27-year-old artist Renren Galeno’s parents used to ask her that question. Not anymore, not after her illustrations were part of “Searching for Maura,” a ground-breaking investigative report in the Washington Post that was a finalist for the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes. 

Discovered because of her comics on climate anxiety, the Davao native gave a unique Filipino perspective to a major American journalism project that unearthed a long-buried scandal involving the US government’s Smithsonian Museum. 

The project also blew open a hidden part of Philippine history that saw Filipinos displayed in a human zoo at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. 

Galeno tells Howie Severino how she convinced her parents that art was a viable career choice and what it was like to collaborate with investigative journalists.  

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