I Remember: Travel Essays

by Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo

THE Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo began her career as a journalist when she was still an undergraduate at the University of Santo Tomas. After getting her Bachelor of Philosophy, magna cum laude, she also became an English teacher. Her husband, Tony's decision to join UNICEF, and become an international civil servant, seemed likely to put an end to both careers. In fact, she has continued to write and teach in Thailand, Lebanon, Korea, Burma (now Myanmar), and New York. ...Back in Manila now, after fifteen years of life as an expatriate Ms. Hidalgo is teaching at the University of the Philippines, finishing her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, and working on what she thinks might perhaps be a novel.

Genres: Travel

122 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1992

About the author

Cristina has been writing for Philippine newspapers at the young age of fifteen and is now an award-winning author.

Reviews

[Marlo Mangilin]

The challenge with a collection of travel essays is how one writes about the journey, the destination, and ultimately what it means for the writer. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo's I Remember... Travel Essays is an uneven mix of narratives conveniently grouped into seemingly "brief encounters" and visiting "old haunts" - both talking about places creating impressions, sometimes small, sometimes life-changing, always a cause for reflection. It is always a high when you see a glimpse of the place and how the place impacts their expat lives, however mundane and commonplace it may be. Lows are when you get a long-winded history of the place without any significant role to the narrative.

It is misleading to call these as "travel essays" when there is a good proportion talking about a place in the context of living as expats (due to her husband's work for UN). Yes there are visits to countries for (re)discovery and those are the interesting narratives but the rest are basically how a place fits into their lives and how they have made their lives fit the place.

Nevertheless, its good to know a Filipino author has pioneered these travelogues in order to share an Asian voice and perspective in this class of writing.

[René]

It starts slowly, and the occasional grammatical errors and untranslated Tagalog words may throw you off. However, all expats will gradually recognize their personal lives and experiences, where each posting/assignment will have changed who we are and how we perceive life.

[Aira Anglita]

its ok

[Charmm]

Name dropping aside, I wanted to read more about the author's teaching experience in South Korea. It was the most interesting part. I hope to use this as a guide when Myanmar opens.