The Roces Family Around the World

¿Crisis? ¡Ah, no!

2008-11-10T12:13:00.004-05:00

This came from Carlos Roces about Fatima being put in one of the newpapers.

«¿Crisis? ¡Ah, no! Mientras unos hablan de crisis, pienso y actúo, no voy a llorar»
«Cuando trabajas para alguien tienes que cumplir unos objetivos, y yo prefiero marcármelos yo misma»

FÁTIMA ROCES MONTERO LORENA NOSTI Directora de «Solo Deporte» en LanzaroteEs lo que se dice una persona de ideas claras. Tenía un trabajo por obra en Asturias de aquello para lo que había estudiado, pero aspiraba a más. Hizo las maletas y se fue a Las Palmas, «a probar suerte». Una fortuita visita a una amiga en Lanzarote propició todo un torbellino de circunstancias que terminaron convirtiéndola en una empresaria de éxito en la isla. Fátima Roces Montero dirige «Solo Deporte», una publicación deportiva que sólo necesitó dos meses para ver la luz desde que se gestó en su cabeza la idea hasta que el primer número estaba en la calle.

The link to the PDF of the article can be found here:

http://www.solodeporte.org/MagPDF2/solodeporte26a.pdf

Rage!! by Alfredo Roces

2008-10-26T17:48:00.003-04:00

Solidaridad Publishing cordially invited to a book launch of

Rage!!
Juan Luna/Antonio Luna/Trinidad Pardo de Tavera
by Alfredo Roces

Location:
Powerbooks Greenbelt 4, Level 2
Makati
October 30, 2008

Many family members have joined

2008-09-27T16:42:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy week with the family tree. Many family members are joining and passing it on to others. People are updating their information and adding photos of events. It is a wonderful thing to see unfold.

If you're reading this and would like to join us, please send me an email. Let me know who your siblings, parents, and grandparents so that I can invite you to the correct space on the family tree.

View more of Roderick's tree | Get your own family tree at Geni.com

A special mail

2008-09-20T10:00:00.004-04:00

Yesterday a special piece of mail arrived, a small tube from Hawaii was in our mailbox. I opened it and to my surprise it was from Herman Smith the husband of Janet Ortiz, sister of Nisena "Niseng" Ortiz, my grandmother.

He had been working on the Ortiz family tree for decades and he shared it with me.

I called him to thank him for the gift, and we chatted a bit, and I entered all his information into a seperate Geni tree which I set up for him. When the time is right, I'll merge the two trees.

Here is what is I entered for the Ortiz side of the family

View more of Roderick's tree | Get your own family tree at Geni.com

The Geni Tree is growing

2008-09-18T16:39:00.004-04:00

Well, a number of people are signing up at Geni to at least help out with the simplest part of the family tree. Getting the names, birthdays, and parents attached to the correct spots on the tree is challenging. Getting people to help you AND provide you with a photo of themselves is incredible!

I'm excited about this because it's simple, easy, and I hope to see a good amount of portraits on the family tree in the up coming weeks.

Facebook has been a big help in leaping into this project.

Geni: The Roces Family Tree

2008-09-15T00:13:00.004-04:00

View more of Brian's tree | Get your own family tree at Geni.com

If you'd like to see the tree up close and filled in with names, please send me an email so I can invite you to the system. Please include your full name, your siblings and your parent names. This will help make sure that I send you the correct profile.

Joined Facebook

2008-08-30T12:50:00.003-04:00

I've used facebook to find and locate many family members. It's now time to connect and contact many of them.

Please contact me if you are a Roces family member on Facebook.

Brian Roces Facebook Profile

My dearest Mamita - From Marl

2008-07-17T17:07:00.003-04:00

This was asked to be read at the eulogy of Alicia Villa-Real Roces. It was sent to me by Marlene Sioson-Roces, the daughter of Raphael "Palito" Roces.

My dearest Mamita,

I made the call.

Here in California, I called the See's Candy Company and told them to brace themselves for the steep decline in sales.

All these years, it's been such an honor to send and hand deliver your favorite selection of nougats, caramels, mint patties, nuts and marzipans....All dark chocolate, no creams! I took pride in being the customer who snobbed and walked past their pre-made assorted one-pound boxes and lovingly selected each piece and had it wrapped with care. I always looked forward to my trip to the See's Candy store because it meant that I was going home to see you. I knew how much a one-pound box of chocolate made you happy, made you smile that smile I will never forget.

Boxes of chocolate seem like nothing compared to what you've given me all these years. Our special Mother-Daughter relationship started when I was 1. When I lived in Oroquieta with you, I became your "bunso" and Lolo would make me pasyal in Central Market. I was too young to remember, but I cherish the stories of me announcing "No eat! No eat!" Well..., times have certainly changed in that department!

After returning to the States, I came back to permanently live with you and Lolo in Magallanes at age 5. After school, it was so nice to come home to you and Lolo. Many an afternoon the three of us just kept each other company in your room. When we weren't chatting or having Spanish lessons, Lolo read his Newsweek or played solitaire, and I always wondered why you were forever making the menu for the week at your desk.

Not long afterward, Daphne joined our little barkada. And we went everywhere together...grocery, movie, bowling at Club Filipino, buying fruit in the market, fun road trips to Baguio and La Union. We tagged along so much, your bowling-mates literally watched us grow up. When my mom and her dad were abroad, you were always there for us...even doctor's appointments and school functions. You filled that void of missing one parent and you proudly introduced us as "mi nietas". It made us feel like a million bucks. All these years you never lost that magic of making Susie, Daphne and I feel special like that. Being a "rosebud" was truly a privilege.

Today we are responsible, family-loving, God-fearing adults thanks to you and Lolo. You will be proud to know that though we still eat canned corned beef, you've expanded our palate to appreciate Paella and Bacalao.

And by the way, I forgive you.

I forgive you for hiding the boxes of See's chocolates and not sharing. For trying to confuse us by strategically placing a full box among empty ones. Even though I knew which box held the treasured candy, I was quietly amused. It was so naughty... so charming... so Mamita. You so deserved to enjoy them one by one, savoring them in peace and quiet. One could only wish to live a life eating yummy See's and so loved by her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren...so much so that they had "sip-sip contests".

It will be difficult going by a See's Candy store from now on. Knowing that no matter how much chocolate I buy, I will never see your face light up again. Not even a 5-pound box will bring you back. But See's candy will forever remind me of my
sweet Mamita.

I love you,
Marl

Alicia Villa-Real Roces

2008-07-14T23:22:00.004-04:00

Alicia Villa-Real Roces
June 6, 1918 - July 14, 2008

I will post any news about services as I receive it.

Es momento de rezar

2008-05-31T20:04:00.002-04:00

An email was sent to me by Carlos Roces.

Es momento de rezar, dando gracias a Dios por su ejemplo y por su vida, sembrando Paz y Amor, donde era necesario. Porque, en este mundo, son muchos los que alteran la Paz y matan el Amor.

Carlos Roces, Pintor De Gijón

2008-05-28T12:54:00.003-04:00

Carlos Roces sends out links to his work from time to time. This is a video from 1996.

Mayeni Peak Interview Clips

2008-05-21T14:39:00.004-04:00

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free
I'm following the path God has chosen for me.
I took His hand when I heard him call;
I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day,
To laugh, to love, to work or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way;
I've now found peace at the end of day.

If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joys.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss;
Oh yes, these things, I too will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow
Look for the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I savored much;
Good friends, good times, a loved ones touch.
Perhaps my time seems all to brief;
Don't lengthen your pain with undue grief.
Lift up your heart and peace to thee,
God wanted me now-He set me free
" src="http://blog.rocesfamily.com/uploaded_images/mem.png">

This was played at Mayeni's memorial.

If you watch the full interview, which is about 45 minutes, you can follow along with the 50 Questions that I asked her.

Full Interview

If anyone would like a copy of the interview on DVD, please contact me to arrange it.

A memorial for Mayeni Peak in Manila

2008-05-21T12:59:00.003-04:00

Someone was kind enough to give me news about a memorial service for Mayeni. Another will be held on Friday May 23 at 12PM.

A memorial service for our dear Mayeni was arranged by Tito Peping Roces at Mt. Carmel Church in Broadway, Q.C.at 6.00 PM. yesterday, May 20. Present were Jose M. Roces and daughters Malen and Peewee, Malen's daughter, Kitten, Tito Marquitos, Tita Marieta with daugther, Cecille, Sylvia Roces, Ninit Paterno, Chit Roces with Vergel.

Another Mass is scheduled for friday for those who reside in the South at San Antonio Parish, Forbes Park on Friday, May 23 12 P.M., also arranged by Tito Peping.

Mayeni, our thoughts and prayers are with you always!

Maria Elena Concepcion "Mayeni" Roces

2008-05-18T13:26:00.003-04:00

December 3, 1947 - May 17, 2008

The daughter of Francisco "Pipo" Roces and Nisena Roces passed away on 5/17/08.

She will have a memorial on 5/18/08 in Van Nuys, CA

Julie Roces and her fans

2008-01-05T18:33:00.000-05:00

Julie Roces is a mother of two and lives in the Philippines. I'm not familiar with her connection to the rest of the Roces families, but I did come across her site this afternoon.

It's a nice site showcasing her fans and book Abanico.

My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken

2007-12-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

If you have been not ever read Alejandro's award winning short story My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken, I found it online and cleaned it up and reproduced it here.

My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken
by Alejandro R. Roces

My brother Kiko had a very peculiar chicken. It was very peculiar because no one could tell whether it was a rooster or a hen. My brother claimed it was a rooster. I claimed it was a hen. We almost got lynched trying to settle the argument.

The whole question began early one morning, while Kiko and I were driving the chickens from the cornfield. The corn had just been planted and the chickens were scratching the seed out for food. Suddenly we heard the rapid flapping of wings. We turned in the direction of the sound and saw the two chickens fighting the far end of the field. We could not see the birds clearly, as they were lunging at each other in a whirlwind of feathers and dust.

“Look at the rooster fight!” my brother said pointing excitedly at one of the chickens. “Why, if I had a rooster like that I could get rich in the cockpit.”

“Let us go and catch it,” I suggested. “No, you stay here, I will go and catch it,” Kiko said, my brother slowly approached the battling chickens. They were so busy fighting that they did not notice him as he approached. When he got near them, he dived and caught one of them by the legs. It struggled and squawked. Kiko finally held it by both wings and it stood still. I ran over to where he was and took a good look at the chicken.

“Aba, it is a hen!” I said.

“What is the matter with you?” my brother asked. “Is the heat making you sick?”

“No, look at its head. It has no comb or wattles.”

“No comb or wattles! Who cares about its comb or wattles? Didn’t you see it fight?”

“Sure, I saw it fight, but I still say it is a hen.”

“A hen! Did you ever saw a hen with spurs like this? Or a hen with a tail like this?”

Kiko and I could not agree on what determines the sex of a chicken. If the animal in question had been a carabao it would have been simple. All we would have to do was to look at the carabao. We would have wasted no time at examining its tail, hooves, or horns. We would simply have looked at the animal straight in the face, and if it had a brass on its nose the carabao would undoubtedly be a bull. But chickens are not like carabaos. So the argument went on in the field and the whole morning.

At noon, we left to have our lunch. We argued about it on the way home. When we arrived at our house, Kiko tethered the chicken on a peg. The chicken flapped its wings – and then crowed.

“There! Did you hear that?” my brother exclaimed triumphantly. “I suppose you are going to tell me now that carabaos fly.”

“I do not care if it crows or not,” I said. “That chicken is a hen.”

We went in the house and the discussion continued during lunch.

“It is not a hen,” Kiko said. “It is a rooster.”

“It is a hen,” I said.

“It is not.”

“It is.”

“That’s enough!” Mother interrupted. “How many times must Father tell you boys not to argue during lunch?” What is the argument about this time?”

We told Mother and she went out to look at the chicken,

“The chicken”, she said, “is a binabae. It is a rooster that looks like a hen.”
That should have ended the argument. But Father also went to see the chicken and he said.

“No, Mother, you are wrong. That chicken is a binalake, a hen which looks like a rooster.”

“Have you been drinking again?” Mother asked.

“No,” Father answered.

“Then what makes you say that rooster is a hen? Have you ever seen a hen with feathers like that?”

“Listen. I have handled fighting roosters since I was a boy, and you cannot tell me that thing is a rooster.”

Before Kiko and I realized what had happened to Father and Mother were arguing about the chicken all by themselves. Soon Mother was crying. She always cried when argued with Father.

“You know well that it is a rooster,” she sobbed. “You are just being mean and stubborn.”

“I am sorry,” Father said. But I know a hen when I see one.”

Then he put his arms around Mother and called her corny names like my Reina Elenea, my Madonna and my Maria Clara. He always did that when Mother cried. Kiko and I felt embarrassed. We left the house without finishing our lunch.

“I know who can settle this question,” my brother said.

“Tenienteng Tasio.”

Tenienteng Tasio was the head of the village. I did not think that the chief of the village was the man who could solve a problem. For the chief was the barrio philosopher. By this I mean that he was a man who explained his strange views by even stranger reasons. For example, the chief frowned on cockfighting. Now many people object to rooster fighting, their reason being either that they think cockfighting is cruel or that they think gambling is bad. Neither of these was the chief’s reason. Cockfighting, he said was a waste of time because it has been proven that one gamecock can beat another.

The chief, however, had one merit. He was the oldest man in the barrio, and while this did not make him an ornithologist, still, we have to admit that anything said always carries more weight if it is said by a man with grey hairs. So when Kiko suggested consulting the teniente, I voiced no objection. I acquiesced to let him be the arbiter of our dispute. He untied the chicken and we both took it to the chief.

“Tenienteng Tasio, is this chicken a male or a female?” Kiko asked.

“That is a question that could concern only another chicken,” the chief replied.

Both Kiko and I were taken aback by this replication. But Kiko was obstinate, so he tried another approach.

“Look, teniente,” he said, “my brother and I happen to have a special interest in this particular chicken. Please give us an answer. Just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Is this a rooster?”

“It does not look like any rooster that I have ever seen,” said the teniente.

“It is a hen, then,” I said.

“It does not look like any hen that I have ever seen,” was the reply.

My brother and I were dumbfounded. For a long while we remained speechless. Then Teniente Tasio asked:

“Have you ever seen an animal like this before?”

Kiko and I had to admit that we hadn’t.

“Then how do you both know it is a chicken?”

“Well, what else could it be?” Kiko asked in turn.

“It could be another kind of bird.”

“Oh, God, no!” Kiko said.” Let’s go to town and see Mr. Cruz. He would know.”

Mr. Eduardo Cruz lived in the nearby town of Alcala. He had studied poultry husbandry at Los Baños, and he operated a large egg farm. When we got there Mr. Cruz was taking his siesta, so Kiko released the chicken in his yard.

The other chicken would not associate with ours. Not only did they keep as far away from it as they could, but they did not even seem to care to which sex it belonged. Unembarrassed by this, our chicken chased and disgraced several pullets.

“There!” my brother exclaimed.

“That should prove to you it is a rooster.”

“It proves nothing of the sort,” I said. “It only proves it has rooster instincts – but it could still be a hen.”

As soon as Mr. Cruz was up, we caught the chicken and took it to his office.

“Mr. Cruz,” Kiko said, “is this a hen or a rooster?”

Mr. Cruz looked at the bird curiously and then said:

“Hmmmm, I don’t know. I couldn’t tell at one look. I have never run across a biddy like this before.”

“Well, is there any way you can tell?”

“Why, sure. Look at the feathers on its back. If the ends are round, it’s a she. If they are pointed, then it is a he.”

The three of us examined its feathers closely. It had both!

“Hmm. Very peculiar,” said Mr. Cruz.

“Is there any other way you can tell?”

“I could kill it and examine its insides,”

“No, I don’t want it killed,” my brother said.

I took the plumed creature in my arms and we walked back to the barrio. Kiko was silent most of the way. Then suddenly he snapped his fingers and said:

“I know how I can prove to you that this is a rooster.”

“How?” I asked.

“Would you agree that this is a rooster if it fights in a cockpit – and it wins?”

“If this hen of yours can beat a gamecock, I would believe anything,” I said.

“All right,” he said, “we will take it to the cockpit this coming Sunday.”

So that Sunday we took the chicken to the cockpit. Kiko looked around for a suitable opponent and finally decided on a red rooster. I recognized the rooster as a veteran of the pit whose picture had once graced the cover of the gamecock magazine Pintakasi. It was also the chanticleer that had once escaped to the forest and lured all the hens away from the surrounding farms. Raising its serpent-liked head, the red rooster eyed the chicken arrogantly and jiggled its sickle feathers. This scared me. For I knew that when the gamecock is in breeding mood it is twice a ferocious.

“Do not pit your hen against the rooster,” I told Kiko. That the rooster is not a native chicken. It was brought over the from Texas.”

“That does not mean anything to me,” my brother said. “”My rooster will kill it.”

“Do not be a fool,” I said. “That red rooster is a killer. It has killed more chickens than the cholera. There is no rooster in this province that can take its gaff. Pick on a less formidable rooster.”

My brother would not listen. The match was made and the birds were headed for the killing. Sharp steel gaffs were tied to their left legs. Kiko bet eight pesos on his chicken. I only bet two. The odds were two to one. Then I said a tacit prayer to Santa Rita de Casia, patroness of the impossible.

Then the fight began. Both birds were released at the center of the arena. The Texan scratched the ground as if it were digging a grave for its opponent. Moments later, the two fighters confronted each other. I expected our rooster to die of fright. Instead, a strange thing happened. A lovesick expression came into the red rooster’s eyes. Then it did a love dance. Naturally, this was a most surprising incident to one and all, but particularly to those who had stakes on the Texas rooster. For it was evident that the Texan was thoroughly infatuated with our chicken and that any attention it had for the moment was strictly amatory. But before anyone could collect his wits our foul rushed at the red stag with its hackle feathers flaring. In one lunge, it buried its spur in its adversary’s breast. The fight was over! The sentencer raised our chicken in token victory.

“Tiope! Tiope! Fixed fight!” the crowed shouted.

Then a riot broke out. People tore the bamboo benches apart and used them as clubs. My brother and I had to leave through the back way. I had the chicken under my arm. We ran towards the coconut groves and we kept running till we lost the mob. As soon as we felt safe, we sat on the ground and rested. We were both panting like dogs.

“Now are you convinced it is a rooster?” Kiko muttered between breaths.

“Yes,” I answered.

I was glad the whole thing was over.

But the chicken had other ideas. It began to quiver. Then something round and warm dropped on to my hand. The chicken cackled with laughter. I looked down and saw – an egg!

Google finds family members for me

2007-12-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

I have a google search that comes to me every day via email. It comes several times a day alerting me to the most recent crawls across the web by the very speedy and smart google spiders.

I get lots of information to read, sometimes of Suzanne Roces the student and athelete, Philippines, Orlando Roces the politician, Anding Roces the famed author and columnist, Ding Roces the artist in Sydney, Australia, Isabella Roces the model, Dr. Mina Roces the professor and author in Sydney, Australia, Chino Roces, the publisher, José Luís Roces the businessman in Argentina, Joaquin Rafael Roces the prosecutor in Reno, Nevada, Miles Roces the congressman, and even navel gazing my own Roces Family Website. For some reason Carlos Roces the artist in Gijon, Spain sends me links manually. I never seem to see him in my google crawls.

Most interestingly are the small blogs that pop up from time to time. I've not sent an email or contact to them but I take note of them and will revisit them if I can see an actual Roces connection in their blogs. Sometimes Roces is attached for reasons that aren't apparent and they never come up on the blog again. Other times it seems like a match for a far flung family member that I try to contact them.

My best leads for finding family members is because YOU came here either by search ending or by family member telling you about it. People contact me from time to time, telling me tales of how they are connected to the family or how they don't know their connection to the family but find the last name in their family tree.

Roces Family Tree

2007-11-14T22:58:00.000-05:00

I worked on the Roces Family tree last week. I updated as much as I could find and put together in the free time tha I had. My goal last week was to complete the software, and input as much as I could transferring the original Sassy Mae information along with corrections and as many additions I could find and complete.

I encourage other family members to register with the program and take a look around. If you want to you can edit and make changes, but at this time you will need to request that type of access.

Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge

2007-11-14T15:10:00.000-05:00

I spent the past weekend in Chicago. The trip was to a gastronomic festival of Chicago Deep Dish Pizza eating.

On the way to the hotel I noticed the plaque on the bridge in honor of the World War II defenders of Bataan and Corregidor including those in the Bataan Death March.

It was an interesting find.

Status

2007-11-08T07:32:00.001-05:00

I'd like to say thank you to those that I was able to speak to the other day to fill in some of the holes of the current family tree. I have finally gotten the impetus to do this, and so I have a few updates for the blog.

Forums
I finally reinstalled them. I had taken them down at the beginning of the project because I was having a hard time figuring out how to make the modifications I wanted to make easily and simply. Over the past 2 years I've learned how to code php, or at least how to modify two different forum softwares, phpbb and vbulletin.

Online Family Tree
The past 2 years has seen the advent of some online collaborative tools from wikis to project systems. One of the most pertinent ones for my use is an online family tree system that allows for members of the family to contribute and correct the family tree, and a system for tracking and approving those changes.

I also completed the request of the TV researcher in Manila. I gave permission to use the Roces Family site for the broadcast. In exchange, they will credit the website and the two contributors, Brian Roces and Sassy Mae C. Sumulong, and provide a copy of the show for the Roces Family Website Archives.

Busy summer, but now it's fall

2007-11-04T01:31:00.000-04:00

It has been quite a busy summer. I have gotten a new job, I still work in media but now I am working in the publishing business. It is has been an interesting journey so far, I've learned a lot about publishing books and the legal side of distribution rights and territories.

I have received a few emails that I need to return in regards to the website. Someone from South America contacted me and I do need to respond.

Most notably I received an email from a television company who would like to use parts of the site as research for an interview. I'm happy to accommodate someone as best as I can in chronicling the family.

In the early part of the summer, I interviewed Anding "Ding" Roces when he was in New York City. Most recently I visited Los Angeles to interview Maria Elena Roces - "Mayeni" Peak.

There is a new website to unveil soon. I've been working hard on it in my spare time and I've gotten alot of features packed into something that is simple to use. People will be able to attach and share pictures, scans, movies, and text. I'm not sure when I'll unveil it. I'm hoping to get it done before the end of the month, but no promises.

Pipo and Anding in Los Angeles

2007-07-16T13:13:00.001-04:00

From The Nepales Report

WE missed the first ever Filipino zarzuela in English, about a sabungero (cockfight enthusiast), in LA.

Here’s a photo of (from left) the youthful Roces brothers: Francisco “Pipo” Roces (85), artist Rodolfo Samonte and Dr. Alejandro Roces (83). Dr. Roces based the sabungero character, Kiko the Cockfighter, on Pipo, who lives in LA.

Fortunately, our friend Zen Lopez, the Arts and Culture Commissioner of Glendale, California, shared this with us: “Director Cecile Guidote Alvarez said that it’s a miracle that Philippine National Artist for Literature Dr. Alejandro Roces’ ‘Something to Crow About,’ a modern zarzuela, became a reality in LA.

“Given our time constraints (only six weeks to prepare), all the hurdles that the group had to go through to get here — up to the last minute, they did not know if they would get their US visas, the challenges putting this event together and accommodating and arranging for a group of 50 people, it was amazing to witness the miracle of the first-ever Filipino zarzuela (in English) unfolding last Thursday, June 28, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.

“Los Angeles being the City of Angels, we are grateful for the abundance of angels without whose help and generosity the zarzuela would not have been possible. The group felt the warmth and welcome of LA. The cast gave us such an outstanding performance, lifting our spirits and inspiring pride in our heritage.”

Zen, a former Bayanihan dancer and tireless promoter of Pinoy culture in LA, thanks the community’s support on behalf of Dr. Roces, Cecile (executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts), executive producers Susan and Ed Dilkes and co-producer Ted Benito of TDRZ Productions, Inc.

“Something to Crow About” was also staged in New York.

LA18: Jannelle So Interviews Dr. Alejandro "Anding" Roces

2007-07-04T03:14:00.000-04:00

Please check out the interview of Dr. Alejandro Roces stating change of date of the declaration of independence of the Philippines and then they discuss "Something to Crow About."

Please watch both videos.

Video 1
Video 2

Roses and Thorns: New York on my mind

2007-06-24T05:04:00.001-04:00

ROSES & THORNS
By ALEJANDRO R. ROCES
Currently showing (June 21 to 24) at the legendary off-Broadway La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York City is the first original Filipino zarzuela in English, Something to Crow About. It will also be shown at the Alex Theater in Los Angeles, California on June 28. The collection of short stories with the same title on which the play was based has certainly come a long way from its origins in the laboratory of my creative mind.
The Philippine Star

It is interesting to note the history of theater in New York City. Although its history dates as far back as the 1800s, it was the beginning of the 20th century that saw the establishment of Broadway as we know it today. Theaters then were not taken seriously and attracted middle class people in search of music, excitement and romance. The 1940s was the era of Tennessee Williams and Rodgers and Hammerstein, who combined the elements of song, dance, comedy and drama in the 1943 smash hit Oklahoma. In 1949, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific became a hit and won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Musical. In 1957, Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein, so captivated audiences at the Winter Garden Theatre. More recent musicals include Pulitzer Prize-winning A Chorus Line, then Cats, known to be the longest running show in Broadway history, Tim Rice and Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar and Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, which later moved to theaters across the globe.

Off Broadway theaters in New York serve as launching stage for promising artistic productions. Some shows staged off Broadway that were successfully run later on the more prestigious Broadway were Godspell, Sunday in the Park with George and Hair. Approximately 1,500 off Broadway productions are staged each year, selling an estimated 7 million tickets annually.

The US roadshow presentation of Something to Crow About was made possible through the invitation of US theater doyenne Ellen Stewart, founder of La Mama Experimental Theater Club, the launching stage of many world-renowned artists; and Aliw Awardee Cecil Guidote-Alvarez, the show’s musical director, whose amazing perseverance and creative genius made possible this Filipino zarzuela to be performed Off Broadway. Music was composed by Ferdinand Dimadura, orchestration by Nonoy Diestro and choreography by Joji Felix-Velarde and Enrico Labayen. A reprise of the cockfighting dance was by National Artist for Dance Leonor Orosa-Goquingco.

An original Filipino musical with an all Filipino cast shown Off Broadway will certainly make our kababayans in America proud, being another achievement on top of an all Filipino group who conquered Mt. Everest, a Filipino fighter who put Philippine boxing in the limelight, award-winning Filipino singer and actress Lea Salonga who is best known for her portrayal of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon and in many different fields of endeavor from hip hop to aeronautics.

These only show that Filipinos are indeed world class.

June 21 - 24, 2007
La Mama Theatre
The Annex
67 East 4 St.
New York, NY USA
Purchase tickets

June 28, 2007
Alex Theatre
216 North Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA - United States
Purchase Tickets or call the Alex Theatre box office at 818-243-ALEX (2539).

July 1, 2007
Louis B. Mayer Theatre - Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053 US
Purchase Tickets

Something to Crow About In LA June 28!!!

2007-06-22T15:22:00.000-04:00

Los Angeles Performaces of SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT, June 28, 2007

TDRZ Production presents the Los Angeles premiere of “Something to Crow About” an award winning full length modern zarzuela direct from its first ever off-Broadway performances in New York and from the Cultural Center of the Philippines in its exclusive U.S. premiere. Based on National Artist for Literature Dr. Alejandro R. Roces’s eponymous prize-winning book of short stories, the musical is about the uniquely Pinoy’s fascination with game cocks.

It won the 2006 Aliw Awards for Best Musical (zarzuela) and Best Musical Direction under the direction of NCCA Executive Director Cecile Guidote Alvarez. The musical consists of a talented cast of 40 and bears the hallmark of some of the most fascinating scenes from Dr. Roces’s book marked with wit, humor and satire highlighting the traditional sport of cockfighting as a vehicle to unfold the colorful panorama of customs, heritage, values, religions and even relationships on the social, political and economic life of a typical Filipino town.

Presented in association with the Filipino American Service Group, Inc. (FASGI), the Philippine Consulate General of Los Angeles and the Philippine Department of Tourism.

The musical will be performed in English. Running time is one hour and thirty minutes with one intermission, and the performance is suitable for mature audiences. Photo/video recording by patrons is not allowed.

Reserve Seat Tickets:

Orchestra - VIP $55, $35, $25
Terrace - $35, $25
Balcony - $25

Purchase Tickets online or call the Alex Theatre box office at 818-243-ALEX (2539).

Special Discounts:

Seniors (age 65+) - May purchase discounted tickets in person at the Box Office Window only; must show I.D. with date of birth at time of purchase; maximum of 2 tickets per I.D.

Students - May purchase discounted tickets in person at the Box Office Window only; must show valid current full-time student I.D. at time of purchase; maximum of 2 tickets per I.D.

Glendale Residents - May purchase discounted tickets in person at the Box Office Window only; must show valid current Driver's License or other I.D. showing one of the following Zip Codes at time of purchase: 91201-91208, 91210, 91020, 91214; maximum of 2 tickets per I.D.

Groups (15 or more) - Discounted pricing available through Alex Theatre Group Sales Department. Call 818.243.7700 ext. 216 for information and purchase.

Friends of the Alex [FOTA] - May purchase 2-for-1 tickets via the Box Office Window or Phone; must buy even number of tickets based on the higher ticket price; Box Office Staff must verify patron is on FOTA membership list at time of purchase.

There is Something to Crow About!!!

2007-06-21T23:33:00.000-04:00

I just got back from the premiere of Something to Crow About with my wife. It was an interesting and exciting performace. The show ran approximately one and a half hours. There was a lot of Philippine culture crammed into the time and space.

One of the most amazing things was a blind woman dancing the tinikling.

The above is a photo of Dr. Alejandro “Anding” Roces Jr. and the director, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez. Notice the hand painted barong of Dr. Roces.

I met many Roces family members from the Iloilo side. I also met some of the Roces-Sotelo family.

There are performances until Sunday.
LaMama Theater
Box Office
74A East 4th Street, between 2nd Avenue & The Bowery
Hours: Monday - Sunday 12:00pm - 10:00pm
Annex Theater:
Th-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm
(212) 475-7710
Purchase tickets online

Award-winning zarzuela conquers the US

2007-05-25T10:02:00.001-04:00

Award-winning zarzuela conquers the US
LINK
By Totel V. de Jesus
Just imagine proud Philippine cocks, with their flapping wings of red and black feathers, crowing on the same neighborhood streets where the likes of John Lennon, JD Salinger, Tielhard de Chardin and other world icons had once in their lives breathed the morning air without a care in the world.

It’s possible, if only their spirits remain on those busy avenues.

Something To Crow About, the modern-day zarzuela written by National Artist for Literature Alejandro “Anding” Roces Jr. that won in the recent Aliw Awards for Best Musical and its director, theater icon Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, as Best Director for Musical Production, will be staged in New York and other key cities in the US next year.

“We were invited and booked to perform at La Mama Theater in New York City by no less than Off-Broadway doyenne Ellen Stewart in June 2007, which is also a fitting observance of Philippine Independence Day,” said Guidote-Alvarez, who is also the executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and presidential assistant on culture.

Other invitations, she added, came from theater groups in Buffalo, Los Angeles and in Hawaii, also targeted for the month of June.

The zarzuela had its world premiere at the Tanghalang Yaman Lahi Auditorium of the Emilio Aguinaldo College, as opening play of the 31st Unesco-International Theater Institute-World Congress held in the last two weeks of May this year.

It earned positive remarks from distinguished members of the audience like Unesco director general Koichiro Matsuura, ITI executive director Jeniffer Walpole, writer Rosalinda Orosa, critic Isagani Cruz and actor Cesar Montano.

“Theater is a social art and meeting of all disciplines. Its success lies in the full cooperation of its varied components like music, lights, set, costume, actors. The awards we got from Aliw are shared with the brilliant cast and the almost volunteer staff, including the head of the Emilio Aguinaldo College theater that made the show possible,” said Guidote-Alvarez,

Something To Crow About was adapted by Roces from his anthology of short stories titled “My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken,” which won the SEA WRITE award. The theme is cockfighting and the lead characters are two brothers: one involved in cockfighting and the other is a writer.

The plot has the older brother Kiko (played by Lionel Guico) earning a living as a sabungero though his wife is against this kind of livelihood. The fighting cocks tend to gain more of his attention. Younger brother Leandro (Joel Trinidad) falls for Luningning (Liezl Batucan), the most beautiful lass in the town.

The conflict arises when Leandro gets into trouble when Golem (Nazer Salcedo) also falls for Luningning. Golem is the bratty son of Don Facundo (Bong Embile), the town’s wealthiest and powerful man. Everything was eventually settled in a cockfight between Don Facundo’s best game cock and Kiko’s peculiar chicken.

Filipino psyche

“The material of Something To Crow About reveals much about the Filipino psyche and our culture,” added Guidote-Alvarez, who was also the founder of the seminal group of radical theater artists called the Philippine Educational Theater Association or Peta.

She admitted that it took a lot of resources to bring Something To Crow About to life. The NCCA decided to produce it through the National Artist Grant Award along with the UST Conservatory of Music. Other theater groups like the Peta, Tanghalang Pilipino, and Repertory Philippines, among others, were tapped to help out in the production through the lending of talents and other resources. Besides the UST Liturgikon choir, the Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble (Unesco Artists for Peace) was also in the cast. Fashion design guru Ben Farrales coordinated the colorful sagala attire done by the Fashion Designers Association of the Philippines featured in the Flores de Mayo procession in the fiesta finale.

On the other hand, the Aliw Award is an addition to Guidote-Alvarez’s string of awards. She has been honored by the Ramon Magsaysay Awards in 1972 for public service, the youngest Filipino to receive at age 28. She also received the TOWNS award, Benigno Aquino Foundation award, Aliw lifetime achievement award in 2003 and a special award in 2002.

Roces was honored National Artist in 2003. He is also concurrent chairman of Philippine PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) as well as the Philipine Center of Unesco-International Theater Institute.

If everything materializes as planned, Something To Crow About will be the first zarzuela to be staged in Broadway. And to borrow a line from a classic Lennon song, “All we are sayin’ is, give Philippine cocks a chance.”

Something To Crow About

2007-05-23T09:44:00.000-04:00

Coming to New York in June. Roces Family members will come to New York City to see Anding Roces' book transformed into a zaruela.

SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT
June 21 - 24, 2007
The Annex
La Mama Theatre
67 East 4 St.
New York, NY USA

Based on Dr. Roces' eponymous prize-winning book of short stories, the musical is about the uniquely Pinoy's fascination with game cocks.

Purchase tickets

It's been some time

2006-06-04T10:06:00.000-04:00

I have had so much going on in my life that I've not had much time to devote to this project at all.

I look at the things that I have on the to do list for this and I look at my to do list for work, a business I am trying to start up, and the requirements for the community that I live in now that I'm on the Board of Directors and it leaves me so little time.

Now that work is slowing down, or at least I get summer Fridays which means I alternate Fridays off, I will be able to devote more time into this project.

Portrait of Don Alejandro Roces, Sr.

2006-03-10T14:54:00.000-05:00

Portrait of Don Alejandro Roces, Sr. (by Fernando Amorsolo)

My apologies for not updating so regularly lately. I've been away from computers on sabbatical and haven't had regular access to computers.

I received an email the other day and was given some pictures to post. This is the first of the four I received.

A new addition to the Roces family tree

2006-02-12T20:35:00.000-05:00

From an email I just got to read:

In case you don't know yet, my nephew Christian phoned to tell me of the birth of his and Valentina's first child, Sebastian Alexander on Thurs. 9 Feb. (instead of 16 Feb. as expected). His maternal grandparents, Habib and Sonia, arrived the day before from Beirut, and his paternal parents, Joe and Marie from Albuquerque, NM via Wash.DC , haven't arrived yet due to a big snow storm on the East Coast. On his father's side he is Powers-Roces-Tatton and his mother's side he is Bardawil.

More details and hopefully photos as they arrive.

Getting things started

2006-02-05T11:20:00.000-05:00

I've not had much time to spend here these past 2 weeks. So much so that I have forgotten what I learned about the new system that I was preparing to implement here to help rotate content.

On personal fronts, two weeks ago my wife's cat who is 18+ years passed away. My wife and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary the other day. We're also gearing up to start a food business and want to do another run before the end of the month. I recently got elected to our board of directors at the Coop we live in so that is also taking up a good amount of my time.

We're also in talks to start a non profit organization to help get books to impoverished kids in the Philippines. We've been able to get a publisher on board to purchase the books at cost and get the publisher to do the distribution as part of their book fair program. We just need to focus on getting sponsors and monies for each school so that each child can get a book. If you'd like to assist in this project now or in the future please feel free to contact me about the One Book Project.

Francisco Roces Felgueroso

2006-01-24T17:03:00.000-05:00

I just recieved this in the mail a moment ago...

Ha muerto Francisco Roces Felgueroso, en la tarde del Martes.
El funeral por su eterno descanso se celebrará en la mañana del
JUEVES, DÍA 26, en la iglesia parroquial de Castiello de Bernueces.
Doce años de lucha contra el cáncer, con batallas ganadas al mal, paro con una muerte que se veía venir durante los últimos días, que pasó en el Hospital General acompañado por sus
familiares más cercanos.

Francisco Roces vivió dedicado a su familia y a la Parroquia de Castiello. El pasado mes de Octubre la Asociación de Vecinos le rindió un homenaje multitudinario, como agradecimiento a su
continua dedicación a resolver los problemas de la zona, siempre en colaboración con su esposa. Pili.

Miembro de una familia muy numerosa, deja viuda, dos hijos: Pilar María y Francisco y cuatro nietos.
Hombre de vida cristiana, era bien conocido por todos por su asistencia a los actos religiosos de la parroquia. Ahora que ya no estará presente, quedará su recuerdo en todos los muchos que le apreciaban, que se unirán a rezar por la salvación de
su alma.
Que Dios premie sus desvelos para llevar adelante a su familia y que su ejemplo sirva para que la sociedad en que vivimos sea algo mejor.

From the Land Down Under

2006-01-20T14:54:00.000-05:00

Alfredo "Ding" Roces and Baby Roces and the rest of his clan. Can you name the rest of them?

Moving forward

2006-01-08T00:13:00.000-05:00

It's the first real post of the 2006 and it is going to be a simple request.

Those of you who are related to the Roces Family, I need some information. Since I started this I have been filling in the family tree as best as I can. When I meet up with someone I request information about their parents and siblings and any children they may have.

I need to continue to fill it in. So if you are the head of a household, please contact me before you send anything. I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable like they are sending personal information to someone that they do not know. If we've been in contact before please send me the most information you can which means please include birthdates and significant dates like marriages, divorces and the like. If you'd like to include a family portrait, please do so and list all the family members on the photo. Pets are also welcome as well.

Even if you think that I have your information, please contact me so that I can verify the information that I have.

The detailed information will only be shared with known family members, what does that mean? Well I won't give it to someone that isn't sponsored or vouched for by another person who has been verified either live in person or via another family member who has done or claims the same. The family tree will be public, but the details will not.

To help me with this I have been working on a new program that will allow me to filter out family members from the general public. I hope to complete the work on it and implement it by March.

Please email me your information at rocesfamily@gmail.com

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T11:51:00.000-05:00

Wishing all the family members a Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

2005-12-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

A little acapella do wop ditty by Santa and the Reindeer.

Have yourself a wonderful Merry Christmas.

Christmastime in a bottle

2005-12-25T01:19:00.000-05:00

http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=1&story_id=61039

Christmastime in a bottle
First posted 11:14pm (Mla time) Dec 24, 2005
By Linda Bolido
Inquirer

THE LADY'S CHOICE HAS BECOME THE people's, too, as more than a hundred communities throughout the Philippines rallied around the new squat glass jar of the popular mayonnaise brand of consumer product manufacturer Unilever.

The new Lady's Choice bottle for mayonnaise and sandwich spreads became the symbol this Christmas of bayanihan, an increasingly endangered Filipino tradition. From the northernmost province of the country, Batanes, to the heartland of Mindanao, entire towns and cities worked together for weeks to come up with their entries to Unilever's Christmasterpiece Bayanihang Pasko 2005, the first of what will be an annual competition for the best holiday season emblem that a community could produce through teamwork.

The rules were simple. Among others, participants had to form themselves into teams of at least 10, use a minimum of 100 new Lady's Choice bottles, and the resulting structure should be not less than 15 feet tall. When the dust settled, rather after thousands of bottles had been emptied, the modest town of Naawan in Misamis Oriental, halfway between the capital Cagayan de Oro and Lanao del Norte's Iligan City, emerged victorious as the "Most Creative Town or City."

The municipality of 17,000 built the Arc of Friendship over the main highway. Consisting of two towers, with a footbridge linking both parts, the Pride of Naawan, as Mayor Dennis L. Roa called it, could very well be the town's own Arc de Triomphe. Though it did not cost as much to build nor would it last as long as the Paris landmark (entries must be left intact until Jan. 15), the bamboo-palm-coconut arch won for the town at least P1 million in prize money (there were additional prizes in cash and kind). It also earned Naawan bragging rights over Tangub City in Misamis Occidental, which had been dubbed the Christmas Symbols Capital of the Philippines. In fact, almost every town and city in Mindanao that participated in the contest knew Tangub would be a formidable opponent. The city had been into the Christmas business for 13 years, hence the title conferred on it by the Department of Tourism.

Tangub did win a silver and a bronze for two of its seven entries.

Roa had the help of a former advertising man and a native son of Naawan, Bai Manginsay, in conceptualizing the award-winning arch. With the prize money, the mayor said he would set up a creativity center that would train people, particularly out of school youth, in livelihood activities.

Naawan celebrated its victory in style, courtesy of Unilever. Despite the heavy rains on the evening of Dec. 17, people from the town and neighboring municipalities came in droves to watch, among others, Jolina Magdangal and Jimmy Bondoc perform.

Iligan, which had three entries, won a special citation. The Department of Education's entry, which featured traditional symbols of the season like the Christmas tree, used the most number of bottles-2,672-beating the local government's replica of city hall by just a few jars. Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the people of the city were so into the spirit of the competition that they even brought unopened jars. Not wanting the items to go to waste, the mayor had them used for sandwiches for the volunteers' merienda.

Though only about one per cent of Iligan's population is Muslim, Cruz made it a point to make them feel part of the whole project by having a crescent beside the cross on the roof of "city hall."

In Tangub, with seven entries to fill with Lady's Choice jars, Mayor Jennifer Tan and Vice Mayor Edemar Alota, who supervised the project, said they would probably lay off the mayonnaise and sandwich spread until February. That the city has this Christmas thing down pat was obvious from the complexity and diversity of its entries. The city engineer's office's bronze-winning project even had a revolving "bottle" of Lady's Choice made of rice straw looming over a large umbrella covering the nativity scene (the umbrella was supposed to be a metaphor for faith and the encompassing protection it offers).

Judges in this year's competition were National Artist Alejandro Roces, glass sculptor Ramon Orlina, architect Ma. Cristina Turalba, Tourism Assistant Secretary Eduardo Jarque and Unilever's Alex Tacderas.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T13:31:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to all those family members around the world!
A rememberance to those that are no longer with us in body but memory.

This particular young gentleman is Matthew the son of Mike Sioson & Marlene Roces. She was kind enough to send this early in the Christmas season and I've been hoping that other family members would also send me pictures of their children on Santa's lap. I'll have to make sure that I announce the request much earlier next year.

Take some pictures of your kids opening gifts in the morning and email me the best ones you have. It would be great to share them with the rest of the family around the globe.

Merry Christmas everyone!

RITN: Migrant worker's daughter does her family proud

2005-12-18T09:04:00.000-05:00

Roces in the News (RITN)

Every day I keep finding new things about the family name and it's legacy. It's nice to know that Lolo Rafael is still helping people help people.

Special Features (as of 1:40 AM)

Migrant worker’s daughter does her family proud

VOLUNTEERS FOR PROGRESS
By NARLIZA BENTER
As a child Donna Marie Alcantara was no different from the others. In her grade school years, Donna, as her friends called her, usually spent her time playing without worrying about life. Back then she was studying in a private school in Baguio City. Her father worked as a laborer in a company and was earning enough for his family; her mother sold barbecue to augment the family income. Life seemed good.
When Donna reached Grade 6, her mother decided to work abroad as a housemaid. As with other children of OFWs, Donna found the separation difficult. She remembers enduring loneliness and the pang her mother’s absence.
"Although our financial situation improved a bit, it still could not replace having my mother around." Gifted with a maturity beyond her years, Donna decided to pour all her energies on her studies instead.
Despite the hard work of her mother and father, money was still hard to come by for the family. Classes were about to start when Donna was informed that the family could no longer shoulder some of her school expenses.
It was another storm that Donna had to weather.
"It was bad because my classmates would tease me about my ratty old uniforms and the fact that I always had to borrow school materials. I felt like I had no choice because we just didn’t have enough money to buy all those things."
When she was about to enter high school, she transferred from a private school to a public one.
Fearful for her future but determined to succeed, Donna worked hard until she found herself part of the Pathways to Higher Education Program in Saint Louis University in Baguio City.
Pathways to Higher Education is an innovative education program of Ateneo de Manila University, having regional offices in Baguio Marbel and Bulacan, that aims to help send academically gifted but marginalized public high-school students to college. Instead of giving doles and scholarships, Pathways offers impoverished high-school students academic enrichment classes, supplementary learning activities, and learning resource centers to enable them to study well and earn scholarships to the schools and courses of their choice. It opened a lot of doors for Donna and finally the Rafael Roces Memorial Scholarship Program provided her with a full scholarship.
Now a sophomore at Saint Louis University, Donna is well on her way toward fulfilling her dreams of providing a better future for her and her family.
"Someday I want to build up my own school, a school that can help marginalized students develop and enhance their talents, skills and abilities. I also dream of becoming a teacher who will serve the country and help bring out the best in students, a teacher who deals with people, touching life and letting them realize that everything happens for a reason."
Donna’s family is her source of inspiration. "My family is my source of happiness. In the end, I just want to give them a more comfortable life. It is true that I am going through a lot of trials in life; I still find myself praying to God asking for help, guidance and support. I cannot allow one difficulty to defeat me, to crush the dreams that years of hard work and dedication have built. I must hold on to my dreams and believe that I can do it."
Pathways to Higher Education has been helping young students like Donna chart their own courses for the future. With your help, more high-school and college students will have access to new experiences and opportunities that will make them better individuals and leaders. Get to know more about Pathways’ groundbreaking programs by calling 426-6001 local 4044-4049, by sending an e-mail to pathways@admu.edu.ph, or by logging on to www.pathwaysphilippines.blogspot.com or by texting 0920-950-8171.

Pilar Roces Felgueroso

2005-12-16T10:07:00.000-05:00

EDITORIAL PRENSA ASTURIANADirector: Isidoro Nicieza

GIJÓN 15 de Diciembre de 2005

Aunque haya muerto vivirá

CARLOS OSORO SIERRA
Querido Carlos: Quiero estar unido a ti y a toda tu familia en la muerte de tu hermana Pili. Ciertamente ese agujero tan hondo y oscuro que siempre aparece en nuestra vida como es la muerte nos deja sin palabras. Los humanos tenemos palabras para casi todo, pero para la muerte no tenemos ninguna, lo único que se nos ocurre es decir a quien padece este acontecimiento «te acompaño en el sentimiento» o «estoy contigo». Yo hoy quiero decirte otra cosa muy diferente, en la que tú crees profundamente.

Los que creemos hemos recibido una palabra de quien es más que nosotros, que vivió la muerte en su propia existencia y que resucitó y alcanzó la resurrección para nosotros. Él nos dijo: «Yo soy la resurrección y la vida, el que cree en mí, aunque haya muerto, vivirá y todo el que vive y cree en mí no morirá para siempre».

¿Crees esto? Sé que tú lo crees. Y sé también que la inseguridad que viene de nosotros desaparece cuando asumimos la seguridad que Jesucristo mismo nos da. Pido al Señor por tu hermana. Mañana la misa la ofreceré por ella y la recordaré junto a todos vosotros, su familia. Con gran afecto.

Carta remitida por el Sr. Arzobispo, D.Carlos Osoro a Carlos Roces Felgueroso

EDITORIAL PRENSA ASTURIANA
Director: Isidoro Nicieza

GIJÓN 15 de Diciembre de 2005

Funeral en La Asunción por Pilar Roces Felgueroso

Pilar Roces Felgueroso.

María del Pilar Roces Felgueroso falleció el pasado lunes y recibió cristiana sepultura en Villalón de Campos (Valladolid).

Pili será despedida mañana, viernes, día 16 de diciembre, a las 19.45 de la tarde, en La Asunción, donde se celebrará un funeral por su eterno descanso. En el Colegio de La Asunción estudiaron las tres hermanas Roces Felgueroso y allí sus familiares rezarán por ella, muy cerca del hogar que compartieron en la niñez y juventud.

Era la mayor de nueve hermanos, de los que ahora sólo viven seis. Ella fue también madre de familia numerosa; casada, hace más de medio siglo, con Manuel Herrero Monje, fue madre de ocho hijos. Profunda creyente, Pilar vivió al servicio de su familia. Entregada a todos ellos, sin desmayar, desde la muerte de su hija Mercedes, en un accidente de automóvil, vivió con su pena y fue perdiendo la fuerza y la salud hasta su reciente muerte.

«Ante su muerte no debemos estar tristes ni lamentarnos. Su vida ha de servirnos de ejemplo a todos, para desterrar el egoísmo y servir a los demás con amor, como ella hizo durante tantos años», dice su hermano Carlos Roces

Nisena Ortiz Roces

2005-12-05T12:19:00.000-05:00

The call came on Saturday morning. I wasn't home so I got a message from my sister on my cellphone when Mamasing passed on. I was travelling to visit a friend for the weekend and didn't have access to a computer until today.

If anyone would like to share stories or pictures for me to post please contact me rocesfamily@gmail.com.

Information on services and news as I hear about it.

The holidays are upon us

2005-12-01T03:13:00.000-05:00

I've been quite busy with work since I've returned from the Philippines. There are several business deals that I'm working on and it's kept me from working on this project. I've literally had not spare time as I've been jet setting for the past 2 months with a trip to Carlsbad to visit my parents, London to visit my mother in law, and this weekend will be a surprise trip my wife as put together.

The holidays will bring some lighter workloads at the office so I'll be able to write up some elements I've been meaning to. If anything I don't think I'll get to the conversion to this new format until after the new year, but I can at least continue to update this blog on a weekly basis like when I first started.

Two different family members have been connected by other long lost people because of this website. One connection spans decades and is within the oldest generation, and the other is from my generation. It's great to know that even if I've not had time to update this site with stories that it still is something that can help connect the family over time and distance.

Setbacks

2005-11-15T23:01:00.000-05:00

I've been really busy with work and haven't had much opporunity to work on putting together the pictures from the trip. I've been able to cull out the Morita's Restaurant pictures but the rest really need TLC to put together.

I was trying to upgrade the forums to the latest vbulletin and the security patch update and in doing so blew up the system. I was going to recover it, but then thought to myself,"Remember the feed back that people have given you is that it's difficult to navigate and use for non-computer people."

In that vein with the little spare time that I do have, I've been testing a different presentation software. The new software will incoporate this blog along with the forum and photo gallery in a more simplified, easy to navigate front end system. (At least I hope.) If I can at least get the blog transferred over before Christmas I'll be happy with that and then I can get the rest of the intergration after the New Year.

One of the other things that I think is interesting is that since I've not had any time to work on this project, I seem to have had a memory leak. As I look at some of the coding and technical items I'm not remembering how they work or what I need to do to modify them the way that I had been. I just need to spend more time with this and hopefully I will be able to soon.

In the meantime... Here's a movie of my wife Dori petting a tiger cub in the Malabon Zoo. (warning dialup users it's a 6Mb quicktime video!)

Anak TV Seal screening process winds up

2005-11-12T01:16:00.000-05:00

Anak TV Seal screening process winds up
First posted 09:23pm (Mla time) Nov 11, 2005
By Nestor Torre
Inquirer News Service
LINK

EACH YEAR, THE Anak TV screening process winds up with a media showcase that gives print and broadcast journalists a chance to see how the nationwide screenings for the prized citations of child-friendly shows unreel.

This year's culminating trip is happening this weekend, with the help of Negros Navigation and the office of the Mayor of Bacolod City. Some media people sailed yesterday on the MS/St. Joseph the Worker. They are currently in Bacolod City and will be back in Manila tomorrow.

Young viewers' welfare
During the trip, they are observing how Anak TV screenings are conducted, and learning what people from all walks of life think
about television, particularly in relation to young viewers' welfare.

Onboard the Negros Navigation vessel, they are interviewing MTRCB Chair Consoliza Laguardia, and interfacing with Southeast Asian Foundation officials, led by president Edgardo Roces, and trustee Sulficio Tagud Jr.

In Bacolod, they are taking a city tour, visiting scenic sites, and sampling the city's delicacies. More pertinently, they will attend a media conference hosted by Mayor Evelio Leonardia and the city's councilors. At the event, the mayor will make an official statement about television as it affects Bacolod children.

Effectivity
We have joined a similar "educational trip" in the past, and can vouch for its effectivity in helping media people better appreciate the importance of encouraging the production and viewership of TV shows that have a positive effect on young people.

Even better, we saw for ourselves that many parents, educators and youths in the provinces are very concerned about irresponsible and exploitative TV programs, because they realize the persuasive power of television over young viewers' sensibilities.

At the Anak TV screenings, they launched into extensive discussions of the sample programs they viewed, and detailed how they impacted on
children.

Not perfect
To be sure, the Anak TV process isn't perfect. Last year, for instance, a few of the programs cited left something to be desired (at least as far as this writer was concerned).

But the process generally works, and goes a long way in involving the
viewing public in vetting programs that young viewers get to see. This is "broadcast democracy" at work, and should definitely be encouraged.
Citations
So, our hopes are high that the 2005 Anak TV Seal citations will encourage the production of more responsible TV programs, and that more media people will give SEAFCTV's signature project the support it deserves.

GMA TOASTS OUTSTANDING PINOYS FOR SHOWCASING BEST OF FILIPINO

2005-11-09T07:32:00.000-05:00

GMA TOASTS OUTSTANDING PINOYS FOR SHOWCASING BEST OF FILIPINO
MALACANANG, November 8, 2005 (OFFICE OF THE PRESS SECRETARY) ) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo congratulated today several outstanding indigenous groups and individuals who have made the Philippines proud by garnering recognitions and awards here and abroad.
The President hailed the awardees for showcasing the best of the Filipino during a special courtesy call this afternoon at the Rizal Hall of Malacanang.
"They represent the best of the Filipino and indeed there are so many that represented the best of the Filipino… We congratulate all of them. They all represent the great Filipino worker, the great Filipino. Thank you for inspiring us and may we continue to produce more of the great Filipino," the President said.
Among those present during the simple ceremonies were Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila, UNICEF Director Nicolas Alipui, national artists Napoleon Abueva (visual arts) and Dr. Alejandro Roces (literature), and Presidential Assistant on Culture and concurrent National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) executive director Cecile Guidote Alvarez.
Leading the awardees is the Xilworks team of the Far Eastern University (FEU) that won the Jaycees International Best Business Plans of the World contest last Oct. 28 in Vienna, Austria.
The team, composed of Ruth Michelle Ariem, Alexis Lozano, Michael Estorninos and their adviser Prof. Ramon Adviento, bested over 200 business plans from around the world with their clean technology of extracting silver from spent x-ray solution.
Other awardees are ABS-CBN news anchor Karen Davila whose feature "Batang Preso" (Juvenile Prisoners) in the investigative program "The Correspondents" bested 50 other entries from the Asia-Pacific region in winning the "UNICEF Child Rights Award" last October in Hong Kong;
GMA7 news anchor Rhea Santos and host of "At Your Service" television program for bagging the Gold Camera Award, the highest award given in the 38th US International Film and Video Festival, one of the world’s highest honors in audio visual competition held last June. The show’s "Under the Sea" episode, which taught a fishing community how to build an artificial coral reef as an alternative means of livelihood, bested 1,300 entries from 30 countries under the Community Development Genre category;
The Philipine Educational Theater Association (PETA) received last October the 2005 Japan Foundation’s Special Prize for Culture and Arts, the first for the Philippines, for its significant role in international cultural and artistic exchange and carrying out educational and community building efforts in Asia;
Ms. Malou Jacob, who was among this year’s recipients of the SEAwrite Awards, Asia’s most prestigious literary prize given by the Princess of Thailand in Bangkok last month;
Jacob’s book "Anatomy of Corruption" talks about the values and the re-thrusting necessary to fight corruption. "Juan Tamban," one of her plays about a street child who eats cockroaches to survive, received critical acclaim.
Visual artist Romulo Galicano, who bested 2,000 other painters from around the world in winning the grand prize of the 2005 International Portrait Competition hosted by the Portrait Society of America in Washington, D.C. last May 2005;
His winning entry, a 30x40 oil painting portrait of Eddie Chua, a businessman and friend, was a perfect example of temporary realism – a fusion of realist and abstract art discipline.
Christian choral group Coro Cantabile which received the Club UNESCO Citation during this year’s 7th Multi-ethnic Cultural Festival in Greece;
Shirley Halili-Cruz School of Ballet, for bagging a total of 67 awards and gold trophies in the different dance categories in the 7th Asia-Pacific Dance Competition in Singapore.
The President, who issued Presidential Proclamation No. 486 observing the whole month of October as Indigenous People’s Month, also congratulated the awardees in this year’s "Search for Outstanding Indigenous People’s Leadership (S.O.I.L.) that was given by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).
They are Baguio City’s Cecile Afable (education and media), Iloilo’s Romulo Caballero (arts and culture), Pangasinan’s Inocencio Carganilla (entrepreneurship/livelihood), Mountain Province’s William Claver (peace, human rights and environment), and Zamboanga’s Justino Tiban Awid (public service/community leadership).

2005-11-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

Today is All Saints Day. If I recall correctly there is an honor guard ceremony for Raphael "Liling" Roces Jr. and the others that were martyred during WWII. I'm currently reading Looking For Liling: A Family History Of World War II Martyr Rafael R. Roces, Jr. written by Alfredo "Ding" Roces. It's been a fascinating read so far.

Cemeteries are a time capsule of RP history, culture
First posted 03:17am (Mla time) Nov 01, 2005
By Jerome Aning
Inquirer News Service
LINK

IN LIFE, they helped shape the course of Philippine politics and culture. In death, their graves serve as guideposts to history.

Statesmen, politicians, military leaders, men and women of arts and letters, pioneers, martyrs and heroes come alive in the narratives of tour guide Carlos Celdran.

Once a year, Celdran takes local and foreign tourists to the Manila North, Chinese and La Loma Catholic cemeteries where the remains of some of the most outstanding Filipinos are interred. The three cemeteries are contiguous and combine to become Metro Manila’s biggest and most populous necropolis.

The final resting places of these illustrious Filipinos range from the ostentatiously elaborate to the self-effacing. Some reveal the architectural design or materials of a lost era.

Amid crosses and statues of Madonnas, saints and angels, Celdran recounts anecdotes about the dead while standing in front of their graves.

The greatest concentration of historical figures are at the Manila North and La Loma cemeteries. Three Presidents --Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas and Ramon Magsaysay -- are buried there.

The cemeteries also host national politicians, like Claro M. Recto, Quintin Paredes, Pablo Ocampo and Benito Legarda, as well as Manila Mayors Arsenio Lacson, Antonio Villegas, Felix Huertas and Manuel de la Fuente.

Giants of arts and letters

Giants of Filipino arts and letters are represented by painter Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo, composer Julio Nakpil, architects Arcadio Arellano and Nakpil’s son Juan, and show biz personalities from the early 19th century up to “Da King of Philippine Movies” Fernando Poe Jr.

Before larger cemeteries were set up elsewhere in the metropolis, Manila North was the resting place of the Who’s Who of Philippine society, the scions of political clans, eminent academicians, big businessmen, sportsmen and famous entertainers.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s mother-in-law, Lourdes Tuason-Arroyo of the influential Tuason political clan, is buried at Manila North.

Through the years, many remains of VIPs have been exhumed and re-interred in shrines in their hometowns.

Only in April this year, the remains of First Lady Aurora Aragon-Quezon joined those of her husband, President Manuel Luis Quezon, originally a “resident” of Manila North, at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City.

The following month, the remains of Potenciano Gregorio Sr., composer of Bicol’s popular love song “Sarung Banggi,” were reburied in his hometown of Sto. Domingo, Albay.

A mausoleum is dedicated to the veterans of the Philippine Revolution and the Filipino-American War, like Trinidad Tecson, Pio Valenzuela, Tomas Mascardo and Baldomero Aguinaldo.

The Thomasites

A graveyard honors the Thomasites, the American teachers who pioneered modern public education in the country and were behind such institutions as the Philippine Normal University in Manila and Silliman University in Dumaguete City.

Celdran related that the teachers, who arrived in 1901 and worked in major provinces, were unaccustomed to the local climate and thus died from assorted tropical diseases.

The tomb of the well-loved American Governor General, Francis Burton Harrison, is at La Loma at the boundary of Caloocan and Quezon cities. He was known for “Filipinizing” the country’s bureaucracy and accelerating the Filipinos’ training in democracy and responsible government.

A cherub guards the simple grave at Manila North of flyweight champion Pancho Villa, who fought in the United States in the 1920s and is considered Asia’s first boxing superstar.

Simplicity is also the theme of the mausoleum of the noodles magnate Ma Mon Luk at the Chinese Cemetery.

Melancholy air

A melancholy atmosphere hovers over the plot of the La Salle Brothers who were massacred by the Japanese during the Allied Liberation of Manila in World War II.

The same is true at the mass grave of the 20 Boy Scouts who died when their plane crashed in the Indian Ocean while they were on their way to the 1963 World Jamboree in Greece.

During World War II, the Chinese Cemetery witnessed the executions of prominent citizens, like Girl Scouts organizer Josefa Llanes Escoda, Chinese Consul General Yang Guangsheng, star athlete-turned-guerrilla spy Virgilio Lobregat, and writers Rafael Roces and Manuel Arguilla.

At the La Loma Cemetery lies the tomb of convicted rapist Leo Echegaray, the first to be executed by lethal injection in 1999 when capital punishment was restored. The heated debate about the death penalty, which divided the country, is conveyed by his epitaph that contains his last words: “Pilipino pinatay ng kapwa Pilipino.”

The Manila North Cemetery also contains the country’s only known Jewish cemetery, where each tombstone is marked by a Star of David. The cemetery also has spaces allotted for Freemasons, as well as aborted fetuses and abandoned dead infants.

While Manila North seems to have lost its image as the country’s premier cemetery due to congestion and urban pollution, the Chinese Cemetery, also in Manila, has remained popular among the ethnic Chinese.

Chinese Cemetery founder

Founded in the 1850s by Lim Ong and Tan Quien Sien, also known by his Christian name, Carlos Palanca, the 54-hectare Chinese Cemetery contains graves that tell of the wealth and social status of several generations of deceased.

Mausoleums can be as high as two stories. Some resemble temples and pagodas, while others can only be described as “grave villas.”

Those in the sections dubbed Millionaire’s Row and Little Beverly Hills contain comforts for the living, such as air-conditioning, hot and cold water, radio and television, complete kitchen appliances, flushing toilets, chandeliers and even mailboxes.

The dead are remembered in accordance with Catholic practices mixed with Buddhist, Confucian or Taoist traditions on honoring ancestors. Visiting family members offer food and burn incense sticks and paper cuttings before sepulchers that display portraits of the deceased.

Celdran told the Inquirer that over the years, the elements and general neglect have caused some of the tombs in the three cemeteries to deteriorate.

“Of course, there are some graves that are in bad shape, but most of these are run by the private families that own them. It’s the fault of the individuals rather than the government which is why [tombs are] deteriorating,” he said.

Celdran said the Chinese Cemetery was generally “still in pretty good shape” since it is run by a private organization known as the Chinese Charitable Organization.

Losing architectural flavor

He added that some Chinese tombs were fast losing their architectural flavor as many high-priced lots were being partitioned and sold to newcomers.

However, many La Loma tombs, including the St. Pancratius Church, are in disrepair because of lack of funds.

City Hall has been busy fixing up Manila North. The cemetery has a new entryway and an annex to accommodate more graves.

Many squatters have also been removed and resettled.

“Nevertheless, all three cemeteries are still worthy of a visit,” Celdran said, noting the growing number of tourists, guided or unguided, going to the cemeteries.

Culture experts say cemeteries are among the last places altered by forces of economic progress and development. Like historic artifacts, cemeteries tell what life was like in the past and how it continues to evolve.

They are, in a way, a time capsule of Philippine history and culture.

Making the Connection

2005-10-30T19:21:00.000-05:00

To me the technology of connectivity is amazing. I recieved an email from someone looking for a family member. I forwarded the information accordingly and hopefully the two long lost friends will reunite.

15 Ateneans to be enshrined in memorial

2005-10-25T00:08:00.000-04:00

This story was taken from www.inq7.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=54434

15 Ateneans to be enshrined in memorial
First posted 04:06am (Mla time) Oct 25, 2005
By
Inquirer News Service

ON NOV. 12, at a gathering on the Ateneo de Manila University campus at Loyola Heights, Quezon City, 15 men will be enshrined in the Ateneo Heroes Memorial.

Their names will be added to those of the 112 who have been enshrined there since 1969, the year then Ateneo president Fr. Pacifico Ortiz S.J. had a modest war memorial erected to honor the Ateneans who perished in the Revolutions of 1896 and 1898 and World War II.

Three Jesuits -- Fathers James Reuter, Romeo Intengan and Francisco Perez -- are among the present honorees.

Reuter, who is currently at the helm of the Catholic Church’s National Office of Mass Media, was a prisoner of war of the Japanese interned in Los Baños, Laguna. Through the years, he has imbued his students with heroic ambitions and a passion for excellence as he taught college, coached the Hail Mary Team (the Blue Eagles), directed plays and conducted the Ateneo College Glee Club.

Intengan, former Philippine Provincial of the Society of Jesus, was arrested and detained for two months for taking part in a march protesting electoral fraud and violence committed by the Marcos martial law regime.

Perez was a guerrilla during the Japanese occupation. He was with the Matute Combat Regiment in the Bulacan Military Area headed by Gen. Alejo Santos.

To be enshrined with them are two other living Ateneans -- Dr. Alejandro Roces and Antonio Malvar Meer.

Roces was considered the youngest guerrilla when, at 15, he joined Marking Guerrillas in Rizal during WWII. A few years ago, he fearlessly faced hardened criminals, spoke to them about the importance of Literature to the nation and was able to retrieve the original manuscripts of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Mi Ultimo Adios that they had stolen.

Meer served the country during and after the Pacific War, joined President Manuel Quezon’s organized guerrilla force and founded Handog sa Sundalo Foundation to alleviate the soldiers’ poverty.

Among the deceased honorees are those who fought in Bataan and walked the Death March -- Antonio Vinluan, Philip Buencamino, Antonio Nieva, Ramon Pamintuan, Oscar Coscolluela and Ramon Diaz, who was tortured by the Japanese for being a member of an intelligence cell that relayed information about the Japanese to the Americans in Australia through the interned Jesuits.

For the first time in the memorial’s history, four young Ateneo graduates will be enshrined for their martyrdom during the martial law years. They are Ferdinand Arceo, William Begg, Artemio Celestial Jr. and Abraham Sarmiento Jr.

An exhibit of memorabilia belonging to the heroes will open at 1 p.m. on Nov. 12 at the Rizal Library. A documentary on the Legacy of Heroes will be shown, with Ricardo Jose as speaker. The ceremony honoring the heroes at Bellarmine Field will follow at 3 p.m.

Los Roces vuelven a Gijón

2005-10-19T17:03:00.000-04:00

I really have been so busy trying to catch up on work. I had to hit the ground running here and it has been nonstop since we arrived. I've been meaning to post items about things that happened while in Manila along with other things that I've discovered.

Here is something that Carlos Roces emailed me from "Los Roces vuelven a Gijón."

We'll have to make some sort of future plan to try to get all the Roces family members from all the countries together.

Handwritten Notebooks

2005-10-14T17:42:00.000-04:00

Some notes handwritten by my great grandfather Rafael Filomena Roces. The first pages deal with him writing about the family genealogy from his point backwards. It corroborates the information already known and tracked, but it's interesting to see in his own handwriting.

Crossing the Oceans

2005-10-12T05:36:00.000-04:00

As I have just returned back to the Big Apple to go over the items I've learned about the family history I recieved an email from Carlos Roces the painter in Gijon. There were a handful of people that were able to make it to Gijon to meet and greet each other. I've got to translate the email as to who did attend which I'll do at a more resonable hour. (Jet lag is really catching up with me.)

Lolo Rafael, Lola Enchay y familia

2005-10-05T04:30:00.000-04:00

One of the many finds that I was able to scan. There's lots of people in this picture. How many can you name?

Meeting with Marcos Victor Roces

2005-09-20T06:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I spent the day with Marquitos Roces. We caught up before lunch then had a nice leisurely lunch of lumpia (Lola Enchay's recipe with camote), gyoza, and red rice. It was very nice to catch up with the family as the last time I was with them I did not get to spend much time with them.

Yesterday we went over some old pictures of Lolo Rafael and then read his handwritten notebooks of his own discoveries of the family tree. I'm very excited to scan these books and get them posted into the family archives. There are also lots of photos of both Lolo Rafael and Lola Enchay (endearingly referred to by Tito as "Papa" and "Mama") The stories that I'm seeing unfold are making me quite jealous that I did not get to know Lola Enchay better nor did I get to ever meet Lolo Rafael.

After leafing through these pictures we went up to see his computer system. I was quite impressed with the Mac G5 and the large Cinema display. Having spend some time working that machine, I think it's time to stop being so cheap about my technology and move back to the apple roots that brought me into the technology world.

I will get together with him again today and possibly see another elder. I'm quite excited about all that is going on that I really cannot sleep between the excitement and the jetlag.

Shangri-la Hotel Makati, Manila

2005-09-18T08:27:00.000-04:00

I'm here at the Makati Shangri-la hotel. It's a pretty place what looks like near the financial district since I can see all the tall buildings with bank names on them from our room.

It has been a bit difficult getting adjusted to the time change since it's directly 12 hours difference from NYC.

The food is yummy. Getting to eat Tapsilog and daing for breakfast is a wonderful thing. I feel like a kid again. Mangoes, mangosteens, and lanzones are very tasty for breakfast as well.

Dori has started her day at 5:30AM and I followed suit. I'm just waiting for it to be a reasonable time to start calling family members to make plans for the rest of the time I am available.

LA Power Outage

2005-09-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

Apparently there was a massive blackout in parts of Los Angeles which affected our hosting provider. I have not had time to look at the situation as we're packing and gathering up our things and last minute items for our trip tomorrow.

The site is finally back up but was down for over 24 hours.

Thank you all for your patience.

Gearing up the technology

2005-09-14T01:50:00.001-04:00

Tonight is the last night to futz around with technology. The computers should be ready and 3/4 packed. Spare batteries, media, accessories all need to be inventoried and put into final pockets.

I added a portable dvd player into the mix since the laptops have never had enough battery life ever.

I am lusting after a JVC 30gb hard drive DVcam. It looks reallly nice but c'mon $999.99 is not an easy price tag to swallow. Especially for an impulse buy. If I had more time to consider it I just might buy it. Next trip I just may have a camcorder. We have a digital8 but that is not the same thing at all.

Let's gear up and move out!

Travel test

2005-09-14T01:50:00.000-04:00

I am typing this entry from my handheld onto an Avantgo Blogger client.

While the window is tiny it does work almost as well as the othe journal client I use.

Forced Hiatus

2005-09-09T21:23:00.000-04:00

I had to take a brief hiatus from working on the site due to a death in the family on my wife's side of the family. There are still more things to work on but the biggest task is complete. I got back from Pittsburgh this afternoon.

I started to look at what I needed to do in order to be ready for next week when we leave for three weeks. Two weeks in the Philippines and one week in India. The two weeks being in the Philippines I think will hit me just as hard as my visit to Madrid earlier this year.

It isn't like I'm having a midlife crisis, but actually more like an acute heritage awareness that I've never felt before. As an American-Filipino I always felt like an outsider to both cultures. As a kid sometimes I never felt American enough around my friends growing up. Conversely when with my cousins I never felt Filipino enough. It was not until college that I came to terms and comfort of being me just the way I am.

I know that my parents instilled the culture within me but never imposed it. I know that they instilled it in me because the oddest smallest things Filipino can send me into a childhood memory.

This week I will be preparing. I will pack what I can already this weekend so that we're "ahead" a little bit and I can concentrate on finishing up work related tasks and projects. I'm also trying to figure out just how I plan on updating from the Philippines. Usually when we go to Iceland I write on a daily basis into my Palm handheld and then when I find some free wi-fi I send it all up. Since Dori is going to be working she will subscribe to internet access at the hotel so it won't be that bad. In fact now that I think about it the only time I am going to be unsure of it will be when she is actually going to be on vacation as well during the 2nd week.

Back in NY after visiting LA

2005-09-02T11:31:00.000-04:00

A business trip took me to LA for the past week. I'm now trying to catch up on what I've missed out on. I also now have to prepare for going to Manila. We leave in just about 15 days.

Lots to do in that time. I would love to meet up with any of the readers when I get to Manila. If you are interested in meeting up, please feel free to drop me a line.

I have a little more forum tweaking to do. I have made some photo galleries broken up by family clans. I will move those Sassy Mae pictures into the various categories but ultimately it's really for you readers out there to post your pictures accordingly.

I'm hoping that I can get some good photos of family members for their biographies.

Multimedia Gallery Complete

2005-08-24T01:05:00.000-04:00

I was able to get the video and photo gallery up late Sunday night.

I've been burning the candle on 3 ends and this past weekend was no exception. A good number of things going personally from my wife being offered a job in Norwalk, CT about 1.5-3 hours by car depending on traffic. When I'm not doing the website, I'm working on unveiling a product that I think is very marketable so that's also taking up time, but I digress from what is supposed to be the focus of my time now.

When I completed the Photopost installation on Sunday, I did had made an integration error and could not seem to figure out how come I was getting errors on the main forum board. What should have been a very simple modification (which was the major reason I picked this software over others) wasn't working as simply as I expected.

After posting on the support forums for the past couple days I had not been able to come up with a solution with the technician. It turned out that I had followed some incorrect previous solution into the newest solution. Once I patched up the coding correctly my modification popped up quite beautifully.

Please check it out...and please feel free to upload some of your family photos, movies, sound files, etc. after you at least tell the security guard a "knock knock" joke.

Under the gun

2005-08-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

I got the video and photo gallery up and running late Sunday night.

Poring over code looking for a misplaced / here and a extra . there or a $variable makes one cross eyed very quickly. It's also very tedious. I don't really code anymore not like I did when I was a kid and could look at 6502 Assembly code and know exactly what it was doing (for you non-techies, it's Apple CPU machine language, which eventually became the NES CPU in the late 80's.)

I've got some messages posted to the support forum and we're waiting for a reply.

Announcing...Forums

2005-08-20T10:05:00.000-04:00

Please register at the Roces Family Forums.

There is a security guard who will let you in after you make your first post at the Front Gate.

Looking forward to seeing you readers there.

Plans for this weekend are to get the photo and video gallery online.

Here's Andreas!

2005-08-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

I received this in my inbox earlier today.

From: Alfredo Roces [mailto:dingroces@bigpond.com.au]
Sent: Fri 8/19/2005 3:59 PM
Subject: Baby's Picture

I got this today and it is the earliest photo (ultrasound) of an member of the Roces line. He is Andreas Montilla, great grandson of my brother Liling, grandson of my niece Sylvia, soon to be born son of Agustin Montilla. Isn't science-photography amazing?

God bless

Ding

Here's Andreas!

Greenlight

2005-08-17T00:21:00.000-04:00

Dori's trip has been approved.

Now we need to hammer out dates of travel, there's a small chance of making the trip be a world wide trip, going from NYC to Hong Kong (layover) to Philippines to India to London (stay over 2 days) and back to NYC. If I cannot do the full trip, I will do an abbreviated one just NYC to Hong Kong to Philippines to Hong Kong to NYC for about 10 days. The logistics of the flight is also a challenge since we're trying to make sure that we are on the same flight and hopefully sitting next to each other.

I'm looking at a 2 week pass needed from work, and of course we need to find the funds to do this effectively. It's going to be tricky since the project that has been slowly moving is finally moving faster. While I'm just gone for 2 weeks, right now I'm critical to this since I'm the only one internally who knows it so well. I'm hoping that by that time we can have training and installation before the trip, which will give my boss much more peace of mind since he'll be the one to step up to fill in my shoes.

Busy Weekend

2005-08-16T06:22:00.000-04:00

I was quite busy with some personal items and when I did have some spare time I was elbow deep into manuals and software again. If we are going to the Philippines in just about 5 weeks, I would like to have something already up besides this blog page.

I am putting together the forum and gallery software in the evenings. It's very challenging getting it setup the way that I'm trying to setup, along with of course, a simple interface so that it's not so intimidating to family members.

I will also start posting "Roces In The News" as I find Roces family members who are highlighted, authored, mentioned, in any news articles that I can find. I have a few collected today, so it will start quickly.

What this means is that the needs are outgrowing Blogger already. I need to have categories so that you the reader can at least sort through the information in a coherent manner to help you manage your time. Only want to see what is going on in the building of the website? Well, as it stands now, you'll have to scroll about until you find it. Categories will allow one to sort and only see those in the selected categories. I have planned for this, and the change should happen hopefully sometime this week. I have been keeping a concurrent application as I test it with most of this blog information. I just need to transfer the sidebars and 3 entries and it should be complete.

Teresita "Chit" Bautista Roces

2005-08-14T12:30:00.000-04:00

Chino Roces Foundation board of trustees member, Teresita "Chit" Roces, is a third generation Roces descendant.

Born on February 7, 1940, Chit is the daughter of couple Joaquin "Titong" Roces, who is the former ambassador to Taipei during Aquino's administration, and Lita Bautista. Moreover, she is the niece of well-known, Joaquin "Chino" Roces, her father's cousin.

In 1951, she finished elementary at Maryknoll College (currently Miriam College). She graduated secondary education from St. Theresa's, Quezon City in 1955. After high school she moved to Spain and lived with the Theresianas for two years, 1955-57. While abroad, she enrolled at the University of Madrid and took a course on Cultura and Hispanica. After which she moved back to the Philippines and studied college at St. Theresa's Manila where she earned a degree in Journalism in 1961. When asked why she took up the said course, Chit replies, "well, I wasn't cut out for business…I thought it was attractive (but) not because of the family. I think whether the family was in journalism or not, it was my inclination…"

After college, she married her first husband, Dr. Ramon Sutter, a neurosurgeon at Texas Medical Center, and migrated to the States. She had four children namely: Gianna, Robert, Vittorio and Juan Ramon. At present she is with her new partner in life, Vergel Santos, who is a columnist at Business World, director of Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, consultant of the Philippine Journalism Review and a former professor of Mass Communications at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

On her involvement in journalism, Chit has always been a free lance writer. Back in Texas in 1971 she saw an opportunity to write for a Sunday magazine. She remembers two articles she had written. One was about the no. 1 Filipina nurse of heart transplant doctor, Michael De Becky, and the other was on a leftist patient who acquired his dream of going to Houston for a heart operation. Upon her return to the Philippines, she was offered a section at Doris Nuday's Woman's Home Companion magazine, which she had until 1986. Her work then was to interview and write about interesting women "who made fearless decisions" in life. Furthermore, she chose the subject because according to her, "I was always fascinated with women who did these things that before only men would do". Then came November 3, 1996, she and her husband, Vergel, came up with a community paper. The publication was a weekly newsletter named, Our Town, which carried the slogan, "News you could use". It catered on a subscription basis to subdivisions within the Ortigas Center. But unfortunately, the paper lasted for only nine months. Currently, Chit is preoccupied with the Chino Roces Foundation and her membership with the Winner (Arroceros Forest Park) Heritage Conservation Society.

In her ways, Chit obtains the legacy of journalistic involvement. And this is somehow attributed with her being a Roces. Moreover, she says that, "I'm very influenced by my family background because my grandfather was a pure Spaniard but the moment he came to the Philippines he did not look at himself as anything but Filipino". She also mentioned that, "Journalism, I think run(s) in our side of the family more than the other(s)…our side produces the writers…"

Wrapping up her interview, she owes some words of advice to young writers and journalists. She imparts that, "The secret of writing is that you'll be able to tell a story". Likewise, she emphasizes, "journalists should never accept free meal from anyone because it limits your freedom…to say what you want…if you take (anything), you give that (freedom) away…"

(READ FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION)

An email connecting generations

2005-08-11T10:24:00.000-04:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Alfredo Roces
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 7:15 AM
Subject: My father

It's my father's birthday today, 11 August. The feast day of Sta. Filomena. He was born in 1887 and died in 1970 aged 83. A wonderful man. This was taken when he was about 18 years old, I think.
Ding

I got this in my inbox this morning. It was a nice surprise.

Happy Birthday Lolo Raphael...

Meeting with Kain

2005-08-07T08:48:00.000-04:00

I'm meeting with Kain in just a few hours. We're going to discuss the flowchart and templates. All day yesterday until late last night and up early this morning, I've been preparing the beta area.

I am starting to cull content to fill up Mambo, which is a rich content management system. My hope is that Mambo will tie all the parts together to create a seamless universe via one login. What normally happens in most sites that I've navigated as you move from one function to another function you have to login yet again. This means that one could have several logins just to access the Family Tree to the Family Gallery from the Mambo front page. It would be slightly annoying the first time, but cookies help a little with the "remember me" check box. Some modules boil down to compatibility, others it's a matter of setting up properly from the beginning. I'm finally ready to rollup my sleeves and start to work putting it all together and launch. I now feel like I need to rush because I'd like to have something in place before we arrive in the Philippines.

This project is really drawing on all my skillsets from evaluting and deploying software solutions for people around the world, to creating a simple process for usage and adminstration training. I'm drawing on my years of computer support and helpdesk to create a simple robust experience that doesn't overwhelm.

Kain and I will go over the flowchart which he's adjusted and I've amended.

Joaquin "Ito" Torrella Roces III

2005-08-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

"Before I become a Roces, I have to prove I am a Roces," says Item Trade owner, Joaquin "Ito" Roces III.

Ito is a fourth generation Roces progeny. He is the eldest son of Joaquin "Joaqui" Roces and Cristina Torrella. He is one the grandchildren of known Press Freedom fighter, Joaquin "Chino" Roces. He married Elena De Venecia Santos and had two daughters.

Ito finished elementary and high school at Ateneo de Manila. In college, he studied Marketing at the University of the East.

His involvement in journalism started in 1986 when he worked with the Manila Chronicle. In 1988, he was with his grandfather's resurrected Manila Times. He was in the advertising section where he did market research. In February 1, 1989, he continued with the Times, which was then bought by the Gokongweis. He worked in the paper's circulation department for a year.

Aside from publishing, Ito had been in the charcoal business in the years 1984-87 while he was still in college. At present, he runs his own commercial printing business called Item Trade. When the company was put up in 1993, its first client was the Chino Roces Foundation.

With his being a Roces, Ito expresses high regards on his grandfather's achievements in the newspaper industry. According to him, "…he (lolo Chino) is not materialistic at all…the Manila Times had airplanes, yachts (but) not for personal pleasure. It was for media…then imagine (during) Martial Law Mercedes Benz ang kotse niya biglang after Martial Law…he ends up with a Ford Escort but bale wala. Ganun ka-simple siya…" He adds, "I asked my tito Tony, 'why was my grandfather successful?' He told me, 'because he was able to associate himself to the people down below and up. And he knew what the people wanted to read…he had the pulse of the people…"

(READ FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION)

Proposed Templates

2005-08-04T15:24:00.000-04:00

One of the projects that I'm working on right now has me playing with a tablet PC. I must say these things are very cool and very Star Trek. I can dictate to the machine and give it orders and it follows them, with remarkable accuracy.

One other benefit is that one can scribble notes as if it were a pad and use "digital ink" to sketchout items, quickly scribble information, and other ways of normal annotation that people do to pieces of paper.

Content Management template

Individual template

Wedding template

Birth template

Family template

Clan template

Memorial template

Balikbayan

2005-08-03T18:21:00.000-04:00

Okay, in a very strange twist, it turns out the my wife Dori may have to go to the Philippines on business. She's the international liaison for Scholastic International. If she does go, I will also as well, trying to figure out how to make it as long a trip as possible, I think I only have 5 vacation days so maybe I can do like the fish and loaves of bread and multiply them.

What this means for me is that in just under a year, I've been to Madrid and then also Manila. Madrid awoke a slumbering muse, and meeting with Gloria Roces roused it into activity. The miscellaneous conversations I have with different family members keeps the interest at peak. I'm trying to contact family members in hopes of getting them to talk to other family members and so on to get the word out in the family. The past month has been a lot of work on this in my spare time. The visit to the Philippines should really get me into stride.

I really need to focus more on this project or at least get a regular work schedule around it. It needs to be more in place then it currently is. I'm 1 1/2 months into this and I really would like to be able to unveil something soon. I don't want to rush anything, it's been a long time coming as it is. I'm just so excited about this project that it's infectious. We are so used to instant gratification with things that I'm drawing on my delayed gratification skills to keep me focused and on track.

I want to be able to meet with as many elders as I can and also meet the newest generation of Roces family members. As details and plans start to formulate, I will post them here.

Thunderbirds Are Go! --> Thundercats Ho!!!!!

2005-07-31T18:56:00.000-04:00

I could pick a number of battle cries that would cross many generations, the title of this entry spans quite some time. I have completed my part of Phase 2 and delivered it to Kain. I've also made my first installment payment to him.

I've been carrying around a little metal notebook for the past 4 weeks. Instead of using my normal PDA, I've carried this notebook because it allows me to just write quietly and without much ado. Sometimes technology brings about it's own challenges, and having something be in analog is a nice touch. It will also allow me to keep a record my sketches and other layout designs, which had I formulated this directly onto a computer would be lost to the file system.

Here it is. Here is the site layout or sitemap. Each beveled box represnts a main page or section and the tabbed parts are subsections or functions needed for the section. There are funcitions like photogallery and movies that will be part of the Family Tree/Bio area but for the layout I left them out since I know it's a prominent component for that section.

The forum has it's own built in security as does the CMS Main Page so that I can make sure that general population information is available to the general public or casual visitor. It also will help me target the family directly and make sure that the information gets to the right people without question or difficulty. This distinguishes elements for the young generation and also is COPPA compliant. The family tree section is where the heaviest security is going to be a combination of SSL and VPN, some will just be SSL and others will be both SSL/VPN and require actual administration by a live person. I will also have to address the spiders like google and yahoo. I need to make sure that the have access to parts that are available to the general public and denied to the secured areas.

The next step of Phase 2 is for Kain to deliver to me feedback and tweaks. He then will create some mock up pages so that we can see how the items flow together. This part will help us discover if there are any difficulties with data presentation and data flow. What this means to the layperson is that the story needs to be told in a coherent manner so that it flows naturally and is easily navigated.

Lydia "Cookie" Roces Guerrero

2005-07-31T12:00:00.000-04:00

Lydia Roces Guerrero is a descendant of two prominent families. On her father's side are the Guerreros who are writers with the likes of Carmen Guerrero Nakpil and Wilfredo Maria Guerrero in their lineage. On the other side is the Roces clan of publishers. Her maternal grandfather, Don Ramon Roces, is the known "Komiks King" of the Philippines.

Born on April 3, 1946, Cookie, as she is fondly called, is the daughter of artist, Elena Roces and Dr. Mario Guerrero. She is the second child with elder brother, Alfredo and younger sibling, Xavier. Alfredo or Bumbo is currently the publisher of Kislap magazine and its other affiliate publications, and is also owner of a printing company called Counterpoint. Xavier or Wahoo also has his own printing business named Sonic. Cookie is a divorcee with two sons: Julio Ortega, with her first husband, and Adam, her youngest.

She studied elementary and part of high school at St. Theresa's College in both San Marcelino and Quezon City. But she graduated secondary education at Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS), which was then an experimental institution of the Philippine Women's University. She never went to college but is currently venturing into a career in print media and according to her, "I didn't take up journalism…but I really feel that maybe it's part of my genes, because I do come from a line of writers and maybe I was born with that gift and (with) my mother who is a very creative and artistic person, I suppose I've also gotten some of the genes from her side…"

After her high school graduation, sometime in 1967, she went to Barcelona, Spain to accompany her mother for an eye operation. Cookie lived in Spain for 6 years. During those times she got married to her first husband, a Spanish, and gave birth to her eldest son. Then she came back to the Philippines for a year and was offered to handle Woman's Home Companion (one of the Roces-owned magazines). At first she refused the offer because she said, "I didn't have the exposure or the background to head this kind of publication…I gave it up because I thought I wasn't really qualified…I don't like to do something just because I'm the daughter of the owner and I'm going to take over". Right after, her family migrated to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in USA. She lived there for 6 years and was a full-time housewife. But when her son reached high school, they moved to San Francisco, California and stayed for 4 years. Then she came back home to the Philippines and took the offer with the publishing business. "Part of the reason that I'm working is because we're only three (in the family) and eventually we would have to take over the business so we had to get into (it) …", Cookie explains. Fortunately, she is now the publisher of Woman's Home Companion and president of Solid Gold Publishing Incorporated. She is also the owner of a ladies' and children's boutique called Amica and president of a children's wear export company.

As publisher, Cookie's attitude towards work is distinctly of Roces character. Stating her ethics in publishing, she explains that, "I concentrate a lot on what (I'm) offering the public. I think a publisher also has the responsibility to the reader(s). I'm not going to hand you trash because you're paying. I believe in offering the best I can at the price that they can afford". She also mentions her strength behind her hanging onto the business, saying that, "I think one of the reasons that I'm still here is because we've (company) been very conservative. (We don't) launch into one project after the other. And I also believe that I owe some kind of loyalty to my grandfather's memory".

For aspiring journalists and publishers, Cookie emphasizes that, "if you want to put up a magazine seriously, you have to have enough capital to back it up". She believes that, "the important thing is you have to be consistent. You have to have this staying power because the life of a magazine is advertising and before you can get the advertisers' confidence you have to be in the market long enough for them to know that you're not going to disappear". Lastly, she reiterates, "it's not an easy thing getting into publication. It might look easy but it's not, so if you want to get into it do your numbers correctly and stay with it".

(READ FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION)

Go Phase 2!

2005-07-29T07:53:00.001-04:00

I've been busy at work and also at home, which leave little time for me to work on this. Phase 2 is about ready, I met with Kain for lunch on Thursday and I met with him again on Friday. I have notes and sketches that I will hand off to him electronically tomorrow. He can then begin the prototyping and layout parts of this phase. I also would like to put a deadline for me to hit and then a date for launch. While there is absolutely no reason for me to have a hard deadline, it helps me manage my time better knowing that I'm supposed to complete something by a deadline. I've been wanting to work on this thing already for 2 years and only now rolled up my sleeves and started working on it.

I'm going over and double checking some of the security aspects of my design. I find it important to let family members feel safe and secure just like they would at any other family member's house that they visit. I am going over security measures and data presentation to make sure that I don't leave a "window or side door open." I am also contemplating varing degrees of security from SSL to VPN solutions in order to make sure that the possibilty of not having too much information readily available to identity theives. One thing that I was initially concerned about was date of birth, but having access to several birth certificate nationwide database searches makes that point a bit moot. It doesn't take alot to be able to get that kind of information, just a subscription to the service. So far I have been able to corrobrate birth records for everyone born in the United States between 1905 to present. While the point of birthdates and mother's maiden name are used by some institutionsl, birth records make that point moot because they are also freely available I don't see any reason to make it easy for the theives. (Some people here in NYC don't even bother to lock their car doors so that they don't get their window broken during a "break in;" I don't subscribe to that belief.) My point is not to scare people from giving me information, quite the contrary, I want to educate family members to some of the perils that are out there and how to properly protect yourself against identity theft.

MiG has so much information out there right now it's amazing. There's his official website which is currently on hiatus. After his site,the official INXS CBS site, there is the INXS contestant blog. a fan forum, "stalker" fan sites, journal communities, and reality tv discussion boards. Various press articles of his theatrical performances and now more currently his INXS performances are showing up. Because he is in this show, I'm finding hits of his name all over the globe, Spain, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Australia, and the US to name a few. I'm not really all that sure how to distill it all down into something that fits here, but I will have a biography page for him just like I would for everyone.

Accomplishments and News

2005-07-24T20:58:00.000-04:00

The Sassy Mae site has been archived and converted. There should be no more server overloads since it's now mirrored on the rocesfamily.com server. This conversion was more tedious that difficult but it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined since I put it off for such a long time. The wget program did most of the work of relabelling all the HTML pointers and images. The real challenge was making sure that it got all the html files and all the images. I checked a lot of them by hand and like Pokemon, I believe I got them all. If you find a broken link or image, please let me know.

The interview question pool has been completely assembled. I have not completed the interview process documentation which I think will be a refining process as I will sometimes interview in person, over the phone, via email, webcam, IM, etc. While the methodology should be similar, I need to make sure that I have a way of "recording" it to keep the "original."

I still have to complete Phase 2's outlines, which I have in my head but I really need to translate the vision onto paper so that it can get coded properly. I will have to make a point of making an appointment with Kain this week so that I can get past this point. As I look at my calendar I'm really hoping to unveil the actual website in September.

The next challenge here will be to actually reach out to the family elders. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to accomplish that just yet since I only have a few phone numbers and email addresses for a handful of the Rafael Clan, let alone the rest of the lines. This is where I'm going to rely on the readers to start informing their family elders that I want to speak with them.

One department in our office has created a "grant" to give away up to US$5,000 to any MTV employee to help achieve their dream. At first I did not see this project as applying since most examples were about film makers, artists, dancers, and the normal things that you'd associate with the arts. Since I don't really consider myself an artist, but I do feel that I'm creative in different ways I figure that I should apply for this grant. It has been a dream of mine to put together this information, the mediums being the internet, book, and DVD. I'm going to apply and see what happens.

On Thursday night, Karla Delgado had a book reading at Cendrillon in SoHo, NYC. I have never been there but I have heard very good things about it. It was nice to meet Karla and her sister Bianca, especially after reading about Karla's interview and looking up what I could find on her via Google. Bianca was a complete surprise to hear that she's attending university in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The food was very tasty and quite plentiful. The back area of the restaurant has a skylight which helps give more natural light. Small little cakes, shrimp chips, taro chips were set in simple baskets for people to sample. The waitstaff brought around other things to try curried chicken on skewers, lumpia, and small little burgers.

Once mingling had settled down, Karla took a seat on the back bench just two seats from me on the back wall. I did not realize when I was mingling that I had inadvertently picked one of the best seats in the house! She read a few passages from selected entries and also commented on the her partner the photographer who took many beautiful pictures of the markets. Many people did bring their video cameras and I'm hoping to provide a stream of the reading in the future.

All in all I did find it very nice to get back in touch with my heritage. It was a good way to bring it all back comfortably. I am realizing now how much I have neglected this part of my own self since I have very much assimilated into New York City's melting pot.

I was going to post about MiG Ayesa, but I don't think that I can include him in this post since there's lots of information about this gentleman to include. I'll have to assemble it over the next few days and dedicate a post and probably a whole page to him.

Karla Prieto Delgado

2005-07-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

"In, I think, grade 4 when our teachers asked us what we want to be, I answered journalist but in between I don't know why. I like to write (and when) I was in IS (International Studies) and they made us write stories I liked that, so I think that's why I said journalist but it actually happened, I didn't grow up wanting to be a journalist it happened by mistake", Karla narrates how her inclination in journalism started.

Karla Prieto Delgado is one of the fourth generation descendants of the Roces clan in Philippine print media. She is the daughter of Mercedes "Peachy" Roces-Prieto and Jose Roberto Delgado. She is the middle sibling to elder brother, Marco Delgado, and younger half-sister, Ma. Bianca Santos. Furthermore, she is the granddaughter of then Manila Times' director, Antonia "Chucha" Roces Prieto, who is also the sister of the well-known Chino Roces and former Manila Times' president, Benito "Bibelo" Legarda Prieto.

Karla had gone to 13 schools from elementary to post graduate studies. Remarking with jest shesays, "I was constantly moving because my mom is somewhat of a gypsy". She first enrolled at a Montessori in Pasay for first grade and later transferred to St. Theresa's College. AfterSTC, she went to Assumption College and then International School. In fifth grade, her family decided to move up to Baguio where she studied at Brent. The next school year she went to a public schoolcalled Special Education Center which was a learning institution for students who are deaf, blind and mentally handicapped but they are gifted - like normal kids. It was the school which for Karla left a "life-long impression" on her. Then came secondary education, on her first year she went to the University of Baguio Science High School. After which her family moved to England, there she enrolled at Stoke Brunswick School and later went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Woldingham. Also at one time she applied for A School Year Abroad Program, sponsored by Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover of Spain that enabled her to go to any high school based in New England, USA. In college, during her first year she was at an all-girl's school called Smith College at Northampton, Massachusetts. However, she later opted for a co-educational system so she transferred to Harvard in Cambridge. There she graduated cum laude on June 1988 with a degree in Bachelor of Arts major in Government. She is currently taking a Creative Writing class at the University of the Philippines, Diliman before she goes back to US to take her masters.

Her first involvement in journalism was back in college when she became one of the staffers of the Harvard Political Review. After graduation, with writing as her "only marketable experience", she applied at the Village Voice, which is an "artsy, leftist" newspaper in New York. "I started out as an intern…(then) the managing editor happened to drop by the office of the personnel's internee core, who was the senior editor. And then he said that he was interviewing for a job and if I wanted I could have an interview with him that day… So, I did and I got the job", Karla narrates. It was 1988 when she started working for the Village Voice and her beat was the Asian - American community at the lower east side of New York. She also remembers having done a story on a fiasco in the late 80s which involved the influx of wealth from Hong Kong to the city (New York). Likewise, during her time with Village Voice she used to be a stringer for the Asiaweek, contributing stories happening in the city. Despite these she knew that she would never make a good reporter because for her people's privacy means a lot. So, in 1989 she left Village Voice. At about the same time, Asiaweek offered her to be a staff in Hong Kong. She accepted the job in 1990 and migrated. She worked for three years with Asiaweek, started as a staff writer then promoted to news editor, general editor and finally, issue managing editor. In 1993 she moved back to the Philippines and was employed at Philippine Daily Inquirer. Her first job at PDI was in the corporate planning department. "I thought I might be interested in the business side but then I realized I missed the writing, editorial (and) creative side(s)", Karla explains. Returning to her line of expertise, she became editor of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine in 1996. Nevertheless, she resigned last December 2000 because of her plan of taking her masters abroad.

At present, Karla is busy attending her class at UP Diliman with mentor, Butch Dalisay. Furthermore, she is involved in writing a coffee table book on Philippine Forests with the well-known photographer, Neil Oshima, to be published by Centro Escolar University. At present she is more of a freelance person and plans to devote most of her time to writing.

In her 12 years in journalism there are several people that she considers inspirational to her career. Two of these people are PDI editor-in-chief, Letty Jimenez Magsanoc, and editorial consultant, Amando Doronilla. According to her, these are the people who became not only hermentors but also friends. They shared her not just their technical skills but at the same time their values and outlook in life and work. "I think it's important to have people like (them) in your life because they reinforce what you believe in and what you stand for", expounds Karla. For her Letty is one "committed journalist", she is "the type who leads by example" and a person who "really stands up for press freedom". On the other hand, Mr. Doronilla or Doro, as she fondly calls him, is someone who has a "very strong work ethic" and of "solid values". Karla adds, "I feel lucky to be able to know people like (them)".
Karla believes that at some point her involvement into journalism has something to do with her having a Roces blood. Karla explains, "I really relate with my Roces relatives…I feel a close bond with them…I think it has to do with how (we share) the same values…(it) reinforces what kind of person you are". Referring to her sense of activism, she is also assured that, "I get that from my mom and I know she gets that from the Roceses".

Karla leaves some words of advice to budding journalists. According to her, the first step is to find a good mentor. She urges aspiring media people to, "get out there (in the field) and chase the story, get the story yourself" and "question everything, not to take what's told, not to take it as necessarily the truth". Lastly, she emphasizes that, "…journalist don't do it for the money".

(READ FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION)

Issues

2005-07-22T19:42:00.000-04:00

48 hours of outage netted me a free month of hosting from the hosting provider.

A mistake made by a support administrator caused me to get the account inactivated, which in turn then the billing department saw that I had an outstanding balance and credited me. This made it so that I had no account at all with them, thus no ability to update for 2 days.

This was slightly problematic since I wanted to post a couple of items which I've neglected. I forgot to post that Karla P. Delgado was doing a reading of her new book, Philippine Markets in SoHO on Thursday. I also have neglected to post about Mig Alyesa who is currently on Rock Star: INXS on CBS here in the US. Both are members of the Roces family and I will make sure to document the connection. Karla is the granddaughter of Antonia "Chucha" Roces Prieto Mig is a nephew of Alfredo "Ding" Reyes Roces I will need to get the exact connection in the future but in the interim. Know that we have a Roces who is actively pursuing his dream to be a rock star.

I'll put it all together and make a couple entries over the next few days so there will be a flurry of activity.

For what it's worth, I was trying on Wednesday to finalize the biography question pool which is when I discovered that I had problems. My deadline is tomorrow so I have that to accomplish too.

UPDATE: I just realized that the geocities site has gotten hosed for about 1 hour since a number of people all visited it. I have gotten the whole site backed up on the roces.org server and I will be adjusting all the pictures and links accordingly in the next day or two.

Begin Phase 2, no really begin it already

2005-07-19T07:47:00.000-04:00

I've not been thinking about it at all. I've been elbow deep in trying to understand just what the software applications can do so that I can implement from a resonable expectation and not be confounded by limitations of the software. While I do have a grand vision, I've tried to temper it with some limitations in mind, some because of future potential growth and others by seeing that the software can only accomplish so much out of the box and that some of the "grand vision" is going to cost money to implement" While I'd love to do "the works" money and time are finite. (I honestly don't know what "the works" would be...)

I have been looking at many other content management systems and how they are melded together into a seamless experience. There is such variety in the ability to customize these software front ends into something that looks so incredibly different from each other. I see that as a strength on one hand, but for me a weakness because too many choices can make me indecisive. I'm going to give myself a research deadline of the end of the week in order to make sure that I don't keep the process hampered in analysis paralysis.

While I'm still poking around with the technology. I did make a goal of having to gather and prepare a process for interviewing people. I'd like to make it as simple and flexible as possible. I don't want to move forward only to find that I need to backtrack to add some extra questions or re-acquire video/audio footage. The interview questions have been gathered, I now need to form them into a cohesive process which I will also complete by the end of the week.

One of the things that I want to be careful of is making sure that I document the processes so that they can be used and handed off to anyone. This way someone else can continue my work or even work in concert with me. This will ensure that everyone gets their story collected in the same manner and it be as complete and as thorough as possible each and every time.

Maria Alexandra "Sandy" Prieto Romualdez

2005-07-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

"I've always been proud of that heritage (being a Roces) and it's something for me to remember…(and) constantly go back to…," claims fourth generation Roces progeny, Sandy Romualdez.

Maria Alexandra Prieto Romualdez or Sandy is currently the president of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She is the daughter of PDI chairman of the board, Marixi Rufino, and businessman, Alejandro "Alex" Prieto. Born on the 18th of March 1967, Sandy is the younger sibling of the late PDI president, Louie Prieto. She is also the granddaughter of Benito "Bibelo" Prieto, who is the former president of the Manila Times and brother-in-law of then publisher, Chino Roces.

At present, she is married to Philip Romualdez and has an 8-month old child.

She finished elementary and high school at the Assumption Colleges of Antipolo and San Lorenzo, Makati. In her first year in college, she enrolled as an AB - Sociology student at the University of Santo Tomas. Later, she transferred to the University of the Philippines and shifted to Social Work. But after some time, Sandy migrated and went to the College of Notre Dame. She continued her course in Sociology with a minor in Psychology and graduated in 1989. When she was in her third year, she applied for a Management Study Abroad Program and went to Kenya for six months. After college she came back to the Philippines. Sandy got employed at a Singaporean restaurant and at the same time became a student coordinator at Assumption. She also went into teaching at Assumption. However, she later resigned for her masters at AIM (Asian Institute of Management) where she took Development Studies and earned her degree in 1994.

Her involvement with PDI began in 1995. "My brother, Louie, who was representing the family at Inquirer, unfortunately, passed away in a motorcycle accident. That time my mom is the chairman of the board. (She) asked (me) if that (the position) is something I'm interested in. (But) more than the interest I think (she) wants someone who is capable and competent enough…so what we (did) is sort of I'll join, try and, in a year, evaluate if I could handle. So that's how I joined the company," Sandy narrates. When she started with Inquirer, her position was as executive assistant to the president. Then she became executive vice president and eventually president. Prior to this, she mentioned that, "…when I first joined the paper I spent about a month in each department…I spent time with (the) reporters, circulation managers…(just) to get a good sense of (this) and that…there's no better teacher than experience."

In her almost seven years with PDI there have been people who became part of her career in the newspaper industry. These people include Ben Pangilinan, former PDI president during her executive assistant days, Letty Jimenez - Magsanoc, PDI editor-in-chief, and Marixi Rufino - Prieto, PDI chairman of the board and her mother. For Sandy, these people are the reasons she continuously believes in the company. With Ben, she learned the mindset that one is "never too big or high to look at smaller details". Furthermore, she acquired from him the attitude of looking at things in all angles and being rigid with them. On the other hand, she describes Letty as someone with "unquestionable credibility". Also she admires her ability to maintain a strong integrity in work. With her mother, Sandy recounts an instance when Marixi guided her to "reaffirm (the) values" that the paper and its people stand for. With admiration she narrates, "…when we went through that difficult time (during the) boycott, last 1999, (it) really affected not only our revenue but also our profit. For her to say, 'we will still continue and…print…even if it means coming up with a 12-page paper, we just have to do it'…very few businessmen can say it's 'more than just business'…"

Aside from experience and people she deals with, her family also plays a part in her positive outlook on life and career in the print media. She acknowledges her grandfather's ways in handling the business and his philosophies during his days in the old Manila Times. According to her, "…I know my grandfather was always an open person…he would always walk in the printing press and listen to people. He was really approachable." She further describes him as a kind-hearted person and the one who taught her how to balance work and family. Likewise, she recognizes her being a Roces as another aspect in her good career in the newspaper. She remarks, "…as far as independence is concerned in being able to print what…needed to be printed, that is a Roces trait. I know from a fact that Manila Times was like that so they closed down. In a way I can relate to that…it's probably in my genes and I'm glad that its there and…(also being) able to stand for what you believe in is definitely something (Roces)…"

For her words of advice to young journalists, Sandy explains, "…the print medium is, as far as media is concerned, (is) the best medium to be in….it's only in print where you have the time to be able to really gather enough information and digest it…print is the least fragmented (media)…" She also adds, "I think print is where you can hone your skills and be able to really experience what it is to gather news and be able to inform people." Moreover, she stresses, "…pursue your dreams because that's really where you have passion for…of course when you come to our job there are certain things that you don't expect…but there are certain things and values that would last, and practice, it pays off if you practice your writing…"

(READ FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION)

Family Tree transferred and "House" foundation laid

2005-07-16T19:34:00.000-04:00

I finished transferring all the names from the Sassy Mae created family tree. I need to make some corrections since there are some errors where people like Marlene Roces is cited as being married to her father instead of being her daughter. I also have to fill in the holes of cousins and people at my generation and beyond that were not included which will take some time.

At work I'm currently working on a logging and transcribing system for collecting all the field tapes they use for reality TV creating. I found a neat tool (read: gadget) the Sony Visual Voice Recorder ICD-CX50 which I'd love to get since it would make for some easy digitizing interviews and also take some simple 1.2mp pictures to annotate the conversation. What makes this neat besides the fact it looks like I can shave while I'm interviewing and taking snapshots, is that I can use technology to transcribe the interview. Voice regonition software is quite accurate nowadays that one can pretty much let computers do automatic transcription. This brings to bear a whole new way of collecting oral tradition from the elders of the family.

I purchased a vbulletin forum software this past week and have been tinkering with it. It's quite powerful. I'm going to learn how to code php a little more just so that I can understand what mods are going to do to the system before I apply them. No need to kill the system before it's even launched.

I'm working on a content management system now which will help organize and present the material so that it stays somewhat fresh and you don't keep coming to a static page day after day. There's going to be a lot of material in biographies, pictures, videos, and stories.

I need to make sure that I sit with Kain the website designer this coming week. He's done some very impressive websites most notably a fan site for a cult movie and the special f/x makeup artist of that movie. I really would like to determine just what day I can make an official launch and announcement to the whole family. In order to get that, I'll need to know just what work is left to be done and just what kind of time he's going to need to do the layouts and graphics. We're also going to have to make sure that there is a simple front end to allow family member to upload their pictures, video, and audio easily. This week I will make sure to test the streaming server so that I can start collecting movies from family members even if they are done via email or FTP server.

If there's any family members out there reading this that has any ideas or graphics to submit from family stationary, old business letter heads, family art, seals, marks, etc. I would love to incorporate them into the mix.

An Amazing Find!

2005-07-13T23:52:00.000-04:00

As I've stated before I'm really working on the technical side of putting this thing together. But every once in a while I get tempted and I just poke around and see what comes up. It's currently hit and run looking but I'm amazed at what I've been able to find so far.

My friends all think that I'm a google-master. I've learned how to find things quickly and efficiently without a lot of effort and I get the right results over 90% of the time on the first try. I'm only as good as the tools I have, and for this project it is no different. I was looking around passenger lists and found this interesting tidbit of Lolo Rafael and Lola Enchay taking a trip across the Pacific from Manila to San Francisco in 1952 aboard the S.S. President Cleveland. They were heading to South Bend, Indiana ultimate destination Notre Dame University I'm assuming to visit Tito Ding.

click on the picture for a full size picture of the manifest page.

S.S. President Cleveland

I'm looking forward to doing this searching stuff, it's going to be a great challenge. First I really do need to finish up the technology and then get the biographies done.

Falling into place

2005-07-13T21:05:00.000-04:00

I got a phone call this afternoon from Genealogy.com regarding my recent membership. Apparently they have merged with Ancestry.com recently and was asking me if I wanted to transfer my account from Genealogy to Ancestry. Since the Family Tree Maker 2005 hooks directly into Ancestry.com it was a no brainer to move over to a site that has a larger database tightly integrated into the software.

Family Tree Maker 2005 is very interesting. I've been adding names into it and what's amazing is that it will automatically search databases to corroborate names and locations. With myself, it picked up all the locations that I had listed phone numbers in the past 10 years.

I have installed vbulletin software onto the server last night. I spent today setting it up and I'm testing the different sections now to make sure that what I'm envisioning is actually possible out of the box. I am a moderator on a very large vbulletin community of about 52,000 members from all over the world. I've seen some of the back end pieces, but I was completely floored to see the whole backend. It's quite intricate and is going to be more than capable of doing what is needed.

I won't have time to meet up with the web designer this week which I was hoping to do. We need to work on the flowchart of how all these components are going to work together. As I get the software components it really is helping me see how they will connect together.

One of the next things that I need to do is settle on a standardized set of interview questions so that I can start talking to people and getting their biographies done. Again, I have a template in mind and how it's going to flow on the webpage. This information doesn't need to wait for the technology pieces so I should stop wasting time and just get that part done already.

Alejandro "Anding" Reyes Roces

2005-07-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

"When I wrote the Fiesta everybody was against fiestas. Everybody wanted to eradicate it, they felt it was the greatest bond against progress…but I saw the fiesta as our highest community expression…that was the impression it made on me so I wanted to preserve it," explained Dr. Anding Roces when asked to talk about his motivation for writing one of his famous books that came out back in 1980.

Alejandro "Anding" is one of the notable Roceses in the fields of journalism and literature. Last year in an article by the Philippine Star dated May 21, 2000 he was included in the World's Who's Who, which is a biographical directory of the highest achievers and contributors from around the globe. He was also given a citation by the Cultural Center of the Philippines Centennial Honors for the Arts last February 2, 1999 "for his invaluable contributions to the field of cultural dissemination" thus granting him the "Parangal Sentenyal sa Sining at Kultura".

Chairman and president of the College Assurance Plan Foundation at the present, Dr. Anding recalls that his affiliation with the company started with his "great interest in education". Bearing another chairmanship position, last March 22, 2001 he was appointed to handle the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) under Pres. Arroyo's term. Also he is currently a columnist for The Philippine Star with his Roses and Thorns, which he once wrote for the Daily Mirror and Manila Times. Originally, the column was derived from his brother Liling who wrote before the war. It was then called Thorns and Roses. Aside from these present involvements he was president of the Bulletin Publishing Corporation and had been Secretary of Education during Macapagal's administration. He was also Dean of the Institute of Arts and Science at the Far Eastern University, which was a university, founded by his uncle, Nicanor Reyes.

Born on the 13th of July 1924, Alejandro "Anding" is one of the nine children of couple Rafael Roces and Inocencia Reyes. Likewise, he is one of the Reyes-Roces cousins of the late Joaquin "Chino" Roces.

He attended elementary and high school at the Ateneo de Manila. During World War II, in his teenage years he mentioned signing up for the guerrillas. "I joined the guerrilla because later on I was told, 'Mayroon ng lumalaban', 'Sino?' 'Sa Pampanga', 'Anong pangalan?' It was the communist group, 'hukbo ng bayan laban sa Hapon'. So, I joined the guerrilla under Marking and that's how I got involved," narrates Anding. Even in his youth he had been promising, "I was a teenager but…still I ended up with the rank of captain…"

After the war, he migrated to US where studied at the University of Arizona and earned a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. While at the university he realized that, "…I was not in the influence of any school, any teacher or even my own family and that was when I discovered that I was a writer," here is where his career started. Dr. Anding made his way through great achievements in journalism, literature and arts. He attained several doctorate degrees: Literature at Toyo University, Japan; Arts and Letters at Polytechnic University of the Philippines; Humane Letters at Ateneo de Manila University; and Humanities at St. Louis University in Baguio City.

Later on he got married to Irene Yorston Viola and had a daughter named Elizabeth.

When he was asked if being a Roces has something to do with everything he had achieved, he replied, "…genetically yes, but as far as that is concern I have to discover it on my very own, individually, not as a Roces".

With everything that Dr. Alejandro "Anding" Reyes Roces experienced, his view on writing and life is simply that, "…it [writing] made me a better person. You cannot be a great writer, first you have to be a good person".

(READ FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION)

The process of fleshing out the design

2005-07-10T11:02:00.000-04:00

I've been meeting with the web designer for most of the weekend. We've talked about how all the components and parts will meet together into one cohesive document. The process we are following in creating is an established design process by a well known desing firm in Chelsea. We are focused on Phase 2.

The technology parts are falling into place rather easily once I identified the needs to address multimedia aspects. I still have to settle on a couple other software pieces, but the delay in selecting those pieces is more about upgradability, easy of maintenance, and security.

I will have to settle on them soon because that's a portion of the architecture. There's a few items that I'd like to leave as "future upgrades" because the whole project at once seems a little overwhelming to implement all at once, which is where Phase 5 comes into play.

One of the parts that I know I have to start doing immediately is contacting each and every living family member currently from the Alejandro Roman Domingo Roces line that I can find and contact. It is quite a daunting task since just the in my own line of Rafael Filomeno Roces, he had 11 children of which 8 are still going strong and are spread out all over the world.

A find at Ellis Island

2005-07-05T16:40:00.000-04:00

I took off Friday to stay home to have some furniture delivered. As I waited for it all to arrive, I threw myself into the project.

I signed up for database subscriptions to different genealogical sites. I registered host names. I made screen layouts. I compared various software packages from freeware to off the shelf. It was all in all quite an advancement for this project.

Our family portrait is in Ellis Island. If you go there and walk about the grounds you'll find a Kodak kiosk and it has stories of immigrant families along with photos of various immigrants to America. If you get the chance to visit it, you'll see a photo of me when I was in high school c. 1984. The way we got our pictures into it is a story in and of itself since when they created the project they approached Kodak employees to help fill the database and mom was fortunate to submit her picture and get it accepted.

Saturday night just as a goof I decided to see if that photo was online anywhere. Imagine my surprise to find Roces that crossed the Atlantic as far back a little over 100 years ago.

Ellis Island

Alfredo "Ding" Reyes Roces

2005-07-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

Alfredo Reyes-Roces is a gifted artist-writer from the known Roces clan in Philippine print media. He is the author of the latest book on the Roces family, "Looking for Liling" and the National Book Award-winning title, "Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo and the Generation of 1972".

Currently a freelance artist and writer, Alfredo or Ding, as he is fondly called, has been living in Australia since 1977. He married Irene Pineda on May 24, 1958 and has three daughters, Grace, Mina and Mia.

The youngest among nine brothers, Ding was born on April 29, 1932 at Sta. Cruz, Manila. His parents are Rafael Filomeno Roces and Inocencia Reyes.

He finished elementary at St. Mary's College in 1946. He transferred at the Far Eastern University for his high school and graduated in 1950. For college he went to the University of Notre Dame and completed a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1954. He also attended the Arts Students' League of New York in the years 1955 - 1956 with the well-known German Dadaist, George Grosz, as his mentor. Finally, for a year (however not mentioned when) he trained at an advertising firm in New York called Donahue and Coe.

His early years in the journalism profession were for him "a crash learning process". He started off as a ghostwriter and later acquired a column in 1958 with the Daily Mirror. "I chose to write about subjects I was familiar with and close to my interest, mostly art and culture…I did not start as a copy boy or as a reporter…which makes my journalistic background and approach different from most journalists. (But) in later years I expanded my topics to cover politics and current events", explains Ding. His column was titled "Light and Shadow", which he continuously wrote for the Manila Times until 1959. Reminiscing his experiences, he realizes that, "…living off journalism in the 50s to the 70s was extremely difficult. I was paid 20 pesos a column, and I had to write everyday, seven days a week including Christmas and all holidays, whether I was sick or not or I did not get paid for that day. Until the last day I wrote for the Times my fee was still 20 pesos a day. I never got an increase for over 10 years"! Despite this he feels privileged that in his years of working he always had a very "free hand in writing and doing" what he wanted which he believes was "not (a) typical journalistic experience".

In 1972, Manila Times closed down upon the declaration of Martial Law. "I lost my job. It was even harder because I could not write freely and although I was offered jobs in the Marcos' papers, I begged off", narrates Alfredo. Notwithstanding his unemployment he became editor-in-chief of the Filipino Heritage, which was a ten-volume study on Philippine History and Culture. It was a position he handled until 1978. A year before Filipino Heritage was published he migrated to Australia where he became editor of the Austral Asia's quarterly Geographical magazine called "Geo" after two years. His work with the magazine lasted until 1990.

In his years of being in the career of journalism and arts, there are several unforgettable people he had worked with. "The person I most associate with was my brother Alejandro…we shared interests in Philippine culture", Ding first mentions. He also adds, "my cousin Chino (who) was publisher (of the Manila Times)…and while I kept an arm's distance from him to avoid his telling me what to write, I developed a rapport with him". He also enumerates Frankie Sionil Jose, who was then the editor of the Sunday Times Magazine, Joe Luna Castro, Sunday Times' editor-in-chief, Mirror's editor Abe Cruz, whom he used to ghost write editorials for, cartoonist Nonoy Marcelo, Chronicle cartoonist Liborio Gatbonton and brothers, Bencab and Badong, who used to work with Manila Times. These people became Ding's close friends, who still share memorable experiences with him even until now.

Aside from journalism, column writing and editing, he was also into advertising. He once managed a public relations and advertising agency. Yet, he lost interest because he "discovered (that) buttering up to clients was the only thing that mattered not professional merit". Ding then focused on his real inclination, arts and writing. By training, Alfredo is actually an artist. He does pottery, sculpture, photography and painting, which was his major back in college. Moreover, according to him his minor of philosophy has equipped him in his writing. This is clearly manifested through several selections he already came up with. Examples of his works are "Legaspi: The Making of a National Artist", "Medals and Shoes: Political Cartoons of the Times of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, 1965 - 1992" and others which he personally produced and co-authored. In addition to book production he also does book cover designing. At present, he is doing another career-related interest, which is digital art, and writing over the Internet.

Alfredo's multi-faceted persona in the fields of arts and journalism cannot but be attributed partly to his being a Roces. He declares, "you are a Roces by accident of birth, but I suppose there are family values and culture imbibed through the years". He adds, "My parents also cautioned us against using our family name for personal advantage stressing that we should get ahead on merit". And despite the demands and pressure of bearing a family name that's well-reputed, Ding feels that, " I have always been extremely proud of my family roots, especially my parents who were living examples of humility and responsibility; and also of my eldest brother Liling who gave his life for his beliefs during World War II. With three other brothers preceding as columnists for the Manila Times, I was conscious I had to live up to their reputation. But having said that, I have also sensed resentment on the part of other writers and editors who think I have established myself through my family connections. So I felt I had to prove myself as a writer and a journalist".

For his final words of advice to starting journalists, he reiterates, "it's (journalism) a hard slog, a difficult career. I believe more so now than in my time, because the quality of journalism in the Philippines has declined and journalists of integrity have a harder time getting established. There's very little financial reward. There is also now a language problem to confront in the coming years. But the satisfaction of self-expression and of communicating with others is fulfilling. So my prime advice is that you must keep your integrity no matter what for that is the only true measure of a good journalist. To strive to be professional requires much work and discipline. Without study, diligence and discipline you will always remain mediocre. If you try to get away with just pure talent and 'bola', your printed words come back and haunt you. Keep an open mind. You have to be objective and not let your personal feelings obscure your insights and your reportage. Cross check and double check. Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write. And please do not transform journalistic success into political career".

(READ EMAIL INTERVIEW)

The Wheel: The Technology

2005-07-02T13:40:00.000-04:00

I have commited to a 2 year hosting contract with Dreamhost.com. It is a very robust hosting service that provides the most storage and bandwidth along with many tools to get one started on just about any project quickly and easily.

One feature that I found to be very interesting is a Donate Directly to Host system where one can donate directly to the host service provider elimating the wonder of if donations are actually going to fixed costs or enhancing the lifestyle of the website creator. As you can see on the side and below there is a donate button. A funny message is given when you actually click the button and are taken to the Paypal donation link.

Donate to rocesfamily.com!

Your donation will go toward rocesfamily.com's web hosting bill here at DreamHost Web Hosting! Because you're donating directly through DreamHost, rest assured that your donation will only be used to pay for this site's hosting fees. The site owner won't be able to run off and spend your donation on DVDs, fine steak dinners, or anything else completely unrelated to their web hosting bill! Please select the amount you'd like to donate now!

The host provides a number of free tools and open source software such as blogger, email, forum, merchant carts, and security tools.

The domains have been registered, roces.org and rocesfamily.com. When they go on sale again, I'll register some others like familiaderoces.org and rocesfamily.org. The other week I had a handful or registrations that should have only cost me $40 but because I delayed and didn't do it right away, in the 2 weeks the price soared from $40 to over $150.

The blog will be moved to the family server as soon as I can figure out how to point the existing URL to the new blog page. This will ensure that anyone who stumbles upon the blogger.com page gets funneled to the right direction. Since blogger.com is a google product it will also be good for me to keep it there and allow it to get ranked and cataloged into google. This will help when someone types in ROCES at google.com they won't just get pages on where to buy rollerblades.

I can host email for anyone who would like to have @roces.org or @rocesfamily.com, had this been the mid-90's it would have much more cachet, but like telephone numbers we all have way too many of them. I think I have about 4 different email addresses between work and personal activities. The rocesfamily@gmail will still be a collecting point since again, google does a better job at preserving information than any one else on the planet. I will just configure it so that it eventually goes to a @roces.org/@rocesfamily.com mailbox.

Another tool provided is a phpbb forum. Forums are the modern equivalent of the old 300 baud bulletin boards of the 80's. While I know vbulletin much better from an administration point of view, I have seen some pretty impressive phpbb boards that have user photo galleries which is a key element to this project. I'm hoping that I can allow people to create video galleries as well.

The family tree is morphing from a simple organizational chart into the multimedia family tree. The ability to annotate each family member with photos, audio, video, will help preserve their memories over time. I can recall one conversation with Lola Enchay but only remember that I did not understand her since I did not speak Spanish very well.

I do also want to respect people's privacy to collect some of this information without revealing themselves to other family members. This is a tricky concept because of course we all think that family is family and why would they care? Some people just like the anonymity of the internet and I need to strike a balance of being an adminstrator first and a family member second in some cases. So as I stated before there will be a public area for the general public, but I also need to figure out a way to validate family members as family members. The actress Susan Roces has no affiliation with the family but has the moniker. I know that it's going to be tricky especially as I encounter people whom I have not been able to attach to the family tree.

There are a few items that I have to pass over with some legal friends, such as COPPA compliance here in the US, privacy policy, copyrights, and of course one has to be concerned with legal liabilities.

Reinventing the wheel

2005-06-30T23:58:00.000-04:00

There are lots of family gathering type websites being offered out there. Each has similar offerings of community space, but the problem that I see is that there is no real way to hand it down to the family. If the company that made the software goes under etc. then that's it, they take their marbles and leave. The family loses out. All the work, all the memories, everything gone without recourse. Now to be realistic, that can also happen here since the person currently working on it (me) is a volunteer and this can stop equally at a whim.

The difference is that the first model, there's no real way of taking a snapshot of it to publish in DVD form. It would mean extra work to mirror the data (if even possible) or even just rekey in all the data.

I've always been a man of trying to hold my own destiny so my first reaction is to try to do this on a hosted server somewhere in the world. The data needs to be kept flexible so that it is portable. At some point in time it becomes even more feasible to make and keep a physical server that keeps all the family data, which maybe one day every family has a historian who keeps all the family's information on a small computer the size of a book on their bookshelf.

This week has been an interesting one on this front. Tomorrow I will be getting hosting. I will sign a 2 year contract and register a half dozen domain names. There will be lots of storage space and also lots of monthly bandwidth. The ability to stream video is extremely important to this project and it's one of the reasons that I'm going with this provider.

I have signed up with several genealogy sites to find others that are also looking for Roces family members around the world. In doing some cursory searches, a US Census in the 1910-1930's shows a Roces living in Brooklyn, Massachusetts, and Indiana. Same person? Not sure, but I was very surprised to find the name come up in that area.

Sylvia Roces Montilla

2005-06-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

"We are an ideal family to go into (journalism) because we are not tentacled with other things but the way the game of journalism is now…we had…distanced…it's too politically powered already," says Sylvia Roces Montilla, a third generation Roces descendant.

Born on the 31st of January 1938, Sylvia is the daughter of Rafael "Liling" Roces, a pre-war columnist and World War II guerilla, and Leonor Varona (currently married to Aurelio Montinola, Sr.). She is the elder sister to Village Voice president, Antonio "Tony" Roces. She married Augustin Montilla III and had three sons: Augustin IV, Rafael and Miguel.

Sylvia finished elementary and high school at Maryknoll College (presently Miriam College). Then she went to Spain for two years and studied Humanities at the Universidad Central of Madrid. When she came back to the Philippines, she enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas. She took up Philosophy and Letters and graduated Magna cum Laude. Also at one time she went to California and was a student at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco.

Her career in print media started when she got involved in her uncle Ramon Roces' publications. She had handled several positions in his group of magazines. She became editor, art director and columnist. She also had worked with cousin Elena Roces-Guerrero, daughter of Don Ramon, who came up with a comics magazine called Akda. The publication featured Tagalog translations of world literature which were illustrated by several great artists like Manansala, Alfredo Roces (another uncle), Fernando Ocampo, Arturo Luz and others. Her work with the company that time had not been an easy load, according to her, "…my exposure to publishing is not this idealistic graduate who will make a short story and then she'll be recognized and all that. Nasubsob ako right away to cover areas because there was this magazine that was coming out every week or every month…" However, she adds, "…I really love (working in publishing). I was inspired by my grandfather and my father who were actually the writers in the whole Roces clan…"

Aside from the magazines, she also became president of an advertising and public relations company called Mass Promotions during pre-Martial Law period. It was a PR firm which served the Cultural Center of the Philippines and other top Filipino corporations. Furthermore, she narrates, "It was very nice (working for the company) but then afterwards you realize, especially through advertising…, that you play around with the truth…you present something that is sugar-coated, that's not true…Then you realize words, words, words for what?"

Currently, she is the editor-in-chief of the community paper, Village Voice, and magazine, Design and Architecture. For Sylvia, the later publication is more of a task that she does as a hobby and not necessarily for money. Moreover, she says, "I don't know if this (Design and Architecture) will fold up but…for me as long as the project is good I'll stand by it…" Another thing she is busy with is book production with her uncle, Alfredo Roces. They had produced several books such as 'Hidalgo', Nick Joaquin's 'FEU: The Culture Hero' and her father's book, 'Looking for Liling'.

Likewise, Sylvia is active in several organizations. She is co-founder and director of the RDA, Philippines (Riding for the Disabled foundation); Ang Arko ng Pilipinas' first community of handicapped persons and volunteer assistants Community Council director and president of The Learning Center, which is a school for special children.

She is also a co-founder and CEO of the first art gallery in Bacolod City called Galeria Buglas and several family business corporations.

Besides her numerous achievements, Sylvia expresses much pride to the heritage of her Roces clan. She recognizes her grandparents, Rafael Filomeno Roces and Inocencia Reyes, as the people who left them the legacy of simple joys and pleasures and contentment in life. Admiring her grandfather and his word, she narrates, "…he had many chances to be so glorious…(but)…what he always say (is), 'I never want to be so high that people cannot reach me. I don't want to be so low either that they will step on me nor would I like anyone to be in that position.'"

For the new breed of journalists Sylvia shares her experiences and lessons saying that, "…writing editorial has made me…disciplined because…the problem…when you have many interest…writing (becomes) once in a blue moon or when you feel (in the) mood…and that's not true because hardly will you be inspired unless you sit down, blank in front of the computer…it won't turn up by itself…" Furthermore, she adds, "…deadline keeps you discipline…it's good in life to have that…" Lastly, she emphasizes, "…unless you are solid that you cannot be bugged down by financial problems then you cannot deliver the truth as you would like to because you get muffled by (your) own lack of money."

(READ FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION)

Setting the stage

2005-06-23T18:00:00.000-04:00

I've been mulling over the site design and metaphor to represent this site. I've looked over many geneology sites and family type sites, but nothing that encompasses what I'm trying to accomplish.

I think I've finally figured out some basics sections and offerings, but am still stuck on some design elements. Luckily for me I work with lots of creative people who can give me some feedback on highly trafficked website organization. While I don't anticipate that this will be so highly trafficked, I do anticipate that it should have a scope and longevity that I cannot even begin to imagine.

Since this is geared to family, there's really only one common denominator to all families across generations and cultures, and that's the home.

The low hanging fruit of this idea are really easy to see and grasp immediately.

The Living Room/Salón/Sala: First, notice that I am including a Spanish/Tagalog translation. This area will be where discussions of the family occur via forums. Discussions of all topics will try to be addressed from simple "Emigrating 101" to "Philippines: Current Affairs" to "Spain: The Origins of Roces" to just about any open public discussion you'd have with your friends and family.

The Dining Room/Comedor/?: This area will be a private family validated section, meaning that it's not going to be open to the general public. The discussions here I intend to be a more personal nature since the activity of breaking bread is usually expressed as more intimate in nature. This discussion area will be geared to "Who are you, and how are we related?" to "Shared Family Gatherings"

The Study/Despacho/?: This space will be the heart of the geneology area. There will be a family tree, space to put up pictures of family members, multimedia files, newsclippings, outside family webiste mirroring, and items of historical family interest.

The Kitchen/Concina/?: I envision this area to be a space for keeping and trading family recipes. All grandmas/abuelas are yummy cooks, but some of grandpas/abuelos have their own special recipes too.

Ultimately, I'd like to try to capture snapshots of this website so that we can also have copies of all the information so that internet connectivity isn't required to browse some of the historical data. The internet connectedness will keep the information current and fresh but a DVD compilation can ensure that even those who want to archive this information for generations to come.

An Introduction

2005-06-16T11:43:00.000-04:00

Hello my name is Brian.

I currently live in Manhattan, NY in the US. Over the years I've been fascinated by people who've chronicled their family and can trace the family origins back through history.

I hope to bridge the gaps of generations and continents to help give family members a way to remember and honor family traditions. I hope to preserve video, audio, pictures, memories and traditions of family members around the globe.

I was directed to a website from a cousin from Hawaii who had discovered ROCES: A Tradition in Philippine Print Media created by Sassy Mae C. Sumulong a student at De La Salle University, Philippines. I contacted her and after discussing with her preserving her site, she offered to assist any way that she can on the new site. It has taken me some time to get all the pieces together but I'm now committed to completing this endeavor.

I know that this will always be a work in progress. I also know that I cannot do this by myself. It will require the assistance of everyone in the family. If you'd like to assist either by collecting information, building the website or donations for hardware, bandwidth, please contact me: rocesfamily@gmail.com