Nia Peeples 2003 Philippine Daily Inquirer Interview

'Multi-talented actor' Nia Peeples

I would love to go to the Philippines," says NiaPeeples, Hollywood actress, singer, songwriter and choreographer, during a one-on-one interview at a Beverly Hills hotel in which she talks extensively about her Filipino heritage for the first time.

Nia, Steven Seagal's co-star in the action-thriller "Half Past Dead," recalls the time she danced the tinikling as a little girl. The multi-talented performer is best known for her roles on two hit TV series, as Nicole Chapman on "Fame" and as an undercover cop on Chuck Norris' "Walker, Texas Ranger." She also scored a Billboard no. 1 dance record and became a host of "The Party Machine with Nia Peeples" and MTV's "Friday Night Street Party."

The way Nia recounts it, her family's beginnings in the US sound like a not-so-typical chapter in an immigrant Filipino family's pursuit of the American dream. "My grandparents on my mother's side are both from the Philippines, " begins Nia, whose father, Bob, is white. "My grandfather,Frank Nuñez Rubic, was from Manila. My grandmother, Emilia Salcedo, was from Cebu." Both are deceased. Although she never learned to speak Filipino,Nia maintains that she's thoroughly Pinay. But her family's saga explains why most migrants eventually lose their heritage. "My grandfather joined the US Navy in the Philippines in 1925 and when they docked over in San Francisco, he jumped ship so he could get his family here," Nia recounts. "My grandmother came over illegally, during the war. So when they had children, they wouldn't allow their kids to speak Tagalog and told them to act like Americans. The kids understood Tagalog but never spoke it."One of those kids was Nia's mother, Elizabeth "Liz" Joan Rubic Peeples, who, at 61, has never been to the Philippines.

Nia, who was born in Hollywood, narrates an incident that must have been

remarkable to three generations of Rubic women. "Years ago, right before my grandmother passed away, I remember going to a party with her. I must have been 13. My mother would take us to my grandparents'homes or their parties, and there were many Filipinos around speaking Tagalog. You'd pick up a few things but you don't really know. Then once, my mother asked my grandmother how her aunt (my grandmother's sister) was. My grandmother said, 'She's not really your aunt.'My mother said, 'What!?' Turns out they weren't really sisters. To escape the war, some of my folks changed names. Some of them who found a ay to get to the United States took all of these different children in with them."She adds, "My mother is really dying to find her roots back there, because we lost contact. There's a lot that we don't know, that we feel like there's a hole.

" Nia claims that her grandfather Frank was a medal-winning boxer, while his brother Jose was a Manila police chief."I would love to go to the Philippines, with my mother." Nia, who was a high school cheerleader, senior class president and homecoming queen, credits her gregariousness to her upbringing. "My entire family is like this," she states."Maybe it's because we come from so many races. My father is from the south with Scottish, Irish, English, Native Indian, Italian and all that in his blood, and he married a Filipina. That was something, especially in those times.

My parents were proud of the fact that they had three little girls of mixed blood. My extended family also had children of every color. So when our family gets together, there are different kinds of food. Individuality is always honored. I never even considered that it wasn't part of being American. It was so weird to me when I got old enough to realize that some people are prejudiced. I didn't even know that I was of a different color, until I moved to Texas when I was 11. I heard them talking about this one black kid in class and I went, 'What?'"

Still, Nia, whose exotic good looks, articulateness and engaging mien make her a standout, is proud of her mixed heritage. "I wouldn't trade it for anything," she says. "It's always odd to me when I hear Americans say to me, 'I'm German and Irish.' I'm like, that's all? How can you be only that when I'm a mixture of different races? But the one race that is the nearest would be Filipino, because it's not so far removed. "The only Filipino tradition that was handed down to us was the food and the tradition of being a tightly-knit family," admits Nia, whose real name is Virenia, after a slave in "Spartacus." "I think that Filipinos as a whole are very lovely people. And they are great caregivers. I don't know if this is also a Filipino tradition but the women in our family hold the big stick. They rule the house."

The actress, who got her first big break on the soap "General Hospital," says, "At Christmas, or other holidays or whenever my extended family gets together, we always have pancit, adobo and lumpia. I cook adobo a lot. Everybody likes it. Of course, with white rice." Nia adds with a chuckle, "My son eats rice cold out of the refrigerator." Son is Christopher, 13, from a first marriage. Nia has a daughter, Sienna Noelle, 3, with her current husband, Lauro Chartrand, a stunt coordinator who is working on Tom Cruise's 19th century epic, "The Last Samurai."