Father Courage

Happy Father's Day to all the dads -- and single moms -- out there who, like our contributor Patricio N. Abinales in "Single Parenting an American," is trying to negotiate the rough waters of a kid's tween years combined with some cultural dilemmas. I feel his pain because about two decades ago, I was in the same situation as I wryly recall in my blog this week, "Paternal Instincts." It will be a tough journey ahead for parents like him but time flies and pretty soon the difficult years will just become family anecdotes to laugh about. At least that's always the hope.

It will be the 155th birthday of our National Hero Jose Rizal on June 19 so we are reposting two stories to remember him by: Penelope V. Flores' "Rizal's Great Loves" and John Silva's "Rizal's Cook Remembers a Good Man."

Lifelong activist and first-time contributor Edwin Batongbacal writes an impassioned review of the new book, Women Against Marcos: Stories of Filipino and Filipino American Women Who Fought a Dictator, by Mila de Guzman. Edwin's take is personal because some of the women featured in this book were his mentors who helped shape his political views. We are also including a chapter written by Mila Aguilar, one of the valiant women profiled in the book.

Our Happy Home Cook recipe this week: food blogger and cookbook author Marvin Gapultos' Lying Laing, his version of the traditional Bicolano dish but this time using kale instead of gabi (taro) leaves.

For our Video of the Week, we join the celebration of June as Immigrant Heritage Month with "I Am An Immigrant," a short video featuring celebrities standing by immigrants.