Cornell University Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) and the Asian American Studies Program (AASP)UCLA Asian American Studies and Center for Southeast Asian Studies
present

Ma-Yi Theatre Company’s
THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO

Q&A with actors Jojo Gonzales and Ron Domingo, and dramaturge Dr. Joi Barrios-Leblanc (Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley) will immediately follow the live-stream.

Set in the central valleys of California in the 1930s and based on a short story by Carlos Bulosan, the play focuses on Magno Rubio, an illiterate Filipino farm worker and his pen-pal courtship with Clarabelle, a white woman from Arkansas who advertises in the back pages of a “lonely hearts” magazine. Believing he’s found the woman of his dreams, Magno fantasizes about their life together, only to soon realize that reality and dreams do not always align.

THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO was filmed in July 2003 by Francisco Aliwalas at The Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila before a live audience, for the Sangandaan Festival. Presented with support from the Asian Cultural Council.

This event is in celebration of Cornell SEAP’s 70th anniversary and the inaugural Pilipino Studies minor at UCLA, and to honor the life, legacy, and work of Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon.

Community co-sponsors include: Bridge & Delta Publishing, Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, and PEP (Pinoy/Pinay Educational Partnerships)