Becky Carrillo

Juneau

Mar 26

Trinkets and memories of the Philippines fill Becky Carrillo’s home in Juneau.

“Everything in my house is intentional. Nothing here is a stray item,” she said.

Carrillo, 66, is originally from Manila, the capital city of the Philippines in its northernmost island, Luzon. But it’s further south in Aklan province where she has fond memories from childhood.

In Aklan, she remembers attending church with her grandmother and pressing her “Sunday best” dress using a coal iron. On one of her trips home, she came across a coal iron by chance at a restaurant. She bought the iron and found coal from her grandmother’s house to return to Alaska.

“When I first moved here, I was 24. I took mementos that were easy to carry,” Carrillo said. “But it was only after subsequent trips home that I kind of, like, yearned for things that connect me to my grandma.”

Carrillo points to artwork displayed in her home in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Joshua Albeza Branstetter)

Artwork depicting provincial farm life in the Philippines lines the walls of Carrillo’s home. It’s a reminder of eras long gone.

“Instead of rice paddies there, they’re housing developments and malls. So these scenes are becoming few, and you have to go inside the provinces to find them. Whereas, before, that’s where we played. That’s our everyday scenes,” she said.

The scenes are a sharp contrast against the rugged landscapes of Juneau, Alaska, where she has lived for more than four decades.

Photos of Carrillo during her school days (top row, second from left) and nursing school graduation from her archive. (Photo by Joshua Albeza Branstetter)

Like most of her nursing colleagues in the Philippines, Carrillo came to the United States at a time when Filipino nurses were in demand to fill health care labor needs across the country.

“When I arrived here, I started from the bottom, and that didn’t bother me,” Carrillo said.

She led the state’s Women, Infants and Children program for more than 25 years. Her work brought her to communities across Alaska, including the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta where she and a Filipina coworker once brought services via boat to community members at a fishing camp.

“It didn’t feel like work to me, really. Those were really happy times,” she said. “We did very good work for a lot of families in need, and it didn’t feel like work at all, and I worked with a lot of really good people.”

Along with her full-time job, Carrillo also worked part-time for Alaska Airlines. She retired from the state in 2017, and in 2021, she was appointed Philippine Honorary Consul for Alaska.

“I feel lucky that I have the life that I have,” she said. “Maybe ‘lucky’ isn’t the word, because I worked hard.”