the woman swept the velvet curtain aside to reveal a block of black, stony wood bearing the smoothened etching of a winged figure. Dr. Hill drew a small gasp of awe from his throat and we bent forward to inspect the image, our heads softly colliding in the process. There were other things: vertical shapes etched around the figure possibly representing humans, and below it an inscription in badlit.

“Pre-Hispanic,” she said, when the old man nudged her ribs with an arthritic knuckle, which then pointed at the inscription. “The dragon of the swamps,” she translated, and Datoy’s folded hand sprung into a triumphant V and dropped to his side where he’d kept a bottle of gin handy, which he seemed intent to nurse into the afternoon. 

Dr. Hill remained silent but I know that by now he had begun to harbor a distrust toward the situation, his voice caved-in with exhaustion when he followed up with the old man about the tooth fragment. I was sure it was the heat, too. Datoy barked and sent the girl swishing out on bare feet to return with what looked like—and was soon proven to be—a two-inch tooth fragment. This she surrendered to us, depositing it into a piece of bubble wrap we had prepared specifically for this purpose.

Dr. Hill inspected the specimen while trying to express all due respect. It was Datoy himself who had started everything. He had seen my photo in a press release in the Daily Freeman announcing my scholarship in London and cut it out, A photo of the tooth-chip was stapled to a letter, written by the girl, explaining how she had discovered it while she had been playing in the dusty hillsides that surrounded their town.

 

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Now available at Amazon - How I Became a Writer

 


𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳: 𝘌𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 is now available on Amazon! The book is edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and features 22 personal stories by writers of diverse backgrounds, each reflecting on how writing has shaped their lives.

Click on the link and get your copies now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLYNP1KC 

***

The 22 Contributors are: Merlie Alunan, Cecilia Brainard, Ian Casocot, Linda Ty-Casper, Aileen Cassinetto, Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, Jose Dalisay, Noelle de Jesus, Allan Derain, Migs Bravo Dutt, Yvette Fernandez, Caroline Hau, Luisa A. Igloria, Kristian Kordero, Paulino Lim, Jr., Tony Perez, Elmer Pizo, Joel Pablo Salud, Eileen Tabios, John Iremil Teodoro, John Jack Wigley, and Hope Sabanpan Yu.

PRAISE: 

How I Became a Writer: Essays by Filipino and Filipino American Writers offers intimate, fine-grained accounts in the making of what constitutes contemporary Philippine literature, provided by a remarkable set of Filipino writers in the Philippines and abroad, It is a book to be treasured. ~ Resil B. Mojares, Philippine National Artist in Literature.


Tags: Philippine writers, Filipino authors, Filipino books

Thursday, August 7, 2025

The Virgin's Last Night by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard - Love Stories Series #3


 
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, photo by Doreen Stone

 

From Cecilia Brainard: I am sharing my story, THE VIRGIN'S LAST NIGHT,  as part of my Love Stories Series featured in this blog. Earlier stories posted include Nikki Alfar's THE MECHANISM OF MOVING FORWARD and Geronimo Tagatac's  A SIMPLE GRACE.

My story, THE VIRGIN'S LAST NIGHT, was inspired by an unmarried aunt whose beau from her youth came around late in their lives, when he was a widower, and she still unmarried. She had spent most of her life taking care of her younger unmarried sister. In Cebu, they were referred to as the Old Maids living on Mango Avenue. My aunt sent the man away, ridiculing him (her nieces and nephews assumed) -- Are you out of your mind? At our age?

One day when I was already writing stories, I remembered my aunt and her old beau, and I wrote the “The Virgin’s Last Night.” The story flowed, with few revisions. 

This story first appeared in Going Home to a Landscape: Writings by Filipinas (Calyx Books); it also appeared in Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults (PALH & UST PH. It is part of my short story collection, Vigan and Other Stories (Anvil), and my Selected Short Stories (PALH and UST PH).

***

BIO: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the author and editor of over 22 books. She has written three novels: When the Rainbow Goddess WeptMagdalena, and The Newspaper Widow. Her recent books include her Selected Short Stories and Growing Up Filipino 3: New Stories for Young Adults. Two books she edited were released in 2025: How I Became a Writer: Essays by Filipino and Filipino American Writers, and Step Into Our Kitchens: Theresian Recipes and Tales.

She has forthcoming translations in Greek, Japanese, Portuguese, Macedonian, Arabic, Serbian, Slovenian and Azerbaijan, in addition to earlier translations of her work in Turkish and Finnish.

She received an Outstanding Individual Award from Cebu, a California Arts Council Fellowship, a Brody Arts Fund, several travel grants from the US Embassy, National Book Award, Cirilo Bautista Prize, travel grant from the National Book Development Board, and others.

Cecilia taught at UCLA, USC, California State Summer School for the Arts, and the Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension. She served as Executive Board member and Officer of PEN, PAAWWW (Pacific Asian American Women Writers West), Arts & Letters at the Cal State University LA, PAWWA (Philippine American Woman Writers and Artists), among others.

She also runs a small press, PALH or Philippine American Literary House (palhbooks.com). Her official website is https://ceciliabrainard.com. 



THE VIRGIN’S LAST NIGHT

Copyright by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. All rights reserved.

 

FOUR MONTHS AFTER PETRA SANTIAGO DIED, and the night before her own death, Meding Santiago got out of bed, reached for her rosary by the side table and started reciting the Creed. It was almost midnight, and she was saying the rosary that Thursday for the second time. Since Petra died, she slept poorly, her mind fixed on the image of her younger sister on the hospital bed, waving her bony fingers in front of her face before she finally stopped breathing. Sometimes she would forget that Petra was gone, and she would pour another cup of hot chocolate or turn to say something to no one, and she would be surprised at the depth of her grief.

She was on her knees, with her eyes closed, when she heard a soft knock on the door. She rose and walked to the door. She opened it, expecting one of the servants, and was surprised at the figure of an old man. It took Meding a second before she caught her breath and said, “Mateo, what are you doing here? You’re dead.” 

“Here to see you, Meding. It’s been a long time,” replied Mateo, standing first on one foot, then shifting his weight to the other, a man embarrassed.

“Well,” Meding said, clutching her nightdress at the collar, uncertain about what to do, what to say, uncertain about her sanity at the moment.

“You’re not crazy,” Mateo went on. “I’m dead.  I know, it’s strange, but that’s how it is sometimes. I have to get back before sunrise.”

“Oh,” Meding said, accepting this explanation with some kind of relief. Ever since her sister’s death, life had taken on the quality of a dream, and Mateo’s presence was just another strange event. She squinted at the figure by the doorway. “You’ve gotten old, Mateo,” she said, “and paunchy too.”

“You’re just as beautiful.” Mateo hung his head the way he used to as a young man, many years ago.

Meding laughed and walked over to the armoire mirror to study her image. “Mateo, you and I know I’m no spring chicken.

Friday, August 1, 2025

A Simple Grace by Geronimo Tagatac - Love Stories Series #2





From Cecilia Brainard: I am proud to share GERONIMO TAGATAC'S short story, A SIMPLE GRACE. This is part of my Love Stories Series featured in my blog.  This is featured in my blog with permission from the author. 

***

GERONIMO TAGATAC'S father was from Ilocos Norte.  His mother was a Russian Jew. Geronimo has been a Special Forces soldier, a legislative consultant, a dishwasher, cook, folksinger, computer system planner, a modern and jazz dancer and a roofer.  His short fiction has appeared in Writers Forum, The Northwest Review, Alternatives Magazine, Orion Magazine, The Clackamas Literary Review and The Chautauqua Literary Review.  He’s received fellowships from Oregon Literary Arts and Fishtrap. “Summer of the Aswang,” received the 2017 Timberline Award for short fiction.  Geronimo's short story, "Hammer Lounge" is part of Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults, collected and edited by Cecilia Brainard. His first book of short fiction, The Weight of the Sun, was a 2007 Oregon Literary Arts finalist. 

 ***

A SIMPLE GRACE

Copyright by Geronimo Tagatac. All rights reserved



CATHERINE, C.K. HER FRIENDS CALLED HER, would later tell him that the way he moved when he made his way between the row of lecture hall seats and the way he sat himself down without the help of his arms is what drew her interest. The very simplicity of his gracefulness touched something in her.  

        C.K. saw him the following Friday evening, in the Interlude Bar. She’d gone there with Charles, a grad student who was ten years older than her. He was chummy with the younger faculty members who frequented the place. Marco was chatting with the woman bartender and, at one point he said something to her that made her laugh. C.K. was sure he knew that she was watching him by the way he sat, half turned toward her on his bar stool as though he could hear her through the clutter of conversation punctuated by the occasional raised voice or wave of laughter. She was almost sure that he would hear her if she spoke to him across the space between them.

            Marco felt her swift glances, returning them with his own in which he took in her thick straight brown hair cut square several inches below her shoulders. He guessed she was not much more than five-feet-two inches tall.  He noticed her light-colored eyes behind her wire-rimmed glasses, the black turtleneck sweater, and wide-legged pants of a fabric that softened the shape of her legs. He watched her leave with her companion but noticed she didn’t hold his hand or lean into him in that way lovers do, and that rubbed away some of his envy.

Monday, July 28, 2025

Old Photographs Filipino Writers with Cecilia Brainard

 I'm sorting out old photographs and I'll share some that include notable Filipino literary figures.  I will continue to add photos on this post, so check back:


Photo taken Oct. 1995 at the Cebu launch of Cecilia Brainard's ACAPULCO AT SUNSET AND OTHER STORIES,     l-r: Karina Bolasco (Anvil's publishing director), Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Mila Santillan, Araceli Lorayes


 
Photo taken Oct. 1995 at the Manila launch of  ACAPULCO AT SUNSET AND OTHER STORIES, l-r: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Karina Bolasco (Anvil's publishing director), Mariel Francisco, Marj Evasco

This photo was taken at the 1995 launch of my second story collection, Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories. This particular event was at the Ayala Museum. I recall that Ben Santos arrived a bit late, and the program had begun. When he walked in, slowly, as he was now ill, everyone paused and there was silence as he made his way to join us. He sat near me and my mother, and we talked.. He said he was losing his eyesight. I tried to console him. That was the last time I saw him alive. A few months late, he passed away.
He was very kind to me. He helped me as an emerging writer; he recommended my first story collection, Woman with Horns and Other Stories, for publication to Mrs. Gloria Rodriguez at New Day. He wrote me, encouraged and advised me. May he rest in peace.
There were several photos taken of us, but I just noticed that in this one we are holding hands. Bless him.



Circa early 1990s photo with Filipino American icon Helen Brown (seated in blue. To her right is Cecilia Brainard, to her left is Lee Colomby.


1998 photo taken at Cebu City Charter Day anniversary celebration. Cecilia is top left. She received an Outstanding Individual Award from the City of Cebu.


2000 photo taken in Paris, at Shakespeare and Company where Cecilia did a reading. To my left is Filipino writer Cris Yabes.

1997 photo taken at Montebello Villa hotel, l-r: Karina Bolasco, Cecilia Brainard, Chinggay Utzurrum, Erma Cuison, Teresita Manguerra



Read also:


 


Saturday, July 26, 2025

The Mechanism of Moving Forward by Nikki Alfar - Love Stories Series # 1

 



Hello, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard here, 

I'm starting a LOVE STORIES SERIES in this blog, showcasing fine short stories by Filipino writers. 

The theme is LOVE, and by this I refer to love in all its guises, not just love between man and woman, but same-sex love, love for pets, love for family, love for country, love for God, love for nature … all the facets of this emotion called LOVE.

To start us off, here is a story by Nikki Alfar, who transports us to 1863 during the time of Shoguns. "The Mechanism of Moving Forward" is reprinted with her permission. 


***

NIKKI ALFAR is a wife, mother, fictionist, dancer, arnis student, knitter, and origami folder. While she has yet to receive acclaim for folding, knitting, fighting, dancing, mothering, or wifing - go figure - she has managed to cadge repeated recognition out of the Palanca, Nick Joaquin, and global Mariner literary authorities, along with back-to-back National Book Awards for her story collections WonderLust (Anvil Publishing) and Now, Then, and Elsewhen (UST Press).

She’s edited more speculative fiction anthologies than she can count – there’ve been many, and her math is egregious – including the acclaimed, annual Philippine Speculative Fiction, which is now relaunched as New Philippine Speculative Fiction. By trade, she’s a marketing and corporate copywriter, so she writes fiction alllll the time. 

Nikki smokes like a chimney, and has one two children with writer Dean Francis Alfar - Ryo, 23, is also a published writer, and Asriel, 16, is an online novelist.

***


THE MECHANISM OF MOVING FORWARD

Copyright by Nikki Alfar, all rights reserved 

the mechanism of beginning

What enables the karakuri ningyo to commence operation is the auto-adjustment pin, which – as with all parts, save the mainspring – must be crafted of nothing but the most appropriate wood, harvested and fashioned at the proper time of year, to avoid air temperature and humidity taking their toll, before the structure has yet been assembled. This pin functions as a stopper for the cogwheel.

 

UPON ENTERING HIS workroom, on the nineteenth day of the twelfth month of the Nederlander year 1863, Tanaka Hisashige promptly lost hold of the lacquered tray he had been carrying, such that the tea implements he had so meticulously prepared, moments prior, fell clattering to the polished wooden floor.

“Such a clamor,” murmured Sakuma Kei, evincing no further reaction than the barest, most blamelessly demure of smiles. “One would almost think Tanaka-san had never seen a naked woman before.”

“In – in – in – the baths, certainly,” was the only response that politeness and his stunned state of mind enabled him to muster, gazing – while at the same time desperately endeavoring not to gaze – at the splendidly-unclad form of his revered teacher’s daughter.

“You did mention, in our correspondence, that you wished you might more closely study human anatomy, as the Redheads do,” she explained, with innocuous aplomb. “Therefore it seemed to me that I could offer you no greater o miage, upon my return from the capital, than the gift of myself.”

“The tea!” Hisashige exclaimed, dropping to his knees with unseemly haste. “The floor!” Tending to the fallen crockery would afford him a moment to clear his mind – not to mention, thankfully, avert his eyes – although of course she would see through the pretense immediately; it was only an ordinary tea set, after all, meant for everyday sencha. He had considered presenting something more refined, in celebration of her homecoming, but had reflected that it might seem overly presumptuous, or overly eager, for which diffidence he was now profoundly grateful, and not merely because his better porcelain had consequently escaped destruction.

“To think that the renowned inventor of the Ten-Thousand-Year Self-Ringing Bell Clock,” Kei was musing aloud, “at only twenty already a karakuri master famed throughout the land, should be so discomfited by a mere slip of a maiden, yet again deemed by our great thirteenth leader to be lamentably unimpressive, unworthy, and altogether unmarriageable.”

He very nearly fell into her trap, only at the last moment managing to refrain from looking back up at her. “He said no?”

“He said a great deal, including expressing his conviction that our Dejima, being an artificial island, must be composed of gears and pulleys – like one of your automata – or, more fitting to his mind, water and clockwork, like a mizudokei. I do not think he believed my explanation that it is merely earth, reclaimed for the purpose of maintaining the ludicrous fiction that the Nederlanders are not quite on our soil, thereby upholding, while at the same time unmistakably subverting the ridiculous sakoku ban.”

He did look up then, too alarmed to be constrained by propriety.

Her smile had become far less demure, her charcoal-dark eyes dancing with triumphant mischief. “I did not say it in quite those words, naturally.”

In his relief, he ceased resistance, resigning himself to merely confining his gaze above her chin. “You are presented to the shogun, and you spend the opportunity speaking to him of dirt?”

“I am fortunate he chose to address me at all.” Kei shrugged – firm in his resolution, Hisashige simply inferred the gesture from the tilt of her head. “The other maidens were not so favored. However many unwed women the bakufu persist in throwing at him, I do not think our Lord Iesada is at all interested in marriage; he spent no more than ten minutes on the lot of us.” She tilted her head the other way, raising an eyebrow. “Do you think it would have helped, had I been naked?”

He refused to be baited again, having at last regained some measure of equilibrium. “I believe I should go and fetch some more tea, as well as a servant to tidy the disarray.”

“Do, please.” She remained serenely unmoving, evidently not in the least troubled by his implied threat of exposure. “It is winter, after all, and somewhat chilly; tea would be most welcome.”

“I have heard that there is a most ingenious invention designed to aid with that condition,” he noted, accepting defeat and thus crossing the room toward the disheveled heap of gorgeously-colored silk and wool, lying blithely discarded on the floor. “It is called ‘clothing’.”