(Continued from last week, Part II of II)
“Not till many years later would I meet again, one evening in San Francisco, my Stanford professor Wallace Stegner. The Wheatland Foundation had organized that summer a conference on world literature, and over seventy writers had come from all over. At his avuncular best, and with the warmth and sincerity that have sent many of us hurrying back to the workbench, Mr. Stegner asked me about the novel I had been working on while at Stanford Writing Center. That was forty years ago! So he did remember! When asked if he were acquainted with writing from the Philippines, an East German poet replied, curiously enough, that he did not feel compelled anyhow to read literature except for pleasure. “You have to seduce us,” he said, which drew murmurs of delight from the audience. From my seat in the next-to-the-last row, I said: “Ah, but one must see the lady first in order to be seduced.” – NVM Gonzalez, “The Bread of Salt,” 1993.
Part I of this two-part series was dedicated to Cecilia Brainard, Angela Narciso Torres and Irene Suico Soriano, three women authors and why they write. They are part of a Pinay Gathering panel at the Philippine Expressions Bookshop (PEB) in San Pedro, California this Saturday, March 17, 3-6 p.m.
Part II is on Linda Nietes, PEB owner, and Marianne Villanueva, an award-winning author.
A philosopher once said, “A writer and an author must have two best friends, first an editor and second, a bookshop owner.”
I venture to add a third, that a writer and an author must have three best friends: a mentor like NVM Gonzalez, or Marianne Villanueva; an editor like Cecilia Brainard, and a bookshop owner like Linda Nietes. Maybe a fourth, a publisher. And even a fifth, a publicist. Nowadays, a social media coordinator.
In “The Writer’s Wives,” edited by Narita Gonzalez (Anvil, 2000), Narita wrote about their family’s lives when the University of Washington, Seattle published “The Bread of Salt” in 1993.
As NVM travelled to many states, his book tour became happy reunions, and Narita writes, “Linda Nietes of Philippine Expression, a bookstore devoted to Filipiniana in Los Angeles, had been with us most days of the tour, but we missed her in Seattle and of course, Diliman as well, when the time came to launch the UP Press Edition of the book at UP’s Bahay Kalinaw. To me, as a writer’s wife, this was a time that might be called rewarding. Old friends, new friends, faculty members and students – they were all present, demonstrating their affection and loyalty to an aging writer.”
When Narita acknowledged Nietes’ solid friendship and support to NVM, some 25 years ago, must we now follow her lead and celebrate Nietes’ strategic vision, which she articulates, “The Bookshop has provided a home for Philippine writings in America and has pioneered in promoting Philippine books in the U.S. for the last 34 years?”
Nietes described that this once for-profit entity has become a non-profit, “that the bookshop sells culture as well as books. I am happy to have wedded culture and business together!”
Now an octogenarian with a well-coifed silver hairdo, fashionably dressed in her barong, or batik, she recently renewed her marital vows with Robert Little, whom she hails as one of her solid supporters.
When queried about her pioneering vision and why she founded the bookshop, Nietes shared her own transformational growth, from once pushing the sales of stocks and bonds, to now books and specialty bookshop: “investing in the young Filipino Americans and their future. I dedicated it to them, so that they will have a place to search for their roots and heritage. You know that saying…know thyself first.” She finds it satisfying in that, “I am able to fulfill my purpose in life – to educate, to inspire and bring about change, small changes compared to what others may be doing but I am able to create some ripples!”
She harks back to her college years when she went to the University of Santo Tomas, named after St. Tomas Aquinas, who believed that “Man should not consider his material possessions his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.” He based his beliefs on charity, as foundational to man’s love of God.
Similar to what we presently regard as the common good, an invisible social contract, that we are each other’s keeper, we are each other’s sister!
Nietes also calls it a ministry, as it requires fortitude and determination to keep going no matter what, even if the community’s temperature and quality of support, vacillates from weak to now, stronger. Her wish is that our community’s commitment towards literacy and literature is matched by our growing passions for food.
Nietes’ persistence is paying off though, as her bookshop has transitioned from being a mail-order bookshop in Los Angeles in 1984 to a brick and mortar place at the old Jewish quarter in Wilshire Blvd. between Robertson and La Cienega.
But, after the roof was damaged, the bookshop switched back to its mail-order roots. In 1996, the bookshop moved to Rancho Palos Verdes and in 2016, PEB reopened as a brick and mortar facility in San Pedro, California.
In the last 34 years, Nietes shared the bookshop’s significant presence: LA’s Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture for 26 years and the LA Times’ Festival of Books for 17 years, while its collection has travelled to conferences, including those for Filipino American National Historical Society since 1982, and recently in October 2017, the 4th Filipino American International Book Festival at the San Francisco Public Library.
In a press release published in the Asian Journal, “Nietes hopes that by featuring Pinay authors, more and more young people are encouraged to pursue the craft and become the next generation of Filipino wordsmiths. ‘Everyone has a story to tell,’ she said, ‘it’s time for Pinays to come out of the woodwork, so to speak, and write. Write something of value, not just for vanity, but to inspire others and teach us the great lessons of life. Each one of us has a journey worth documenting.’”
I recently attended Writers’ Bloc Presents book talks on Pete Souza and Robert Reich. Souza had a full-house of over a thousand folks, queuing quite early at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, and those who attended had two to three books in their arms; while Robert Reich had a Writers’ Guild theater attendance of over 400 and with folks buying books, not just one, but two or three.
However, we also know as a community that we can rally over 6,000 folks to attend an ASAP event featuring the latest celebrities from the Philippines and even fill up the Hollywood Bowl with 13,000 watching the celebrities from the Philippines and Filipino-American artists, like Apl.de.ap. As a challenge to all of us, should we not cultivate our love for books in the same full measure as our passion for celebrities?
Marianne Villanueva, author of “Mayor of Roses”
It seemed to me that this piece was being written, inspired by my mentor, NVM Gonzalez.
When I started to look for what might connect Nietes to Marianne Villanueva, aside from their friendship, the designation of Villanueva as a former Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing at Stanford stood out. Why? NVM Gonzalez (also Nietes’ friend) was once a student of Wallace Stegner.
It is no surprise that Villanueva’s latest work, “Mayor of Roses,” is included in Good Reads and one reviewer, Valerie Miner, rated her book as five stars, with this feedback: “Marianne Villanueva is a provocative and versatile writer. I fell in love with MAYOR OF ROSES when I first read it. Since then I have taught it in several university classes and the student response has been very enthusiastic. The title piece, in its unblinking painfulness, draws the readers right into the narrative and also leaves us reeling with the truth Villanueva bravely tells about women’s lives. I love the family stories–genuine, deep and moving. This is a haunting, dramatic, tender book which I highly recommend.”
Villanueva asserts that she develops herself by writing, “I teach myself. I teach myself by writing. I teach myself what I know. I am actually, in real life, a very disorganized person. I’m always getting lost, or forgetting to do something or get something. In my writing, I know immediately what my goals are: to explore. And I’m confident (when I’m writing). I understand the world better when I’m writing. For that reason, I try to always be writing. Because it’s for my sanity, you know? I’ve written three collections of short stories, and a novella. My most personal book is ‘MAYOR OF THE ROSES,’ which Miami University Press published, their first time publishing fiction.”
From a place of pain, following the death of her older sister, Paz — who passed away at 34 years old with her youngest child just six months old — Villanueva emerged “self-sufficient, by writing these stories and writing helped kept myself together,” as she revealed what she went through.
“I had a byline, at six”
For her sixth birthday, her mom got her an Olivetti typewriter. She started “banging stories on that thing,” writing one paragraph stories (flash writing).
Nena del Rosario, her mother, knew someone who worked for a Filipino newspaper and submitted her work. All her stories got published, “I had a byline, at six.”
“In Ateneo, I wrote plays and they were staged in the Ateneo cafeteria. One of my plays was produced in Dulaang Sibol,“ she shared.
After graduating from Ateneo, she applied for her master’s degree in Chinese studies in Stanford. While there, she enrolled in a creative writing workshop taught by John L’ Heureux (director of the creative writing program) who encouraged her to apply for the program. She got accepted.
Villanueva’s story, “Silence,” according to her Good Reads bio, “was first published in the Three Penny Review, was shortlisted for the 2000 O. Henry Literature Prize, and ‘The Hand’ was awarded first prize in [the] Juked 2007 fiction contest. She has edited an anthology of Filipina women’s writings, ‘Going Home to a Landscape,’ which was selected as a Notable Book by the prestigious Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize.”
The Manila native now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she teaches writing and literature at Foothill College and Notre Dame de Namur University.
Perhaps, instead of waiting to be seduced as this German poet revealed in the above quotes, could it be that NVM Gonzalez is challenging us to develop a habit of the mind, of looking for the lady muse? Might he be talking about a metaphor and for us to recognize that the lady muse has always been waiting for us, if we can simply turn the pages and be captivated by its beauty?
But, first, let the reading of books begin. Happy Women’s History Month!
* * *
Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for AJ Press for 10 years. She also contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico and over 22 national parks in the US, in her pursuit of love for nature and the arts.