A little about me
I'm a first-generation Filipina American storyteller, author, filmmaker, and co-host of the Future Ancestors podcast.
I grew up in New Jersey as one of the only Filipinos in my neighborhood and school, caught between two cultures, never fully belonging to either one. That in-between space became the through-line of everything I create. My children's book Kalayaan: Filipina Heroines of World War II was born from an internet rabbit hole that led me to Remedios Gomez-Paraiso, a beauty queen who became a guerrilla commander and went into battle wearing red lipstick with her nails painted. For the first time, I saw myself in a Filipina woman from history. I couldn't stop. I found story after story of Filipina women who fought, led, and sacrificed. I didn't grow up learning about my history or where I come from, and these stories were never taught to us in school. I decided to write the book I wished I'd had as a little girl. Since then, Kalayaan has been read at the Philippine Consulate General of New York, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, WORD Bookstore in Jersey City and the Michelle Obama NeighborhoodLibrary in Long Beach, and holds a place in the permanent collection of the Filipinas Heritage Library at the Ayala Museum in Manila as part of their World War II archive.
In 2022, alongside Jason "Encite" Hortillas, I created Future Ancestors, a Filipino American podcast and multimedia platform rooted in history, culture, comedy, and community. We built it because we needed it. Three years later, it has become an archive of our stories, our laughter, and the blueprint we are leaving for the next generation.
My short film A Passage to Hope documents ten women who found their way through trauma and came out the other side. It's the piece of work that helped me move through my own grief while celebrating women who were doing the same. It reminded me that healing isn't a destination. It's a direction.
I am a wife and mother of three sons, always learning, always growing to show up as my highest self, for the people I love, and more importantly, for myself. Everything I create is for the little girl who grew up not seeing herself in the stories around her, and for the woman that little girl became. I hope you find yourself somewhere in these stories too.