You've talked about your "bush" family tree and how that absence of depth fueled your hunger for this work. Strip away the academic analysis. Was there a specific moment, an event, or a recurring situation in your childhood or early life that first hammered home this sense of cultural disconnect, or even just made you feel like an outsider, pushing you towards the path you're on now? No bullshit, just the raw memory.
When I was a kid, someone at school asked me, “What am I? What are you?” I told the kid, “I’m American.” Then he said, “No, you’re not.” I didn’t have a comeback. So when I got home, I told my mom, “Hey, this kid said I’m not American.” She said, “Oh, you’re Filipino.” The next day I went back to school and told the kid, “Hey, I’m Filipino.” He asked, “What’s that?” Since then, I've always started to question: Who am I? What am I? Where am I? Not just in America, but in the Philippines or around the world.