100 Ways to Filipino: Rachelle Peraz Ocampo
By Lisa Angulo Reid
If you’ve ever felt the calling to step up, take charge, and create something bigger than yourself, maybe you Filipino like Rachelle Peraz Ocampo.
Maybe you’ve found yourself learning how to navigate spaces where you are the only Filipino face in the crowd. Maybe you’ve questioned your Filipino-ness because you don’t speak the language fluently or because your family prioritized assimilation over preservation. Maybe you’re looking for ways to honor where you came from while simultaneously living your journey.
Maybe you’ve felt the weight of trying to lift up a community on your shoulders. And you do it because you feel the responsibility and because it gives you strength.
100 Ways to Filipino is about documenting all the ways we exist in between. And in my conversation with Rachelle, I realized her story isn’t just hers. It belongs to all of us who have ever had to find our place within our own culture.
You Filipino Like Rachelle If You’ve Ever Struggled with Language and Belonging
Rachelle was born and raised in Long Island, New York in Levittown, a predominantly white suburb where she and her siblings were the only Filipino kids in grade school. If you know anything about Levittown, it was originally built as a planned community for veterans returning from World War II and became the prototype for postwar suburban planning. While she grew up with an extended Filipino family around her, she didn’t find other Filipinos her age until she went to high school.
Rachelle’s first languages were English and Tagalog. She learned both languages at home, but like many of us growing up in the diaspora, assimilation took over. She remembers taking speech classes to dull the sharpness of her thick Filipino accent to make it more American. And over time, the Tagalog that she had learned at home slipped away. Like many of us, she can readily access the phrase “Hindi ako marunong mag tagalog nakakaintindi/I don’t know how to speak, but I understand.”
Like many of us, she feels resentment toward her parents for not fighting harder to help her become proficient in Tagalog. But her empathy for them tempers her resentment. Assimilation wasn’t a choice; it was the cost of belonging.
Maybe you Filipino like Rachelle if you had to pay the price of losing your language in order to fit in.
You Filipino Like Rachelle If You’ve Ever Discovered Your Culture Outside of Home
For much of her childhood, Rachelle knew that she was different, but she didn’t begin to internalize what it meant to be Filipino until she was older. It was during her time at St. John’s University that she truly began to recognize her Filipinoness. Being Filipino isn’t something she learned through history books; it was through community.
Joining the Filipino student organization was a turning point. She felt seen, understood, and empowered – Rachelle was given opportunities that enabled her to plan, lead, and create a community for other students like her. And it was through her experience that began to find herself and a sense of belonging that extended beyond family gatherings and basketball tournaments with other Filipinos.
Maybe you Filipino like Rachelle if you discovered yourself and your culture outside home.
You Filipino Like Rachelle If You’ve Ever Had to Reset Expectations
For longer than Rachelle could remember, she felt that she was expected to become a doctor. Or at least work in a medical field. It was the expected and practical path. The Filipino one.
So she entered college wanting to be a Physician Assistant. But along the way, something changed. Her experience with the Filipino community at St. John’s instilled in her the desire to help people, but perhaps not in the way she had originally intended. Rachelle pivoted from the Physician Assistant track to healthcare administration. She believed that this new direction would enable her to make an even larger impact while deepening her connection to the Filipino community.
Maybe you Filipino like Rachelle if you reset the expectations that were placed upon you, and, more importantly, reset the expectations you placed upon yourself.
You Filipino Like Rachelle If You’ve Ever Felt the Calling to Lead
Rachelle doesn’t just participate in Filipino communities – she builds them.
As the President of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) New York, she works tirelessly to advocate for the Filipino community in New York state. Under her leadership, NaFFAA New York secured the single largest federal grant ($1.6 million!!!) awarded to a Filipino organization in New York history to establish a Filipino community center that will serve the Queens community.
For Rachelle, this is more than just a community center. As the Filipino community in Queens continues to grow and evolve, the residents need spaces where they can meet and feel supported.
Maybe you Filipino like Rachelle if you’ve ever felt called to carve out space for your people.
There Are a Hundred Ways to Filipino. This Is One of Them.
Rachelle’s way is through advocating for her community and creating spaces that help them thrive. It is impossible to decouple her love for the Filipino community and the work she does advocating for them and telling their stories.
If you’ve ever felt the calling to be someone who leans hard into your Filipinoness because it gives you strength, maybe you Filipino like Rachelle, too.
🎧 Listen to my interview with Rachelle on Spotify.
📲 Follow Rachelle and NaFFAA NY on Instagram so you can follow the incredible work she is doing.