💡 Interesting Facts
State of War is the debut novel written in 1988 by award-winning Filipino author Ninotchka Rosca.The Blood Compact painting, currently displayed at the top of the grand staircase of the Malacañang Palace, was one of the last paintings created by Filipino artist Juan Luna.Pinoy is a demonym referring to Filipino people in the United States, the Philippines and around the world.My Brother, My Executioner, a 1970s novel by F. Sionil José, is a narrative about two half-brothers with opposing Filipino ideologies.Rico J. Puno, a popular Filipino pop singer, launched his career by incorporating Tagalog lyrics into the American song The Way We Were, among others.La barca de Aqueronte is the most awarded work of art created by Filipino painter Félix Resurrección Hidalgo.apart from being a folk musician and painter, Heber Bartolome was an active lobbyist for the rights of Filipino composers.before being used by American soldiers in the Vietnam War, the racial slur "gook" was originally directed towards Filipinos.the World War II novel Cry Slaughter! by Filipino author Edilberto K. Tiempo was described by Robin Winks and James R. Rush as "one of the few books that mingle melodrama and style".the word "Jejemon" may come from Filipino online users' penchant to type in "hehehe" as "jejeje", supposedly because the letters "h" and "j" are beside each other.the FAMAS-awarded 1965 film Blessings of the Land is about a Filipino deaf-mute son who rose above his handicap.in his short story "The Day the Dancers Came", Bienvenido N. Santos "memorialized the tenderness, nostalgia" and "bittersweet tale" of Filipino manongs living in the United States.even though he was a Filipino painter, Juan Luna's The Battle of Lepanto was commissioned by the Spanish Senate.in 1906, some Filipino prisoners involved in medical experiments in the United States were intentionally infected with cholera, and those who survived were rewarded with cigars or cigarettes.Ramon Zamora, the Filipino film actor popularly dubbed the "Bruce Lee of the Philippines," won an award imitating Adolf Hitler on the gag show Super Laff-In.Michael Dadap, the popular Filipino guitarist, is married to the eldest sister of American cellist Yo-Yo Ma.Filipino actor of Igorot descent, Marky Cielo, is one of four recent Philippine young celebrities who died unexpectedly, after Julie Vega, Rico Yan, and Miko Sotto.Filipino jazz singer Katy de la Cruz was once a top-billed performer at the famed Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco.Filipino Major General Jovito Palparan is credited with reducing communist insurgencies on the island of Samar by 80 percent.Filipino human rights activist Etta Rosales was instrumental in bargaining a compromise deal between the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and some of its victims.F. Sionil José's Viajero (The Wanderer) is a novel about a Filipino boy adopted by an African-American soldier.Filipina singer and actress Didith Reyes was one of the "Jukebox Queens" of the 1970s Philippine music scene along with her friends Imelda Papin and Claire dela Fuente.Filipino poet José García Villa was known for his extensive use of commas, which made him known as the "Comma Poet".Filipino social worker Efren Peñaflorida, 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, grew up in a slum near a garbage dump.Fernando Amorsolo was the first Filipino to be distinguished as a National Artist of the Philippines in painting.Leonor Rivera was the greatest influence in preventing Filipino national hero José Rizal from falling in love with other women while traveling outside the Philippines.Felipe Agoncillo, who topped the highest possible score in a bar exam, was also the outstanding first Filipino diplomat.Francisco Sionil José is one of the most widely-read Filipino writers in the English language, and has been translated into 22 other languages.National Scientist Dr. Fe del Mundo was the first Filipina enrolled in Harvard Medical School and the only female student at that time.Arnold Zamora, a Filipino musician, is one of the Singing Priests of Tagbilaran.Hidalgo's winning silver medal for his painting Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho at the 1884 Madrid Exposition was hailed as a sign that Filipinos can participate in European culture.