Perryscope
by Perry Diaz

Music maestro! It’s Cha-Cha time! 1-2-3 cha cha cha… Three steps forward, three steps backward. Few simple steps make this relatively new dance — introduced in the US in 1954 — very popular, especially among the middle-aged Filipino-Americans. Go to a Filipino party and you’d fill the dance floor when Cha-Cha is played. One thing good about Cha-Cha is that you don’t need a lot of space to dance it. You can dance it with little steps. And chances are you’ll end up on the same spot where …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
In 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy of Boston, Massachusetts was the Democratic presidential candidate against the Republican candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon. It was a very close contest. But what made this particular political duel unique was that Kennedy — or JFK as he was popularly called — was the first Roman Catholic who ran for President of the United States at a time when the White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) were the absolute political lords in America. Nixon, a WASP, was considered the establishment candidate. After …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz 
 
I received an email a few days after the presidential election with a picture of the map of the United States in red and blue colors. ‘The Map’ as it was called shows the counties in red where President Bush won and the counties in blue where Senator Kerry won. What a beautiful tapestry America is in red and blue.
At a glance you see a trend in America, it’s red in the middle and as you move outward, it’s turning blue. The West Coast is mostly blue and …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
 
The Twelfth Annual Gala Banquet and Ball honoring the Twenty Outstanding Filipino-Americans (T.O.F.A.) in the United States and Canada was another banner year. Held every year in Washington, DC, the prestigious event celebrated this year’s Circle of Leaders, a select group of 20 men and women nominated by various organizations including the 220 previous T.O.F.A. awardees.
T.O.F.A. was the brainchild of Mr. Nonoy Mendoza, the Publisher of FIL-AM IMAGE, the Filipino-American magazine based in Washington, DC. Mr. Mendoza’s vision of honoring the high achievers has passed the test of …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
“Neck and neck down the stretch,” the Sacramento Bee headline says. “Six new polls suggest Bush-Kerry race could go either way. It is really down to the wire, folks. Nobody is making any predictions because the presidential derby is at a statistical dead heat. Whoever is going to win in tomorrow’s election will not win “by the nose.” He will win “by a whisker.”In 2000, President George W. Bush won the election after five weeks of impasse over the “chad” issue in Florida. With roughly 500-vote difference between …