Variety Features

The big ship carries passengers from Seattle en route to Manila, including a group of Filipina students. Barely 21-year-old Mila Vicente is overwhelmed in receiving a lei from a stranger. The guy, Vicente Garin, works on Wake Island and is smitten by her and inquires with friends about Mila. Lookin…

He usually tags along with his first cousin Cliff and brother Dean as they play on the beach and in the cave with a folk guitar in tow. There in the cave, loving the reverberating sounds their voices make, the young Walter Manglona finds his voice and a lifelong passion for music. He remembers lear…

Her mother, Kanako Mori, a seamstress, is a young widow who has to work hard to put food on the table for her children. As young as 7 years old, Ruri realizes life is not easy for her, her mother, and her siblings. It won’t get any easier if she is just going to sit idly by. She knows she has to pi…

Ayuyu, one of the island’s longtime businesspeople, expresses his opinions on a host of issues confronting the commonwealth. A successful businessman over the years, Ayuyu sees running the government as running a business. As much as the government has done the best it can to cut down on costs, he …

Often, mothers do not get the recognition they deserve for the efforts they do to keep the family together. But a simple note to say “I love you” or “Thank You” will do.   Variety’s “My Mom’s Story” which is on its eight year, recognizes the important role that mothers play in not only shaping thei…

“One night, I received a call in Andersen. One of the ladies — Rose Naputi — says, ‘You know Fe is saying she loves you,’” recalls Tun Frank of how he found out about Fe Luz Ada’s inchoate feelings for him. He tells Variety that he and Fe had an opportunity to talk about it the day after that revel…

Toiling under the scorching equatorial sun that blessed him with a dark complexion, he feels bad about skipping his classes. Worse, he feels bad that it is not worth skipping his classes after all for he doesn’t get the share he looks forward to getting. Frank Cepeda, now 68 years old, remembers fu…

And he makes himself available whenever opportunity presents itself. But there’s more to cleaning the room than meets the eye. As he goes about what he volunteered to do, his eyes wander. Curiosity overwhelms him in his scrutiny. Lying on the table is a stick of cigarette. With the mischief of chil…

Rosa Taning Castro, 80, whose mother hailed from Unoun and whose father was originally from Parem in the Chuuk lagoon, remembers full well how they spent two years walking each morning from what they considered THE church in Tanapag to a chapel in Garapan where classes were held for Chamorros and C…

Some stories have time constraints as some say they no longer have many years left in them. Some say they live one day at a time and recollections of their past steadily gallop into oblivion. Felisa Chargualaf Baza, 81, and Rosa Tanin Castro, 80, are two of the octogenarians at the center and both …