Time to Shine: A Filipino American Family Story will be published in fall of 2025. Please come back to this site to buy your copy!

Time to Shine is a story about exploring, embracing and emanating Filipino identity.  A modern Filipino mom takes her young daughter on a trip to the Philippines to expose her to the culture that she herself had very little familiarity with due to the assimilation and colonial mentality that she experienced.

It is meant to be a positive identity story, but tackles some of the difficult themes that come with being an immigrant family surviving in a foreign country. While in the Philippines, the little girl notices the beautiful star lanterns (parols) decorating the streets and homes. She convinces her mom to bring a parol-making kit home to her grandma.

As they work on the project together, the grandma shares hidden memories with her granddaughter for the first time. Three generations experience generational and cultural healing in the simple act of making this special lantern together and hanging it in a window, symbolizing that the light that Filipinos carry within themselves no longer needs to be hidden, but shared for all to see.