Darwyn in the news

http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=45a3d401c81d277b8120548760278bb1

A cast of intriguing, informative profiles

Allen Gaborro, Jan 04, 2006
TITLE: Scratch the News: Filipino Americans In Our Midst
AUTHOR: Cristina DC Pastor
PUBLISHER: Inkwater Press
127 pages
nonfiction, paperback

There is a wide spectrum of newsworthy FilAm personalities that have become relatively visible entities in the American landscape. Some of these personalities are very public figures, while others have never strayed thus far from the cocoon of their ordinary lives. In Cristina DC Pastor’s first book, “Scratch the News: Filipino Americans in Our Midst,” we are introduced to a cast of FilAms who belong to both categories and who have made the news in their own, unique way.

Pastor writes in “Scratch the News” that “in triumph and tragedy, Filipinos have always found a way to figure prominently in the news. Scratch the news and chances are a Filipino is wedged somewhere between the folds.” This can be for the better or for the worse. Pastor refers to examples of opprobrium like Andrew Cunanan, the murderer of fashion designer Gianni Versace, and the Abu Sayyaf extremist group which received international attention after the events of 9/11. She contrasts these unalluring cameos of Filipino newsmakers with highly regarded FilAms such as singer Lea Salonga and US Army Major-General Antonio “Tony” Taguba of Iraqi prisoner abuse investigation fame.

That’s why it is surprising that Pastor does not set more of a balance that straddles the inauspicious and the meritorious in the body of “Scratch the News.” A brief glimpse of this equilibrium is shown to us only in her introduction. Indeed, the vast majority of Pastor’s chosen profiles are exemplary accounts of FilAm personages and of their deeds and endeavors.

Of the thirty profiles in Pastor’s book, only three of them in my judgment can be separated from the other twenty-seven’s shared theme of FilAms’ notable exploits and inspirational narratives. Not that I am trying to accentuate the negative here. I think however, that the term “newsmaker” entails positive and unpleasant subjects, subjects that reflect the wider reality and not predominantly what FilAms would hope it to be. Pastor herself writes in “Scratch the News” that the Filipino newsmaker, if not the hero, could either be “the victim” or “the suspect.”

Pastor does include the story of Michelle Rivera Nyce, a New Jersey murder victim at the hands of her husband, and the suspicious tale of Vivian Torrente, an ill-fated nurse employed by a European billionaire. The two profiles are about as depressingly realistic as you can get, but they do to some extent level out the gratifying versus the ominous profile imbalance in “Scratch the News.”

I would like to emphasize the favorable points in Pastor’s book, lest I be perceived as solely finding fault with it.

One such point in Pastor’s compilation is that it packs a strong common-folk flavor in which everyday FilAms play roles or conduct acts that earn them approbation. Pastor picks out the compelling “Cinderella” tale of FilAm transsexual Jerry Alonzo as well as the “box of chocolates” life of New York psychiatrist Darwyn Chern. She also revives

the 2002 story of Camilla Benolirao Griggers and Sari Dalena, the two creators of an affecting documentary on the 1899 U.S.-Philippine War. Pastor’s honoring of the ranks of the unknown is refreshing and important too, for it sheds light and appreciation on what would otherwise be socially imperceptible FilAms.

Of course, one cannot write about FilAm newsmakers without gracing their work with distinguished personalities, personalities that FilAms from all walks of life can sing praises to. From the former host of the popular “Student Canteen” TV show in the Philippines, Leila Benitez, to Robert Rivas, the U.S. East Coast’s first FilAm mayor, and to General Antonio Taguba, Pastor gives us a fascinating look at these prominent FilAms and their accomplishments.

The profiles in “Scratch the News” are intriguing as they are informative, and are sure to peak the interest of FilAms from all walks of life. Cristina Pastor deserves a lot of credit for all the work she has done in putting together these profiles. While a more equitable division of what was virtuous and encouraging as opposed to what was tragic or iniquitous in “Scratch the News” would have been more edifying for readers, nothing can be taken away from Pastor’s book in terms of the journalistic and socio-cultural value it has for the FilAm community.