By CARMENCITA “CHINGGAY” JASARENO-BERNARDO
In the recent tour of soprano duo The Nightingales, under the Mabuhay Philippines program of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), several high-spirited Pinoys in Europe took the lead in organizing the performances and workshops mounted for the Filipino migrants and overseas workers.
The Mabuhay Philippines tour covered four countries in Europe, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Italy. For each community the Mabuhay Philippines program visited, a group of Filipinos took on the challenging tasks of coordinating the venues, technical facilities, lodging, meals, transportation, and audience mobilization for the eight-member touring party of Alfred Samonte, Bianca Camille Lopez, Keiko Cayanga, Ian Aguila, Cecile Mambuay, Lolito Pontillas, Marichelle Bernardo, and this author.
To host a visiting Philippine performing or cultural troupe entails a lot of tedious work, communications, and networking. These tasks require a huge amount of patience, energy, enthusiasm, and perseverance. Thankfully, the hosts in all the sites took time and effort to prepare everything we needed for the tour.
In Gouda South Holland, the Filipino Catholic Community (FCC), led by board member Amor Van Os, has been actively involved in various activities that keep the Filipinos interacting, engaging, and socializing while extending different services to the community, especially through the celebration of Holy Mass on Sundays and other important occasions.
The Pinoys in Gouda make it a point to keep the Philippine traditions they grew up with alive, the most valuable of which is celebrating life together as a happy and content family. Lovella, who hails from Mindanao and is married to Lenard van der Weiden, welcomed the CCP contingent, Lolito Pontillas of Agusan del Sur and myself, to their home, even spending time with the group and holding meetings with other Pinoys. Lea Saga-Van Rhijin from Bulacan, a licensed medical technician who works in a hospital, and her husband Alex, a captain of a luxury liner, with their two boys, let artist Marichelle Bernardo of Bulacan and theater-dance facilitator Cecile Mambuay of Cagayan de Oro/Marawi stay with the family. The bubbliest woman in the group was Elpie Gutierez from Tacloban City, who also works in a hospital and accepts sewing services at home on her off-duty days. Married to Han Clercq, she hosted Alfred Samonte, artistic director of The Nightingales, and prepared a sumptuous meal for the whole team on their last day in Gouda. Mary Jane Osigan Streefland, another FCC officer, hosted the sopranos Bianca Camille Lopez-Aguila and Keiko Cressida Cayanga, as well as production manager Ian Aguila.
During the few days, the MP Team stayed with these families, they saw the best of Filipino hospitality, something that the group was always thankful for.
From Rotterdam, we took a trip to Bonn in Germany via the Flix Bus. Amid the chilly weather, the team felt the warm welcome from their host, Pinay vlogger and digital content creator Stephanie Mae Dorp, who waited for the arrival of the team at the bus terminal and helped the team settled in at their lodgings.
The following day, the group headed to Cologne for the concert at the Missione Cattolica Italiana, Ursula Church, through the arrangements made by the Filipino Catholic Community of Cologne. The Nightingales performed classic and contemporary songs to the community of Filipino migrants and their families. The most applauded number was the medley of Filipino folk songs, which brought back memories of hometowns across the Philippines among the audiences.
On Oct. 25, the team stayed with couple Stephanie and Papi with their children Nathan, Tipoy, and Arya at Robert-Havemam Strasse. After a delightful spread of European delights and Filipino favorites, the group held two workshops in the living room with a small group of Pinoys. The children eagerly participated in puni leaf art workshop led by Bernardo, and the Mindanao dance workshop conducted by Pontillas.
To cap the day’s event, The Nightingales performed a short program, set up in the small hallway. It was streamed live by Steph on her Team Blended FB page and reached 23,000 views, 1,000 likes, 300 comments, and 57 shares (as of Oct. 28). As of writing this article, the Youtube viewership of the said concert, which was uploaded to the Team Blended channel, has already reached 62,000 views, 219 comments, and 3,500 likes.
The CCP aims to reach the Filipinos around the world. Through the live stream on Steph’s channel, the Mabuhay Philippines activity was accessed by her 301,000 subscribers on YouTube and 197,000 followers/friends on Facebook. The team’s visit to Bonn was made even more memorable with the thoughtfulness of Ernesto Labra Jr. from Cebu City, and Mandy and Dhong Mabandos from Mati, Davao Oriental.
From Germany, the MP team traveled for 18 hours via Flix Bus and moved to Spain. After arriving in Barcelona, the team headed to the Parroquia Inmaculada Concepcion y San Lorenzo Ruiz Church for their third engagement.
After some hesitation because he has only been the parish priest for over a year, Fr. Lino Castro, who hails from Alfonso, Cavite, hosted the Mabuhay Philippines program in Barcelona. The team was well-received by a huge Filipino community who gave their genuine Filipino hospitality, preparing the daily meals, attending to lodging needs, arranging sightseeing tours to the majestic Sagrada Familia and Our Lady of Montserrat, among other tourist destinations.
The concert and workshops on puni leaf art, Mindanao dance, and music were well-attended by the kababayans, who themselves were seemingly gifted with varied artistic talents. Mina Perez was superbly kind as she assisted our group in all our engagements in Barcelona.
Italy was the group’s last stop. While there were no performances or workshops, the team linked up with fellow Filipinos in Florence, who could be potential partners in the next edition of the Mabuhay Philippines program.
The team observed that Filipinos and Italians have many good things in common, kindness among them. In Florence, they were given a complimentary stay at a beautiful European villa owned by Filippo Detaglia, a friend of Corazon Sugui from Gapan, Nueva Ecija, who has been working in Italy for over two decades.
Ferdinand Bong Beltran from Lemery, Batangas, who has been working in Italy for over seven years, assisted the team with their transportation needs. Weeks later, after the team went back to Manila, sad news of Filippo’s passing reached them. During their stay in Florence, this author got a chance to speak to him over the phone to personally thank him for his generosity and, in that brief moment, the author felt Filippo’s warm and gentle persona.
Hats off to all the Pinoy hosts and organizers in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Italy, who have shown their admirable Filipino traits—resilience, hard work, adaptability, bigheartedness, creativity, patience, and generosity.
Indeed, in every corner of the world, most kababayans are not just making valuable contributions to the global community, but are also avid supporters of Philippine arts and culture. This is a reason to be joyful and anticipate more cultural experiences and exchanges under the Mabuhay Philippines program of the CCP Cultural Exchange.
Thank you, bedankt, danke, gracias, grazie, maraming salamat!