Kristine Hermosa Filipina Actress

Kristine Hermosa es una actriz filipina.

Many Filipinos may not realize it, but the first time I discovered Kristine Hermosa in 2004 (because I never really knew much about Filipino show business til I was 21), and saw that Kristine Hermosa's last name (or her mom's maiden name) is "Hermosa", I thought, "Wow, her last name actually fits who she is" because if you didn't know, "hermosa" actually means "beautiful woman" in Spanish. And that's exactly what I thought about her when I first saw her, I just could not stop looking at her because she is so absolutely drop dead gorgeous. Her real name is Kristine Hermosa Orille, because in Filipino culture, the mother's maiden name comes before the father's last name. I believe that this is a cultural adaptation the Filipinos made to keep that part of their Spanish heritage alive, because in Spanish culture, there are traditionally two apellidos (last names), the father's goes first, then the mother's.

La hermosa Kristine, boy if she ever wanted to go to Spain, I bet Spaniards would start calling her the new Isabel Preysler. But there's always room for more than one guapisima filipina in this world, and we have tons of them, don't we? Mabuhay!

I remember once I posted on this Spanish website a list of our beautiful Filipino celebrities, and I got so many messages from television and music talent agents from Latin America and Spain requesting that they'd like to sign them up for a contract! The only requirement they asked for was that they want only Spanish-speaking Filipino actresses (of course, how could they be an actress or singer on Latin television without knowing Spanish?), my cousin actually works as a commercial director in the Philippines and my other cousin is an actor/model (you might know who he his, but I won't say for privacy reasons), and just recently I got the news that my 16-year-old nephew just got signed up to ABS-CBN Star Talents or whatever that's called, so I actually could have hooked some of those celebrities up, but the Spanish-speaking requirement narrowed it down to zero. But I did give my cousin the info of those Spanish talent agents, but I still don't see any actresses in Latin television of Filipino descent besides Carmen Morales and Shaila Durcal, Junior's daughters. But the names that always came up in the requests were Kristine Hermosa, Vina Morales, Donita Rose, and Giselle Toengi.

Filipinos don't realize that besides doing good for spreading Filipino pride, Filipinos who become popular in other countries in the world are walking tourism advertisements for the Philippines. Besides being a kind-hearted person in her own right, many Filipinos don't realize that the fact that Isabel Preysler is loved in Spain does more than just earn her money through endorsements, it helps put out positive vibes about the reputation of the Philippines. Every public figure out there counts, and it's like a domino effect, they look at Isabel Preysler or Junior, or their kids, they get a good impression of the Philippines and our people, and they want to visit or create businesses in the Philippines. It's not JUST entertainment, everything is affected, but Filipinos don't see that because they think, ah she's just a socialite, what does she do for the Philippines? It goes deeper than that, that domino effect will help to improve the Philippines economy in some way or another.

The more we put our people out there to represent our country, the more our public image in the world is cleaned up and it affects the economy, because the public image of a country directly affects it's tourism and business sector.

Filipinos won't gain anything by learning Spanish? They're mistaken. To take advantage of something that is already deeply embedded in our culture (our Spanish language and culture as Filipinos) and use it to improve our economy through connections would be a smart thing indeed, contrary to what most Filipinos believe that it won't have any effect whatsoever. Absolutely not.

Junior de Los Brincos

Junior Antonio Morales Barreto is a Filipino singer and actor who became popular in Spain with the hit music group Los Brincos during the 60s. He went home to the Philippines to record a few Tagalog albums and star in a few movies directed by Ishmael Bernal. His nickname during the 70s and 80s in the Philippines was AMBoy, which stands for the initials of his name: Antonio Morales Barreto. He is the father of current hitmaker Shaila Durcal and popular actress Carmen Morales.

I was reading this editorial in the Inquirer. I think language and the ability to speak multiple languages is a joyous thing, because it expands your world and knowledge, and it's like you get to see things that other people can't sometimes because you can delve yourself into different cultures and see things differently than one would expect.

It's like how there's sometimes division in the Philippines. Sometimes, some Filipinos can't understand why Spanish would be important to deep understanding of the entire Filipino culture and all of it's different matrixes, but those Filipinos who do speak Spanish do understand it. Sometimes, people from certain places can't understand why other dialects are just as important as Tagalog, but those who grew up with a different perspective might understand it better.

Some Filipinos continue to view anything in Filipino culture as separate from anything in Spanish or Latin culture, forgetting that many things that are Filipino are in fact mixed with Latin culture in nature. Filipino is the molding of the Malay, Spanish, and Chinese culture, and the Filipino people are the molding of Malay, Spanish, and Chinese ancestry, not "Filipino, Spanish, and Chinese" ancestry. Filipino is the melding of three into one single mestizo: the Filipino culture. If you take away one element out of the three, the Filipino culture would be not complete. Just think about it.

In short, language demolishes bridges and brings people closer together.