And of course in the Philippines there were so many thousands of Americans that were captured by the Japanese and held and who were rescued by Filipino Americans or Filipinos I should say and by U.S. troops near the close of the war.

My identity is linked to my grandmother who's pure Filipino as pure as you can probably get. And that shaped my imagination. So that's how I identify.

I grew up in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood but my mom is Filipino-Spanish and my dad is Irish.

Filipinos don't wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty.

Filipinos want beauty. I have to look beautiful so that the poor Filipinos will have a star to look at from their slums.