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| Book Summary or Jacket Blurb: This historical fiction novel is about four generations of strong willed Filipina and Filipina-Americans (one is adapted on a true story); succeeding in business, overcoming tragedies and barriers of economic disadvantage, racial discrimination, as well as gender bias, here in the US. The book culminates with the present generation, colliding with the past. A past that is a hundred plus year old event, which haunted the first female generation ancestor, and has now, come in full circle and threatens to destroy their succeeding generations. |
Book Outline:
Chapter 1:
1. The Insurrecto’s
Loida Reyes, a Balangiga lass of 15, falls in love with Capt. John Conell, CO of the U.S. Marine company that would be nearly wiped out Sept 28, 1901 in the only “battle” ever lost to Filipinos during the U.S. colonization of the Philippines. On finishing the pacification of Samar, Capt. Waller returns to Basey, meets the pregnant Loida, offers to marry her. They stay in Manila only long enough to deliver the baby and, having left him a trust fund, offer him up for adoption.
2. The Far East Legacy
Adopted by a dirt-poor family of Chinese immigrants, the Sy’s, Henry Connell grows up in Manila and founds a trading company that lasts till the 80's. He marries Teresa Sy and stakes fledgling Spanish-Filipino entrepreneur Andres Soriano with the income from 10% of the Tazewell family trust. These two acts were to have consequences five decades later.
3. Gunrunning and Bootlegging on the East Coast
Unable to endure prejudice in Virginia against “women of color”, Loida and Waller hie themselves over to Philadelphia. There, Loida embarks on enterprise after enterprise that all fall flat. Until, over her husband’s objections, she begins to make money from running bootleg and imported whiskey to Canada, Philadelphia and New York.
4. War Clouds
On becoming a widow in 1926, Loida embarks on legitimate ventures in succession: a shoe factory and textile mill to employ other immigrant women, and a shop that refurbishes farm tools and tractors. She has it out with the Connell son, who comes home to find his roots and is soundly rejected. Furious, he vows revenge on Loida and “all her generations”. Her other son, by Tony, signs up for the Marines the very afternoon they hear of Pearl Harbor.
Chapter 2: The Treasure Hunters
5. Flying the Hump
Both sons fight in the Far East, heedlessly sowing their wild oats with a train of Chinese and Filipina girlfriends. Harry Connell is reported KIA in the Burma Hump. As John Jr. had also died in Bataan, Loida assumes that is the end of their share of the Tazewell family trust which she now controls and which acquired controlling interests in shipyards, a truck and tank factory, two garment firms and significant acreage around Washington.
6. Yamashita’s Gold
After Tony wades to the beach as Gen. MacArthur’s aide-de-camp at the Leyte Gulf landing and the immense jungles of the island are cleared of Japanese, he meets a winsome girl from nearby Balangiga. She solicits his help with a mysterious bundle of maps but will turn it over only if she and a greedy Chinese club owner get half of anything found.
7. Enriching a Dictator
No one had any idea that the maps revealed dozens of sites containing tons of bullion, specie and Golden Buddhas looted from as far as Korea and Malaysia. Tony and Lydia sealed their compact in marriage. Being a cautious couple, they excavated the sites one by one from 1952 onwards. But it was now 1976 and the larcenous Marcos couple got wind of the biggest cache secreted near Manila.
8. Democracy Once again
To escape the dictator’s clutches, Lydia cunningly let the U.S. Embassy in on the secret. In the night, a cavalcade of troop trucks spirited half the treasure away to Clark Air Base. Lydia agreed to take 10% Federal Gold Certificates for them. But she promptly forgot all about these because Imelda Marcos confiscated other treasure already dug up and kept in a Manila bank vault and had Tony tortured to death. In her grief, Lydia turned her energies to helping exiled opposition politicians get a hearing with Pres. Reagan and a hostile Congress. She was especially instrumental in bringing Ninoy and Cory Aquino on the lecture circuit to swing American public opinion. After People Power succeeded, Lydia returned briefly to Manila with young daughter Loida to serve with the Aquino government.
Chapter 3: The Predators
9. Playing Milliken’s Game (1991-93)
Loida Nicolas, smart Fil-Am immigration lawyer, meets and marries Reginald Lewis, black American. Together they do the biggest leveraged buyout in history, taking over the Beatrice Foods Corp.
10. Mistress of the Universe (1993-97)
Loida becomes CEO of TLC Beatrice Foods, the 2nd-largest female-run company in the U.S. She folds in the Tazewell Trust interests and takes the whole company public to rousing fanfare.
11. Uncle Harry Reaches Out From the Grave
Plans for an ESOP and another LBO reach a stand-off when Eduardo Cojuangco shows up to claim he is the oldest living descendant of Harry Connell. And he has the bearer certificates to prove it. A bruising court battle ensues.
12. Losing the Battle, Winning the War
In the ensuing three years, Lydia and Loida fight a losing battle. Their stock price nosedives with canny short selling by the Cojuangco’s and sluggish sales on both sides of the Atlantic. How will they turn the tide?
13. The Great Beijing Showcase
Loida's daughter, Lourdes, hazel eyes the only evidence of her Filipino ancestry, summa cum laude grad of Johns Hopkins, is in Beijing to cover the men's swimming events for CNN. She uncovers a plot by Maoist guerillas and the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayaff to bomb the opening ceremonies in front of a billion-strong TV audience worldwide. She defuses the bomb at the last minute but, in the process, inhales a near-fatal dose of the nerve gas.
That same day, August 2008, mother Loida and Condoleezza Rice were the main dignitaries at a ceremony in Balangiga to return the three church bells at last. A Muslim suicide bomber blew nearly everybody up. Pres. Bush sends in the Marine Expeditionary Force from Okinawa. The 2nd pacification of Samar ensues.
14. (Epilogue) Taipan, Inc.
On March 4, 2009, as President-elect Hillary Clinton takes her oath of office, the shadowy board of Taipan Inc. meets at the Capitol Hill Suites to consolidate their far-flung operations. Teresa Sy from the Philippines represents $5 billion worth of investments in retailing, banks, beverages and food. Loida’s sister, Imelda, has flung 10 factories across the farmlands of rural China. In the Americas, TLC is content with shareholdings equivalent to one or two board seats in ethanol factories, solar energy R & D, flex-fuel engine plants, Exxon and AIG. And Lourdes is the newly-minted Asst. Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific.
1. The Insurrecto’s
Loida Reyes, a Balangiga lass of 15, falls in love with Capt. John Conell, CO of the U.S. Marine company that would be nearly wiped out Sept 28, 1901 in the only “battle” ever lost to Filipinos during the U.S. colonization of the Philippines. On finishing the pacification of Samar, Capt. Waller returns to Basey, meets the pregnant Loida, offers to marry her. They stay in Manila only long enough to deliver the baby and, having left him a trust fund, offer him up for adoption.
2. The Far East Legacy
Adopted by a dirt-poor family of Chinese immigrants, the Sy’s, Henry Connell grows up in Manila and founds a trading company that lasts till the 80's. He marries Teresa Sy and stakes fledgling Spanish-Filipino entrepreneur Andres Soriano with the income from 10% of the Tazewell family trust. These two acts were to have consequences five decades later.
3. Gunrunning and Bootlegging on the East Coast
Unable to endure prejudice in Virginia against “women of color”, Loida and Waller hie themselves over to Philadelphia. There, Loida embarks on enterprise after enterprise that all fall flat. Until, over her husband’s objections, she begins to make money from running bootleg and imported whiskey to Canada, Philadelphia and New York.
4. War Clouds
On becoming a widow in 1926, Loida embarks on legitimate ventures in succession: a shoe factory and textile mill to employ other immigrant women, and a shop that refurbishes farm tools and tractors. She has it out with the Connell son, who comes home to find his roots and is soundly rejected. Furious, he vows revenge on Loida and “all her generations”. Her other son, by Tony, signs up for the Marines the very afternoon they hear of Pearl Harbor.
Chapter 2: The Treasure Hunters
5. Flying the Hump
Both sons fight in the Far East, heedlessly sowing their wild oats with a train of Chinese and Filipina girlfriends. Harry Connell is reported KIA in the Burma Hump. As John Jr. had also died in Bataan, Loida assumes that is the end of their share of the Tazewell family trust which she now controls and which acquired controlling interests in shipyards, a truck and tank factory, two garment firms and significant acreage around Washington.
6. Yamashita’s Gold
After Tony wades to the beach as Gen. MacArthur’s aide-de-camp at the Leyte Gulf landing and the immense jungles of the island are cleared of Japanese, he meets a winsome girl from nearby Balangiga. She solicits his help with a mysterious bundle of maps but will turn it over only if she and a greedy Chinese club owner get half of anything found.
7. Enriching a Dictator
No one had any idea that the maps revealed dozens of sites containing tons of bullion, specie and Golden Buddhas looted from as far as Korea and Malaysia. Tony and Lydia sealed their compact in marriage. Being a cautious couple, they excavated the sites one by one from 1952 onwards. But it was now 1976 and the larcenous Marcos couple got wind of the biggest cache secreted near Manila.
8. Democracy Once again
To escape the dictator’s clutches, Lydia cunningly let the U.S. Embassy in on the secret. In the night, a cavalcade of troop trucks spirited half the treasure away to Clark Air Base. Lydia agreed to take 10% Federal Gold Certificates for them. But she promptly forgot all about these because Imelda Marcos confiscated other treasure already dug up and kept in a Manila bank vault and had Tony tortured to death. In her grief, Lydia turned her energies to helping exiled opposition politicians get a hearing with Pres. Reagan and a hostile Congress. She was especially instrumental in bringing Ninoy and Cory Aquino on the lecture circuit to swing American public opinion. After People Power succeeded, Lydia returned briefly to Manila with young daughter Loida to serve with the Aquino government.
Chapter 3: The Predators
9. Playing Milliken’s Game (1991-93)
Loida Nicolas, smart Fil-Am immigration lawyer, meets and marries Reginald Lewis, black American. Together they do the biggest leveraged buyout in history, taking over the Beatrice Foods Corp.
10. Mistress of the Universe (1993-97)
Loida becomes CEO of TLC Beatrice Foods, the 2nd-largest female-run company in the U.S. She folds in the Tazewell Trust interests and takes the whole company public to rousing fanfare.
11. Uncle Harry Reaches Out From the Grave
Plans for an ESOP and another LBO reach a stand-off when Eduardo Cojuangco shows up to claim he is the oldest living descendant of Harry Connell. And he has the bearer certificates to prove it. A bruising court battle ensues.
12. Losing the Battle, Winning the War
In the ensuing three years, Lydia and Loida fight a losing battle. Their stock price nosedives with canny short selling by the Cojuangco’s and sluggish sales on both sides of the Atlantic. How will they turn the tide?
13. The Great Beijing Showcase
Loida's daughter, Lourdes, hazel eyes the only evidence of her Filipino ancestry, summa cum laude grad of Johns Hopkins, is in Beijing to cover the men's swimming events for CNN. She uncovers a plot by Maoist guerillas and the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayaff to bomb the opening ceremonies in front of a billion-strong TV audience worldwide. She defuses the bomb at the last minute but, in the process, inhales a near-fatal dose of the nerve gas.
That same day, August 2008, mother Loida and Condoleezza Rice were the main dignitaries at a ceremony in Balangiga to return the three church bells at last. A Muslim suicide bomber blew nearly everybody up. Pres. Bush sends in the Marine Expeditionary Force from Okinawa. The 2nd pacification of Samar ensues.
14. (Epilogue) Taipan, Inc.
On March 4, 2009, as President-elect Hillary Clinton takes her oath of office, the shadowy board of Taipan Inc. meets at the Capitol Hill Suites to consolidate their far-flung operations. Teresa Sy from the Philippines represents $5 billion worth of investments in retailing, banks, beverages and food. Loida’s sister, Imelda, has flung 10 factories across the farmlands of rural China. In the Americas, TLC is content with shareholdings equivalent to one or two board seats in ethanol factories, solar energy R & D, flex-fuel engine plants, Exxon and AIG. And Lourdes is the newly-minted Asst. Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific.
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