TOBIAS THE CONSUMMATE ARTS AND CULTURE MAN

VANCOUVER’S PREMIER CULTURAL CONNOISSEUR

By Tom Choy

Vancouver, British Columbia

“It’s not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.”   ADLAI STEVENSON

Mel Tobias, the consummate culture and arts connoisseur and patron, breathes, lives and personifies the Vancouver’s Filipino-Canadian  arts and cultural life. He was a perennial participant in the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France. He wrote for international publications like Variety and the Philippine Star in Manila.

Mel is no longer with us and is now on” the other side.” Mel may no longer be around, but his influence and impact on the promotion of Pinoy content in Fil-Canadian arts and culture in Vancouver are still quite felt by a lot of people he came across.

" I owe Mel the success of the Dahong Pilipino Directory (which featured a lot of Tobias articles and writings about the success stories of Pinoys in Lotusland) to Mr. Tobias," proclaims Leo "Jun" Cunanan, the DPD Publisher. " I am now actively connected with organizations promoting culture, arts and community service through Tito Mel, " adds Jun Cunanan. Mel wrote eye-opening articles for Dahong Pilipino emphasizing the strengths and bright spots of a Pinoy making it in the Lower Mainland and making a difference. He did this until the last moment he could possibly do it before his demise.

“Mel will be missed,” quips Alvin Erasga Tolentino, a premier dancer and choreographer who has performed dance shows at the Scotia Centre in Downtown Vancouver. Alvin continues, “One who had covered writing our Filipino Vancouver community and arts for sometime, with gratitude, Kuya Mel,  is gone.”

Tobias has also covered the Dimasalang artists group, a collective of high energy Fil-Canadian  painters and artists based in Vancouver. He wrote a regular column in the Philippine Star, a Manila newspaper, and focused on the arts and lifestyle stories of his kababayans in Lotusland.

Kuya or Tito Mel to a lot of Fil-Canadians in Vancouver, he also enjoys piano music and consistently promotes concerts of top Vancouver pianists Dorothy Uytengsu and Vicky Francisco. His appetite for arts and music has no measure. Mel consumes them voraciously. He promotes them as if he was a Medici igniting a renaissance of the arts in Vancouver.

Bert Monterona , a renowned painter and artist, is saddened at the demise of Mel Tobias, Vancouver’s arts champion.

Mel had too many music CDs and Filipino flicks in his home library, he decided to run a store on West Broadway, Fairview, Vancouver. It is not for the insignificant money to earn, but it was more to share his voluminous music and film library to the public.

Mel has also brought Nick Joaquin’s “The Portrait of the Filipino As An Artist” to Richmond Gateway Theater. From theatre, he also supported young and upcoming authors including award winning author Miguel Syjuco who wrote “Illustrado.” Eleanor Campbell also got some genuine help from Tobias to market her new book, “Stumbling Upon Paradise..”

Mel wrote a lifestyle column in the Philippine Chronicle and the glossy magazine of the Philippine News Today. Tobias also dabbled in radio in a specialty English Chinese radio station in Vancouver as well as in Hongkong. He brought his colleagues from the Philippine Chronicle to do the radio broadcasts in the Richmond station.

" Mel strongly suggested for the Philippine Chronicle (before it was known as Philippine Asian Chronicle) to go broadsheet," fondly remembers Publisher and Editor in Chief Roque "Bodeng" Juatco. Mel's rationale for the proposal was to differentiate the paper from competition. Up until now the paper known as PAC is still in its broadsheet form while other newspapers including the mainstream papers already became smaller.

" Mel loved writing for the Chronicle so much he even brought his relative the late Max Soliven, newspaperman, Columnist and co-founder of Philippine Star to address the writers and columnists of the Philippine Chronicle,," shares Erly Valdes Juatco, wife of Bodeng. Tobias wrote a regular column in the Chronicle about the arts and cultural events and trends in Vancouver.

Mel was a real arts afficionado that he would miss dinner but he would not miss the movies shown during the annual Vancouver International Film Festival. If you want to catch him and you don't know where he was in fall in Vancouver, just go to where the VIFF movies are shown and he would be there.