In honor of Filipino Heritage Month, we wanted to take a trip down memory lane to the 2023-2024 school year, a time when Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory took part in a school-wide initiative known as One School, One Book, in which the student population chose one of three books to read during the summer months, and came back to reflect on their chosen book in their English classes. SHC had the pleasure of hosting one of these book authors, the young, talented Filipino-American Randy Ribay, to discuss his National Book Award Finalist novel, Patron Saints of Nothing. Ribay spoke on his authorial process, the inspiration behind his book, and the many cultural issues and developments plaguing the Philippines that drove him to become an author. Since then, he has also published Everything We Never Had, his most recent book is just as enticing.
Patron Saints of Nothing continually earns respect and praise from the literary community for its cultural relevance. The novel was Ribay’s third book and the first to reach critical acclaim, becoming a National Book Award Finalist and catching the attention of the world. It is a contemporary mystery with an incredibly inventive plotline. Jay, a young Filipino-American living in the U.S., is about to go off to college at the University of Michigan when he goes on a journey back to the Philippines to investigate his cousin’s mysterious death, and discovers elements of his identity along the way. Patron Saints of Nothing melds the harsh realities of political issues in the Philippines with a young boy’s coming of age. Through loss and pain, Jay finds the truth and rediscovers his cultural identity. This book asks the big question: how far will you go for the truth?
Ribay’s most recent novel, Everything We Never Had, spans three decades, from the 1930s all the way to the 2020 pandemic, and is a story about the effects of immigration through generations. Everything We Never Had won the Asian/Pacific American National Book Award, and in it, Ribay uses his complex multi-generational narrative style to continue exploring ideas about Filipino culture, with a new and distinct structure. This dynamic coming-of-age novel begins with Francisco immigrating to the United States in 1930, where he gets a job working the vast rural plains of California. The narrative transitions to his son, Emil, and follows the generations until it reaches Francisco’s great-grandson, Enzo, living in Philadelphia, struggling with anxiety and overcoming his overbearing father and his grumpy grandfather. Ribay reaches all the way into the past and brings it to the present, gorgeously displaying how one generation influences another. Ribay’s strong authorial presence with flowing prose and culture imbued into each page. His themes of identity continue potently in his new book through both his characterizations and thematic voice, echoing through generations.
Time and time again, Ribay proves his literary prowess, societal relevance, and cultural ingenuity. If there is one Filipino American author close to our hearts here at SHC, Randy Ribay easily takes the slot. Happy Filipino Heritage month, and we hope Ribay’s writing sheds the deserved light on Filipino culture and the myriad of struggles currently plaguing the Philippines. See you next month!
“My family, myself, this world – all of us are flawed. But flawed doesn’t mean hopeless. It doesn’t mean forsaken. It doesn’t mean lost.” – Randy Ribay
Lily Cardenas ’27 & Simone Cohen ’27
