My name is Joseph Quisol and I’m glad I stumbled across this website. I’ve always felt isolated for being half Puerto Rican and half Filipino, but now I know I’m not the only “Filirican” out there.

My dad is from the Bay Area and my mom lived in NYC and Detroit, but for whatever reason, they both decided to go to college in Kansas where they met. We finally settled down in Charlotte, NC where I’ve lived for the past 7 years.

I love it here, but living in North Carolina has definitely kept me from connecting with both my dual heritage and other people who have the same Filipino-Puerto Rican background. Despite this, I still get to enjoy the delicious foods from both cultures, sí hablo español, and I get to feel exotic when people end up playing the “guess-my-race” game when they meet me.

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Hi :) I am Angel. I was born to a 15 year old in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Adopted two months later (my adoptive mother is White/Puerto Rican), I never knew who my father was, all I knew was that I looked Asian.

In grade school, I lived in a predominately Spanish neighborhood in New York City and I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I don’t look Puerto Rican, I clearly look Asian, and no one ever let me forget it. I got stares upon stares, smart remarks, etc.

Once I left New York to be with family in Southern Maryland, things got way better. I met my cousins! They are mostly adopted and of Asian decent too. It was great to finally fit in.

In New York, I only identified as Latina because I felt I would fit in better that way, and I didn’t know what type of Asian I was anyway, so I guess I felt it didn’t matter. My cousins that are Filipino kept telling me that they felt I was Filipino, and for some reason, in my heart, I felt I was too. So, I started to embrace it, and learned Tagalog.

I found out at 19 that my father is indeed Filipino. I met him. I have lots of family in the Philippines. So many aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters! Continue reading →