Happy Easter Monday

Christmas has the twelve days celebration, but somehow the celebration has always seemed to me to stop too suddenly and then pick up a little at New Year's.  But the Easter Alleluias really keep the rejoicing going through the whole Octave of Easter Week and even beyond.  So Happy Easter Monday!  rhb

Women's History Month Concludes

Emmi De Jesus is an activist politician in the Philippines.  She represents the Gabriela Women's Party in the Philippine Government.  I came across her when she came to the U.S. eight months or so ago to oppose a return of a U.S. military presence in the country.  Rosella Torrecampos teaches linguistics and folklore at the University of the Philippines Diliman.  She mines this rich vein of Filipino tradition so that others do not forget their cultural roots.  This will be the last of the Women's History Month articles.  I'm still looking for comments from viewers.

Two Women Professors

This article appeared in the June, 2012 issue of VIA Times Newsmagazine, so we move from the talented artists to two talented University Professors and writers.  This is number seven in the "Strong Filipino Women Series."  Just a few days left in this year's Womens History Month.  If you have a Strong Filipino Woman you would like to share on this site, please do so.  rhb

Women's History Month's Final Week Continues

I am adding two articles today.  They go together as the titles suggest.  The first is "Three Women Artists" and the second is "Two Women Artists."  They make a good contribution to the final week of Women's History Month, showing the prominence of women artists in the Philippines.  Both articles appeared in VIA Times Newsmagazine last year as part of the series I am writing on Strong Filipino Women.

"Filipino Women"

This week is the last week of 2013's Women's History Month.  To celebrate I am going to publish a series of six articles on Filipino Women on this blog site.  I will start today, appropriately, with "Filipino Women," and add another article each day through this Saturday, March 30.  These articles have all appeared previously in VIA Times Newsmagazine as part of my series on Filipino Women. 

Please see the new article entry under the "Pages" section of the blog.  It is called "Dear Mr. President."  I wrote it for the November 2012 issue of VIA Times Newsmagazine after a visit to my barber who had some suggestions for the President related to the Philippines.  Enjoy!

Supposedly the vernal equinox occurred this morning around 6 a.m. here in Wisconsin, USA.  That means it is Spring.  So I got my bicycle out for a ride.  Unfortunately Lady Spring is still sleeping.  Freezing temperatures and icy winds hurried me back home.  Also unfortunately I have not been in the Philippines in mid-March (Valentine's Day is the closest and it was lovely).  I know the weather is warm and not yet so hot or humid.  (Sigh)    

Happy St. Patrick's Day.  My good friend, and the illustrator for Sundays in Manila, June ("Beng") Poticar Dalisay, told me that I am Irish-American.  That is, Beng explained, because my mother, whose maiden name is Mary Elizabeth Griffin, is 100% Irish.  When I said that my father's side, the Boyer side, is French, Beng said, "it's the mother's side."  My mother is the one who told me that St. Patrick chased all the snakes from Ireland and that he is the Patron Saint of Ireland.  It occurs to me that I do not know who is the Patron Saint of the Philippines.  Does anyone know who that is?

Maybe next time.

Well, the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Jose Luis Tagle, was not elected Pope.  Maybe next time.  I think he would have made a good Pope.  Good luck to Pope Francis I.

The last survivor of the army and navy nurses captured by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942, Mildred Manning, died recently.  She was 98.  Her obituary appeared in the New York Times on March 11, 2013.  She had joined the army in 1939, as she said, to see the world.  "And what I saw was a prison camp."  She was one of the army nurses known as "the Angels of Bataan and Corregidor," the two surrender sites. Their story was published as a book in 1999 called We Band of Angels.  

Boyer in Brief

Welcome

Welcome-mabuhay-to 'An American in Manila'.  This site is new and will be growing, but please browse around.  Leave a message, just to say hello or with a question or comment.  I will check my posts twice daily and get back to you, normally in the same day.  Here's hoping that you adjust quickly to daylight saving time in most of the U.S.  It takes me a while to adjust.