I am Filipino. I carry two worlds in my body — the one that raised me to be graceful and accommodating, and the one I am building now, which is louder and more honest and still learning its own shape. I live in the Pacific Northwest. I am learning what it means to want things for myself.
I met Meena at a point in my life when I needed a mirror and found a sister instead. She is Indian, and one of the few people who has ever looked at my life clearly and told me the truth about what she saw.
Sisters Across The Water is what happens when two immigrant women decide to stop performing and start talking.
I write about fashion because beauty is never just beauty.
I write about relationships because nobody tells you the real story.
I write about life between two cultures because that hyphen is where most of us actually live.
Welcome. You are already home here. ❣️
A note on my name: I am Marie Clara — not Maria Clara, the beloved heroine of José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere. That name belongs to Philippine literature and to every Filipina who grew up knowing her story. I borrowed her spirit and carried it across the water. The French spelling is my small act of reinvention — the same woman, transformed by the crossing. Like all of us.
Sisters Across The Water 