Our Mothers, Our Heroes

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All of us have our own personal heroes and we celebrate their presence and their legacy at various times of the year. Mother's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, Father's Day -- these are dates we jot down in our memory banks that allow us to renew gratitude and reverence to those who have personally guided and inspired us.

And then there are the heroes of a nation -- admired from afar, accessible to a lucky few -- who nonetheless earn our esteem and appreciation because of their works, their deeds, and the principles on which they anchored their life work.

In this issue, we pay tribute to two exemplary Filipinos who recently passed on: ex-Senator and human rights lawyer Rene Saguisag (as remembered by current Senator Risa Hontiveros) and playwright/poet/theater VIP Floy Quintos (as honored by his acolyte, Charlette San Juan).

And as a belated Mother's Day feature, two strong-willed and unique women are given due appreciation by their daughters (actress/writer/director Bibeth Orteza and author/community organizer Rochit Tañedo) who grew up not exactly like them, but close. 

Speaking of, here's an important Mother's Day history: Mother's Day started in the 1870s as Mothers' Day (note the apostrophes). According to historian Heather Cox Richardson, a woman dynamo named Julia Ward Howe (she wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic") organized Mothers' Day festivals as a clarion call for peace and to empower women to have an equal say in changing society. The then-revolutionary intent of Mothers' Day stemmed from the shock of the carnage of wars that maimed and killed thousands of men. As Cox Richardson writes, Ward Howe believed that "women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society."

In The Know

Sleepy far-flung towns in the Philippines will host US forces returning to counter China threats
https://apnews.com/article/us-forces-philippines-south-china-sea-taiwan-

Filipino American labor icon Larry Itliong honored with park naming
https://asamnews.com/2024/05/13/union-icon-united-farmworkers-asian-american-history/

UPMin to open College of Medicine
https://mindanews.com/top-stories/2024/05/upmin-to-open-college-of-medicine/#gsc.tab=0

How a Filipino café in Barcelona went viral, thanks to ube
https://www.thediarist.ph/how-a-filipino-cafe-in-barcelona-went-viral-thanks-to-ube/

Filipino California: Art and the Filipino diaspora
https://asamnews.com/2024/04/22/filipino-american-artist-exhibition-influence-from-philippines/

Anti-Asian Hate Watch

New Study Warns of Rising Gun Violence Disinformation Targeting Chinese Community
https://asamnews.com/2024/05/11/ethnic-media-services-gun-misinformation-chinese-americans/

Diamond Bar Man Sentenced to One Year in Federal Prison for Driving His Car Through Demonstrators at ‘Stop Asian Hate’ Rally
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/diamond-bar-man-sentenced-one-year-federal-prison-driving-his-car-through

Man assaults students on a bus in SF with slurs and a taser
https://asamnews.com/2024/05/10/anti-asian-hate-teenage-victims-mother-calls-for-more-policing/

One Man’s Quest for ‘Photographic Justice’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/10/books/review/corky-lee-asian-america-fifty-years-photographic-justice.html

Did anti-Asian hate decline? Americans say yes, Asians in US disagree: Report
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/did-anti-asian-hate-decline-americans-say-yes-asians-in-us-disagree-report/ar-BB1m5j85

Funding provided by the State of California.

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Staff