Rob Peñas: My name, Rob Peñas, it reflects for me my Filipino American heritage. Rob is mostly American, Peñas is mostly Filipino, and I'm proud to be a Filipino American, proud to be Filipino and proud to be American.

If you're wondering about why I look Chinese and have a Spanish name and speak English, it's because I'm Filipino. And what happened is my parents are Filipino. They came to the US in the 1960s when immigration was opened up to Asians, generally speaking.

My first name Rob, is because my parents named me after Robert Oppenheimer, who is a nuclear physicist, helped with developing actually the atomic bomb in the US, the Manhattan Project. My last name Peñas comes from my father of course, but it was the Spanish who basically forced Filipinos to adopt Spanish names several hundred years ago, 16, 1700s when they took over the Philippines in the same way that a lot of slaves in the US you'll find have very English names.

Now, Peñas is not a common name in the Philippines. Peña is much more common, but I believe the meaning for Peñas with a plural is rock.