The moment I realized that writing for newspapers meant having a “byline”—“by Jose Antonio Vargas,” my name in print, on a piece of paper, visible and tangible—I was hooked. There are no writers in my family—not on my mother’s side, not on my father’s side. In the Philippines, we’re a family of farmers, nurses, cooks, accountants, construction workers, U.S. Navy veterans. I got into journalism because of a high school teacher.
