Helping People Help Themselves
Foundation for Aid to the Philippines, Inc.
By Greg B. Macabenta

It has become a matter of great concern among overseas Filipinos that the money they send to the Philippines has unwittingly been fostering a pensionado attitude among their beneficiaries. Even worse, a culture of mendicancy.

It is in this context that the programs and projects of the Foundation for Aid to the Philippines, Inc. (FAPI), a private non-profit organization based in Maryland, deserve recognition and emulation.



A Writer Worth Writing About
By Anthony E. Maddela

Bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz brings teenaged vampires and their immortal longings to life.

The many readers who were introduced to Melissa de la Cruz, age 38, by her profile in Entertainment Weekly’s vampire issue on July 31, 2009 have lots of reading to catch up on.

Published by Disney imprint Hyperion, the Blue Bloods series is the latest of several novels Melissa has authored since her first, Cat’s Meow, was released by Simon and Schuster in 2001. That book displayed her uniquely Filipina gift for the absurd in a work she describes as “P.G. Wodehouse meets Sex in the City.” Melissa’s eye for the inane soon went into investigative mode in 2003 with the nonfiction exposé on overexposure she co-wrote with Karen Rabinovitz, How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less (Random House), which originated from an eponymous article in Marie Claire.

There are stories all around us, though we may not always hear them. Author and playwright Merlinda Bobis considers it her job to listen. If stories are like music, Merlinda listens to even the quietest of murmurings, keeping her ear tuned to the small, human experiences that often go unrecognized. Everyday moments of tenderness, suffering, cruelty, and bravery inspire her most. “It’s the story that we stumble upon, or sometimes don’t see or don’t comprehend, that snags us into some conspiracy of feeling, of passion,” she says.

Journalist and Mistress of the Dark: The Enigma That Is Yvette Tan
By Alex G. Paman

The art of juggling is a skill seldom associated with writers. But for freelance scribe Yvette Tan, it best describes her life as a journalist. When not contributing to a seemingly endless stream of newspapers, magazines (including Filipinas), and even television shows, this self-described media mercenary and obsessive foodie even finds time to write a blog for the GMA network website.

Merlinda Bobis performs a scene from “River-River” a film by Virginia Hilyard. This is an adaptation of the first chapter of her novel “Fish-Hair Woman.”

Painting with Words, Writing with the Body: Genre-Hopping with Merlinda Bobis
By Renee Macalino Rutledge

There are stories all around us, though we may not always hear them. Author and playwright Merlinda Bobis considers it her job to listen. If stories are like music, Merlinda listens to even the quietest of murmurings, keeping her ear tuned to the small, human experiences that often go unrecognized. Everyday moments of tenderness, suffering, cruelty, and bravery inspire her most. “It’s the story that we stumble upon, or sometimes don’t see or don’t comprehend, that snags us into some conspiracy of feeling, of passion,” she says.

Amidst the global discourse on terror, in which the notion of “self vs. other” is dangerously propagated, Merlinda believes these “small” stories are most at risk. Her latest novel, The Solemn Lantern Maker, tilts the concept of “self vs. other” off balance. Through language and narrative, she examines lives on a small scale, demonstrating how unheard discourses intersect to frame a larger viewpoint.

Situated in the Philippines, The Solemn Lantern Maker follows two impoverished boys, Nolan and Elvis, whose lives unravel when Nolan decides to harbor an injured American tourist. Victims of a system where children face the consequences of corruption and neglect, Nolan and Elvis strive to act benevolently but are regarded as terrorists. The boys’ innocence and struggle place the misuse of the word “terror” under closer inspection, demonstrating how delicate human lives are overlooked in the framework. And in the process of writing Nolan and Elvis to life, Merlinda gives thousands of street children like them a voice. “I write so the Philippines can be accessed through a human face,” she says.

A Philippine-born author who’s lived in Australia since 1991, Merlinda believes both telling and listening to stories help to reveal vital connections and relationships. “The appreciation of story,” she says, “inspires the appreciation of others, of life, of the world; it gives us the muscle for kindness and endurance.”

At the same time, new stories are continually inspired by the art of living. “Live with care,” she encourages. In the process of doing so, Merlinda has discovered that stories find her—first through the ear, and from there, to the heart, where a story grows in meaning. “When [a story’s] weight grows unbearable there,” she says, “we sing it out. Ear-heart-tongue: a magic cable.” She attributes the story’s appearance and call to being a “visitation of grace.”

Though her prolific career includes creating poetry, drama, short stories, and novels, writing isn’t the only medium Merlinda works with. In the ‘90s, when she couldn’t find a publisher for her poems, she decided to perform them, publishing them “in space.” The performance piece married both drama and poetry, and Merlinda discovered the body as the perfect medium for story. “The body telling a story is visceral and also ephemeral, but paradoxically unforgettable at its best,” she says.

Since then, Merlinda has adjusted language several times to suit an audience, describing stage performance as sharing story from one body to another. She’s performed “Cantata of the Warrior Woman Daragang Magayon,” an epic poem, in the Philippines, Australia, France and China. Her other dramatic works include “Rita’s Lullaby,” “The Query,” and “Corazon de Lorca,” among others. Her new one-woman play, “River River,” has evolved from a radio play to a stage production that has reached audiences in Spain and the U.S.

“The main language of all these performances,” she says, “is the passionate conviction of the living body—its breath—palpable, undeniable, recognizable wherever you go.”

Switching between genres continues to occur as a natural progression for Merlinda. As a child, her earliest passions were painting and theater. Because paint supplies were expensive and her family encouraged her with a steady supply of books and oral stories, she began to “paint with words” instead of canvas. First a poem, and hasn’t stopped since. “After that first poem, I just kept writing.”

When poetry could no longer contain her stories, Merlinda expanded her repertoire with short stories and epic poems, and when she needed close-ups and panoramic sweeps, she entered the landscape of the novel. After discovering stage performance, she was drawn to the power of sound, what she called “theater of the ear.” She considers all these adjustments a call of necessity. “It is the story that makes the call; I just follow.”

Regardless of the medium, Merlinda is inclined to put language and story on the same level of importance. “You can have the best language, but it will all be mindless ‘sound and fury’ without a meaningful story at its heart.” She returns again and again to the genre that inspired her first, “painting with words”—poetry.

“At the end of the day, it is poetry that has taught me the most and has stayed with me in everything I write. It has taught me about loving and honoring the word, about the power of an image, and the lesson of precision even in my most dense pieces.”

Merlinda has just finished her next novel, “Fish-Hair Woman,” which took her 15 years to write. The play, “River, River,” is the stage adaptation of Fish-Hair Woman’s first chapter.

She lives in Wollongong, Australia, where she teaches creative writing.

Renee Macalino Rutledge is a free-lance writer and editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s contributed to Filipinas Magazine since 2004.