Description
Followers of the Seasons is a collection of the life's work of renown Pilipino American writer Oscar Peñaranda. It is divided into five suites that cover topics of history, struggle, family, friendship and concerns for humanity. The work takes us from locations in various aspects of the writers life: the Philippines, student cultural and political activism at SF State campuses, work as an Alaskero in the canneries, to San Francisco's Manilatown.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Tony Robles
Introduction by Aileen Cassinetto
Acknowledgements
Key: SF (Short or Sudden Fiction), SS (Short Story), E (Essay), M (Memoir), P (Poem)
SUITE #1: The Bridge
The Bridge (M)
Bayani’s Tune (P)
Lover’s Leap by Presco Tabios (P)
Passengers of The Wind (E)
The U.S.-Philippines War (E)
The Prisoner of Balangiga (SS)
An Tuba ha Balangiga (SS)
A Reunion of Strangers (E)
Lumpia, Super Bowl, and the U.S.-Philippines War (M)
Left-handed Lover (P)
Golden Boy (M)
Manila Goodbye (SF)
SUITE #2: The Voyage
The Awakening (M)
On Liwanag (the fire last time, and the emerging Filipino American sensibility in literature) (E)
Serf (M)
The Funeral (P)
To Manny, at His Wake (P)
The Courting (SS)
The Catch (M)
The Toilet Bowl (For Steve Arevalo) (P)
Kai at Two
The Gift of Davian
Babaylan In Playland By the Sea (SS)
Sapagkat Ako’y Makata
The Forgotten Present
Day of the Butterfly (SS)
SUITE #3: The City
Prelude To A Gig (SS)
Drought (P)
The Fairmont Suite (Balato) (SS)
Birdman of the I-Hotel (P)
Ode To A Fire Hydrant (P)
The Asshole of Chinatown (SS)
Ang Lakad ni Rosa Rosal (P)
Dance is in the DNA of the Universe (and the Filipino)
Dance and the Warrior (E)
The Dance at Work
The Dance at Play
Carding the Storyteller (in search of a listener) (SS)
SUITE #4: The Salmon
Highway 99 Across Delano, California (P)
Eyes of a Century (P)
Alaska (M)
Migrants Roll Call (P)
Pieces of the (Midnight) Sun (M)
A Mechanic For the Second Season (SS)
Lust Among the Ruins (M)
The Visit: At Tess’ Place (Skit)
The Summer of ‘72 (SS)
Va. Beach (P)
Thursday (M)
SUITE #5: The Cure
Saved by the Book (E)
Ibong Adarna (SS)
Marcos Balikbayan Proclamation (M)
Ancestors (M)
The People
Francisca (Tita Baby)
The Generations
Ancestors
The Believers (SS)
The Lousiest Salesperson in the World (M)
Kearny Street (M)
A Valediction (P)
The Hijacking of America
Prayer (P)
Acquaintances with the Night (SF)
Estrellita (SS)
Estrellita 2 (SS)
Estrellita 3 (SS)
Estrellita 4 (SS)
Sinigang Queen (P)
Queen of the Night (SS)
The Diamond Hotel (SS)
Happy Ending (SS)
Hubert the Hummingbird (P)
The Distant Relative (novel excerpt)
EPILOGUE
Praise for Followers of the Seasons
Immigrated to the US in 1961, Oscar Peñaranda’s writings continue the body of work of Filipino Americans such as Carlos Bulosan, Bienvenido N. Santos, N.V.M. Gonzalez, and Linda Ty-Casper. With a heart of poet, Peñaranda draws from his Philippine roots, as well as from the American places he has lived in – Vancouver and San Francisco among them. A masterful writer, his range of writing is wide: he can be evocative, gentle, romantic, or edgy, as he deems fit. He has what the noted literary critic Dr. Lynn M. Grow calls “breadth of vision”.
—Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Novelist (When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, The Newspaper Widow)
Oscar Peñaranda claims everything is inspired by a true story. In Followers of the Seasons, he gathers seemingly disparate events and images from his life, ancestral memory, and universal experience, sprinkled among multiple genres, slowly order and assemble themselves in the reader’s consciousness, ultimately yielding larger truths. A bridge, a toilet, a flag, a burning pot of lumpia - familiar objects, when handled by Peñaranda’s deft storytelling, conjure feelings of loss, heartbreak, the search for our roots, our selves, and for home.
—Tina Bobadilla- Mastel, Master Teacher, mentor, educator all her adult life to several generations of students and citizens, James Logan High School, Union City.
"There are extremely few people in the world who think and move with equal levels of sensibilty, grace, intellectual agility, and accuracy in two distinct and often conflicting cultures. Oscar Peñaranda is such a person - truly and deeply bicultural - all and at once Filipino and American. His writings present the truest of truths, envisioned through a lens molded from an amalgam of knowledge of literature in English, Filipino, Cebuano, and Waray and polished with the fine-grains of decades of personal adventures and experience as an educator and mentor. Read on - you'll see and enjoy!
—Daniel P. Gonzales, Professor of Asian American Studies Emeritus, SF State.
“Have Pen will Travel. Professor Oscar Peñaranda started our Manila online classes during the pandemic, guiding us from essays to memoir’s, and now into short story writing…patient and encouraging, whose demeanor belies a sharp, analytical mind, enriching and thought-provoking, gently pushing us to evolve into our best selves as writers. Adventurer, world traveler, charismatic, influential leader of the Filipino American… community in San Francisco.…most importantly has become for us a true friend. I learned a new meaning to my life which I did not imagine existed and realized that my life was not boring at all but a wild adventure.
—Sunshine Center writers Vicky Lopez, Susie Lim, and Neny Regino.
Oscar continues to inspire us and many of his students to continue writing and documenting our stories, Oscar writes enticingly with compassion for people. He is funny, stunning, and always heartfelt. He is a beautiful writer, and a great inspiration to the Filipino American Community.
—Evangeline Canonizado Buell, author of Twenty Five Chickens and a Pig For a Bride, Beyond Lumpia, Pancit, and Seven Manangs Wild. FANHS National President Emerita.
Reading the work of Oscar Penaranda is like getting into a car with Al Robles, Lou Syquia, and Norman Jayo. There's a plane to catch, and you’re not sure who’s driving. Someone has a map, but you end up in the mountains, and Al asks if it’s time to stop for donuts. By the time you get to the desert, decades have passed, Norman’s beautiful voice is resonating a song “Prophets Will Save the World,” and Lou has learned how to drive.
–Shirley Ancheta, poet and writer.
ISBN: 9781961562059 (Paperback)
ISBN: 9781961562066 (Ebook)
Table of Contents
Foreword by Tony Robles
Introduction by Aileen Cassinetto
Acknowledgements
Key: SF (Short or Sudden Fiction), SS (Short Story), E (Essay), M (Memoir), P (Poem)
SUITE #1: The Bridge
The Bridge (M)
Bayani’s Tune (P)
Lover’s Leap by Presco Tabios (P)
Passengers of The Wind (E)
The U.S.-Philippines War (E)
The Prisoner of Balangiga (SS)
An Tuba ha Balangiga (SS)
A Reunion of Strangers (E)
Lumpia, Super Bowl, and the U.S.-Philippines War (M)
Left-handed Lover (P)
Golden Boy (M)
Manila Goodbye (SF)
SUITE #2: The Voyage
The Awakening (M)
On Liwanag (the fire last time, and the emerging Filipino American sensibility in literature) (E)
Serf (M)
The Funeral (P)
To Manny, at His Wake (P)
The Courting (SS)
The Catch (M)
The Toilet Bowl (For Steve Arevalo) (P)
Kai at Two
The Gift of Davian
Babaylan In Playland By the Sea (SS)
Sapagkat Ako’y Makata
The Forgotten Present
Day of the Butterfly (SS)
SUITE #3: The City
Prelude To A Gig (SS)
Drought (P)
The Fairmont Suite (Balato) (SS)
Birdman of the I-Hotel (P)
Ode To A Fire Hydrant (P)
The Asshole of Chinatown (SS)
Ang Lakad ni Rosa Rosal (P)
Dance is in the DNA of the Universe (and the Filipino)
Dance and the Warrior (E)
The Dance at Work
The Dance at Play
Carding the Storyteller (in search of a listener) (SS)
SUITE #4: The Salmon
Highway 99 Across Delano, California (P)
Eyes of a Century (P)
Alaska (M)
Migrants Roll Call (P)
Pieces of the (Midnight) Sun (M)
A Mechanic For the Second Season (SS)
Lust Among the Ruins (M)
The Visit: At Tess’ Place (Skit)
The Summer of ‘72 (SS)
Va. Beach (P)
Thursday (M)
SUITE #5: The Cure
Saved by the Book (E)
Ibong Adarna (SS)
Marcos Balikbayan Proclamation (M)
Ancestors (M)
The People
Francisca (Tita Baby)
The Generations
Ancestors
The Believers (SS)
The Lousiest Salesperson in the World (M)
Kearny Street (M)
A Valediction (P)
The Hijacking of America
Prayer (P)
Acquaintances with the Night (SF)
Estrellita (SS)
Estrellita 2 (SS)
Estrellita 3 (SS)
Estrellita 4 (SS)
Sinigang Queen (P)
Queen of the Night (SS)
The Diamond Hotel (SS)
Happy Ending (SS)
Hubert the Hummingbird (P)
The Distant Relative (novel excerpt)
EPILOGUE
Praise for Followers of the Seasons
Immigrated to the US in 1961, Oscar Peñaranda’s writings continue the body of work of Filipino Americans such as Carlos Bulosan, Bienvenido N. Santos, N.V.M. Gonzalez, and Linda Ty-Casper. With a heart of poet, Peñaranda draws from his Philippine roots, as well as from the American places he has lived in – Vancouver and San Francisco among them. A masterful writer, his range of writing is wide: he can be evocative, gentle, romantic, or edgy, as he deems fit. He has what the noted literary critic Dr. Lynn M. Grow calls “breadth of vision”.
—Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Novelist (When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, The Newspaper Widow)
Oscar Peñaranda claims everything is inspired by a true story. In Followers of the Seasons, he gathers seemingly disparate events and images from his life, ancestral memory, and universal experience, sprinkled among multiple genres, slowly order and assemble themselves in the reader’s consciousness, ultimately yielding larger truths. A bridge, a toilet, a flag, a burning pot of lumpia - familiar objects, when handled by Peñaranda’s deft storytelling, conjure feelings of loss, heartbreak, the search for our roots, our selves, and for home.
—Tina Bobadilla- Mastel, Master Teacher, mentor, educator all her adult life to several generations of students and citizens, James Logan High School, Union City.
"There are extremely few people in the world who think and move with equal levels of sensibilty, grace, intellectual agility, and accuracy in two distinct and often conflicting cultures. Oscar Peñaranda is such a person - truly and deeply bicultural - all and at once Filipino and American. His writings present the truest of truths, envisioned through a lens molded from an amalgam of knowledge of literature in English, Filipino, Cebuano, and Waray and polished with the fine-grains of decades of personal adventures and experience as an educator and mentor. Read on - you'll see and enjoy!
—Daniel P. Gonzales, Professor of Asian American Studies Emeritus, SF State.
“Have Pen will Travel. Professor Oscar Peñaranda started our Manila online classes during the pandemic, guiding us from essays to memoir’s, and now into short story writing…patient and encouraging, whose demeanor belies a sharp, analytical mind, enriching and thought-provoking, gently pushing us to evolve into our best selves as writers. Adventurer, world traveler, charismatic, influential leader of the Filipino American… community in San Francisco.…most importantly has become for us a true friend. I learned a new meaning to my life which I did not imagine existed and realized that my life was not boring at all but a wild adventure.
—Sunshine Center writers Vicky Lopez, Susie Lim, and Neny Regino.
Oscar continues to inspire us and many of his students to continue writing and documenting our stories, Oscar writes enticingly with compassion for people. He is funny, stunning, and always heartfelt. He is a beautiful writer, and a great inspiration to the Filipino American Community.
—Evangeline Canonizado Buell, author of Twenty Five Chickens and a Pig For a Bride, Beyond Lumpia, Pancit, and Seven Manangs Wild. FANHS National President Emerita.
Reading the work of Oscar Penaranda is like getting into a car with Al Robles, Lou Syquia, and Norman Jayo. There's a plane to catch, and you’re not sure who’s driving. Someone has a map, but you end up in the mountains, and Al asks if it’s time to stop for donuts. By the time you get to the desert, decades have passed, Norman’s beautiful voice is resonating a song “Prophets Will Save the World,” and Lou has learned how to drive.
–Shirley Ancheta, poet and writer.
ISBN: 9781961562059 (Paperback)
ISBN: 9781961562066 (Ebook)