You'll be sure to laugh and smile your whole way through an evening at the Pearl of the Orient Philippine Pavilion.

 

The title of "Pearl of the Orient" comes from the name given to the Philippines by the Spanish prior to colonization, referring to the natural beauty of the country.

"A lot of Chinese and Taiwan seafarers would pass through for resources for ships before even the Spanish came through," said Quevaeen Arcedo, who has helped with music and dance capacities for several years at the Pearl of the Orient Philippine Pavilion.

Jan Reyes has also volunteered with the pavilion for many years, doing everything from acting as his wife's driver to cheering on his kids and every odd job in between. This year, he has an extra-special role to play as the pavilion's adult ambassador.

"It's heavy - heavy but great," Reyes said. "It's a lot of fun." While the ambassador shares that he was surprised by the immense responsibility that came with the job, he is excited to represent his culture during Folklorama's 50th year.

"I've never been looked up to so much in my life by my peers."

Life in Canada was busy for Reyes' parents, who worked extremely hard to secure good jobs and provide for their family. For that reason, Reyes said that his culture often fell by the wayside.

"I think that's why Folklorama is really important to me, because I didn't really have that growing up, I didn't really have the immersion in my culture that I never thought I needed."

Reyes is grateful that his daughters are having a chance now to grow up connected to their Philippino heritage through Folklorama, and Reyes himself is even learning to speak the language. "I get to learn and grow in my culture."

Arcedo has spent time recently researching his own culture, taking a deeper look at his roots, an interest that Folklorama, too, inspired.

"Growing up it was very, like, 'oh, this is Canada; I'm Canadian,'" said Arcedo. "But I guess as you grow up you want to know where you're from and what you're all about ... it's a chance to reconnect with my heritage."

When it comes to myths about the Philippino culture, Arcedo and Reyes laugh. "The things we accuse our culture of, I think we almost do it to ourselves," Arcedo says. 

"One of the funny things that we're accused of is being late, being 'fashionably late' all the time," he chuckled.

Reyes adds, "I've been told that if you get invited to a wedding from Filipinos, it says 6:00 p.m., but they're expecting you to show up at 7:00 p.m."

While the time buffer might be helpful, it can become tricky to navigate. "I'm pretty conscious of it," laughed Reyes, "but for whatever reason, I always end up showing up a little late."

Arcedo had the chance to return to his home country at the age of 21. "The biggest thing is that, and you could probably see in Winnipeg, it carries over, is that everybody is very, very happy." Living situations, work troubles, relationship struggles - whatever it may be, Arcedo says, Filipino people remain extremely happy.

"They just kind of laugh and smile their way through pain and struggle, which is very infectious," Arcedo shared.

"We all root for each other," something that Reyes says is his favourite part of his culture. "We're all in."

Visit the Pearl of the Orient Pavilion during the second week of Folklorama (Sunday, August 11 to Saturday, August 17, 2019), located at RB Russell Vocational School (364 Dufferin Avenue, located at Dufferin and Salter).