From My Recent Readings on Fil-AM Immigration
In April 2008, Jose Antonio Vargas was part of the Washington Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for covering the Virginia Tech shootings. His Lola called the day it was announced, and the first thing she said was a question that stayed with him.
In Tagalog, she asked what would happen if people found out. Jose had been undocumented since the day he arrived in America at twelve, and he had never told the public.
To understand that question, you have to go back to the morning he left the Philippines.
SENT AWAY AT TWELVE
Jose was born in the Philippines in 1981. In August 1993, as he remembers it, his mother woke him up, put him in a cab and said, “Baka malamig doon,” which means “It might be cold there.”
She was sending him to live with her parents in Mountain View, California, his Lolo and Lola. He wrote that she wanted him to have a better life and figured she would follow soon, but she never did.
A man he had never met, introduced as his uncle, held his hand as he boarded an airplane for the first time.
His grandparents were naturalized American citizens, a security guard and a food server. Jose worked to lose his accent by pausing Frasier and The Golden Girls on tape to copy how the actors said their words, and in eighth grade he won the school spelling bee with the word “indefatigable.”
THE DAY AT THE DMV
When he was 16, in 1997, Jose rode his bike to the DMV to get a driver’s permit. The clerk looked at his green card, flipped it over and whispered, “This is fake. Don’t come back here again.”
He pedaled home and found his Lolo in the garage, cutting coupons. His grandfather admitted he had bought the card, along with other fake documents, and warned him not to show it to anyone.
Jose finally told his principal, Pat Hyland, and the district superintendent, Rich Fischer, who had become almost like surrogate parents. They even wondered whether one of them could adopt him, but a lawyer said he was too old.
Instead, they connected him with a scholarship fund that did not ask about his status. An English teacher had already introduced him to journalism, and he kept going: San Francisco State, then newspaper internships, and finally the Washington Post, where he became a reporter.
A PULITZER AND A SECRET
At the Post, Jose wrote about video-game culture, Washington’s HIV and AIDS epidemic and how technology was changing the 2008 presidential race. He also had his byline on stories in the Virginia Tech coverage that won the prize.
So when his Lola called in 2008, the prize was real and so was the secret. He later wrote that her question stayed in his head.
TELLING IT HIMSELF
In June 2011, he answered it himself. His essay “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” ran in The New York Times Magazine, and he wrote that he had decided to come forward, own up to what he had done and tell his story.
He also wrote about his mother: he had not seen her in almost 18 years, he had been angry with her early on, and by college they rarely spoke because it hurt too much.
He founded Define American the same year. In 2012, TIME put him on its cover with 35 other undocumented immigrants, and while making his film Documented, he and his mother finally began talking again over Skype.
In July 2014, Border Patrol held him at the airport in McAllen, Texas, and released him the same day with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. In 2018, he published his memoir, Dear America.
THIRTY-ONE YEARS LATER
On Christmas Day 2024, he crossed into Tijuana, Mexico, after 31 years without leaving the United States. Five days later, he got an O visa, good for three years and renewable.
It does not make him a permanent resident or put him on a path to citizenship.
In February 2025, he posted that the next day he would reunite with his mother and sister, whom he had not been in the same room with since he was twelve and his sister was barely two. His video was called “Reuniting With Mama.”
In August 2026, he announced he was stepping down as president of Define American, the organization he founded in 2011, though he is staying on its board.
He says he wants to return to his roots as a storyteller, with a second book and a YouTube channel on the way. His Lola once asked what would happen if people found out, and at 45, he is still the one telling it.
Why His Story Matters
Jose’s journey reminds us that identity isn’t just paperwork - it’s courage, grit, and the willingness to tell your truth even when your voice shakes.
Plus, only a Filipino could survive this kind of stress and still win awards.
We’re built different
Sources: Jose Antonio Vargas in The New York Times Magazine, the Pulitzer Prizes, Define American and others.
Filipino Wise Sayings/Wisdom:
"Those who do not know how to look back at where they came from," "Mercy is with God, but action is with man," "If there is perseverance, there is reward," "What good is a palace if the dweller is a dust," or "He who sows, shall reap" -- pure Filipino wisdom passed down for generations.
Finally, Do you know that there are two places in the US named Manila?
Manila, Utah and Manila, Arkansas were both named to honor Commodore Dewey's 1898 victory in Manila Bay. Back in the Philippines, Filipinos had been fighting for independence since 1896 and declared it in June 1898, only to face a new war with the United States.
Two small American towns still carry a name from that moment in history.
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