Marina Gonzalez

Marina Feleo Gonzalez

1930 - 2026

"Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya, Sa pagka-dalisay at pagka-dakila, Gaya ng pag-ibig sa tinubuang lupa..." - Andres Bonifacio

Marina Feleo Gonzalez, 95, of Minneapolis, born of Florencia Nabong and Juan Feleo, passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on April 5, 2026 (US Central Time).

Lola-Mader-Tita May...our Matriarch of blue and white porcelain...keeper of family history...family feeder of mind and soul and hungry bellies...we will miss you...

A multi-award-winning screenwriter, playwright, and master storyteller, Marina's seminal film Minsa'y Isang Gamu-Gamo (Once A Moth) won the 1976 Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Story. Her television work earned numerous Pambansang Akademya ng Telebisyon sa Agham at Sining Awards (PATAS) 1976-78 for Outstanding Writer.

Her 1988 play A Song for Manong, part three of the musical theater production Bamboo Snaps Back featuring the Asian American Art Ensemble and Kulintang Arts, was premiered by Life on the Water at San Francisco's Herbst Theater as a tribute to the struggles of Filipino immigrant laborers in the United States.

As a professor and mentor at the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Columbia University, Bard College, and Hunter College, Marina nurtured generations of aspiring artists.

She is reunited with her husband, Philippine radio pioneer and media journalist Arling Gonzalez, in "the undiscovered country" where they surely continue to tell stories.

Goodnight Lola-Mader-Tita May, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Marina is survived by her daughter, Marlina Gonzalez; her son, Jojo Gonzalez, daughter-in-law Sandi Stratton Gonzalez; her granddaughters, Diwa Gonzalez Tamrong, Maya Gonzalez (Eddy), Zoe Stratton (Dean), and Samantha Stratton (Martin). She is also survived by her sister, Nenita Feleo Yates; her loving nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews in the US and the Philippines.

The family offers heartfelt thanks to her honorary granddaughter, Lorena Jean Benavidez; Dr. Sarah Ndyajunwoha; and the medical and hospice teams at MHealth Fairview Southdale Hospital

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all

- Emily Dickinson

Service Information: TBD Memorials: TBD