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Philippine Woman in America
Philippine Women in America
Paperback
Published January 1, 1991
About the author
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
39 books48 followersCecilia Manguerra Brainard is an award-winning author and editor of over twenty books. She has written three novels: WHEN THE RAINBOW GODDESS WEPT, MAGDALENA, and THE NEWSPAPER WIDOW. Her SELECTED SHORT STORIES BY CECILIA MANGUERRA BRAINARD won the 40th National Book Award and the Cirilo F. Bautista Prize.
She has taught at UCLA, USC, the California State Summer School for the Arts, and the Writers Program at USCL Extension. She has served as an Executive Board Member and Officer of PEN, PAAWWW (Pacific Asian American Women Writers West), Arts & Letters at the Cal State University LA, PAWWA (Philippine American Writers and Artists), among others.
She also founded Philippine American Literary House.
(Source Wikipedia)
She has taught at UCLA, USC, the California State Summer School for the Arts, and the Writers Program at USCL Extension. She has served as an Executive Board Member and Officer of PEN, PAAWWW (Pacific Asian American Women Writers West), Arts & Letters at the Cal State University LA, PAWWA (Philippine American Writers and Artists), among others.
She also founded Philippine American Literary House.
(Source Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 19, 2010
The late Bienvenido N. Santos said of this book:
"These essays are a hoard of delights from the pen of a blithe spirit who refuses to be touched too deeply by the harassing demands in this bewildering country... She is all here. What a treat it must have been for the readers of her column to read each one of these essays and wait for the next.
"Now they are all together between the covers of a book to read and reread and pass on to others the glow these pages evoke. The bits and pieces are now a complete portrait, a running story of her life and introspections she is willing to share with her readers, starting with a 'A Beginning Remembered' in which we have a first glimpse of a determined and confident young woman in a beige suit, braving the rain in a strange 'gray wet world.'
"This is followed by a series of more essays, laced with narrative, deep with insight, nostalgia, and hope, everything there is that sums up the life of a young immigrant now the wife of a former Peace Corps Volunteer whom she had met earlier in the Phlippines; later the overworked housewife and mother of a growing family. She writes of the common frustrations and prejudices that decorate a brown people's life in America. Resourceful and inventive, she seeks to impose part of her own culture, such as the art of haggling and the dubious satisfaction that it brings into the American culture.
"Nothing relevant and human escapes her as in what she calls the truth about Filipino old-timers. One marries a Filipina in his hometown in the Philippines, who refuses to go to the States with him, so he leaves. Coming full circle, the collection ends with a coming to terms with the contours and shades of life s she has chosen, without resignation but a bold acceptance and a final self-discovery."
"These essays are a hoard of delights from the pen of a blithe spirit who refuses to be touched too deeply by the harassing demands in this bewildering country... She is all here. What a treat it must have been for the readers of her column to read each one of these essays and wait for the next.
"Now they are all together between the covers of a book to read and reread and pass on to others the glow these pages evoke. The bits and pieces are now a complete portrait, a running story of her life and introspections she is willing to share with her readers, starting with a 'A Beginning Remembered' in which we have a first glimpse of a determined and confident young woman in a beige suit, braving the rain in a strange 'gray wet world.'
"This is followed by a series of more essays, laced with narrative, deep with insight, nostalgia, and hope, everything there is that sums up the life of a young immigrant now the wife of a former Peace Corps Volunteer whom she had met earlier in the Phlippines; later the overworked housewife and mother of a growing family. She writes of the common frustrations and prejudices that decorate a brown people's life in America. Resourceful and inventive, she seeks to impose part of her own culture, such as the art of haggling and the dubious satisfaction that it brings into the American culture.
"Nothing relevant and human escapes her as in what she calls the truth about Filipino old-timers. One marries a Filipina in his hometown in the Philippines, who refuses to go to the States with him, so he leaves. Coming full circle, the collection ends with a coming to terms with the contours and shades of life s she has chosen, without resignation but a bold acceptance and a final self-discovery."
Displaying 1 of 1 review