LUCERO: Embracing my Catholic Filipino identity

During my college years, I learned about Filipinos like Larry Itliong, who worked alongside legendary civil rights activist Cesar Chavez to protest the mistreatment of farm workers. Unlike what I had seen growing up, all these individuals allowed me to see my ethnicity in a more positive light. 

In 2013, I took a gap year while in college, and I became a missionary for the National Evangelization Teams (NET Ministries) in Australia. It was here that I felt God had truly begun to repair every misconception I had ever believed about myself. Growing up with an emotionally distant father, it was during this year that God started to become the father figure I had needed all my life. In realizing my identity as His Son, all the other parts of my identity began to receive some reconciliation, something I didn’t think was possible.  

One of my missionary brothers, now known as Father Will, let me know how much respect he had for Filipino Catholics, especially for our matriarchs. “The devil’s worst nightmare is a Filipino lady with a rosary,” Father Will once told me. This was in reference to many of the women in our culture praying Rosaries and novenas unceasingly, always interceding for the conversion of their loved ones and the entire world. Even though I grew up around titas (aunts) and lolas (grandmas) who prayed like this, I never paid much attention to it. This was the first time I realized how powerful it was.  

When I came back to the U.S., I spent a lot of time with two friends, Jerome and Oliver. Along with Father Will, one thing these two helped me realize was how blessed I was to be a part of an ethnic group that had so many people interceding for us. Oliver’s family often hosted a prayer event called “3,000 Hail Marys” at his house. This often provoked Jerome to have us think about how far we had come in our Catholicism from being kids to being adults. “You ever think about who we were as kids versus who we are now? Thank God for all the Rosaries and prayers all our lolas, titas and other ancestors said for us,” Jerome would say. 

As a hip-hop fan in the ‘90s, I was infatuated with rappers who wrote songs about having a purpose worth suffering for, even to the point of death. This sparked in me an immense respect for Catholic martyrs. I was so excited when my elders taught us about saints Lorenzo Ruiz and Pedro Calungsod, who were both martyrs and Filipinos. 

Through this, I also fell in love with asking for the intercession of the Chinese martyrs. These saints made me feel as if living a life of sacrifice for Jesus wasn’t just something I could choose, but it was in my blood. I wasn’t sure that I had a purpose as meaningful as some of the rappers I had looked up to, but these saints showed me that I had a purpose even bigger than I had imagined. 

Since all of this, I have begun to show much more pride in all of who I am through a handful of ways. In many formal events, I have embraced wearing a barong, which can be described as the Filipino equivalent to a tuxedo. When Christmas comes around, I always get excited to hang up parols all around my house, which is a traditional Filipino star-shaped lantern symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem. I’ve also embraced addressing many older brother/sister figures as kuya and ateh, which can translate to older brother/sister in Tagalog.  

To all our Asian elders, especially the titas and lolas, I urge you to never stop interceding for us. You are the St. Annes and St. Monicas to our Augustines. There are too many Roberts, Jeromes and Olivers who won’t make it without your prayers. When the opportunities present themselves, explain our traditions passionately, while also giving the younger generations room to be able to process things and adapt them to their Asian American experience. Find the heroes and Godfathers who can speak to our children in ways we don’t always know how to. 

To the rest of us struggling with how to navigate our Catholic and ethnic experiences, know that you aren’t an accident. Look up the history of various Asians who have contributed to American society as well as to Christianity and allow those things to empower you. From your ethnicity to all of your other unique qualities comes much life-giving purpose. Be patient with yourselves as you grow into who you are and be open to everything that is a part of you. Do all of this while trusting that God has amazing testimonies for everything you’re experiencing. †