FILIPINA. AMERICAN. CREATIVE.

What happens when you go back to the place where you first started feeling disconnected from who you were?In this episode of FILIPINA. AMERICAN. CREATIVE., I return to Mesa, Arizona, and the neighborhood where I grew up – from my elementary school and childhood home to the park where my Ima, my grandmother, used to take me.Growing up, I remember feeling like everything Filipino existed separately from the life I wanted as an American kid. I wanted to fit in. I wanted to look like the other kids. And

What does it mean to be Filipina American when you grew up feeling disconnected from your Filipino heritage?In this first episode of FILIPINA. AMERICAN. CREATIVE., I share why I finally decided to begin the journey I had been thinking about since I was a little girl.My parents left the Philippines in search of the American Dream. I grew up in Mesa, Arizona, proud to be American but also aware that I looked different from most of the people around me. My parents worked hard to assimilate, I never