Melecio Estrella & Panching Pedrin
Photo by: Jessica Swanson
Melecio Estrella is a dancemaker, a son, a nephew and father based in Oakland CA. He is co-director of Fog Beast, and Artistic Director of Bandaloop. He is also a longtime member of the Joe Goode Performance Group. Melecio’s site specific work has been performed throughout the US, Asia and Europe. Growing up in a large sprawling Filipino family, dance, music and visual art were an everyday part of his upbringing.
Panching Pedrin immigrated from the Philippines to San Francisco in 1948. Growing up and raising her own children is SF, she recently relocated to Sacramento. Panching is an active member of the Catholic church, finding respite, hope and joy in her faith. She lives with her daughter and son in law, both social workers, and her grandson and granddaughter. She is a lifelong artist, poet, and friend.
Gift
Process
What has unfolded from this process over the past 4 months has been unexpected and lasting. I am thankful to the For You team for initiating and inviting this work, and happy to share what has come.
Panching is my Auntie. She is whimsical, devout, kind and creative. While we were not close as I grew up, maybe seeing each other 5 times a year, her artistry permeates my memories, and has had a profound effect on me as an artist.
I started this project thinking about how best to engage with Panching, as she recently went through very serious illness at age 82, had precarious health, etc.
I instigated a prayer group with my mother in early April, and then as part of this For You project, I asked my Aunties to keep meeting to pray, converse and be together. This weekly group is still going today, and we are all committed to meeting every sunday into the future indefinitely. It has been a great source of togetherness and connection, and inspired many conversations that fed into this work. The core of this group is Panching and the surviving 3 of her 4 sisters, all in their 70s and 80s. Others come in and out. In addition to praying the catholic rosary, we share photos and updates about where we are and what we are doing, and talk generally about life.
In researching her gift, I found the song “Cool of the Day”, learned and practiced, and sang the song as a prayer in my own practice over 3 months. I spent time in nature, of which Panching loves, and she says, “On Earth as It Is in Heaven”. Over the process she sent me Haikus she wrote, and texted pictures of flowers and altars to the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
For the gift I created a sort of video prayer, danced and sung in a creek near my home, and also included footage of Zamora, Panching’s beloved granddaughter, taken by my cousin Maya.
Also as part of the gift, I had printed and framed a picture of Panching and her sisters hands playing Mah Jong. These sisters had been playing Mah Jong together their whole lives, smoking cigarettes and often staying up till sunrise playing through the night.
Due to shyness, Panching did not want to be videoed. She is moving slowly, using a walker, and needs the assistance of her daughter to access technology. Because of limited capacity of the family there, with covid, schooling and health and work needs, some communications were difficult and took long.