75 Cebuano Familes of Distinction to be honored in Cebu

SEARCH FOR 75 CEBUANO FAMILIES OF DISTINCTION
(Information from Dr. Erlinda Alburo; picture shows the Cuenco Family that will be honored in May)

For the Diamond anniversary celebration of the Cebu City Charter, the Cebuano community will honor the legacy of 75 families that have contributed to making Cebu City what it is today.
Initiated by the private sector in order to re-establish the strong foundation and values of the Cebuano family, this project will be implemented for a whole year from March 2012 to February 2013.

LOOKING FOR THE DIAMONDS OF CEBU
For the purpose of identifying the 75 families to be honored, a Search Committee was formed in September 2011 composed of four respected personalities in the academe: Dr. Erlinda Kintanar-Alburo, Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu, Dr. Madrileña de la Cerna and Dr. Romola Ouano-Savellon. To avoid overlapping, each member of the committee was assigned a cluster of family names by initial letters: A-D, E-K, L-R and S-Z.
The two main criteria for the search were: 1) residence in Cebu City and 2) with at least 3 members who have contributed to the development of, or given honor to, the city of Cebu in any of the following fields: governance and community service; business and industry; professions (Education, Law, Medicine, Engineering, etc.); sports, media and the arts; religion and apostolic work; and environment, science and technology. Four other guidelines were observed: 1) other members of the family whose contributions have been recognized outside of Cebu City (province, country or abroad) may be added to the three names; 2) the family must have started playing a role in the city or larger community not later than 1965; 3) wives should be considered as representing their family of origin instead of their husband’s family; and 4) families of members of the Search Committee and the Core Group for the Anniversary Celebration would be excluded.
The Search process included the review of published news and features in local papers and interview of key informants, as well as solicitation of nominations from all the city barangays. A deadline for submission of solicited nominations was set on 30 November 2011. Launching of the search was held on 12 December 2011 at the Ayala Terraces.
The members of the Search Committee, together with the core group assigned for the whole diamond anniversary celebration, met several times to discuss the nominations. Some individuals with the same family names but whose relationship to each other was doubtful were waitlisted, then dropped when such relationship could not be confirmed. A few families have been combined when they evidently belong to the same lineage.


“PINANGGANG BANAYNG SUGBOANON”
This slogan was adopted by the Cebu City @75 core group in order to stress the significance of the Cebuano family throughout the growing years of the city. At the same time, the phrase captures the pride and joy with which the whole Cebuano community celebrates their achievements.
Several activities have been scheduled throughout the Diamond Year. For better management, a cluster of 6-7 families will be brought together for a Memorial Presentation, An Exhibit, and a tour for a whole weekend.
Memorial Presentations. For a whole year, eleven sessions to serve as Memorial Presentations of the distinguished families will be held in various universities to feature the family cluster of the month with a special Cebuano trait as theme. The period covered will be from March 2012 to January 2013. Family members or their representatives will be formally acknowledged as a whole during the culmination activity in February 2013.
Below is the schedule for the presentations:
March 2012 at the University of San Carlos (“Hard-Working”) ---- Abella, Veloso, Kabahar, Solon, Cui, Climaco and Jakosalem families
April 2012 at the Cebu Normal University (“Thrift and Industry”) --- Tabal, Gabuya, Herrera, Jaca, Sotto, Diola and Segura families

May 2012 at the University of the Visayas (“Religiosity”) --- Gullas, Hermosisima, Cuenco, Echevarria, Lhuiller and Almendras families
June 2012 at the University of Cebu (“Hospitality”) ---- Alix, Garcia (headed by Gil Garcia), Avila-Cañizares, Rodriguez, Ylaya, Go Tiaoco and Estenzo families
July 2012 at the University of the Philippines-Cebu (“Self-Reliance and Resourcefulness”) --- Inocian, Garcia , Dakay, Del Rosario and Velez-Leyson families
August 2012 at the University of San Jose-Recoletos (“Musicality”) --- Villanueva, Singson, Seno, Tabada, Alcoseba and Echaves families
September 2012 at the Southwestern University (“Sense of Humor”)--- Aznar, Osmeña, Escaño, Aliño, Streegan, Go Thong and Del Mar families
October 2012 at the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (“Resiliency”)---- Escario, Pacana, Salvador, Espina, Briones, Tudtud and Sanson families
November 2012 at the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (“Courtesy”)--- Aboitiz, Barba, Lu Do, Gaisano, Fernan and Vestil families
December 2012 at the Cebu Doctors University (“Entrepreneurship”)--- Uytengsu, Villa, Urgello, Bacalso, Gandionco and Jumalon families
January 2013 at the Cebu Technological University (“Trustworthy”)--- Chiongbian, Sala, Borromeo, Padilla and Reynes-Mercado families.
Exhibits. During the Memorial Presentation, an exhibit of photographs and other documentation will be shown to the public at the venue, which will be transferred to a mall.
Discover What’s New in Cebu. Members of the families of the month will be treated to a special tour on the third weekend, during which they will be taken to various spots of interest in the city and newly developed mountain sites. A free room at the assigned hotel for the month will be available to the family, esp. for those coming from abroad. We are still arranging free roundtrip tickets to one or two members from each family who are residing abroad.
Publication. At the end of the year’s celebration, a coffeetable book covering the 75 families as well as other activities in the celebration will be issued for souvenir purposes.
“Discover Your Cebuano Roots” in Cyberspace. Starting in February 2012, the whole Cebuano community can search for their roots by logging in at special computers in designated public places. This facility is sponsored by the Church of Latter-Day Saints.
Note: The presentation can be done in any way the cluster families want. Each family is given 5 minutes to introduce their members. It’s suggested that the cluster meet and plan on it.

SAN CARLOS UNIVERSITY RELEASES BOOK "OUT OF CEBU"

I'm sharing the press release regarding my forthcoming book "Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose" which will be released in Cebu this Feb. 5, by the University San Carlos Press. There will be a limited hardbound edition available at the book launch. If any one wants a hardbound copy, please contact palh@aol.com.


UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS RELEASES NEW BOOK “OUT OF CEBU”


The University of San Carlos Press is proud to announce that the book, Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose, by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard will be released on February 5, 2012.

The book collects 28 essays about the author’s Cebuano ties, including colorful accounts about her mother’s family, the Cuencos, a prominent political family in Cebu. The book also includes writings about the author’s life and travels outside of Cebu.

The book has received early praise from the educator, Dr. Edmundo Litton of Loyola Marymount University who says, “These essays celebrate a pride in a heritage. Brainard is clearly proud of her Cebuana heritage and this pride shows in this magnificent collection of essays.”

Likewise, Dr. Susan Evangelista of Palawan State University comments, “I knew Cecilia Manguerra Brainard first as a fiction writer, writing from the U.S., but grounded in the physicality of Ubec, Cebu, of course. Later when I got to know her as a friend, I discovered another layer which involved her deep interest, research in and thinking about Filipino history, particularly Magellan, who died,of course, in Cebu.”

The author, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, was born and raised in Cebu. Her parents were Engr. Mariano F. Manguerra and Concepcion Cuenco Manguerra. She attended St. Theresa’s College in Cebu and San Marcelino; she obtained her AB in Communication Arts at Maryknoll College. She went on to do graduate work in film making at UCLA, but later went into writing when she was a young wife and mother. Aside from writing and editing, she teaches at the prestigious Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension.

Brainard has written nine books, including the internationally-acclaimed novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, which chronicles the coming of age of a young girl in Ubec (Cebu backwards) during World War II, a novel inspired by her own parents’ experiences during the war. Brainard first coined the mythical place “Ubec” in her first short story collection, Woman with Horns and Other Stories, and she continued to use this setting in her other works of fiction: Magdalena, Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories, Vigan and Other Stories.

She has also written books of nonfiction, edited four books, and co-edited six more. Her writings have been translated into Finnish and Turkish.
Brainard has received 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. She has also been awarded by the Filipino and Filipino American communities she has served. She received the prestigious Filipinas Magazine Arts Award, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants in the Philippines, from the USIS (United States Information Service).

She has lectured and performed in worldwide literary arts organizations and universities, including UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Beyond Baroque, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.
She is married to Lauren R. Brainard, a former Peace Corp Volunteer to Leyte, Philippines; they have three sons and several grandchildren.

Brainard’s book, Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Essays, is available from Cebu’s University of San Carlos Press (sancarlospublications@yahoo.com).

Feedback to Honorable Mike Rama, Mayor of Cebu

MORE ON PARIAN DEVELOPMENTS
(Feedback to Honorable Mike Rama, Mayor of Cebu)
by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

I have been tempted to write a letter to the Mayor, Mike Rama, but I didn’t want to get entangled with the technicalities of how one should address the Mayor – should that be Honorable Mike Rama, or Mayor Mike Rama, or Mr. Mike Rama? Everyone calls him Mike Rama, and I’ve met him a couple of times, and he’s a very personable guy who’ll sing at the first request. So I decided to blog my feedback to him.

What I want to say to him is this: Thank you for your beautification program that’s going on in Historic Cebu. I live in Old Cebu and I see street cleaners cleaning twice a day – note that’s twice a day. Many of the roads have been re-asphalted. If I’m not mistaken, the river with the historic bridge with a plaque is being dredged. At least it looked that way. And here I note that while a heavy rain was going on, this river flowed, meaning the water is moving and not adding to the flooded streets.

Those of us involved in heritage work in Cebu have always known Mike Rama supported the development of Historic Cebu. Now that he’s mayor, he’s “walking his talk.”

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, or Honorable Mayor, or Mike!

Now I’d like to suggest a few things related to the cleanup beautification program:

1. How about putting out garbage cans so the public can stop throwing trash on the roads and sidewalk? I realize real cans may get stolen, but how about using those gigantic containers made of recycled tire rubber? I believe I saw something like this in the Metro Manila area.

2. How about having some clean public bathrooms, where people can pay a few pesos to use the facilities, and put some of our own people to work by minding those toilets. I saw this in Eastern Europe where they had public bathrooms minded by old women, who kept the bathrooms scrupulously clean, and one had to pay a bit to use the facilities.

3. To encourage building owners in the historic district to participate in this beautification program, how about the local government offer some tax breaks for those who paint their homes or fix up their places?

4. How about we educate some of these building owners in the historic district of Cebu that the days of warehouses and boarders are at a wane and that it’s time to look at improving their buildings with the idea that the area is historic and that tourists visit it?

5. How about the government implement laws against illegal unlicensed structures, hanging over or right next to or even over rivers and creeks? As you know, Mr. Mayor, for the first time, our Fuente Osmena has experienced flooding. Cebu needs clear channels for water to flow to the sea, otherwise the very people living on the banks of these rivers and creeks will be seriously jeopardized when there is flooding, as what happened recently in Davao. They should be relocated and the waterways dredged and cleaned. It is a necessity for the good of all. I’m also speaking about waterways that have been completely built over, in the Tinago area. I also understand some big department stores in the Colon area have built over waterways, using these as part of their properties. Flood water now simply does not have a channel to flow through and thus flows throughout the city. Disaster and tragedy wait ready to happen if these are unattended to. (I’m not even talking about aesthetics and the health hazards of having human waste dumped straight into our rivers.)

6. The irregular sidewalks will kill tourists; so the City should probably do something about these. Maybe I’m asking too much, but how about looking at a section and focusing on that, as they did in Vigan, where they developed just a few streets until the idea caught on? How about the part where tourists do a walking tour – let’s fix up the sidewalks there!


Mr. Mayor, Honorable Mayor, Mike, am I dreaming, or is it a real possibility that the historic district can be beautiful, and that Cebuanos can one day soon be genuinely proud to show off this place to the numerous tourists that come see it anyway?

How many tourists do we get during the sinulog – millions, am I right? And those tourists will spend money in Cebu, and hotels, restaurants, taxis, stores, everyone is going to benefit from the visitors.

Truly, from the bottom of heart, thank you for your beautification

PARIAN FIESTA NIGHT WITH THE DIVETTES, Cebu

Parian Fiesta Night with the Divettes (Cebu)


I would have missed their performance if they hadn’t stood in front of the Yap-Sandiego House, in their hot pants and skimpy outfits, faces glowing with paint, and looking flashy, happy, and flirtatious. “Good evening, Ma'am,” they said as our group of ladies walked by. “Good evening,” we answered, then I thought to ask, “Are you performing tonight?” I had known that Val Sandiego hosted a fiesta performance in the Parian Plaza late fiesta night. I’d always missed it, not knowing what to expect, and had left fiesta celebrations with the stream of the well-heeled folks who’d eaten their fill and were ready to hit the sack.

“Yes, we are, 9:30,” one replied, eyelashes batting

“I’ll be back,” I said.

So at 9:30 I did return and sat in the Parian outdoor plaza near the Heritage Monument. Was I in for a treat!

First, I must make it clear that the evening performance was not all by cross-dresser performers. There were other singers, rap dancers, young dancers doing cool steps, even a fire dance number; but the performances of the Divettes (as in small Divas) made me laugh harder than I have in a long time.

I’d only seen one live performance of men dressed as women on stage, and that was in in San Francisco where one of the performers was a Filipino who was pretty it was impossible to imagine that he was a he.

Fiesta night in Parian showcased a number of cross-dressing divas, including: Cassandra Madrigal, Alvin (the comedian), Baby Sue (Lloyd in the daytime and Q-rator of the Yap-Sandiego House, Mamaru (Roger in the daytime, Ruth when she was younger, and now Mamru), and four others whose names I didn’t catch.

These women --- er, men, did an excellent job rendering Chicago’s He Had It Coming, and a number from La Cage Folles. They were for the most part, so pretty it was mind-boggling to think they were men in drag. Cassandra Madrigal had the loveliest face, long flowing hair, hips, belly button showing, voice, soft and feminine. The story I later heard is that Cassandra’s boyfriend had left his wife for him/her. Whatever. That night Cassandra had several dance numbers, numerous changes of clothes that made the women in the audience drool at how lovely his/her gowns were.

I don’t know if Cassandra was part of the Divettes, but there was a group of five in daring outfits who did the Chicago, La Cage a Folles numbers, and more. While the guys were doing their dance and mime (the music), Alvin did comic antics that sent people into uncontrollable laughter. Or maybe it was me laughing uncontrollably. I didn’t know slapstick could be so funny. Alvin is as thin as a tapeworm, and he could do things with his body and his face, so that physically he just looked funny. His mouth, for instance was painted white, which stood out when he made incredible faces.


Val Sandiego was emcee (aside from diretor and producer) was hilarious. He had so much energy directing the audience to clap, and saying borderline vulgar stuff that sent us rollicking with laughter. Mamaru, alias Ruth, alias Roger, was called on stage to do a fire dance, and Val Sandiego went something like (in Cebuano but I’m doing this in English): Ladies and Gentlemen, look at Mamaru, 65 years old and he can still dance, lower, lower, Mamaru, look at that, 65 years old, children, he’s as old as your grandparents. Etc.

And about the chubby lady fire dancer, “Look at that body, ladies and gentlemen, that’s from dancing." The young woman continued smiling and twirling her sticks with balls of fire.

I sat there at 9:30 and when I left at midnight, the show was still on.

Now, ladies and gentlemen of Cebu, next year,June 24, at night, I’m certain there will a free performance in the Parian plaza once again. So here’s what you should do: watch the 7 o’clock religious procession, eat dinner at Café Elyssa, then find a seat on the benches facing the stage near the fire station and chapel. You’ll be safe, you’ll have fun. And the performance is all free, courtesy of Val Sandiego, owner of the Pride of Parian the Yap-Sandiego House. All you have to do is laugh and clap.

(I'll post a few pictures of the fiesta later on, so check back in late July.)

Garden Pictures from the Philippines and Vietnam

Top to bottom:
Ruins, Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Lotus flowers, near Mekong Delta,Vietnam
On the way to the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Bonzai taken in Park in Saigon, Vietnam
Couple posing during Tet, Park in Saigon, Vietnam
Dragon Fruit plant, Park in Saigon, Vietnam
Tet Altar, Saigon, Vietnam
Dragon plant, Saigon, Vietnam
Garden, Buddhist Temple, Dalat, Vietnam
Garden, Buddhist Temple, Dalat, Vietnam
Rose Garden, Dalat, Vietnam
Montagnard Coffee Farm, Dalat, Vietnam
The Crazy House, Dalat, Vietnam
Antonio's Restaurant, Tagaytay, Philippines
 Sonya's Garden. Tagaytay, Philippines

Read also
From Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City 
Chapter from Magdalena,  - Winning Hearts and Mind
Chapter from Magdalena - Talking About the Woman in Cholon

This is all for now,
Cecilia