About Kiko Rosas'
The F.L.I.P Show
Kiko Rosas’ The F.L.I.P Show is a collection of eight interrelated and comedic stories about Filipino Americans in metropolitan New York, and set in 2009 during Obama’s second term, the perfect era to throw a punch at the myth of post-racial America. As America diversifies, racism and bigotry spreads as well, at times unchecked, in the ethnic and immigrant communities. It’s a lighter companion book to his literary historical novel, Bataan New Jersey, a story spanning 100 years from 1921 to 2021, but beginning in the same year as the collection. 2009 is a significant year in Filipino-American history as it is the year Obama signed the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Act which compensated Filipino veterans who were denied war benefits after WWII.
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Kiko Rosas’ The F.L.I.P Show begins "With Love, Sandra, Queen of Fish Sauce," a story told from the POV of a 55-year old Filipina mother who dropped a bottle of fish sauce on a crowded NYC subway train, stirring a near race riot. The first story from the collection earned Realuyo his second NYSCA/New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction in 2018.
Initially, poet and novelist Bino A. Realuyo wrote the stories as a gift to his friends—to make them laugh a little at life and the mundane, and to find delight in what is often deemed irrelevant. But the collection grew into a personal reflection on the intersection of race, ethnicity and immigration told through the voices of an all Filipino-American cast of characters. He asks, how deep is our complicity in American racism and bigotry? How does it shape our everyday experience?
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Realuyo believes that writing comedic fiction dilutes the acerbity of racialized dialogue in fiction, making it easier to digest. By blurring the slate of white and black characters in American fiction, he brings to the foreground an all-Filipino cast of characters who are unpacking and complicating racial hang-ups and internalized bigotry, while also inviting readers to a plateful of quirky immigrant narratives.
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Humor and Filipino food are at the heart and palate of each story, an important context that is necessary in understanding Filipino-American life, community, and resilience. Dr. Quack-Quack, the co-editor of "Filipino USA Today" threads the eight stories with hashtags and tweets, leading the collection to a surprise metafictional ending.