This Feature presents readers sharing some love about the talent of Filipino writers and artists. We welcome your participation. This section is for readers. You don't have to write "like a professional," "like a critic," "like an intellectual," "like a well-rounded reader," etc. Just write honestly about how you were moved. Live writers and artists (let alone the dead) don't get to hear enough from others who engage with their works (some may not even know all who comprise their audience). To know someone read their stories and poems or appreciated their artistry is to receive a gift. Just share from your heart. It will be more than enough. DEADLINE: Nov 15, 2026 for Issue #22. Duplications of authors/artists and more than one testimonial are fine.
Rachielle Sheffler on Pati Navalta Poblete
Dear Pati,
In the late 1980s, in my first years in America, the library became a haven for me. I did not yet have a car, and I walked to places. When I spotted a library, I stopped to browse and enjoy the air conditioning. No matter what library I stepped into, there were only a few books by Filipinos, such as Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn and Cebu by Peter Bacho.
Times have changed since then. Now, books by Filipinos, from the mother country or in the diaspora, flood our shelves and our consciousness. Yet, I kept looking for myself in the multitude. Although I was happy to meet new Filipino characters, most were from Manila or Tagalog-speaking areas.
I was intrigued by The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America (Heyday Books, 2006). One by one, your Ilocano grandparents came to help your mom with your new baby brother, upending your previous latchkey kid existence. I marveled at the reverse culture shock, where the country came to you.
Each grandparent carried a fraction of your early life: Discipline, Love, Laughter, and Dark Magic. This too was the language of my childhood, when I visited Ilocos during the summers. I felt the burden of rules and superstition weigh down my every move. Although I was never a princess at a fiesta, I felt your anger bore through the page when you dressed in a frilly gown, forced to parade in your suburban American neighborhood as if you could properly translate Flores de Mayo in English.
Thank you for giving me Grandma Fausta, Grandpa Paterno, Grandpa Sunday, and Grandma Patricia, whose demonstration of love was clear only in hindsight. Like my grandparents, they carried wisdom, mystery, and magic.
Your #1 Fan,
Rachielle Sheffler
The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America was the Boston Filipino American Book Club selection for April 2025:
https://www.bataclan.com/BFAB_Secondary_v2/Meetings_Page.html
Yolanda ‘Yoli’ Catalla on Maxine Pulgar Ramos
Boba Girl, a first book, by Maxine Pulgar Ramos was inspired by The Reading Nook, the coffee/book shop that she owns and manages. She discovered that serving and preparing drinks, along with the company of patrons, are relaxing and joyful activities.
The book was written with a sense of freedom, much like how the friendship between the nameless protagonist and Rachel develops. Max knew where the story would start and how it would end. She allowed the middle part to develop as she wrote. However, with some of her other works, she sometimes has an outline, especially when the story feels more reliant on structure. For Boba Girl, though, she believed the “freedom” helped her tell the story.
Max’s writing process starts with a first draft for her to know what the story is about. The second draft is for identifying what works and what doesn’t. The third is for refining the structural and emotional beats. Her favorite part is writing the first draft because it feels unrestricted, and the freedom makes it fun.
A native of Los Banos, Laguna and neighbor to the University of the Philippines (UPLB), reading is part of Max’s early life and continues to be. She believes it is one of the most important means to preserve and transmit cultural history. Literature or literary works reflect the period that they were written in, shows people’s thoughts and widespread ideologies of the time.
Techniques of writing today may change in a few years or even months, with the rise of AI. She has a dislike for AI and the manner it’s shaping authors’ writings. She says, “It’s important to push back against AI but continue to write, using our own minds to think.”
A millennial, Max hopes that the book resonates with readers in that they find their own voices, cherish friendships and value relationships.
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