"What are you?"

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Filipino, Spanish, French, Chinese

"What are you?" I've been asked that question a million times during my stay here in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"I am Filipino," I proudly answer every time.

"I mean, what else?" People always want to make it complicated, or maybe they just find me interesting. Ambiguity after all is interesting. Absolutes are not. What's interesting is the haziness, the blurrings, the undefinables, the mystery, to question.

"What do you think?" And I get a lot of answers, that I myself am surprised sometimes.

I have been mistaken for: Native American, Hawaiian, Indian, Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Costa Rican, Thai... People come up to me and greet me in Spanish, Pidgin, and sometimes in Chinese! And I guess it doesn't help wearing colored contact lenses - I wear green, blue, and brown. And for each color, I get a different answer.

"But what am I?"

I am not only Filipino

I am not exactly Chinese

I am not simply French

I am not merely Spanish

But I am all of it. These combined is a representation of my ancestry, unique, and proud.