In Focus: Paquito Diaz

Francisco Bustillos Diaz, who is better known by his screen name Paquito Diaz (born May 28, 1937 in Pampanga, Philippines), is a veteran Filipino actor and movie director who specialized in action and comedy.

His father was an American citizen of Mexican descent. His brother, Romy Diaz, and children, actor Joko and Cheska are also actors. Before he became an actor, he was a basketball player with his brother Romy Diaz suited up with the FEU Tamaraws in the early 1960s. He was famous for his villain roles, either the main, supporting or comic relief (mostly against Fernando Poe Jr. although despite this, the two are actually real-life friends; it is said that it was FPJ himself who helped Hospitalize Paquito after Suffering a Stroke) and he was one of the most popular actors in film industry, although he also has the ability to portray protagonist roles, mostly supporting, or comic relief. In fact, he has also portrayed a non-villain role in Walang Matigas Na tinapay sa Mainit na Kape (there is no tough bread in hot coffee) which ironically starred Fernando Poe Jr. and then Child Star Vandolph. Instead, His Late younger Brother Romy was Cast as the Main Villain of the latter Film.

Other Non-Villain appearances includes Eagle Squad, where he plays a good police officer as opposed to his other corrupt police roles alongside Robin Padilla, Current Senator Jinggoy Estrada, Edu Manzano, and Jaime Fabregas as the Main Antagonist, Bayadra (a parody of viagra) Brothers alongside Jimmy Santos and the Late Berting Labra and Estudyante Blues as the father of the character of his son Joko, and Pera O Bayong as Don Juanito Starring Willie Revillame, John Estrada and Randy Santiago with Mark Gil as the right hand man of his character and the Main Antagonist of that film. He also appeared in Villain Roles in comedy films as the Main Antagonist and also in supporting/non-villain roles that stars Mostly Dolphy, Vic Sotto, Joey De Leon, Jimmy Santos, and the late actors Babalu, Panchito and Rene Requiestas.

He suffered from hemorrhagic stroke in 2002 and now resides in his wife's hometown in Daraga, Albay, with his relatives. Due to hypertension and stroke, which caused his comatose hospitalization, he had to sell the family house and lot including his car. At present, his vision is so blurred. His Most Recent Appearance was at GMA 7's Wish Ko Lang. During the interview, He Mentioned "Walang FPJ kung Walang Paquito Diaz (There is no FPJ if there is no Paquito Diaz)". This Was most likely a reference to his frequent appearances in many of Fernando Poe Jr's Films as a Villain.

Some Of His Films

Related: Paquito Diaz (Video 48)

Source: Wikipedia, You Tube & Video 48 Blog

In Focus: The Asia's Queen of Songs, Pilita Corrales

Pilita Garrido Corrales (born August 22, 1939 in Cebu City, Philippines) is a famous Filipina singer and actress, who is widely referred to as Asia's Queen of Songs, having produced over 135 albums in her music career spanning over four decades.

Corrales has two children, Lourdes Jacqueline Blanco (commonly known as "Jackielou" Blanco) and Ramón Christopher Gutíerrez. Both her two children are also well known celebrity figures in the Philippine Film Industry. Corrales was married in 1963, to the late executive businessman Gonzalo Blanco and separated soon after, while her daughter "Jackielou" was still a child. Gonzalo later died in 1981. Corrales gave birth to her second child, Ramón Christopher, in 1971. Ramón's father is actor Eddie Gutíerrez. On May 22, 2001, Pilita married Paraguayan businessman Carlos Lopez.

Pilita Corrales was born in Lahug, Cebu City, Cebu in 1939. Her father was a Spaniard and her mother was Cebuana. She is multi-lingual and speaks Spanish, English, Tagalog, and Cebuano fluently. After finishing her studies at Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion in her native land of Cebu, she went to Spain to enroll in a finishing school in music. In 1958, Pilita began her recording career after arriving with a shipwrecked troupe of performers in Melbourne. She left her mark by becoming the first woman to make the Australian pop charts with a local recording called 'Come Closer to Me'. She became a star of the Melbourne TV circuit and her first hit, Come Closer to Me, became part of a collection on which she’s billed as one of the Grand Dames of Melbourne Radio and Television.

Pilita holds the distinction of being the first female artist to top the Australian pop music charts long before Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton-John and Kylie Minogue. Pilita also recorded at least 3 LPs in the late 1950s-early 1960s: Pilita with Arthur Young: Pilita tells The Story of Love, I'll Take Romance and This is Pilita under Astor Records. Being one of the pioneers of Australia's early television years, a street was named after her outside Melbourne. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) recently featured Pilita and several pioneering female artists in Australia in the 2nd episode of the highly acclaimed TV special, Love is in the Air. Pilita returned to Manila during the mid 1960s to pursue a career in the Philippine music industry.

Her Philippine career began when she hosted a radio program La Taverna over DZPI where she sang Spanish songs and played the guitar. She performed regularly in stage shows at the Manila Grand Opera House. Subsequently, her reputation grew and during her international stints, she has performed with internationally acclaimed artists like Sammy Davis Jr. the Beatles, Bob Hope, Pat Boone, Frank Sinatra and Julie Andrews. She also appeared in movies, most of them musicals. Her film debut was a lead role in the 1968 film Miss Wawaw, and was followed by 11 more movies for the next two years. Pilita later recorded numerous albums in Spanish in the early 60s as well as numerous long playing albums in English, Tagalog and Cebuano during the 1970s under Vicor Music Corporation. Her multiawarded TV program at ABS-CBN, An Evening with Pilita (1965-1972), is widely considered as one of the benchmarks in Philippine broadcasting history.

Pilita frequently performed for Seeing Stars with Joe Quirino in IBC-Channel 13 after the martial law years where she demonstrated her range as a gifted performer of Spanish, English, Cebuano and Tagalog music. Aquarius Record Philippines produced a compilation of Pilita's Spanish songs in CDs like Noche de Ronda, Vaya Con Dios. Her signature song A Million Thanks to You was translated in seven languages. She eventually recorded songs composed by Filipino composers like Danny Holmsen, George Canseco, Willy Cruz, Ryan Cayabyab and several others. Under Vicor Records, Pilita interpreted numerous Filipino classics and introduced them to younger audiences.

Pilita first met Canseco in Your Evening with Pilita (aired on pre-Martial Law ABS-CBN) as a guest in the composers' portion of the show". For the show Canseco brought with him You're All I Love. Canseco later wrote Filipino lyrics for the song, which became Kapantay ay Langit, the first song Canseco sold to a record label in 1966. The song was first recorded by Amapola for the movie theme of Kapantay Ay Langit starring Marlene Dauden and Eddie Rodríguez. The song won for George Canseco and Amapola the Manila Film Festival award for best song of the year. The song did not fare well commercially, because Amapola had left (for her U.S. concert tours) and the song was not promoted properly, according to Canseco during an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. But when Pilita revived the song, it turned into a classic and defied trends and time. "The song," Pilita said, "was included in my album Philippine Love Songs Vol. 1, which was released in the early 1970s."

Through the personal invitation of Sammy Davis Jr., Pilita became the first Filipino to sing in Caesars Palace. In her concert in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas during the late 70s, Pilita sang Spanish, English, Cebuano and Tagalog songs, all conducted and arranged by Ryan Cayabyab.

After receiving a 1965 Philippine Citizen's Award for TV as Best TV Female Performer, Pilita went on to receive Cecil, Aliw, Tinig and Awit and several other awards for her performances and lifetime achievement. In 1990, she received a Merit Award from the FAMAS Awards. In 1991, she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) for bringing Filipino musical artistry to international audience. She also holds the distinction of being the first Filipino to win in an international music festival by bagging the Best Performer Award during the 1st Tokyo Music Festival (1972) where she bested numerous international artists including the highly-regarded Olivia Newton-John.

These days she operates Pilita, a restaurant-bar in Greenhills named: PILITA'S, one of Manila's prime commercial districts. She is also a highly-acclaimed host and comedy actress on Philippine television. With over 135 albums to her credit and an international profile with many appearances in Asia, the Middle East, Australia and North America, she still enjoys a reputation as “singing icon and living legend.”

In 2006, Pilita Corrales was handpicked by Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC Channel 5) and FremantleMedia to be one of the celebrity-judges for the first-ever nationwide search for the Philippine Idol together with composer Ryan Cayabyab and rapper Francis Magalona. She was a judge in the first Asian Idol held in Indonesia, representing Philippine Idol.

Clips from Autralian TV Channel Documentary

"Somos Novios"

Link: Buy Pilita's Spanish albums, 'Noche de Ronda' and 'Vaya Con Dios'.



Source: Wikipedia

The Philippine alcoholic Drink TUBA, In Mexico?!

Would you believe this, Tuba in Mexico?!, I know the stories behind Empanadas, Tamales and Chicharones but TUBA?, How did it ever get there?

For two and a half centuries, between 1565 and 1815, many Filipinos and Mexicans sailed to and from Mexico and the Philippines as sailors, crews, slaves, prisoners, adventurers and soldiers in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon assisting Spain in its trade between the Asia and Mexico or otherwise known as the Barter Trade. Some of these sailors never returned to the Philippines and Vice versa. And also many Filipinos came to Mexico as refugees from Spain during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship these were Filipinos from Spain who were descendants of Filipinos and Filipino mestizo settlers who entered Spain after Spanish-American war. Most Filipinos who migrated to Mexico during that time were already settled and integrated in the Mexican society.

Today, Mexicans with Filipino ancestry form around 0.2% of the population, there are currently around 200,000 mexicans with Filipino ancestry in Mexico, and their community can be found in Colima and Guerrero and some few other places in Mexico.

These Filipinos carries with them their skills and one of these skills is Tuba making, an alcoholic drink from the sap of coconut trees. Tuba is being used here also to make Lambanog, a distilled alcoholic drink in the Philippines, like Gin (Ginebra). Until now, Filipinos have preserved this tradition, and still continue to make Tuba and Lambanog, especially in regions and provinces where coconuts are abundant, like Laguna, Cavite, Batangas, in Bicolandia and in the Visayas region like Cebu and Leyte.

In Mexico, people there are now getting creative with their Tuba, sometimes they are mixing Tuba with beet juice to make it reddish in color, adding bits of fruits and putting crushed peanuts on top. Tuba Fresca is sold by street vendors in Acapulco.

Iriga, Camarines Sur, Philippines

If you want to know more about Tuba in Mexico, click The Philippine - Mexico Connection, Central Mexico West Coast History and Mexico Descocido (en Espanol).

Source: Wikipedia

Accepting Filipinos In A Much Wider Latino World?

Does Latin America accept Filipinos as part of a much wider Latino world? But first, What is Latino? Do they need to speak Spanish to be part of this world? Do they need to be a son or a daughter of a Mexican or a Puerto Rican perhaps, but do not know how to speak the language?

The Colonial History of the Philippines is as colorful as our Currency, the Philippine "PESO". When Ferdinand Magellan discovered our country on March 16,1521, it was the rise of a new era. Since then most of the Filipino people became Catholics. Spanish and Mexican dishes became part of our lives ( Tamales, Arroz Caldo, Chicharones, Leche Flan, etc.)

Celebrations and events like El Dia de todos los Santos, El Dia de los Muertos, where we go to the cemetery and offer candles and flowers to the dead, Three Kings (signaling the end of Christmas season where we give gifts), and the Fiestas of the Saints, like in my place we celebrate the Fiesta of San Isidro Labrador every May 15; Fiesta de San Juan, where we celebrate it by splashing waters at passers by.

For almost 400 years of Spanish rule in the Philippines,even our language was not spared with what I call semi-hispanizations. To begin with, The Philippines have more than 80 languages, 7 of them are considered major languages. Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Ilocano, Pangasinense, Waray and Kapampangan, each of these languages are sprinkled with Spanish verbs, nouns and adjectives. And we are not yet finished with that, we also have the Chavacano, the Philippine Creole Spanish, being spoken by more than 600,000 Filipinos in Mindanao mostly in Zamboanga, and in the north in Cavite province and said to be one of the oldest Creole in the world.

Lastly, the People. Some Filipinos living today have Mexican or Spanish Ancestry (try researching on this). Nowadays, most Filipinos consider themselves just Asians probably because of our location. There's nothing wrong about that it's also true. What is wrong is that they have forgotten history and heritage, or maybe they just don't care about it anymore. The word Filipino itself is Spanish, after FELIPE or King Philip ll of Spain whom the Philippines is named after (FILIPINAS in Spanish). I'm just curious. Going back to the question, Does Latin America accept FIlipinos as part of a much wider and bigger Latino world?  What do you think? VIVA FILIPINAS!, VIVA HISPANOS DEL MUNDO!

Try these links: The Missing Latinos in America , With One's Past's Post- "Soy Latina tambien", Ever tried dancing in a Karakol?, Mexicans of Filipino Descent, The Spanish Settlement in the Philippines, Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, the Filipino who founded Los Angeles and Que Queda de Espana en Filipinas?