Rogelio dela Rosa and Rosa Rosal 'Sarung Banggi' 1947

Rogelio de la Rosa as Fernando Flores singing the title song of the Filipino motion picture "Sarung Banggi"(One Evening -LVN Films 1947) to Rosa Rosal, as his girlfriend Marina (Mila del Sol) and the rest of his friends back in Bicol listen in on their radio. At the end of his song number, Fernando dedicates his song to the woman who has inspired him the most, but it's not who you might have expected...
Thanks to happyslix.
The legendary Rosa Rosal was portrayed by Iza Calzado in a recent episode of Magpakailanman. Rosa's daughter is the also stunningly beautiful Toni Rose Gayda of Eat Bulaga.

Carmen Rosales and Rogelio de la Rosa
Download FREE Carmen Rosales, Rogelio dela Rosa Wallpaper
Carmen Rosales was dubbed the "Greta Garbo" of the Philippines. She was the highest paid actress of her time. One of her unforgetable movies was "Maalaala Mo Kaya" together with Rogelio De La Rosa, under Sampaguita Pictures. Her career started in the 1930's and she stayed in pictures until 1965 in her last movie "Gintong Recuerdo". She received her first FAMAS Best Actress Award in 1953. She died on December 11 1991, at the age of 73. Original photo thanks to San Miguel de Mayumo.

Sampaguita's 'Bonggahan'

Sampaguita's 'Bonggahan' is the Music Video of the Week. The Reyna of Rock and Roll.
Lyrics after the jump.

Bonggahan

Panahon na para magsaya
Forget mo na ang problema
Pa-dance dance, para sumigla
Rock 'n' roll hanggang umaga
Wa ko type ang magpa-cry cry
Type ko ay todo bigay
Kaya join na lang kayo
Let's all have a good time.

Refrain
Di ko say na magwala ka
Ang say ko lang ay magpabongga ka
Stop ka na sa pagdurusa
Ride ka lang sa problema.

Di ko trip ang magpasabog
Hate na hate ko ang matulog
Trip ko lang na umiksena
Heto ay sobrang pilya
Wag ka say na lang, kumadre
Bow ka lang ng bow
Pa-sing sing ka lang
Para ikaw ay sumaya.

Repeat Refrain & 1st verse

Kaya join na lang kayo
Let's all have a good time
Kaya join na lang kayo
Let's all have a good time.

Pilita Corrales, ¡Bravo Filipino!

Pilita Corrales and Celeste Legaspi performed at the ¡Bravo Filipino! Music Celebration for the Filipinas Heritage Library last week. Ms. Corrales sang her hit songs 'Kapantay ng Langit' and 'Minsan Minahal'. Also singing with the divas were Rachel Alejandro, Gian Magdangal, Jan Nieto, and Frenchie Dy.

During this video where they were honoring world famous musicians and artists of Filipino descent, they left out quite a few world famous artists: Enrique Iglesias, Junior and his daughter Shaila Durcal, also a singer, Mig Ayesa, Lalaine, Miranda Cosgrove of iCarly, and Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
And Vanessa Hudgens especially, pictured here with her mom and sister.

Filipino Art: Carlos V Francisco's Fiesta

The Best of Filipino Art:
Fiesta
Carlos V. Francisco
1947

Deal Or No Deal visits the Philippines

Deal Or No Deal was shooting in the Philippines 2 weeks ago, and Howie Mandel was wowed when Kris Aquino brought out the "26K" babes.

Watch the video after the jump.

Filipino Eric Spoelstra of Miami Heat

Eric Spoelstra has been apointed the new head coach for the Miami Heat, making him the first Filipino-American NBA head coach in history. Above, on the cover of Filipinas Magazine.

Full article after the jump.

He Puts the Heat On
By Nick Vicera
Filipinas Magazine, November 2006
Erik Spoelstra is now the head coach of the Miami Heat

Quietly working on the sidelines, Miami Heat assistant coach Erik Spoelstra played a major role in the team’s capture of the 2006 NBA Championship.

Once the final buzzer went off ending the deciding game of the 2006 National Basketball Association (NBA) finals in Dallas, marking the first championship victory of the 18-year-old Miami Heat, its legendary coach and future Basketball Hall of Famer Pat Riley didn’t turn to the $362-million Heat team franchise owner, Micky Arison, or to the Heat’s duo of superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade for his very first celebratory hug. Instead, he reached out for Erik Spoelstra, one of his assistant coaches.

Whether the hug was pure spontaneity or a well-thought out act on Riley’s part, Spoelstra deserved such an acknowledgment. Spoelstra quietly worked the sidelines as an assistant coach, training young players, among them Dwayne Wade, the hottest NBA superstar of late. He devised their game plans from long hours of watching video recordings of games the team played. Spoelstra was an insider in the process that led to the team’s first gold.

Born to a Filipino mother, the former Fe Celino, the 35-year-old Spoelstra is an ex-collegiate basketball player at the University of Portland, Oregon and a former professional basketball player/coach for Tus Herten, a team in the professional sports league of Germany. In Portland where he was the starting point guard for four years, he averaged 9.2 points, 4.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game and was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year.

Spoelstra graduated from Portland in 1992 with a degree in communications. He’s the first Filipino American ever to crack the highest playing rank in the NBA bureaucracy. There are only 90 bench assistant coaches in the NBA, a highly selective profession.

“While playing professional basketball in Germany, I applied for an entry level video coordinator position with the Heat. I had always wanted to get into coaching and I figured this might be a good way to get my foot in the door,” Spoelstra relates. “I never imagined I would be here for eleven years.”

“He did such a good job with that position and with working with players in the off-season that he became a bench coach on the Heat staff,” says Tony Fiorentino, a former Heat assistant coach and now a SUN Sports TV analyst. Head coach Riley adds, “Erik comes as a whole package to the Heat organization. He is an intelligent operator who knows how to push the right button. He has a knack for seizing weak spots in opposing teams’ defenses and turns around with smart game plans”.

Unlikely Champs
“The 2006 playoff series put us all through the wringer until Wade threw the ball up in the air in victory,” admits Spoelstra. Naysayers regarded the Heat as less than a championship timber because they dropped 18 games early in the season, won just 52 games in the regular season and posted only a 2-12 record against other division winners in the league.

Early in the playoff eliminations, the team lost two games to the Chicago Bulls after struggling to secure two wins to start the series. In Game 1 of their playoff games against the New Jersey Nets, the Heat suffered a blowout loss on its home court, fueling doubts even more. Four straight wins later, the Heat advanced to play against the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. They defeated the Pistons in six games to reach their first NBA championship showdown.

“When we finally played against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals series, we fared miserably at the start, down by 0-2 quite in lopsided losses,” recalls Spoelstra. Critics started counting the Heat out again. Though battered, beaten and bruised, the Heat bounced back, winning all their next four games, three on their home court and one on the road. In Game 6, with the score at 95-92 and the clock at 0:00, Riley’s “15 strong” raised their arms in triumph. Amid fanfare, the team brought the most coveted Larry O’Brien NBA championship trophy to Miami before an adoring crowd of 200,000 in a victory parade down Miami’s celebrated Biscayne Boulevard, where its home court arena proudly towers over Miami’s coastal skyline.

Spoelstra has two tasks as an assistant coach. First, he trains perimeter players in support of Riley’s defensive and offensive thrusts. Second, he prepares plans for the Heat’s upcoming games.

“We primarily run our offense through O’Neal in the low post,” Spoelstra says. This set play runs on a scenario where the Heat perimeter players get the ball to O’Neal in the middle for a post-up offense. If a strong double team confronts O’Neal, the ball is pitched back to the perimeter players for them to shoot from the outside, or pass to a cutter either from the baseline or the wing for an inside shot. Spoelstra’s task along this strategy is to coach the Heat’s outside players on passing well to post players, making plays to stretch the defense, and the like.

“We also push our offense through Wade and give him enough floor space to let him play above the rim,” Spoelstra explains. With the Heat’s big men—O’Neal or Alonzo Mourning and Udonis Haslem—manning the painted area, and the Heat’s small forwards James Posey or Antoine Walker providing three-pointer offense from the wing, and point guards Jason Williams or Gary Payton directing traffic from the perimeter, Wade is set up to freelance at any stretch of the floor for outside and inside offense.

Off the court, Spoelstra spends long and tedious hours watching video recordings of games played by the Heat, to draw up game plans for upcoming games. “Basketball has now become a science—a game of statistical probabilities and of floor strategies,” Spoelstra says.

Game Plans
“I usually design three to four primary offensive and defensive keys for every game. The purpose of the exercise is to give our players more insight and information about our opponents, i.e., their team statistics, their specific player’s tendencies, a player’s specific shooting range—a host of information that would help in homing in on our opponent’s dominant set plays and in coming up with our defense match-ups to beat them at their own style of play,” says Spoelstra.

Sports analyst Fiorentino says, “Erik’s most important contribution to the Heat is his having improved Wade’s driving ability and offensive touch.” When Wade came back from the Olympics in September 2004 right before his second year in the NBA, Erik worked on his balance and jump shot. Wade, during his rookie year, used to fall down a lot because he attacked the basket with a full head of steam. Erik changed that. “Wade wasn’t particularly extending his arm on his shot and at times was off balance when shooting the ball. Erik worked on both those things with him, and Wade became a much better shooter in the month they worked together with much improved mid-range jumper off the pass and off the dribble. With his driving and finishing ability, Wade made it to the All-NBA Second Team in his second year in the league,” Fiorentino concludes.

In the 2006 playoffs that led to the Heat championship Wade exploded to
13 three-pointers, a performance comparable to Michael Jordan’s third-year NBA playoff performance of 12 three-pointers during his time. “The amount of time Erik spent on Wade led to a golden premium for the Heat in the playoffs,” Fiorentino adds.

With the NBA title now in Miami, the Heat made good on a promise made by coach Riley 11 years ago and reiterated in the summer of 2004 by one of the 50 great basketball players of all time, Shaquille O’Neal. The championship also marked the rise to basketball stardom of Dwayne Wade, the MVP (Most Valuable Player) of the series.

Spoelstra hopes to stay with the Heat as long as possible. “Sure, like any other assistant coaches, I aspire someday to become a head coach myself. But I am not in a hurry,” he smiles. “There is a saying that I keep to myself ‘Don’t mess with good’,” he continues.

“But there is one thing that I am definitely interested in doing in the future, and that is helping develop basketball in the Philippines. I have been talking recently with the NBA about me putting together basketball clinics in my mother’s home country, hopefully in one of these next couple of off-seasons. It will be a wonderful chance for me to see some of my family over there and get reconnected with my roots,” he grins.

Spoelstra will manage the next Heat summer league, overseeing the development program for younger players. He will re-main an invisible face in the Heat organization, sitting on the bench with pen and notepad in hand in every stretch of any Heat game. He’ll draw up game plans just like a seasonal general in Napoleon’s army.

Nick Vicera is based in Miami, Florida.

Fil-Am calls the shots for Miami Heat
By Dante Navarro
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Eric Celino Spoelstra, a Fil-Am who once missed a crack at the PBA, will now call the shots for one of the teams in the NBA.

The 37-year-old Spoelstra, who traces his roots to San Pablo, Laguna, was named head coach of the Heat following the resignation of Pat Riley Tuesday, making him the first mentor with Filipino roots and youngest to ever coach in the league.

(NBA Playoffs stories on A-32)

“I believe Erik Spoelstra is one of the most talented young coaches in a long time,” Riley, who steered the Heat to the NBA crown in 2006, told a news conference.

Spoelstra, son of Irish-Dutch Jon Spoelstra, a long-time NBA executive involved with the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets and New Jersey Nets, said he’s proud of his Filipino roots even as he previously said he regretted declining an offer to play in the PBA.

Born in Portland, Spoelstra, whose mother Fe Celino is from San Pablo, Laguna, has been to the Philippines only once.

“I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve visited the Philippines only when I was three years old,” said Spoelstra in a previous interview with The STAR. “I’m definitely planning to go again. I have lots of relatives who live just outside Manila. I’m hoping that someday soon, I’ll be able to visit and maybe, do some coaching clinics so I can share whatever I know about basketball.”

At the time of his appointment as head coach, Spoelstra just completed his 13th season as a member of the Heat staff and his seventh in the role of assistant coach/director of scouting where he had the primary role of developing game plans for upcoming opponents.

Spoelstra was responsible for coordinating the video staff and advance scouts while also overseeing the development of scouting reports and videos. He has been in charge of the Heat’s Individual Player Development Program and has served as the head coach of the Heat’s summer league squad each of the past three summers.

Spoelstra originally joined the Heat as the team’s video coordinator in 1995. He spent two years in that role where he was responsible for preparing scouting tapes and heading up the team’s information technology for the coaching staff.

Born on Nov. 1, 1970, Spoelstra has become the NBA’s youngest current head coach, 69 days younger than the second youngest head coach, Lawrence Frank of the New Jersey Nets.

A 1992 graduate from the University of Portland, Spoelstra was the starting point guard for four years for the Pilots and was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year. After college he spent two years as a player/coach for Tus Herten, a team in the professional sports league of Germany.

In a previous interview, Spoelstra said he’s aware of how basketball is loved by Filipinos.

“I know about the PBA,” said Spoelstra. “I know Billy Ray Bates played there. Jim Kelly invited me to play in the PBA some years ago and I think it was for the Coca-Cola team. I would’ve been eligible to play as a local.”
Cited by Sports Illustrated (May 30, 2005) for his work in honing star guard Dwyane Wade’s shooting balance and smoothing out his release after the Flash’s return from the Athens Olympics, Spoelstra said working with Riley and predecessor Stan Van Gundy has been an awesome learning experience.

However, Spoelstra will have a lot of rebuilding to do as the Heat, hobbled by injuries to key players, including Wade, and hampered by the loss of Shaquille O’Neal in a trade with Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, finished with the worst record this season with a woeful 15-67 (win-loss) mark.

Gloria Romero, Golden Age of Philippine Cinema

Gloria Romero and Willie Sotelo are movie idols from the Golden Age of Philippine Cinema, when the stars were beautiful, groomed, poised, and whose careers were not dependent on scandal headlines like today's celebrity machine.
Stars from the Golden Age of Philippine Cinema, including the original Dyesebel Edna Luna, Amalia Fuentes, Eddie Garcia, Eddie Gutierrez, Edna Luna, Fernando Poe Jr, Gloria Romero, Susan Roces, Tessie Quintana, Willie Sotelo, and Armando Goyena:

Spain funds Philippine educational program worth 600 million euros, plans to restore Intramuros

Spain will launch a 600 million Euro educational program in the Philippines to provide scholarships for vocational training to address unemployment in the country, and will also use a portion of the funds to restore Intramuros.
Full article from the Manila Times after the jump.

Spanish project to benefit Intramuros
By Jayson Cruz Luna, Reporter
The Manila Times
Thursday, April 24, 2008

Spain is poised to launch a P300-million social program, called Escuela Taller, that aims to provide vocational training to young residents of Intramuros and contribute to the historic district’s rehabilitation, Madrid’s envoy to Manila said.

The program, whose name translates to “school workshop,” is part of Spain’s grand plan to reestablish a presence in the Asia-Pacific region, Ambassador Luis Arias told The Manila Times in an exclusive roundtable interview Tuesday. He added that Spain, which colonized the Philippines for more than 350 years, cannot look at the region without considering its “special relationship” with this country.

The Spaniards built Intramuros, which literally means “inside the walls,” in the 16th century. It is the oldest district in Manila, the Philippine capital, and is among the legacies of the colonial period.

Escuela Taller aims to take in 100 students for two years of training, Arias said, adding that the program was inspired by the similar one that worked well in Spain. (Taller, incidentally, is pronounced “talyer” in Filipino.)

“As part of addressing the problems during our democratic period in Spain, we started Escuela Taller to address the unemployment problem in the country,” Arias said. “We build something [and] at the same time we teach our people. We have started with this system, which proved to be successful.”

Participants in the program will be trained in plumbing, carpentry, sewing and other vocational skills, Arias said. The workshop will be carried out in cooperation with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the Intramuros Administration, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Department of Education, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The skills development program starts in May. The participants will be selected with the help of the Social Welfare department and a steering committee comprised of members from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Intramuros Administration. Part of the program includes rehabilitating Intramuros.

“We feel that we need to do something on Intramuros,”Arias said. “It needs restoration. We are working with Filipinos little by little to restore Intramuros. After restoring it through the program, people will also benefit because they will be trained in different craftsmanship to earn a living.”

The government of Spain will be spending at least 600,000 euros (about P300 million) for the program.

Arias said most of the Spain’s projects have a social component, because they want to make an impact on eradicating poverty.

Spain may be 16,000 kilometers away from the Philippines, but the two countries are similar not only in language but also in their culture and history, he said, adding that because of this, Spain wants to develop closer ties with the Philippines. He added that 71 percent of their development cooperation work is in the Philippines.

The envoy said Escuela Taller is just part of a more bigger project of their government toward the entire region—Plan Asia.

The program aims to strengthen ties and friendship between Spain and Asian countries. Plan Asia also intends to identify the fields of interest where Spain can help developing countries by sharing technical expertise in aquaculture and fisheries, infrastructure development, the energy sector and others.

Kristine Hermosa is Filipina, not "3/4 Filipino"

Kristine Hermosa is a Filipina actress.
I was just visiting a forum, when I came across a common thing that happens often, which is to refer to Filipinos of known recent European ancestry as "1/2 Filipino" or "3/4 Filipino." Someone saw a picture of Kristine Hermosa and asked "Wow, she's beautiful! Is she mixed race?" to which someone replied "Kristine Hermosa is 3/4 Filipino because her mom is a Spanish mestiza", and this was my reply:

Kristine Hermosa is Filipino because her nationality is Filipino.

Mestizo in the Philippines is not a mix of Filipino or Spanish blood, but a mix of Malay and Spanish blood, there is no such thing as having "Filipino blood" because there is no such thing as a Filipino race, there is a Filipino people made up of the mixture of several "races": Malay, Spanish, and Chinese ancestry making up the ancestry of the majority of Filipinos.

After the Aeta natives who are thought to be related to the aborigines of Australia, the Malays immigrated to the Philippines and make up the majority of it's stock, then a very large ethnic Chinese population, then Spaniards arrived and settled and intermarried with the native Malays and ethnic Chinese, and mestizos were born of the main three ancestries that today make up the culture and ancestry of modern day Filipinos.

The word "Filipino" is originally a Spanish word originally used to refer to the Creole Spanish population of "Las Islas de Filipinas" (the original name of the country named after King Felipe II of Spain), after the Philippine Revolution, it was extended to include anybody born in the Philippines, not just Filipinos of mostly Spanish descent, but the mixed race mestizos, the Malay, and the ethnic Chinese. Anybody born in the Philippines who identifies with the national culture is a Filipino, regardless of their ancestry.

Mestizo is an outdated term, not only in the Philippines, but in the rest of Latin America and all of the Spanish-speaking countries, because for many people, it's difficult to trace actual racial ancestry and exact mixture percentages after hundreds of years of racial mixture.

I don't believe in splitting people up into fractions, it's inhuman. My cousin was talking to me about how he was confused growing up sometimes in Toronto because he's "half-Filipino" and I said, "You're not half Filipino, you're 100% Filipino. You define for yourself who you are, don't let society do it for you. Your mom is Filipino, you're 100% Filipino. Your dad is Canadian, you're 100% Canadian. You're not half of each, you're 100% of both, and don't ever forget that. You define who you are." Because at the end of the day, as scientists have proven, there is only one REAL race, and that's the human race, and every person on this Earth is a part of that one, and that's what matters the most.

Pinoy Big Brother Teen Plus Edition! Fiesta!

Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition Plus
ABS-CBN's Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition Plus premiered on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008. Fourteen Filipino youngsters passed the stringent requirements and will spend their summer break inside Big Brother's house. Hotness Gallery:The primetime edition airs Mondays to Fridays, after Lobo. Uber will air weekdays at 5:30 p.m., while Update will be shown at regular intervals throughout the day. PEP, ABS-CBN:

VALERIE, 18 years old, the Dazzling Girl of Germany
Half-German, Half-Filipina Valerie is a self-confessed Daddy's girl. When her German father died, she was crushed, but now she wants to become closer to her mother. When asked to name her preferred leading man, she chose Sam Milby.

ALEX, 18, Italian Valentino of Milan
Alex has an Italian father while his mother is a Filipino domestic helper. He is an avid soccer player.

BEAUTY, 16, the Rebellious Beauty of Dumaguete
Her real name is Christine Marie but she is best known by her nickname Beauty. She is perceived to be a señorita who craves for instant gratification but deep inside, she wants to show that she can be a good girl as well.

EJAY, 18, the Promdi Hottie of Mindoro
This young man is self-sufficient—he raises animals and plants vegetables for food.

JERIEL, 16 years old, the Bubbly Girl of Davao
People might find it hard to believe but Jeriel was quite chubby when she was younger. She found the discipline to trim down and now, she has the chance to become the Big Winner of PBB and enter showbiz.

JOLAS, 18 years old, the Gentle Giant of Bulacan
Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall, Jolas used to be a basketball player for the FEU Tamaraws until he encountered some problems with his teammates. He is still optimistic that he will become a professional basketball player someday.

KEVIN, 18 years old, the Spanish Stallion of Madrid
This young equestrian can speak English and Spanish fluently. Before he entered the Big Brother's house, his mother told him, "You are going to be the King of the horses."

I just want to say that Kevin's last name is Garcia, not Flood, so his name should be written as Kevin Garcia, not Kevin Flood as other Pinoys and even ABS-CBN have written on the web. His last name, if you put it in American naming standards is Garcia, because that is his father's surname. His full name is Kevin Brendan Garcia Flood, Garcia is his Filipino father's surname, Flood is his Irish mother's surname, because Spanish naming customs are that the father's surname is before the mother's. But uneducated people in the media wrote his last name as Flood, even on official websites, publications, and newspapers. The same name confusion happened with Marian Rivera, until I fixed it of course on Wikipedia and via this blog. Her father's surname is Gracia, so her real full name written in her birth certificate would be Marian Gracia Rivera, not Marian Rivera Gracia as was written by most of the uneducated Philippine media.

Philippine Naming System
The Philippines used this traditional Spanish naming system until the country was colonized by the American government, after which the Anglo naming system was used which continues to this day, and many are so uneducated about the names of their own ancestors due to the education system in the Philippines that doesn't even teach something as important as this. Education in the Philippines...

LINDA, 16 years old, the Bikini Babe of Iriga
This pretty Bicolana admits that she has an adventurous streak—she likes to ride a motorcycle. Linda also has an impulsive streak. She candidly narrates that she would suddenly leave their home when she has a fight with her mother.

NAN, 17 years old, Junior Kengkoy of Davao
Just like Ruben Gonzaga of PBB Celebrity Edition 2, Nan is a comedian from Davao. He wants to join PBB Teen Edition Plus to show people that he was brought up well by his mother.

NICOLE, 17 years old, the In-chick of Cebu
Just like Kim Chiu of PBB Teen Edition Season 1, Nicole is a Fil-Chinese girl from Cebu. She comes from a well-off family and has always lived a sheltered life. Can she handle living among strangers inside Big Brother's house?

PRISCILLA, 17 years old, the Deaf Dreamer of Davao
On top of competing against her fellow housemates, Priscilla has to find a way to cope with Big Brother's challenges despite her hearing disability. She is able to understand others through lip reading.

ROBI, 18 years old, the True Blue Atenista of QC
He is hailed as one of the pluses of PBB Teen Edition Plus. Robi is an honor student and is also a commercial model.

RONA, 16 years old, the Prisoner's Daughter of Dumaguete
She is a good example of brains and beauty. Rona is often chosen to represent her school, whether in academic contests or in beauty pageants. However, she must deal with the stigma of having a father who is serving jail time.

Katrina Halili Bikini, Dama de Noche

Katrina Halili: The Legend of the Dama de Noche is very popular in Philippine folklore relating the mythical origins of the popular Philippine flower, however, Spanish-speaking Filipinos know that the Spanish term "dama de noche", which translates to "woman of the night", has a double meaning that hints at escandalo, and Katrina Halili's recent hit performance in Marimar and her popular calendars and videos have reinvented that term in the Philippines in a way that only she can. Aqui esta como una dama de noche y dia:

Legend of the Dama de Noche

A thousand years ago, there was a rich maharlika, or nobleman, who spent his early bachelor days recklessly, wining and dining in the company of nobility. He drank the finest wines, ate the most delectable food and enjoyed the company of the loveliest, perfumed and bejewelled women of the noble class.

After years of this kind of life, the maharlika finally felt it was time to settle down and marry the woman of his choice. "But who is the woman to choose?" he asked himself as he sat in the rich splendour of his home, "All the women I know are beautiful and charming, but I am tired of the glitter of their jewels and the richness of their clothes!" He wanted a woman different from all the women he saw day and night, and found this in a simple village lass. She was charming in her own unaffected ways, and her name was Dama.

They married and lived contentedly. She loved him and took care of him. She pampered him with the most delicious dishes, and kept his home and his clothes in order. But soon, the newness wore off for the maharlika. He started to long for the company of his friends. He took a good look at his wife and thought, she is not beautiful and she does not have the air of nobility abouther, she does not talk with wisdom. And so the maharlika returned to his own world of glitter and splendor. He spent his evenings sitting around with his friends in their noble homes , drank and talked till the first rays of the sun peeped from the iron grills of their ornate windows.

Poor Dama felt that she was losing her husband. She wept in the silence of their bedroom. "I cannot give my husband anything but the delights of my kitchen and the warmth of my bed. He is tired of me." She looked to the heavens. "Oh, friendly spirits! Help me. Give me a magic charm. Just one little magic charm to make my husband come home again, that he will never want to leave my side, forever!"

It was midnight when the maharlika came home. He opened the door of their bedroom and called for Dama to tell her to prepare his nightclothes. "Dama! Dama, where are you?" he called. He shouted all around the bedroom. He sarched the whole house. Still the nobleman could not find his simple wife. Finally the nobleman returned to their bedroom, tired and cross. But, as he opened the door, he stopped.

A are scent, sweet and fragrant, drifted to him. It was a scent he had never smelled before. He entered the room and crossed to the window where the scent seemed to be floating from. A strange bush was growing outside the window. Some of its thin branches had aleady reached the iron grills and were twisting around. And all over the bush were thousands of tiny starlike, white flowers, from which burst forth a heavenly, enchanting scent!

He stood there, completely enraptured by the glorious smell. "Dama..." he whispered softly, onderingly, could this be Dama? The rich maharlika sat by the window, and waited for the return of his loving simple wife. But she did not come back. She never returned to him again. Only the fragrance of the flowers stayed with him, casting a spell over his whole being.

In the moonlight, Dama of the night, or Dama de Noche would be in full bloom, capturing the rich maharlika, making him never want to leave her side, forever.

The End.

Marian Rivera Televisa Mexico Acting Offer

Marian Rivera receives acting offer from Televisa Mexico
I just read an article on PEP that says that Televisa, Mexico's largest multi-conglomerate corporation and TV network, was so in awe of Marian Rivera's performance that they'd like to offer her a scholarship to the Centro de Educacion Artistica. What boggles me is that the way the article is written, it's as if it's just some drama school, but it's not! They don't realize how important that school is, understandably because I watch Spanish-language TV all the time and Spanish speakers know how important that school is, most Pinoys in Pinas don't have that opportunity, so they don't understand, so I'd like to explain to you how important a scholarship like that would be. That school is the Spanish-speaking world's most important drama school where many popular Latin American actors have studied in since they were children, including Hollywood actors Eduardo Verastegui and Jaime Camil, Fernando Colunga, Lucero, Jorge Salinas, Eduardo Capetillo, Aracely Arambula, Michelle Vieth, Camila Sodi, Juan Soler, Marlene Favela, so many famous names, they couldn't even list them all at the Wikipedia, and it's not just some acting school, it's sponsored and run by Televisa, and they pick their future talents and future actors and actresses that they feature in their telenovelas from those students. Getting accepted into that school is a platform for world stardom. They train them from when they're young, groom them in acting, singing, and dancing, and then if they show promise, they cast them in their TV shows and telenovelas, and most of the Latin American actors Filipinos and non-Filipinos around the world have been watching on their TV screens over the years came from that school. It's called a "school" but what it actually is is an acting training workshop for Televisa for them to find actors for their TV shows, when new telenovelas are written, the producers at Televisa choose from their roster of actors, or they consult Televisa and they choose from their "students", so for Filipino execs at GMA to assume it's just some school like the one they sent Angel Locsin to in London, they would be so mistaken! And they would be so ---- missing out on a HUGE opportunity, not just for Marian Rivera, but also for GMA and the Philippines in general.
What Televisa is really saying is that they'd like to offer Marian Rivera the opportunity to become an international actress in Spanish-language telenovelas, like Thalia.

Remember you're dealing with Televisa and Spanish-speakers, and since we share the same culture, they operate the same way Filipinos do, it's what's said behind what's being said. They're giving her the opportunity to study in Mexico at the most prestigious acting school in the entire Latin American continent and Spanish-speaking world to see what she's like, what she can do, and if she impresses them, a producer will cast her in a telenovela. Millions of aspiring Latin American actors and actresses DREAM of being accepted in that school, because everybody knows that that school is where famous actors are born, because it's sponsored by Televisa, and that's where they choose their actors that appear in their telenovelas, weekly series, and TV shows from. And remember that Spanish language telenovelas and series are exported to over 150 countries around the world, and having Marian Rivera, a Filipina actress, to become a worldwide celebrity through telenovelas which are exported all over the world, that is something that will put the Philippines on the map for good. This is important, somebody who's reading this post right now, someone who knows her tell her to read this, and explain to her how important this opportunity is for her, for worldwide opportunities, not just for her, but also for the Philippines, and tell her to think about this opportunity. This is so important, if you watch Spanish language TV like I do, anybody who speaks Spanish will know how important this opportunity is for Marian Rivera, I just wish that the execs at GMA would understand it too and what they're offering her and not assume that it's just a simple acting school, (or like a fashion school that you go for a few months to learn, and that's it, like what Angel Locsin did) it's an opportunity for Marian Rivera to become an international actress, and it's an opportunity that will open doors for the Philippines to globalize itself and put itself on the world market, one step at a time, countries don't promote tourism, CELEBRITIES promote tourism, and everytime someone sees a famous person, they immediately associate him/her with the country he/she's from, they see Spice Girls, they think of England, they see Shakira, they think of Colombia, they see Nicole Kidman, they think of Australia, and guess what? When people in this world see Vanessa Hudgens or other Filipino-American celebrities, no matter how proud those celebs are of being Filipino, when the world sees them, they don't think immediately of the Philippines, they think of the United States! Because that's the country they're from, where they built their career. For Marian Rivera to become a world famous Filipina actress, this is a huge important step that has never been offered to the Philippines, and ang tanga tanga if they don't accept it hehe. And remember, GMA always has the option to negotiate a co-contract with Televisa if Marian becomes famous, like what ABS-CBN is doing with Charice Pempengco where she can be co-signed to both ABS-CBN and Disney, and do projects with both at intervals. Marian can do the same, like many actresses do, which is to travel back and forth between to complete different projects, so sobrang tanga tanga if Marian Rivera's manager doesn't arrange this once in a lifetime opportunity for her, hehe.
Tres Mujeres star Jorge Salinas, and Lazos de Amor star Lucero, which both aired on ABS-CBN, came from The Centro de Educación Artistica.

The Centro de Educación Artística (CEA) of Televisa is the most prestigious entertainment educational institution in Latin America. It was founded on September 26, 1979 and it is located in the facilities of Televisa San Ángel in Mexico City.

Many aspiring actors from Mexico and the rest of Latin America dream of being accepted to this institution. The age requirements for admission is to be of between 17 and 23 years of age. After a casting, those who are accepted are eligible for enrollment in their three-year program. The program consists of 45 hours of courses a week and tuition is free of charge. Of approximately 5,000 applications received annually, only 35–40 are accepted.

Alumni

Approximately 85–90% of actors in telenovelas of Televisa are alumni of the CEA. some of them are:

• Elizabeth Álvarez
• Mariana Álvarez
• Yolanda Andrade
• Aracely Arámbula
• Alexis Ayala
• Renato Bartilotti
• Sergio Basañez
• Vanessa Bauche
• Kuno Becker
• Jacqueline Bracamontes
• Lilí Brillanti
• Fabiola Campomanes
• Itatí Cantoral
• Yadhira Carrillo
• Roxana Castellanos
• Eugenia Cauduro
• Alma Cero
• Fernando Colunga
• Karla Cossío
• Anette Cuburu
• Arath de la Torre
• Kate del Castillo
• Aarón Díaz
• Natalia Esperón
• David Galindo
• Susie Garcia
• Bibi Gaytán
• Ernesto Godoy
• Lorenza Hegewisch
• Alfonso Herrera
• Mauricio Islas
• Andrea Lagunes
• Ana Layevska
• Fernando Lozano
• Lucero
• Estrella Lugo
• Sara Maldonado
• Edith Márquez
• Patricia Navidad
• Lorenzo Negrete
• Andrea Palma
• Maite Perroni
• Gaby Platas
• Juan Rios
• Mariana Ríos
• Jorge Salinas
• Tiaré Scanda
• Pedro Sicard
• Camila Sodi
• Sasha Sökol
• Juan Soler
• Nancy Taira
• Eduardo Verástegui
• Michelle Vieth
• Luz María Zetina
• Marlene Favela
• Angelique Boyer
  Marlene Favela, star of Gata Salvaje and Zorro, both aired on ABS-CBN came from that school
  
  Camila Sodi of Inocente de Ti, aired on ABS-CBN, came from that school
  Hollywood actor Eduardo Verastegui came from that school