Pinoy Pod 45

Filipino American a hit on "YouChoob''

In do-it-yourself world of Internet video, Christine Gambito has become a star. And the Filipino America nurse and aspiring actress is this week's guest on Pinoy Pod.

Gambito is the creator, producer and cast of "Happy Slip,'' which has become one of the most popular channels on the Internet video site YouTube.com - or as she imitates her mother saying it, "You Choob.''Happy Slip, a series of short, humorous videos that draw heavily on her experiences as a Filipino American, this week had 29,700 subscribers, making it the 12th-most subscribed channel on YouTube. And she says she isn't sure how many more tune in through her own video blogging site, HappySlip.com.

One video, "Mixed Nuts,", in which she imitates her mother, father and a Filipino "auntie,'' has been viewed more than 2.7 million times on YouTube. That video finished second in voting completed last week for YouTube Video Awards Best Comedy of 2006.

In another video, that same auntie tells her daughter to play piano with more "peeling." And in a video that has been viewed more than 800,000 times, Gambito sings a love song to an Apple computer.

On Pinoy Pod, Gambito tells The Chronicle's Michelle Louie and Benny Evangelista about the origin of the name Happy Slip, which comes from her mother's heavily accented pronunciation of "half-slip.'' She also talks about how her parents always encouraged her to imitate them and how she developed her spot-on observations of Filipino cultural characteristics.

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Pinoy Pod 44

Images from the Filipino Diaspora

Victor Bareng moved to the United States in 1986, at the height of the political upheaval in the Philippines during the final days of the Marcos regime.

As he began a new life in the United States, Bareng increasingly became interested in the history of Filipinos in America and in telling that story through photographs.

Some of Bareng's work, together with those of veteran documentary photographer Rick Rocamora, are on exhibit at the Manilatown Heritage Center at 868 Kearny Street.

Bareng is also a graphic designer and photogrpher at The Chronicle.

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Pinoy Pod 43

"Usaping Puki" 2007 - Staking a claim for peace

The Filipina community's production of "Usaping Puki,'' the Tagalog version of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues," created a firestorm when it debuted in the Bay Area in 2004.

The themes of women's rights and domestic violence awareness - and its unbridled expressions of women's sexuality - were startling to many who seldom spoke of the topics in private.
Since then, the annual performance staged by the Filipina Women's Network has drawn a growing audience as the community warms to the production that seeks to voice the unspoken and calls for an end to abuse of women in all forms.

But there are still many challenges as the 2007 production takes to the stage this month in San Francisco and New York with a bolder global theme.

Marily Mondejar, one of the executive producers, and Elena Mangahas, a co-director, talk to Chronicle Deputy Managing Editor Leslie Guevarra about the "Vagina Monologues," "Usaping Puki" and this year's theme of "Reclaiming Peace."

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Pinoy Pod 42

"Empire of care'' supplies steady stream of Pinoy nurses to U.S.

Go to any major hospital in America and chances are you'll find Filipinos on the nursing staffs. For decades, the Philippines has been a major supplier of Filipino nurses to the U.S. health care system.

That's been good for the Filipinos for whom coming to America means higher pay and better benefits, although many of them have also endured exploitation and discrimination.
Now, with the critical shortage of nurses in this country, more Filipino nurses are expected to come to America in search of a better life.

UC Berkeley Professor Catherine Ceniza Choy is the author of "Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History,'' a book that traces the history of Filipino nurses in the United States, starting with the beginning of the 20th century when the Philippines was still an American colony.

In an interview with Pinoy Pod, Choy examines this history, along with a more recent - and some say alarming - trend of doctors who are enrolling in accelerated nursing courses in the Philippines to increase their chances of coming to America.

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