Gina Mariko Rosales, Part 1 (S8E17)

Chances are, you’ve been to one of Gina Mariko Rosales’ events, even if you weren’t aware.

In this episode, which kicks off our Asian-American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month programming, meet Gina. Born in Daly City, she’s lived most of her life on the Peninsula and in San Francisco. But let’s talk about how she got to where she is today.

Gina was born at Seton hospital in Daly City and her parents raised her in Pacifica. In her words, Gina “grew up with a bunch of skaters and surfers.” Sounds fun. But she was one of only a few Filipinas in her hometown. She was also shaped from an early age by her time in Catholic school, which she went to beginning with her preschool days.

She also a performer, dancing specifically, but we’ll get to that.

Gina is part of the first generation in her family to be born in the US. Her parents, Armando and Lillian, both came to this country from the Philippines for college in Ohio, where they met. Lillian’s family moved around the Philippines because her dad was an engineer. Gina’s dad is half-Filipino and half-Japanese—his Japanese lineage is from Okinawa.

Lillian came to The States to pursue international law. But life had other plans. She ended up getting married and having kids, and instead did consulting work. In starting to talk more about her dad, Gina goes on a tangent about how, in 2025, she was able to visit both her mom’s homeland in the Philippines and her dad’s in Okinawa.

Gina’s mom was the first in her family to come to the US. Then one of Gina’s aunts came. Then slowly, the family starting working on getting more and more members to relocate. Eventually, her grandparents and all her mom’s siblings arrived in The Bay. Suddenly, Gina had hella cousins around.

Her mom’s family has done quite a job tracing their own lineage. Gina says they’ve been able to trace the line back six or seven generations. And many living members of that clan get together every couple of years for massive family reunions. Think 250–300 folks. I love that.

Though she’s not 100-percent certain, Gina believes that it was jobs that brought her parents the The Bay after they met at college in Ohio. Lillian worked at Levi’s and Armando at Charles Schwab. They had their first child, Gina’s older brother, out here. That was the early Eighties. Around mid-decade, Gina was born.

Her early memories are of her time in Catholic preschool. Her school was pre-K through eighth grade, so Gina says that once you’re labeled by your peers, it sticks. And those students are with you for a minute. Ninth grade provided a chance for Gina to get out of that situation. She “busted out” and attended Sacred Heart here in The City.

She remembers being pretty little and visiting her mom at Levi’s in San Francisco. She climbed on and ran around the now-defunct Vaillancourt Fountain. They’d go to Fisherman’s Wharf. And they’d visit her grandfather’s grave at the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio, followed by trips to Japantown for sushi.

We sidetrack here after Gina talks about how St. Mary’s was their church and I mention that it’s the “washing machine” and “city titty” church. Gina wasn’t familiar with either term and I’ll characterize her reaction as, simply, mind blown.

Because her school, Sacred Heart, was nearby, Gina describes the scarce parking available for students and a lottery system they all had to operate under. We go on another sidetrack here to talk about ways to get around DPT’s trickery—chalk marks and all that.

At her school, Gina was in the choir and she was a member of the step team. She’d often stay around after a day of school to participate in both groups. She and her friends would frequent 1000 Van Ness movie theater and Venture Frogs, where they’d drink boba and eat popcorn chicken. I remember both spots from my early days in The City, around the year 2000.

Gina says starting at Sacred Heart after doing K–8th in Pacifica was refreshing. She made friends with people who looked like her, finally. She was part of an Asian girl crew, in fact. Most of those girls were also on the step team and so much bonding was happening. So was “parking lot pimpin’,” whether it was in San Francisco or Daly City, after school or on the weekends.

She talks about the prevalence of unhoused folks around her school. Sacred Heart would have outreach days where students would make sandwiches to take to those people. Gina looks back fondly on that time.

She and her friends would also hang out in Japantown, taking the bus up Geary or just walking the few blocks down. They also went to hella under-18 parties that had names and themes. There were rave rooms and hip-hop rooms. Gina calls them “the early party days.” These were the days before “face the DJ” parties.

For college, Gina went across The Bay to UC Berkeley. That meant moving out of her house in Pacifica for the first time. She lived in a dorm her first year, then moved into a co-op house and eventually into an apartment with friends.

Philosophy and education were Gina’s majors. She intended to graduate and become an English teacher. We go on another sidetrack about studying philosophy (something we have in common) before Gina explains how grad school ended up not working out for her.

And we end Part 1 with Gina’s story of graduating college in 2008 when the Great Recession hit. Her dreams were dashed and she moved back to Pacifica to live with her parents. She applied for countless jobs and ended up getting into AmeriCorps VISTA, a branch of the larger organization that focuses on alleviating poverty. The program wants its members to experience a level of poverty themselves. It paid just enough for Gina to move to San Francisco.

Check back Thursday to hear Part 2 and the rest of Gina’s story.

We recorded this episode in the Brave New Spaces at Make It Mariko in South of Market/SOMA Pilipinas Cultural Heritage District in March 2026.

Photography Mason J.