This First Person article is the experience of Alia Ceniza Rasul, who moved to Toronto from the Philippines as an international student. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
When I was younger, my dad used to tell me stories of his home in Sulu (now a province of the Philippines). One of my absolute favorite things he would say is that our people, the Tausug, fought against the Spanish, never to be colonized by them. They were even called pirates.
As a kid, I was enamoured by the idea that I was descended from a
