One-Armed Filipino Pianist plays in Sacramento

The audience watched with bated breath as pianist Mary Grace Gellekanao walked with measured steps towards the piano. She began playing “Let there be Praise,” her right stump playing the melody and her left fingers expertly playing the accompaniment and making the necessary improvisations. It was a spellbounding performance, something you...

Filipinos look after Alzheimer's Patients

One in eight Americans is over 65. Many of them suffer from Alzheimer's, a degenerative and incurable brain disease characterized by short-term memory loss, spatial disorientation, trouble with words and arithmetic, and some impairment of judgment.The aging of the US population is expected to intensify the demand for caregivers who have to...

Filipino Doctors as Nurses in America

The Philippines has given the world its best medical professionals for decades but as the "brain hemorrhage" continues, public health officials warn of its dire consequences. Around 1,000 hospitals have reportedly closed in the past five years because of a shortage of doctors. Likewise, a number of medical schools have ceased operating because of declining enrollment.Patriotic Filipinos bemoan the...

‘Makati is flanked by cookie-cutter buildings, says Architect Lira Luis

Architect Lira Luis is a towering landmark on the Filipino-American landscape. Her work has been featured in leading American publications and exhibited in state museums. She is in the registry of “Who’s Who Among Executive and Professional Women in America (Honors Edition)” by Cambridge Who’s Who Registry of New York, 2007.The only Filipino to have graduated from Taliesin West – Frank Lloyd Wright’s...