A new chapter unfolds for Forest

Me with Forest

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

Charlotte, North Carolina--It was last June 3, when close to 100 friends of Lin and Miguela Grant gathered for the post-graduation party of the couple's eldest son Forrest held a the Lake Pavilion at Manchester Meadows.

The Grant family had been living in Rock Hill, South Carolina for years. Miguela or “Ghing” to close friends is from Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental, northern Mindanao in the Philippines.

She traces her roots to the Barros of Tagoloan town in Misamis Oriental on her mother's side. Miguela is a relative of mine on my father's side. Her son Forest graduated from Rock Hill High School.  

Forest with his brother Ian Micah

The party started at 3 pm when the sun is out and the weather was cool. It was like a village fiesta in the Philippines with a mix of Filipino and American food laid out buffet style at the long tables.

Among the dishes served were Filipino favorites like adobo (chicken and pork stew), Filipino style barbecue, pancit (noodles) ginat-ang mongo (stewed mung beans), beef stew, lumpia (vegetable and meat rolls), chili, grilled hot dogs and so on. 

The sweets and fruits made me forget my diet and I reminded myself that it was a party and so I considered it my cheat day. But I did balance it with fresh vegetables like lettuce, celery, carrots and tomatoes. 

But back to Forest. The 18-year-old Forest is headed to Winthrop University to study engineering and music.  Based on what I learned, Forest was born here in Charlotte and baptized in the Philippines.

He eats rice and barbeque and loves Filipino and Italian food especially pizza.  Forest is a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan and superhero films in general and played percussion instruments and piano in high school.

Forest's mother Miguela told me that they buy Garfield comic books for him and his brother Ian Micah so they won't have to argue over who gets to read them first. 

“Kung akong bana mag palit ug Garfield books, kinahanglan duha gyud kabuok pero mao ra ang title kay mag away sila ug mag ilog kinsa ang una mobasa (If my husband buys Garfield books, he needs to buy the same issues for the two of them since they would fight and argue over who gets to read first),” she said. 

Ian Micah in particular, likes Lego blocks. Aside from comics, Miguela said her sons also share a common love for jigsaw puzzles.

A family friend, Zybel Opolentisima Riano, has this advice for Forrest: “Forrest, make a choice to wake up and be grateful for life. List and count your blessings. As you do,you will find out that it will open doors for you to be equipped in the next chapter of your journey. Cheers for your life.”

Aside from me and my husband Ronnie Dennis, others who attended the party Andy Villaluz Pagilagan and wife, Zybel Opolentisima Riano” Zee”, Sarah Jane Drake, Grace Williams, Imee Aguila Riano, Mike Riano, Bea Marie, Julland dela Cruz, Liezel Huckleberry and daughter, Julita Serviss and so many others.

Forest with his family

Filipino teacher cited anew for outstanding work in the US

Roditha Fuentes Terado (in black skirt) receiving her award

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

A Filipino teacher based in North Carolina is a recipient of the Ulirang Guro 2018 award given by the United Federation of Fil-Am Educators (UNIFFIED) in simple ceremonies held at Washington DC last May 26, 2018.

Roditha Fuentes Terado, a native of Tacloban, Leyte province in the Philippines, received the UNIFFIED award nearly a year after she was also cited as one of the outstanding teachers in the Carolinas by the Filipino-American Community of the Carolinas Inc. (FACC).

The United Federation of Fil-Am Educators or UNIFFIED is an organization with chapters all over the US and abroad comprised of teachers, educators and professionals.

The group is committed to promoting excellence in teaching and providing community services through projects that will benefit the communities in the US and the Philippines.  

UNIFFIED awardees are noted for their exemplary literary or artistic talents. When she was cited as an outstanding teacher awardee by the FACC, Terado said she loves teaching because it  is both challenging and awesome. 

“Because you deal with multi-diverse students, a multicultural community and a different educational system,” she said. Terado credits her teaching stint in the US for making her a better person and expanding her perspective in life.

To be a good teacher, Terado said one must be strong, tough and consistent with one's rules and procedures. She said she is trying to be the best version of herself. 

Terado said her passion for problem solving enhanced her passion for imparting her knowledge to the students.

“That way I can make a difference and be a catalyst of change because I believe that I am teaching the country's next generation of engineers, scientists, doctors and teachers,” she said.

When not teaching, Terado finds work as a civil engineer and she has a deep interest in structural engineering.

She's also into cooking Filipino delicacies and is making a name for herself in cooking “ puto (rice cake), biko (sweetened sticky rice), suman, pancit, lumpia, adobo and other Pinoy food. 

Terado teaches at the Harding University High School and has 20 years of teaching experience, a decade of which was spent at Philippine Science High School and Eastern Visayas State University. 

She attended school at Divine Word University and Eastern Visayas State University.

A memorable birthday party for Angela

Birthday celebrant Angela (third from right) with party host Janet (extreme left) myself and Angela's sister Adriana

By Susan Palmes-Dennis

A birthday party was hosted for the beautiful Angela Cook by her friend Janet Pichon-Hixon and her husband Richard at their beautiful home and my husband Ronnie Dennis and I were among the fortunate few who attended the event.

Janet is Angela's good friend for many years now and Janet spared no effort to make the day extra special with candles, flowers, friends and good food for her. 

Angela, who is with the Aloha Island Hula group came with her fiancée Bernie Sumcad and sisters Adriana and Analyn. Angela was radiant in a black and red dress with matching black shoes.

Angela invited most of her close friends, a lot of whom Filipino-Americans in the Charlotte community including the Aloha Island Hula group. 

Some of the sumptuous fare served by both hosts and guests—a potluck affair of sorts--include  fried chicken, adobo, noodles with shrimp and chicken and spring rolls. 

For dessert there was raspberry birthday cake and matcha cake. After eating, the guests moved to the dance room where everyone was eager to party. The famed YMCA song and the electric slide brought the house down. 

The guests sang “happy birthday” as Angela cut the cake with fiancée Bernie by her side.  Richard then distributed glasses of wine and wished good fortune for the birthday girl. 

Angela had been in the US for the past 17 years and used to work for the Union County Public School for most of that time. 

A native of Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu province in the Philippines, her interests include dancing, traveling, shopping and food tripping.

The beautiful hostess Janet Pichon-Hixon was the Mrs. Asia USA titlist three years ago while her husband Richard worked in New York's financial sector. It was indeed a beautiful party for people who clearly enjoyed each other's company. 

Also in attendance were Amelia Lambert, Wenjun Whisen and Harumi Ito Lerner, Isabella Jane Throck, Christine Fejarang, Analyn Ymbong, Adriana Faile and many others. 

My husband Ronnie Dennis and I join the well wishers in praying for Angela's continued happiness and success.   

Angela with fiancee Bernie Sumcad

Japanese -American community celebrates Girls Festival' in Charlotte

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

Charlotte, North Carolina--Japanese-American women in the Charlotte community celebrated their native country's Hinamatsuri or Girls Festival last March 3. 

An acquaintance named Harumi Ito Lerner explained to this writer that the Hinamatsuri or Girls Festival is also known as “Momo no Sekku” which means Peach Festival and is considerable a special day in Japan. 

Hinamatsuri is an annual celebration and is marked with prayers for the health and happiness of young girls.  Families with girls display “Hina Ningyo” or Hina dolls. 

It is said that the Hina Ningyo takes away bad luck from the girls that own them. 
Each Hina Ningyo wears a Heian period court costume which can represent the Emperor, Empress, their servants or attendants, musicians  and other members of the royal court. 

A platform covered with red carpet-material is used to display the set of ornamental dolls. On the day of the festival it is said that pink means peach, green means land and white means snow.

These three colors portray spring scene after the snow melts away and shows blooming peach flowers.  Another folk belief is that if people put away the Hina Ningyo late, the girl may end up getting married late in the future. 

Harumi Ito Lerner is from the Kumamoto prefecture located south of Japan. She came to Charlotte in 2004 from New Jersey. A friend gave her the set of Hina  dolls and since then she had been celebrating Hinamatsuri every year on March 3.  

To preserve the dolls, she kept it in its original boxes. “They came as a complete set so we don’t have to change them out,” Harumi said.

Based on my online research, the earliest recorded instance of a public display of the dolls to commemorate the Peach Festival occurred in 1625, when Emperor Go Mizunoo’s daughter Oki-ko ordered the Imperial court ladies to set up a stage where she can display her dolls.

After Oki-ko succedded her father as Empress Meisho, Hinanatsuri legally became the name of the holiday in 1687.

During Japan's Meiji period when a new emperor came to power, the Hinamatsuri was lowered in favor of new holidays that focused on the emperor’s supposed bond with the nation, but the event was later revised. 

By focusing on marriage and families, the Hinamatsuri represented Japanese hopes and values and as the dolls represented the emperor and empress, it also fostered respect for the throne. 

The holiday then spread to other countries where there were immigrant Japanese communities and their descendants. Harumi said she noticed that some people have incomplete Hina doll collections featuring only the Emperor and Empress. 

Harumi invited friends to the festival and some of her friends were Filipino-Americans Angela Cook and Mae Nonato Armstead. My Tomadachi Harumi is looking forward to the next Girl’s Festival next year.

Filipino-American women join International Women's Day event in Charlotte

Dr. Maha Gingrich receives flowers from Phin Xaypangna, chairperson of the planning committee of the 2018 Charlotte International Women's Day.

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

Charlotte, North Carolina—The hundreds of participants to this year's Charlotte International Women’s Day were challenged to serve as mentors to the next generation of women in their respective communities.

In her speech, the event's speaker Dr. Maha Gingrich told the diverse crowd of women attendees at the International House to sow trust in their community and help lead the women to become achievers in their own right.

“I challenge you to get a young professional, friend or a colleague and help them professionally. I tell you it is rewarding,” said Gingrich, the vice president of the Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC).

Gingrich, who also serves as the International liaison officer for the CPCC, came in her native Indian costume. Her dress is colored purple, the designated color for this year's International Women's Day which is held at the International House for the third year in a row.

Dr. Gingrich came from South India and is also  a TV host who focuses on immigrant  success stories.  

“As women we want to be everything, we are super women,” Dr. Gingrich said, earning enthusiastic applause from the women participants.

She said this generation's superwomen are expected to care for everyone, with their right hand holding a child, the other hand clutching a phone and her feet soothing the family pet. 

Dr. Gingrich said she was fortunate to have experienced first hand the various cultures of women in other countries, having attended Mass in Catholic churches and visited temples of Indians as well as Muslim mosques.

Gingrich also talked about her childhood and her father's role as her mentor, instilling in her principles and values that would shape her character. “Father instilled in me the ambition to succeed in life ,” she said.

John Autry, the Democratic party candidate for the North Carolina House of representatives District 100 welcomed the attendees in behalf of Ella Scarborough, chairperson of the Board of County Commissioners. 

Phin Xaypangna of Mecklenburg County, who is this year's chairperson of the 
planning committee for the event, reminded everyone present that while much had been done to advance women's welfare, a lot of work still lays ahead to improve their status.

Xaypanga is the chairperson of the event's planning Committee  for the past three years. For her part Alexis Gardon, chief protocol officer of the City of Charlotte said women should not be relegated as objects.

“I am a noun, not an adjective,” she said. Gordon said women should not remain content in being labeled through adjectives that describe her beauty but also as leaders. 

A call to action later followed after the speech, with each participant given a Press for Progress ballot and asked to check the boxes in the ballot for a pledge of support to initiatives to improve women's welfare as explained by Phin Xaypanga.

These boxers consist of pledges to register to vote in the November elections, educating oneself on the candidates and the issues they support. This commitment for civic engagement drew enthusiastic feedback from the participants.

Among the cultural performers during the event were harpist Chiara Capobianco, Shefaleenpatel who performed an Indian folk dance, Mimoouna and Kim who performed an African dance, Molina and the Crew who performed a Latin American dance and the Philippines Cultural Dance troupe of Charlotte led by Maria Corazon Benrokiya and Dorena Reynolds who did the Ifugao dance. 

Florami Lao Cordero-Lee, past president of the Filipino-American Community of the Carolinas (FACC) is a member of the planning committee. 

She said she is grateful for having helped the celebration of International Women's Day for the past three years.

Among the Filipino Americans who attended the event were incumbent FACC Treasurer Mildred Cordova and Auditor Gloria Cagadas Grifenhagen, Roditha Fuentes Terado, Sony Krupp, Janet Hixson, Aurea Barbee, Maria Corazon Benrokiya, Dorena Reynolds and FACC member Ronnie and Susan Dennis. 

Also in attendance Leigh Altman, Meckklenburg County Commissioner candidate.  Barbee and Krupp helped Lee in the food committee.

Kagay-anon doctor mounts art exhibit at Philippine Center Gallery

Brochure for the art exhibit which runs from March 19 to April 6

by Susan Palmes-Dennis

Charlotte, North Carolina---A Kagay-anon doctor now based in Iloilo City will stage her own art exhibit at the Philippine Center Gallery in New York on March 19.

The art exhibit of Dr. Minda Marie dela Serna Cabrera which runs until April 6 is entitled “Tumandok- a Glimpse of the Ati, Indigenous People of Panay: A Collection of Portraits in Charcoal.” Everyone is invited. 


Dr. Cabrera was born and raised in Cagayan de Oro City and is the sister of lawyer Eli de la Serna.  As her exhibit suggests, Dr. Cabrera will use charcoal pencil in drawing the Ati, the natives that live in the island of Iloilo. 


Ati is one of two ethnic groups that live in Iloilo and most of them were displaced by mining, deforestation and urban development in the past few decades.  


Dr. Cabrera graduated at the South City Central School in Nazareth, High School and at Lourdes College. She took up Natural Science as her pre-med course at Xavier University Ateneo de Cagayan.


Dr. Cabrera graduated at the  University of Santo Tomas College of Medicine and works as a rehabilitation medicine  specialist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Iloilo. 


When asked why she chose the Ati as her subject, Dr. Cabrera said her inspiration came after she saw a group of women selling ”hibyok” brooms by the roadside in Pavia town, Iloilo City.


Hibyok are tall palm trees endemic in Southeast Asia and are found in deep forests and mountain slopes, said Dr. Cabrera, a self-taught artist. As such “hibyok” brooms cost a lot more due to the difficulty in procuring the material from the forest and slopes.


“After I bought some brooms, they obliged to have their photograph taken. When I arrived home, I started sketching my very first Ati portait. In the process I realized that drawing the human face was an intensely intimate encounter with another human being. In this experience I saw beauty, character and emotion,” Dr. Cabrera said.  


The Ati are often a target for discrimination because of their color, physical features, stature and culture. “As a busy rehab medicine practitioner, my exposure to them was limited to random encounters in the streets of Iloilo,” she said.


Her fascination of the Ati grew to the point that she visited the Ati settlements in Sitio Katikati, Barangay Lanit,Leong and Nagpana. Dr. Cabrera developed her sketching skills after studying the human form in her biology class. Her course also required a lot of drawing of the human anatomy. 



Her fascination with the paradoxical complexity and simplicity of the human body led her to charcoal which provided the perfect foundation for her passion in sketching.


Dr. Cabrera said she uses lines, light and shadow to enhance her understanding of the form, spaces, tone and texture of her subjects. Though admitting to starting late as an artist, Dr. Cabrera is still happy that she discovered her artistic side.


She is happily married to a gentleman farmer from Barotac Viejo, Iloilo with whom they have two boys and two girls. Her love of natives and nature is found in her early works that featured flowers drawn in pencil, water color and oil.


It was in 2014 that she began the daunting journey of learning her craft and through sheer determination and persistence, Dr. Cabrera has come out with her own art exhibit.


She said she realized the vast potential of portrait drawing in communicating ideas and evoking compassion and discourse for her subjects. 


“My exhibit history is very short. Despite my limited and mostly intuitive skills, I am privileged to be able to share stories as well as my personal reflections and insights on the present condition of the true natives of our islands through my charcoal drawings,” Dr. Cabrera said.

Fil-Am artist, model duo shine in Carolina couture show

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Tia Ashley Michaels (center) with Edelweiss de Guzman (right) 

By Susan Palmes-Dennis

Charlotte, North Carolina---It was yet another time to shine for the Filipino-American community during  Saturday's (Feb. 24) Charlotte Condom Couture Fashion Show at Fillmore in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

The artist-model duo of Edelweiss de Guzman and Tia Ashley Michaels respectively made the Filipino-American community proud with their participation in the unique runway fashion show which showcases local designers in the Charlotte area using condoms to create fashionable, wearable art in order to promote safe sex. 

The theme for this year’s show is “Around the World” and it is sponsored by Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization that provides reproductive health care in the US and around the world. 

The first condom couture dress Edelweiss made was in 2015 and it was later auctioned off. Edelweiss donated half of the amount to Planned Parenthood which celebrated its 100 years recently. 

Edelweiss, co-founder of the local Art Ecologie group, grew up in the Philippines and moved to the US when she was 18 years old. Her works include illustrations, paintings and haute couture made from recyclable materials.

Edelweiss de Guzman with Tia Ashley Michaels

Last year, Edelweiss created a dress made of white condoms that was inspired by a 1910 culture homage to the Industrial Revolution for the Condom Couture Fashion show. 

Her model, tall and lanky 18-year-old Tia Ashley Michaels, wore Edelweiss's latest creation of an A-Line ball gown and a bodice coiled in latex. It was a happy mix of white, red, yellow and orange colors. 

Tia, who looks like a real princess, wore the head piece inspired by those worn by the Manobos and T’boli natives in the Philippines which consist of decorative shells.

Tia is a full time student at Central Piedmont Community College(CPCC) majoring in computer science and a minor in the arts. 

She performs Polynesian dancing as a hobby during her free time and belongs to the Filipino International Community Church (FICC). While she didn't attend any schooling in modeling courses, it looks like she is into it already.

“I see myself progress in this field by learning and communicating with others,” Tia said. 

Artist Edelweiss de Guzman with co-host Ramona of 107.5 (right) and friends Dr. Keith Ayrons, J. Andrew Arlegui and Charles Vogel