The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Honestly, it was my first time to her about Philippine Expressions Bookshop in the US when I requested fellow Lopenze—a native of Lopez, Quezon—Rod Cantiveros who is based in Canada to connect me to Linda Nietes-Little who he said is a friend and a fellow Thomasian (graduate of the University of Santo Tomas). While Rod got his Bachelor of Literature in Journalism (LItt.B.) diplome from the now defunct Philosophy and Letters (Philets, the precursor of the current Faculty of Arts and Letters–Artlets), Linda was a Bachelor of Commerce (BSC) grad from the College of Commerce.
But Linda has a sister, Leticia Nietes-Buhay, my professor in Speech in Drama in Artlets circa early 70s. That is our affinity.
I wrote Ms. Nietes-Little a proposal letter if I could launch my new book “SekSinema (Gender Images in Philippine Sex Cinema Enfolding Pandemia).”
Initially, she was apprehensive about a launch of a book written by an unknown author—which without being sarcastic and condescending was directed at me—because no one, in her experience, she said, would attend from the community, however Filipino or Fil-Am community or only a handful would be around.
In less than a couple of weeks, she even suggested that I reset the date as my original schedule was too soon and normally, book launches in her bookstore take at least three or more months of preparations.
A week prior to the date, she had foreseen bad weather on the day of my book launch which also made me nervous.
We never said die.
Initially, I didn’t leave any stone unturned so I enumerated plans and strategies to make the program a success for her precious affirmation.
I said I would invite Filipino movie stars—active or inactive—in the US; write massive publicities on the project; mobilize my cousins and town mates from Lopez etc. to grace the occasion.
I gained her trust when she mentioned a reassurance that celebs would turn up.
On the day of the launch, it was stormy but I was confident it would turn out well and it did.
Although I already researched on the venue many weeks before the final countdown, I finally came face to face with Linda and her advocacy—that Philippine Expressions Bookshop located at 479 W. 6th Street, San Pedro, California 90731, is the show window and rare avenue of Filipino arts and culture in the US.
It is.
Even if Nietes-Little has to grapple with the challenges of curating and presenting artifacts on Philippine heritage, she is already a winner in championing the cause of preserving and promoting the pride of Philippine arts and culture—books, even rare ones of all persuasions, of popular, established and honorable Filipino authors; indigenous materials of the historic past like clothes and other tribal possessions etc.
They’re all here not only for Filipinos but the multicultural and multiethnic communities in the US.
It beckons on our compatriots who must be proud of what Linda is doing.
Philippine Expressions Bookshop is a cozy repository in the middle of the city of the hearts and minds of the Filipinos and must be preserved and developed for the world to witness and to be hailed.
Since 1984, Linda has been serving the Filipino and Fil-Am communities with the unique hospitality of welcoming the old and new ideas about Filipiniana.
This is the core of her being a recipient of the prestigious 2021 Banaag Award, plum given to Filipino individuals or organizations, to quote its citation for their contributions which have significantly benefited a sector of the diaspora, or advanced the cause and interest of overseas Filipino communities.