I'm actually a product of an arranged marriage.

My father was born and raised here in Hawaii and my mom came from a province in the northern Philippine Islands. My dad used to over to my great-aunt's house to play poker from time to time when he was approached by my great-aunt to marry my mom in order to bring her to the States. They married shortly after and she came in 1973 in that big wave of Filipino immigrants to the US.

They weren't going to stay together that long because it really was just an arranged marriage...so they were just going to divorce once she became a citizen...because she was only 21 and my dad was in his late 40s. That was the norm I think in arranged marriages.

But something happened...I guess they really did fall in love...and things were really perfect when they had me in 1979. Just kidding.