Thank you, Tita Prosy, for sharing our stories: “…stories of Filipino Americans — brave and bold individuals, who took the extra mile to integrate and show their love for the arts, against all odds.” (from “Even the Rainbow Has A Body” — Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz).
A true honor to be part of this.
Ted Benito, you are a very special man to have thought of all the various folks to be part of the program. Thank you very very very much for all the advance planning and executing the very first book launch of Even the Rainbow Has A Body. You are indeed our community’s cultural visionary.
Oh my, and the introduction was so special, I did not know that Cora Oriel brought all these good folks together Becca Godinez, Carol Ojeda-Kimbrough, Asuncion A Ferrer, and Cora, you got me down to a T! The story of your paper, Asian Journal is our American immigrant story, mimicking the growth of our Filipino-American community.
I cannot thank you enough, Mon David, and Nicole David Yalong, for coming to give us the appropriate rainbow songs!! Maraming maraming salamat Ann David for your special role in anchoring their lives as well as ours!
Oh, Catherine Oriel, you are teaching us lessons on brevity and impact, using Spanish words, and then, the translation in English was not just poetic, but also bringing the language of poetry sounding like music to our ears! That was so powerful, no wonder you became Archer School for Girls’ Poet Laureate and Newsletter Editor.
Thank you Christina Oriel for the foreword and for inspiring me to be a better writer with your personal examples and for treating me with such kindness and gentleness.
Thank you to Miko Zuñiga for helping with the book signing, and Cynthia Bonta for your unconditional love, friendship, and support – so so wonderful to have you!
Oh my, Hydee Abrahan you traveled in traffic to get to the book launch, thank you for being our official photographer. My dear dear Lem Balagot, Raye, and friends for such a wonderful, artistic spread from LA Rose Cafe. I cannot believe how beautiful the spread was! The special treat — the egg salad caviar which we still feasted on post-book launch.
Most of all, my muse, my apo who came with her superlolo Enrique de la Cruz, my daughter, and my son, thank you very much for making it special with your attendance.
Thank you Fr. Rodel G.Balagtas, Fritz Friedman, Abigail Zelenski, Cecile Ochoa, Lydia V. Solis, Ana Burog Philippine Chamber Singers – Los Angeles (PCS-LA), Harana Men’s Chorus, Don Martin Sagarbarria, Lillian Tamoria, Benel Se-Liban, Alvin H. Reyes, Dino Padallan, Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales Ruben V. Nepales, Christine Oshima, Prime Note Ensemble, Pete Avendano and Venice R. Bernabe-Avendano and family; Dennis and Paola Brown and many many more folks who came.
A big shout out of thank yous to all of you who came, you know who you are, and it meant so much to me to be surrounded by your loving support and genuine friendship! Thank you very much!!- Prosy Delacruz
