Letters to the Editor
Easter Sunday
In the Spring, a festival of rainbow colors slowly emerges in our own backyards, where residues of the past cold winter becomes a bedspread of blooming flowers, the grass is greener and the bushes are luscious reminding us of the arrival of Spring paves the heart of the season--Easter!
Many symbolic representations glean us deep insights of this holiday such as the most popular one , the Easter bunny/rabbit or hare. Throughout the country Easter Sunday is a joyful spring holiday to adults and gleeful children. Many families have nice breakfast and attend church service together.
This year the Fil-Am Association of Central Texas has observed and celebrated Easter Sunday with fervor and gaiety at Ogletree Gap Park, in Copperas Cove. The venue is doable for the activities planned that day; also a place where you can sit, eat, and relax. As expected, lots of children showed up for the big festivity-"egg hunting". In the field, hundreds of colored Easter eggs were scattered and slightly hidden for younger boys and girls to find and fill their baskets. This is an activity that younger children find it almost challenging yet fun and enjoyable. The Easter bunny is very much a part of our Easter tradition. Only expressions of delight and excitement our young children dazzled those inflatable moonwalk and bouncers down the field without reservation. Pictures taken during this festivity illuminate the energy of everyone who participated in all the games for different age group. Eager participants, children, teenagers, and adults demonstrated their abilities in different game contests as the crowd support them with applause, some of them with a standing ovation.
Halfway towards the end of the festivity, all the April birthday celebrants were ushered in to come to the table where birthday cakes are catered for them. That's a nifty gift of surprise! Singing happy birthday to them and having been photographed for the occasion was really the icing of the cake...
Our heartfelt and lasting resonance of thanks, appreciation and gratitude to all our donors who continually lend their unwavering support and donations in conjunctions to sponsoring the prizes for all our game contests. Through their valuable and significant contributions, winners of the game contests received galore of prizes that yielded and produced an over-all enfoldment in the children's awareness of this very special Holiday.
Araceli Degano Camba
Editor In Chief
Philippine Cultural Heritage
In retrospect, our Philippine Cultural Heritage Festival was a night that served to reconnect to our native country and also reinvigorated our pride and purpose in being Filipinos...For me, it was an instant reconnection with our Filipino roots that made me feel I was "home." I hope that you felt the same way as I cherished and savored every part of the program especially that night.
Every which way you look, is a gateway of multicultural landscape in everyone's symbolic expression of Philippine culture. The Nipa Hut (Bahay Kubo) made up of angular wooden roofs or bamboos strategically put in the center of the stage was maybe one of the most symbolic firmament ways of our lives portrayed typically associated with "harana" which is a pre-stage of courtship where a man professes his heart's desire to a woman through inspiring singing accompanied by a passionate guitarist to persuade her to open the window . As we had witnessed this re-enactment, our own hearts had traveled down the memory lane of yesterday's legendary momentous. That was to all of us nothing short of phenomenal.
As always, our trademark for tasty, healthy and very tempting dishes/delicacies such as "pancit, adobo, lumpia, lechon" and an array of our native desserts have pampered us to the fullest. No wonder that when the main course was served, most of us were already pretty much "full.'' However, little did we know that there will be more eating festivities in between performances by the walking vendors selling "taho", "sa malamig", and "balut/penoy" definitely a spectacular presentation of filipinos' everyday life.
That evening we've seen a wealth of cultural festivities with the portrayals of "Pista sa Nayon", "Santa Cruzan", and "Pasko na Naman". The parade of Philippine costumes beautifully adorned in latter times or of modern trends is very entertaining.The highlight of the program is the Philippine folkdances extravaganza, with dancers depicting every multi-faceted story of bountiful harvest, exotic and elaborate costumes in the northern mountain province as well as in the south of Mindanao. There were a number of notable performers where your eyes were glued and mesmerized to have watched the "Singkil" where the dancers maintained elegant poses as their slow pace accelerated to a faster tempo. Another dance performance that captured our attention was the Pandanggo sa Ilaw in which the dancers shall possess grace and balance as they keep their glasses with lighted candles placed on their heads and at the back of their hands while dancing. But the one that stole the show was the dance performance of the young children demonstrating their skill in planting, harvesting, threshing, and pounding rice. Their innocent looking yet confident participation proved to be a wholesome family entertainment. Other dance performances like "Binasuan, Paseo de Iloilo and Kapamalong-malong made the evening colorful as well. But let's not forget to mention "Tinikling" which is our national dance. Everytime "Tinikling" is performed, the sound of the poles clacking together has that effect on spectators as they anticipate the dance with a combination of eagerness to see the beauty of the dance and dread that harm may befall one of the dancers. Again that's not the case with our dancers because of self-discipline, rigorous training and great expectation that they put on themselves. They just want to perform in excellence....
In depth of our endemic biological diversity infuses and provides a window into our culture that open doors to the heart and soul of our communities but foremost, may of what we have celebrated not only echoes in the very forefront of our hearts, in our lives, but in the future of our next generation. The legacy of our hard work continue to march on as we pay our tribute to all FAACT officers and members with the leadership of the president, Mrs. Gloria Lopez to lead us to a new vision of cultural journey and in governing our Fil-Am association. We pay tribute of gratefulness and indebtedness to the many countless hands, hearts and minds who worked without ceasing and in the end the verdict was out...what a fabulous and fantastic show!
Araceli Degano Camba
Editor In Chief
Dear FAACT Members,
I am delighted to welcome you to our newly-launched "The Fil-Am Association of Central Texas website." Launching a new website is a daunting prospect. It takes a lot of time tapping into different strategies, innovations and avenues to make this project a success. It may had taken us longer to transition from paper to on-line instant access but this website is well-tailored to optimize as your trusted source for content and information.
This site is created for the purpose of providing you easy access in conjunction with our past, present and future goals, program activities and upcoming events. We know that change is inevitable. Our traditional way of delivering information to you via postmarked newsletter to your homes has been completely replaced by embracing modern technology with just a mere click of a mouse. Members who don't have access to the internet will continue to receive the FAACT newsletter via mail.
In retrospect, the Fil-Am Association of Central Texas (FAACT) has grown its membership and on-line communication will save the association significant cost of printing and mailing expenses. Thanks to Dr. Arthur Lopez's innovative vitality for creating a beautiful and informative site where we could visit and enjoy the interactive content and become all partners in fostering the Filipino culture and heritage locally and globally.
This website can also be a pillar for posting your inputs and feedbacks so we may be able to provide you clear and substantial information. We welcome your comments, announcements and articles for publications. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length. Please include the following informations; Name, Address, Telephone Number, and E-mail address, if available. Incomplete information will not be published! Please send letters to P.O. Box 10861, Killeen, Texas 76547 or E-mail to
faact.editor@filamofcentraltexas.com.
Sincerely,
Araceli Degano Camba
FAACT Editor/Advisor