(Southern Star Newspaper, Brisbane, Australia. April 23, 2008.)Religious persecution, racism and poverty come under the microscope through the eyes of a Filipino-Australian in his new book, as Jackie Miller reports.
Imagine a level of school yard bullying that would lead a 12-year-old boy to seek out the services of a barber willing to perform a backyard circumcision without the benefit of anaesthetic.
This harrowing scenario is one of a series of glimpses into life growing up in the Philippines as told by expatriate Filipino teacher and author Erwin Cabucos of Brisbane, Australia.
In his second book, Green Blood and Other Stories, Cabucos explores a range of themes, mainly using children as the observers, conduits and questionaires of adult behaviour, religious beliefs and traditional thought patterns.
"Why is God white?" asks one of Cabucos' child characters, with no adequate response forthcoming from the Filipino priest under question.
Cabucos who was born into a catholic family in a Muslim-dominated area of the Philippines, came to Australia on a university scholarship aged 20.
"At first I was very lonely. I turned to books to alleviate that but I couldn't find something that I could relate to, so I started writing my own stories," he said.
Imagine a level of school yard bullying that would lead a 12-year-old boy to seek out the services of a barber willing to perform a backyard circumcision without the benefit of anaesthetic.
This harrowing scenario is one of a series of glimpses into life growing up in the Philippines as told by expatriate Filipino teacher and author Erwin Cabucos of Brisbane, Australia.
In his second book, Green Blood and Other Stories, Cabucos explores a range of themes, mainly using children as the observers, conduits and questionaires of adult behaviour, religious beliefs and traditional thought patterns.
"Why is God white?" asks one of Cabucos' child characters, with no adequate response forthcoming from the Filipino priest under question.
Cabucos who was born into a catholic family in a Muslim-dominated area of the Philippines, came to Australia on a university scholarship aged 20.
"At first I was very lonely. I turned to books to alleviate that but I couldn't find something that I could relate to, so I started writing my own stories," he said.
"I came to love the purging process of examining issues ranging from religion to peer group pressure, racism, and poverty versus opulence."
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In the years that followed, Cabucos married Debbie, an Australian he met while at university, and they now have two children.
Green Blood is a collection of 15 stories that celebrate Filipino culture while laying bare the issues of religious hatred, racial snobbery, poverty, prejudice and persecution of those who dare to be different.
In one story, 'The Bleached Hills of Cotabato', a Filipino family prepares to deliver its teenage daughter to the airport to meet a much older Australian man who has courted her on the Internet. Only the young girl's brother questions the union and is told it will go ahead because of the man's perceived wealth and Caucasian "good looks".
"My stories are a reminder not to accept everything at face value," Cabucos said.
Green Blood and Other Stories will be launched at the Brisbane Square Library Theatrette on June 7 at 12:30 PM.
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