LA Times Article on Gentrification

I was interviewed for an article in the LA Times about the gentrification of my neighborhood, Historic Filipinotown. 

For the last few months, Noel Alumit, a writer in Historic Filipinotown, has been adopting plants from Craigslist users, moved by the plaintive note in their appeals.

I’ve been evicted, their posts begin. I’ve lived here for 2 decades and my landlord is selling my building. Please give my plants a good home.

“I guess I feel like I’m being helpful by taking their trees,” Alumit said.

Reading Joan Didion: Being Awake in the 1980's

I'd been reading lots of nonfiction, particulary about writers writing about their own lives or providing their own spin on things (pop culture, politics, etc.)  In the past six months, I've read Jeanette Winterson, David Sedaris, Augustin Burroughs, William Styron and Anne Lamotte.  It's great reading about how writers have lead their lives, leading them to the books they write today.

I'm finishing up Joan Didion's After Henry, a book of essays that was published in the early 1990's.  Most of what she writes about is Los Angeles in the 1980's.  I consider the 1980's an important time in my life.  I went through junior high, high school and college in that decade, all of that time in Los Angeles.  Our view of our city at that time is drastically different.

Joan Didion was (is) a mature, astute artist, writing about environment, politics, history.  I was, well, an adolescent growing into young adulthood--my head was in a totally different space.   Reading After Henry, gave me an alternate reality of someone else living in the same city at the same time.  It was truly illuminating, and I loved it.

What is also did was reinforce my own Voice as a writer, because I'm contributing something else.  In these pages, Joan Didion doesn't write about AIDS, that horrible disease that came to light in the 1980's that was an iconic marker in gay history.  Nor does she write about the fall of the Marcos regime, one that influenced the lives of Filipinos all over the world.  Both of these events had influenced me, shaping my world view.

I read that Toni Morrison wanted to write stories that wouldn't have been written if it weren't for her.  Me, too!  It was great reading about Joan Didion's Los Angeles.  Now, I'm going to write about my Los Angeles.  What will you write that no one else is saying?

The Power of Art

ART BEYOND BARRIERS
Live Art Petition to stop human rights violations in the Philippines
FREE the 43 health workers! Never Again to Martial Law!

barrier – a structure that prevents or hinders movement or action

We would like to invite you to share your images, movement, rhythm, and voices to break beyond the barriers and take action to stop human rights violations in the Philippines.

In an ongoing assault on human rights by the Philippine government, 43 health workers were illegally arrested and detained on February 6, 2010 in Morong, Rizal, Philippines. They are still illegally being held at the Philippine Military Camp Capinpin and have endured three weeks of continuous ill treatment and torture in the military camp. This situation is critical. Each day that the 43 health workers are not released, it is one more day they have to endure pain, fear, and torture.

Please join us in the movement to demand freedom through art by participating in this Live Art Petition to demand the immediate release of the 43 health workers, Stop human rights violations, and to say Never Again to Martial Law in the Philippines.

The first Art Beyond Barriers Live Petition will be held after the convening of the “Never Again to Martial Law in the Philippines” Coalition for Southern California.

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Southern California Never Again to Martial Law Convention, 3:00 pm
Live Art Petition will begin at 5:30 pm

Fernando’s Hideaway
519 S Spring St (between 5th St and 6th St)
Los Angeles, CA 90013

This project will tour North America. More information will be forthcoming about other cities and countries where the Art Beyond Barriers Petition will tour.

About Art Beyond Barriers Live Art Petition:

A coming together of concerned artists, communities, and human rights supporters to create a movement for change through music, voice, dance, images, and words created during the Art Beyond Barriers collaboration.

You don’t need to be an artist to participate and all ages are welcome.

Participation in the Live Art Petition means you support the movement to stop human rights violations in the Philippines, support the call to Free the 43 health workers, and to say Never Again to Martial Law in the Philippines.

Support of this movement is in support of a global movement to uphold and defend human rights.

What to bring with you:

A passion for making art in all forms whether it be through music, song, dance, spoken word, written word, images, and collaborating with other artists and non-artist to create a movement for change.

Art materials, instruments of all kinds (you can be creative and bring found objects; anything that can make a rhythm), movement, voice, poems, and anything you would like to share with others in this experience.

This project is in collaboration with Melissa Roxas, poet, human rights activist, and survivor of abduction and torture in the Philippines; and Habi Arts, an artist collective that promotes political and artistic empowerment to inspire and mobilize people for progressive social change (habi-arts.org).

The Long and Short of It

In trying to complete my collection of short stories, I was finishing up what I thought was a short short story. In my mind's eyes, a little story called Pinky and the Roaches was supposed to be no longer than eight pages. I thought it was something that I could whip up. In writing a character sketch of Pinky, I'm discovering this brand new world about her and where she comes from. I'm a novelist, so going off on tangents sometimes happens. I'm trying to tame it.

In an earlier sketch of Pinky, I made her out as an upper middle class Filipina from Manila. After thinking about my writing, I realized that I have a lot of Filipina characters from an upper middle class background. I decided to make her poverty stricken from a provincial part of the Philippines. The results have been...interesting.

They Shoot Journalists, Don't They?

It breaks my heart when I read that civilians are dying due to political strife in the Philippines. It frustrates me when I read that journalists are also being killed. Read the story here.


Sadly, this is nothing new in the Philppines. The southern region, in particular, has been devasted by violence. The disappearance of a protagonist's father, a journalist in the Philippines, is what incites the action in my novel Letters to Montgomery Clift. Volumes can be written about how writers are targeted in the Philippines.

Nobel and Mudslides

I am thrilled that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm hoping this will make it harder for the conservative right to aim useless attacks at a man trying to do some good for our country. Rush Limbaugh was a blowhard in the first place, but calling names at a Nobel Peace Prize winner just makes you look like an ogre kicking a puppy. When China gives grief to Nobel Peace Prize winner the Dalai Lama, they just look like one great big bully. This Prize will certainly affect dynamics in politics.

In other news, I'd been worried about people in the Philippines. They'd seen some real bad weather lately. Now, I'm particularly stressed because there are reports of mudslides in the Mountain Provinces of the Philippines, where my family is from. An area that was particularly hard hit was La Trinidad, Benquet Province--where my father's family is from! I e-mailed family members wondering about their safety. No word yet.

Mother Nature--Dang!

It's been hard hearing the death toll rise in Manila. The storm was worse than Katrina. The pictures and videos from the region is heartbreaking. Hundreds have died and, unfortunately, more deaths are expected. Another storm is expected this Friday.

I donated money to the Red Cross and I plan to drop by an organization that is collecting food and clothes for the victims this week. I can't help but feel helpless over this. I'm e-mailing friends there hoping for their safety.

I'm sure they'll pull through. Filipinos know endurance, baby. Know it well.

The Mourning Continues

We've lost some incredible people in 2009. With five more months to go, I fear we're going to lose more.

I was stunned to hear of the passing of Corazon Aquino, the house wife who liberated the Philippines from the Marcos dictatorship. The torture and mayhem that came from the Marcos regime spurred the plot of my first book, Letters to Montgomery Clift. Ms. Aquino's heroic acts was a plot point in the novel.

I honor her for her bravery, but I am most taken with her path. Nothing in her upbringing would ever suggest that she would lead a revolution and preside over the country that she was born in. Girls of her generation in a country like the Philippines were not raised to become presidents. They certainly weren't raised to become revolutionaries.

This is what I found most interesting about this woman, who has become a symbol for many in the world. Those of us who ever dreamed of rising above our circumstances, becoming greater than what we could have ever imagined could look to this woman for inspiration.

Rest in all encompassing peace.