The two reasons behind #iylagranola as a business concept suggested by a business major graduate from Fordham University are shown here: my granddaughter and grandson.
I made granola as Christmas gifts to friends and family. I did not see the business potential at all.
My young friend suggested that I make it into a business and sent me a photo of the granola that she buys in New York.
Fast forward, a year later, I have made 41 batches now, over 492 bags sold now, with few hundreds as gifts.
#iylagranola has traveled to Spain, London, New York, New Jersey, Temecula, Oceanside, Florida, Washington, D.C, Chino Hills, Philippines, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Canoga Park, Porter Ranch and more.
I made it into a social enterprise, where 85% of the ingredients get reimbursed and 15% donated to my clients. In turn, they donate to the college funds and some give generously. It has become a ‘Circle of Grace’ network where #graceupongrace show up as continued blessings.
We managed to have an outdoors, family only, gathering, #socialdistancing from each other. Even serving food was by turns, with masks on. We adjusted to the new requirements of keeping healthy and we celebrated Enrique’s 77th birthday, candles forming the figure 77.
My favorite beautiful daughter made her mango royale tart, oh so delicious, while my son-in-law ordered the steaks from a superior quality source, Amboy, then, grilled them. Our simple get together was renewing to our souls and spirits. I prepared pancit and Japanese potato salad. Thank you to my adult children for leading and preparing well.
Back then, we could just eat indoors at any restaurant of our choice to celebrate milestones, preferably Bestia or Bavel.
Today is our pader de familia’s birthday, Enrique de la Cruz, who is 77 years old, looking younger and more energetic than his peers. He lifts weights, bikes, walks up trails and summits mountains, and even backpacks. His biggest achievement was completing 36 days of Camino de Santiago, 480 miles in France and Spain, without injuries, blisters, or illness in 2019.
When he was 75yo, we celebrated it amidst the fireworks on Bastille Day in Paris, France, and the crazy soccer match that got all Parisians honking their horns and filling up bars in Paris where we were.
This 2020 pandemic, he even got better, as his gardening yielded lettuce which became dinners for us for almost a month. He helps with babysitting and this summer, he is the primary summer camp teacher of our #princess2015la, whom he teaches math, science, music, and the arts, while I take care of her biological and nutritional needs.
Oh, he writes OP-eds for Asian Journal which were widely shared and read by his academic peers, our community, and Facebook friends. Yes, he can be and is our inspiration. But, he can also be a prick and can make you his project, lol.
Happy happy birthday to my hubby of 41 solid years, with just 2 months of separation when he became a Fullbright scholar/researcher/professor at Leyte Normal University. We love you forever and appreciate your adventurous spirit.
I just wish he shares my passion as a foodie and now, Koreanovelas with beautiful life lessons, higher values for humanity, and how they show their affection, but also addiction to Soju, fried chicken, beer, and pork belly.
Our apo wants him to see her grow up to be an adult so here’s to more birthdays ahead! -Prosy Delacruz, the better half of your equation!!
Jazz critic Roger Crane writes: “Like Mark Murphy whose singing he at times resembles, [Mon] David can swing you into bad health and then, turn around and break your heart with a ballad.”
“Mon David is no ordinary singer. He is an artist with the command of music theory, as well as an understanding of the larger socio-cultural/historical milieu that shape the songs he sings. And he’s humble and down to earth.” – Nonoy Alsaybar, Ph.D., retired teacher of music and a former violinist for the Manila Symphony Orchestra
These quotes describe the interior alignment of Mon David, synchronized within, to give his best to the decades-long craft of composing, making music, and singing jazz, a fusion of music theory and practice. But not without personal cost to his family time.
“When our four kids were toddlers, Mon was busy earning a living, doing shows with Apo Hiking Society, as their vocal coach, drummer and music arranger. They did shows around the Philippines and travelled around the world for a decade. He wasn’t able to devote as much time to the kids as he does now to our grandchildren. Mon is such a loving, caring and a very patient grandpa. ’Every child should feel the love and warmth of a grandparent,’” Mon’s wife Ann wrote to me.
David’s genius nurtured by parental harmony and by a caring ecosystem
Holy Angel University’s March 2023 Award to Mon David
There is no dissonance in what Mon does, as the Holy Angel University‘s vetting process, which included the university’s trustees, concluded how in early decades, Kapampangan songs were casually sung prior in school programs, in church hymns, liturgies, novena festivals, karaoke parties, and played in radios and streets and in pirated CDs.
Enter Mon David, “The Kapampangan equivalent of Elvis Presley,” who elevated the Kapampangan music to national and international stages of Japan, London and the United States, with high quality and sustained excellence. He was granted the Juan D. Nepomuceno Award for Cultural Award for Kapampangan Arts on March 8, 2023, the day after International Women’s Day, celebrated for and to elevate women’s rights around the world with Andy Alviz receiving the award on Mon’s behalf.
The award was named after Juan D. Nepomuceno, the Old Man Nepomuceno who literally built Pampanga, its electric plant, its subdivisions and even served as one of the presidents of Holy Angel University.
To be recognized in the same light as the award was named for, should guide one’s awareness that Mon David’s excellence is considered a strong pillar of cultural development in Pampanga, but also in the U.S. and around the world.
Today, Holy Angel University serves as a training incubator of academic excellence in Asean-based universities and has used technology and appropriate infrastructural building changes to provide current realities and simulations in different industries like hospitality, animation, digital arts, communications and more to prepare their thousands of students to be highly competitive in the real world.
Every human talent is influenced by both genes and experiences, writes Angela Duckworth, Ph.D., in “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.” much like Mon David. He grew up listening to his parents sing together.
“I did not see them fight,” Mon said. “Iinstead, I heard them sing a lot, I remember as early as five years old.”
Beyond ancestral genes and a caring ecosystem, Grit’s author describes 67 traits of geniuses, but synthesized grit as the combination of persistence of motive: working actively towards a definite goal, without seeking change, nor the tendency to abandon tasks from changeability, instead a degree of will and perseverance to stay the course and the passion to not abandon the task, in the face of obstacles and of course, the power of experiences, where grit is learned from overcoming struggles of climbing the mountain and after ascent of the summit after struggling, a confidence is gained to try something harder, something new.
Who other than his caring and loving spouse, Ann, would witness this evolution of grit through several decades in Pampanga, Manila, London and several countries in the world?
Ann described to me in a message at early dawn: ”Mon recorded ‘Himno Ning Capampangan’ which is considered the Kapampangan national anthem sung in schools and government institutions after the Philippine National Anthem, ‘Lupang Hinirang.’ He also recorded the now iconic ‘Kapampangan Ku!’ with the musical theater group ‘ArtiStaRita’ founded and directed by kabalen and friend Andy Alviz who wrote it and was one of the past recipients of this excellence award. Mon has also recorded several anthems like ‘Himno Ning Sto. Tomas’ (his hometown at Himno Ning Candaba. Three Kapampangan albums were made by Mon. This is while immersing himself in different genres (classics and jazz pop), all while nurturing his love for the Kapampangan language, songs, poetry which explains his latest CD, ‘Tagimpan’, poems that he transformed into songs.”
Mon’s jazz CD, “DNA (David Nelson Agreement),” released August 7, 2020, at the height of the pandemic, was a beautiful collaboration with Josh Nelson. The synchrony within Mon comes alive with Josh Nelson, and together they become a singular unit, not overtaking or swallowing one another, tackling life’s ascents and descents with their craft of creative musical expressions, making Roger Crane’s observations quoted above, so alive and so relevant, as Nonoy Alsaybar’s.
How many of us felt broken down by the pandemic that we seemed frozen, enumerating the deaths around us?
I was one of those, after nearly a 28-year career in the public health arena, where we believed one death was one too many and where urgency was our work response. Yet, I slowed down from submitting 52 articles in the last 12 years to 10 articles in the pandemic years as an Asian Journal columnist.
But, there’s no slowing down with Mon David!
Not this 2006 London International Vocal Jazz Competition winner, vesting this recognition, amongst a hundred singers who competed around the world.
Nor this 2017 Los Angeles City Council’s Recognized LA Living Jazz Giant.
Nor this March 2023’s Holy Angeles University’s Juan D. Nepomuceno Awardee for Excellence in Kapampangan Arts.
Dianne Reeves with Mon David at Jazz Excellence Awards at The Citadel
Seeking motivation to inspire and to keep his creative juices going, he sang Let Go, at JEXA Excellence Awards night on March 5, 2023, a stage he shared with five-time Grammy winners: Dianne Reeves who sang “I am all Smiles” and “Skylark” and received the JEXA Jazz Vocal Artist award, while Dionne Warwick handed 5 Young Artist Awardees: Kahlil Childs – alto sax; Alexander Flores – piano and tenor sax; Daniela Lopez – jazz vocalist; Taichi Okumura – alto sax; Kaman Richardson – percussionist and emerging artist award to Kenneth Brown.
At my dinner table was Daniela Lopez, a jazz vocalist winner, Antonia Bennett, daughter of the legendary Tony Bennett who inspired Mon David in his early musical career years, and my retired violinist friend, Nonoy Alsaybar, who performed as a backup orchestra to this icon singer in the 1970s, as a violinist for the Manila Symphony Orchestra.
When Mon got on stage, with Kevin van den Elzen and a 17-member VDE Big Band, with confidence and vigorous enthusiasm, he sang ‘Let Go’, music and lyrics he composed:
Let go of all your hang-ups
Let go of all your fears
Let go, now’s the time
Let go!
Let go of all ill feelings
Embrace all that is good
Let go, start your life anew
Well it’s about time you
stopped holding back
There’s no need to worry
‘bout what you may lack
Let go of all “I should
have…I could have done that”
It’s never too late my friend
Live your life, move on
Let go!
Uncommonly good man: Loyal to faith and family
In the music world, we hear addictions to drugs, alcohol, and womanizing.
Yet, in the jazz community that Mon lives in, there are no addictions nor sensationalized controversies.
Cathy Segal-Garcia in 2019, said, “Mon David is, as I‘ve always said, royalty. This human being is so huge and generous; he’s overwhelmingly deep and dear to me. And it comes through his music, and that is why people are so moved by him. He’s a consummate musician, dedicated and committed to art, quality and communication. His family and friends are the obvious result of him. He touches my heart, and I will always consider him one of my truest friends.”
The David family embodies love and friends’ support. Roy, a 72-year-old fan, lovingly calls himself Mon’s jazz wife, sometimes with Roy’s wife in attendance, watching Mon’s concerts, while some fans fly in from the Bay Area and sometimes, from Japan to watch him perform.
My classmates — Lolita (San Francisco), Elsa (Oceanside) and Natimarie (Chicago/Temecula) — recently traveled to watch Mon perform alongside his children, Nicole and Carlo.
Mon sang a trio with his children, at Gardenia in Hollywood, where their rendition of Joey Ayala’s “Walang Hanggang Paalam (Never Ending Goodbye)” symbolic of forever love, got us sobbing. They dedicated it to Linda Rozales, 71, our high school classmate at St. Rita College, who recently died.
Jazz critic Roger Crane writes: “Like Mark Murphy, whose singing he at times resembles, David can swing you into bad health and then, turn around and break your heart with a ballad.”
Mon has that “heartbreaking” effect as an authentic performer fused in dedication to his God, his faith, and his beautiful family, sweet and loving wife Ann, with four children (Paolo, Nicole, Carlo and Mika), to include five grandchildren. If you include their spouses and partners, 16 are tightly woven in play, walking trails, playing puzzles, watching concerts together, and celebrating every family member’s milestones, including an upcoming wedding of Mika to Dallas.
I particularly love the twins: Nico and Leo, just 5 ½ years old, both quietly paid attention to their mom, Nicole and their uncle, Carlo sing at “Siblings Revelry.” When I asked Nico how he felt watching them, he said: ”I loved it.”
Especially endearing was catching Jake, Nicole’s husband, with adoration and smiles, watching Nicole sing.
Lolita, the grandmother and matriarch (Ann is Lolita’s daughter), asked to pose with me for a photo. After, she shared that she is filled with joy watching her children and grandchildren perform, supportive of one another. “I admire how they all get along.”
Like a well-tuned orchestra in harmony, all the component chords of the David family are well-adjusted to the frequencies of sounds and they are all on pitch!
Bravo!! 5 out of 5 stars for me. No printed program to hype you up. Just a scan QR code for the digital program to be appreciated at home.
Then, you read the opening message of a very thoughtful creative director Snehal Desai, music and lyrics by an inspiring genius Paulo K Tiról and co-created and directed by Noam Shapiro, you get a feeling they are in synchrony with you, and your heart and your mind.
In reading their words – it is as if you wrote them, the importance of cultural literacy, authenticity of representation on stage, true stories portrayed (not caricatures), the remembering of struggles, the journey, hanging onto hope (kapit lang), even kilig – fluttering of the heart as a language lesson.
All those bring you home into your immigrant heart plus the beauty of a friend’s heart who thought of you as an immigrant, invited you to see this play wherein you remember and felt the loss of a home wherein you once belonged, your birthplace, where you grew up, where you hang out, where you went to church, where you cooked in the kitchen with your dad (here, the mom).
You are grateful to be watching this play tonight and realized that you are choosing your home to be America, though decades of being here as a dual citizen of both the Philippines and the US, you feel the gaps – the childhood you don’t share with friends, however inclusive they maybe, friends who were born here and grew up here learning the school hymns, the playground games, the songs they sang growing up – do you remember that – they asked?
Of course you don’t as you did not live your childhood years here. You feel an outsider over and over again though you keep trying to be relevant, to be in the know, to belong.
So when you see this play, feel the feelings of connecting through “balikbayan goods” your relatives’ needs, that morphed to wants, or the gossips done in churches and you laugh at certain songs being acted and portrayed – your laughter and your tears bring you home to that space in your heart, connected to the Motherland. You no longer feel being on the outside, but on the inside, empathizing with all the characters and their life’s journeys. For 3 hours, I was safely inside my birth home and I felt so connected with the best of humanity inside the theater, regardless of gender and ethnicity.
Actors were amazing and acted so well and seamlessly three or four roles in a two-act-play with intermission. My favorites were Cool Tito, Rice Queens, The Language Lesson, Lantern in the Window, Ay!America and One Way Ticket opening and closing.
Phenomenal cast were Steven -Adam Agdeppa, Zandi de Jesus, Michael C. Palma, Cassie Simone, Andrea Somera, Shaun Tuazon, Understudy Melvin Biteng and Understudy Justine Rafael.
The band was phenomenal with Marc Macalintal, Vincent Reyes, Khris Kempis, Christopher Spilsbury and Rebecca Yeh.
Great work @East West Players for my theater home! Thank you @Ted Benito for my invite.
Batch #37 was made this morning to satisfy 2 customers ordering a total of 30 bags.
100% of the proceeds go to my granddaughter and grandson’s #collegetravelfunds.
@brito_maura came to help me. Just like that, I finished 6 trays for the 2 orders.
I gave 2 bags to @paintandstains for his wife and children to enjoy, and another bag to Maura for her snacks.
Looking forward to Batch #38 with orders from customers for their breakfasts in Spain during their upcoming vacation.
#iylagranola has travelled to the Philippines, Florida, Oceanside, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Temecula, New Mexico, New York, DC and in a few weeks, to Spain.
It has also been given as gifts to 3 priests, 1 Monsignor and 2 nuns ministering to the homeless.
