Orphans of Belonging

I am currently at work on a memoir – Orphans of Belonging – about my return to my native Philippines to reconnect with my roots, only to be dragged into hunting down the criminals who plundered my family’s assets and left my parents destitute. But I fail to save them. Like a square peg forcing itself into a round hole, the American value system I worked so hard to assimilate as a US immigrant clashed explosively with the stubborn realities of the country I left long ago. This ordeal tore apart my curated Filipino-American identity and intensified my search for where is home.