Filipino Web Magazine : June 2024

Wednesday 12 June 2024

Thanks to Ambassador Gatan, He Gave Us 'Little Manila'

Volume 5, Issue No. 39

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .

Our latest as of Wednesday, June 12, 2024

~ The news from Manila was quite startling - that Leslie B. Gatan, the former Philippine Ambassador to Canada, had passed away on Sunday June 9, a friend sadly informed me today. If there's anything to remember him by, it was his effort to elevate the Filipino community in Canada. Nearly a decade ago, Ambassador Gatan christened the general vicinity of Bathurst-Wilson in North York district as Little Manila. The area is now a popular site for community events as well as a tourist destination. His foresight is starting to pay off. Little Manila is his legacy.

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AMBASSADOR LESLIE B. GATAN

The Envoy Who Made 'Little Manila' a Reality

He Left a Legacy of Uplifting the Filipino Community

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy." - N. D. Kalu

TORONTO - Notwithstanding the unresolved issues between two claimants to the right to hold a street festival in what's now denominated as Little Manila, the birth of that events and commercial hub could be attributed to one man alone - Leslie B. Gatan, the former Philippine ambassador to Canada.

The envoy was the main guest at the first Taste of Manila in August 2014 in the city's North York district.

He had sensed the historic significance of the moment he spoke on stage as thousands of Filipinos congregated at the junction of Bathurst St. and Wilson Ave. for the festival.

Exultant and overwhelmed by the size of the crowd, he took the microphone and proclaimed: "If there is Chinatown and Little Italy, there is also Little Manila. Today we are christening this area, Bathurst, a congestion of Filipino establishments, as Little Manila".

He then sprinkled bottled water to the gathering while revelers clapped, danced, sang and rejoiced - a turning point in Filipino community organizing by inexperienced and questionable individuals behind that event. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZa99xeGW0).

Ambassador Gatan passed away on Sunday, June 9, 2024 in Manila, according to multiple social media posts.

While he had accomplished many things on the diplomatic front, it was his community involvement, specifically in the Greater Toronto Area, that has left an indelible imprint.

Ambassador Gatan's declaration of Little Manila may not be binding to municipal and provincial governments but he had already had planted the seed for long-sought recognition of the Filipino community.

Little Manila continues to attract mainstream attention because of the area's potential as a tourist destination, or as the core for Filipino residents and business enterprises, or simply as a particular place name for a growing Filipino population in Canada's largest city.

As a matter of fact, Little Manila has spawned the half-naming of the Bathurst-Wilson Parkette at the southeast part of the intersection as Mabuhay Garden.

Videos at:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc6xyf46sek

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54qLDq3Kko

Like most centers of population, Litttle Manila has its share of rouges and scammers. (Related story at: 'Little Manila' Is Where Rogues, Rumours, Fake News Abound).

Rightly or wrongly, however, Ambassador Gatan had shown an effort to elevate the Filipino community beyond the confines of the diplomatic world and onto where it mattered most - the people and the neighborhoods that make up a whole village.

Little Manila may just be a townlet, essentially a whistle-stop, but it is home to a Filipino population trying to make a big difference in Canada.

Wednesday 5 June 2024

Life's Transitions for a Canadian Experience

Volume 5, Issue No. 38

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

Our latest as of Wednesday, June 5, 2024

~ All newcomers to Canada have most likely encountered the phrase "Canadian experience" in their search for jobs that match their education and experience in their countries of origin. It's actually a reference to things like language proficiency (in English or French), work culture, among others. Because employers demand "Canadian experience" as a prerequisite to being hired, I opted to create my own pleasant, unforgettable experience.

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THE CULTURE, THE PEOPLE, THE WEATHER . . .

Make For a Pleasant Canadian Experience

Reminiscing the Day Nearly 15 Years Ago

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely. - William Osler

TORONTO - Everybody - jobseekers, workers, employers, managers, business owners, anyone who dreams and dreams big - talks about "Canadian experience" as if it's the bible from where bursts bits of wisdom to guide the quest for a new life in Canada.

Well, I've had my peculiar Canadian experience that has broadened my understanding of parts of this "kanata," the name First Nations people refer to their expansive village, and later Anglicized by white settlers as Canada.

February was perhaps the most inopportune time to come to Toronto from the all-year summer paradise called San Diego, California. It was the height of winter here, yet those in the know said that month and the next were milder than previous winters.

I wasn't going to argue that, the fresh-off-the-boat that I was then. I was freezing. My speech was a stutter of keywords. My ears were numbly crisp. My gloved hands were forever buried in the outsized pockets of my jacket. Despite all those, I let the soft and tiny snowflakes to fall and cover my face.

Quite a dramatic change. A life-altering transition it was.

Over there in the Philippines where I was born, and in America where I lived for 16 years after working nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent for a global news agency, it's the rain, raindrops, grains of water, that dripped on my face. And when Mother Nature deigned to be generous, she lets out a splash, then an inundation.

The images of people shoveling snow, of motorists struggling to drive through mountains of slippery white, of people garbed and covered with layers upon layers of clothing, of parched trees wrapped in white powder - I've seen them all from a distance as wide as the oceans.

In my eyes, they're simply images, not reality that one can touch and feel. My arrival in Toronto on that cold February night altered all that.

In one sudden moment, the phrase "Canadian experience" took a whole new meaning. It meant not a quick immersion in everything Canadian and try to live it; it meant being totally in a new environment.

The culture, the people, the weather - they're all different from what I knew and learned, first in the Philippines, and second, in the United States.

My first Canadian experience days after emerging from a United Airlines plane from the US was in Niagara, a two-hour drive from my residence. It was just a week into my arrival and I still had to shake off the effects of a jet lag and acclimatize in this new environment.

Postcard-pretty Niagara Falls has long been archived in my memory, my scant knowledge of it gained from readings and from films. And here I was, transposed in time and space, savoring its beauty in the harshness of winter.

My only idea of water being frozen was from refrigerators and freezers. Niagara changed that too. The entire length of the river where the water flowed was all ice, fragile ice, white non-transparent ice.

The trees that once had verdant plumage now looked like skeletons of white, so eerily beautiful, so fascinatingly charming.

Suddenly again, images of faux white Christmas trees from the neighborhood of my youth evaporated. I smiled knowing now.

At that time, artisans gathered twigs, fastened them to what stood as a spine nailed to a square base to resemble a tree, and painted them white to simulate snow. I never really imagined how trees could turn white. But now I know. (Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved).