Perla C. Rodriguez

February 22, 1940 – February 27, 2023

Perla Camba Rodriguez passed away quietly on February 27, 2023. Born on February 22, 1940, in Bani, Pangasinan, Philippines to Jose Catabay Camba and Rufina Credo Camba, she was the seventh of 10 children. She grew up in the province, met the love of her life, got married in 1960 and moved to Manila.

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Like many Filipinos of her generation, she immigrated to the United States in 1965. She brought along her two young children, Josephine and Vic Jerry, to join her husband, Vicente Jr, a Filipino service man with the U.S. Navy. Together, they pursued the American dream.

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She had a full-time job being a stay-at-home mom for seven children. Perla’s greatest joy came from spending time with her family. Perla taught her children by example and wouldn’t ask them to do anything that she wasn’t prepared to do herself. She loved to garden and grew many of the vegetables that eventually ended up on the dinner table. Rest assured, she had her kids out in the yard digging holes and planting seeds.

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Perla lead a very active life raising a young family with her husband. She was the soccer mom that cheered for her kids and screamed at the top of her lungs, she was the after-school teacher that helped her kids with their homework and pushed them to be the best that they could be, and she was the loving mother that cradled her kids in her arms when they were sick or just needed a hug.

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She loved to travel to the Philippines and on many of her visits returned with treasures for her kids from the homeland. Sometimes she returned with gifts maybe not so appropriate, like the man in a barrel (Google it), but always returned with pictures and stories of her relatives. Stories that she would tell again and again to anyone that would listen. Somehow, in repeating her stories, she always included ones about the “multo” or “mumu,” which has forever left her children (one at least) to be afraid of the dark!

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Growing up in Pangaisnan and close to the water, Perla had a passion for fishing and that same passion was passed on to her children. She enjoyed taking the entire family to the shores and taught them how to cast nets, bait hooks, fish with bamboo poles and in doing so she created one of many family bonding opportunities that strengthened the relationship of her already close-knit family.
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Perla was the matriarch of the family and having to raise seven kids (eight if you count how her husband acted on many occasion) she was firm in her decisions and once she spoke there was not much more to do than to get in line. Her mantra was always that family was most important, family came first and family always needed to take care of one another. She was protective of her family and at 5’ 2” and 110 pounds, she was a force to be reckoned with.

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Perla is survived by her husband, Vicente C. Rodriguez and seven children, Josephine Loveland (Ralph), Vic Jerry (Yolanda), Vic (Paul Spinella), Richard (Jennifer), Mersailles (Karen), Vicente (Jennifer) and Jim (Tara), nineteen grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and her adoring brother Warner (Lydia) Camba who resides in the Philippines.