In a coastal town in Mexico, there is a 200-year-old clan with the surname “Maganda.”
In 1763 Filipinos, known as “Manila Men,” jumped ship and started the dried shrimp industry in Louisiana. They were among our first TNTs.
The Manila Mango exported by Mexico comes from our indigenous Carabao Mango.
The word “tiangge” comes from the Aztec word “tangguis.”
Fray Andres de Urdaneta, internationally hailed as a great navigator, learned from Filipinos how to navigate using the habagat.
The official name of Texas in the 18th century was Nuevas Filipinas.
Almost 200,000 Mexicans today are descendants of Filipinos who were part of the crew of the galleons.
These are just a few of the trivia (significant trivia, if you will forgive the oxymoron) that we can learn in connection with the two-month long Día del Galeón Festival commemorating the Galleon Trade.
The highlight of the celebration is the docking from Oct. 5 to 9 at Manila Harbor of the Andalucia, a replica of a 17th century galleon. The first day of the visit will form part of the celebration of National Teachers Day. The ship, which is really a museum, will be open to the public.
Press releases from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the various government and non-government organizations involved in the celebration tell us what else we can look forward to these next two months.
ARTES TALLERES: THE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP (Sept. 20 to Oct. 8 at the National Museum, National Historical Commission, and DOT WOW Clamshell Intramuros): an interdisciplinary festival of workshops, demonstrations, exhibits, and performances with participants from the Philippines and all the continents with the Galleon Trade experience.
PACLAS LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES CONFERENCE (Oct. 5 at De la Salle University; Oct. 6 at UST): a forum organized by the Philippine Academic Consortium of Latin American Studies on the theme “The Bicentennial of the Independence of Latin American Nations.”
ESPECTÁCULOS (Oct. 6 to 8): a harvest of performances and media arts modules reflecting on the history and impact of the Galleon Trade. A production of Juana La Loca, by Mexican playwright Miguel Sabido, will fuse Spanish and Filipino languages in an intercultural dialogue involving a multinational cast.
REUNIÓN (Oct. 8): an intercultural dialogue and culminating activity that will include presentations, creative industry exhibits, and declarations for unified action on the themes of the Galleon Trade. Major resolutions and artistic results will be highlighted by special messages from the heads of state of Mexico, the Philippines, and Spain. The book Encuentro, edited by Fr. Pedro Galende and published by Vibal, will be launched.
VIAJE DEL GALEÓN (Oct. 8 to 11): an educational trip from Manila to Cebu with on-board activities and tours around Cebu for festival participants.
The Día del Galeón Festival mirrors the three concerns of the United Nations for the year 2010: the protection of biodiversity as impacted by climate change, the advancement of seafaring concerns, and cultural rapprochement.
The organizing committee of the Festival is chaired by NCCA Chair Vilma Labrador, with Senator Edgardo J. Angara as honorary chair, DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo as advisory board chair, and Cecile Guidote-Alvarez as the festival director general.
TEACHING TIP OF THE WEEK: From the University of Oxford (ahem, I’m from Oxford’s St Antony’s College) comes this week’s tip for college teachers.
Adrian Taylor of Oxford’s Department of Materials suggests in a PowerPoint presentation on “Delivering a Course of Lectures: Practical Tips” that teachers should “chat to a couple of students after the lecture & perhaps look at their notes.”
It is very important for a teacher to know how students react to a lecture. It takes two to communicate. You cannot say, as a teacher, that you are effective if your students do not understand what exactly you are trying to say or do.
Asking the students to fill in a quantitative form at the end of a term (usually referred to as “student evaluation”) is not enough. You need to go into greater detail. You need to know if today’s lecture achieved whatever it was you wanted to achieve. Filipino students would probably say you did well if you asked them if they understood you (why risk getting the teacher’s ire, after all?), but if you look at their notebooks, you will find out if they got your main points or if they were merely writing love notes to each other.
By the way, notice that in British English, there is no period after “St” in “St Antony’s.” Notice also that the Oxford professor uses after the verb “chat” the preposition “to,” not “with.” Far be it from me to criticize a native speaker of English that teaches in one of the world’s top universities.
LANGUAGE MATTERS: More-grammatical-than-thou Filipinos should know that “major major” is a perfectly legitimate English phrase used in Mike Francesca’s American radio program. It is also the name of 15 music bands in Australia and elsewhere. It is also used in American business circles to stress how important certain events are. Check out these websites: contrarianprofits.com/articles/peter-schiff-there-is-a-major-major-crisis-coming/7962; webwombat.com. au/entertainment/music/major-major-int.htm; and metsfever.blogspot.com/2009/12/major-major-mets-update.html.