How to enjoy the perfect cup of hot chocolate?  In little sips and dips.  It should be thick enough to revel in, rich enough to sop your hot pan de sal into, and don’t even think about diluting it—that is both a waste and a sacrilege!  Tsokalate is our family’s signature holiday drink, a practice brought over from Old Manila which, over time, has been married into our stockpile of consanguineal traditions, to be applied in full force particularly at Christmastide.  And so we gather.

I come for the stories.  The merriest ones.  Such as The Story of the Honeybaked Ham and the pleasure of the company of said honey-cured and pronounced-well cut of meat.  And The Story of the Legendary Queso de Bola and the pleasure of the company of said aged and venerable cheese.  I come for the absent people and the remembrance of tastes past, for what was born and what was given.  I come for the giver of stories.

Welcome to our 28th issue, a celebration of all our traditions of heart and home.  It is here where we honor The Art of Remedios ‘Mima’ Cabacungan, 101-year-old button artist, whose works are “an extension of art history as well as a mischievous feminist intervention … cheerfully fresh … [and] postmodern,” in an art essay by Eileen Tabios.  In Poetry and Fiction, we feature writings by 2008 GFLA (Global Filipino Literary Award) Poetry recipient Joseph O. Legaspi, 2008 OOV Resident Poet Joel Vega, and Ivy Terasaka Short Story winner Denis Murphy.  In Essays, Dom Magwili offers a perspective on the value of theater for the Asian American Community, while 2008 GFLA Nonfiction awardee Rey Ventura draws us to reflect on circumstances surrounding the tachinbo, Japan’s rural migrant workers, in “Leaves of Leaves,” excerpted from his book, “Into the Country of Standing Men”.  As we are on the cusp of change, we find it timely to reprint Carlos Bulosan's "Freedom from Want", first published 65 years ago, along with a commentary by University of Maryland student Martin L. Magnaye. Included also are my reviews of poetry books/poems by Reme A. Grefalda, Ed Maranan, Eileen Tabios, Armando Garcia Davila, and the anthology “Pinoy Poetics”.  Additional works by Carlos Bulosan are catalogued in our Bibliography section, and in our Bookshelf, we feature “The Blind Chatelaine’s Keys” by Eileen Tabios and “A Taste of Home” edited by Ed Maranan and Len Maranan-Goldstein.

Isn’t it festive that we concocted this issue the way we make Tsokolate: with thick, dark, fresh tablea (tablets of pure chocolate from cacao beans) melted in water and evaporated milk, and with sugar added to taste. We sip it and dip into it, slowly.  Leisurely.  Propter legens.  For the sake of the reader.

A very merry Christmas and a peaceful 2009 from our OOV family to yours!

Aileen Ibardaloza
San Francisco, December 2008

EDITOR
Remé-Antonia Grefalda

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Aileen Ibardaloza

ART DIRECTOR AND WEB DESIGNER
Geejay Arriola

MANAGING EDITOR
Victoria Paz Cruz

2008 RESIDENT POET
Joel H. Vega

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR FOR THE ARTS
Eileen Tabios

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Lynn Cadorniga

copyright 2008