NICOLE DUNGCA

For me, being Filipino in America is about finding and telling stories from two worlds and holding both sides close. Growing up in a place as diverse as the Bay Area, I know that being Filipino is part of the American identity – our Filipino stories are unique and distinct to our culture, but they also create the fabric of the United States. It’s never about being Filipino or American – I’m always both.

As a journalist, I've always seen my identity as a superpower that allows me to see unique perspectives that may not already be in newsrooms, and gives me access to communities that don't see themselves in mainstream media. My experiences as a Filipino American have helped set the stage for every part of my career -- leading me to question equity and justice within the systems we participate in every day, and encouraging me to help other Filipinos, AAPIs, and other marginalized groups get opportunities within this industry. 

When my Washington Post colleagues and I set out to tell the story of an Indigenous Filipino woman who was brought to the 1904 World’s Fair and later had her brain sent to the Smithsonian Institution, we were shocked that we had more than a dozen Filipino or Filipino Americans working on various aspects of the project. Because of our passion for the project, we were all able to push for a Filipino version of the story to be posted on the Washington Post's homepage – a surreal moment for a Filipino American journalist who had heard Tagalog being spoken throughout my household all my life. 

But my colleagues and I know that, even with the tremendous work that other Filipino journalists and other journalists of color have done to open doors for more people who look like us, there is still so much work to do. As the president of the Asian American Journalists Association, I constantly see the progress our community has made, and where we still need to go. Now, more than ever, we need more people telling our stories and bringing our perspectives into the mainstream.