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Bibi Rocha

@bibirochacha

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🇧🇷🌱🧘‍♀️
Amiga, eu sou muito Brasileira para não amar radicalmente e transgressivamente. As suas dores se tornam uma revolução em mim

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Surprise, we’re married!

We decided to live life on our own terms. Shout out to our incredible officiant who also captured these beautiful photos @sa10m3

We’ll have a big celebration with all our loved ones eventually, just as we planned when we got engaged. But for now, we’re savoring these little moments we create together.

(Insert that one quote from Everything Everywhere All At Once about doing laundry and taxes together 😭🥹) by @bibirochacha

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2 years ago

Brazilian steak sandwiches with horseradish tahini (recipe below)

Recipe (top to bottom)
- sourdough bread toasted (from the Polish store)
- horseradish tahini
- steak (cooked medium rare to medium well)
- tomatoes
- arugula and mint
- cheese
- sourdough bread

#brazilianfood #sandwiches #cooking #foodvlog food by @bibirochacha

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2 months ago

Saved the best for last 🥹 by @bibirochacha

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5 months ago

All flourishing is mutual.

Externally, the world felt dark in 2025. While it felt like the skies closed in on us, perhaps all we lost sight of were the illusions of what was. Internally, I felt guided by a deep sense of purpose – a light that expanded within me, pushing me to see what’s possible and live in that truth. What a beautiful year it has been for reconnecting with ancestors, embracing vulnerability, alchemizing the shadows through expression and storytelling, music, friendship, mutual aid, pursuing justice, and building a world that is abundant and reciprocal.

Alright cutie patooties, see y’all in the year of the fire horse 🔥🐴 .

Note on first picture: I used to think Texas Roadhouse was where the richest people ate. A meal there was exclusively for the most special occasions every few years, if that. An appetizer and soda was all I could afford while overindulging in their complimentary bread with the cinnamon butter. Now I have this picture of me in front of Texas Roadhouse in the Philippines. I didn’t eat there not because I couldn’t afford to, but because I didn’t want to. I had the option. I live a material reality that is beyond anything I dreamed of for myself back in the days. I met a lot of people who believed that helping others was an extension of self care. They didn’t see extending their hand to me as charity, they saw it as abundant. I realize now that our paths crossing was luck. My material conditions changing was not based on merit alone but luck too. The pattern in my luck was clear – these were people who had previously been in my shoes. I can now look back and see that poverty was never a personal failure of mine or my family’s. It was a failure of a system. A system that keeps people hungry and overworked, making them believe that a chain restaurant is the North Star of dining and special experience. I share this because abundance is in our every day lives, even when our material conditions make us feel like we have to earn it. Abundance is sharing a meal with friends, whether that be sitting on the floor and eating with our hands or giving someone else an opportunity. All flourishing is mutual. by @bibirochacha

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10 months ago

Happy Winter Solstice!
May the light nourish your seeds. 🌱

—
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

To Know The Dark by Wendell Berry by @bibirochacha

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10 months ago

Shedding 🐍 by @bibirochacha

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10 months ago

Documenting life has always been one of my favorite things to do, though I didn’t realize this until I met Thaísa. We sophomores in high school and I noticed another Brazilian girl in two of my classes that year. While I didn’t have any friends in those classes, I brushed off Thaísa thinking she would be boring and basic. After all, she was fairly quiet. But as it turns out, the universe had other plans.

We ended up being sat next to each other and forced to work together. What I learned very quickly is that we were the same type of loser. During our Spanish lunch block, I noticed we were following the same routine to avoid the scary thing – sitting by ourselves at lunch. We would both sneak off to the bathroom, then head to the vending machine for snacks instead of grabbing a real lunch and then walk around the entire school to kill time. After many days of this routine, we finally looked at each other by the vending machine and said, “Do you want to sit together?” And that was it.

The person I pushed off as basic and boring turned out to be a catalyst for some of the most memorable teenage years I could’ve asked for. That’s when I started my memory boxes.

These memories were so special, I wanted to save it in any way I could to look back on one day. They became a way for me to connect back to versions of myself I’ve already experienced. It allowed me to feel the profound impact those in my life made on me.

Getting to know Thaísa meant discovering the gentler, softer parts of myself. She became my rock. We both come from immigrant families, leaving so much behind in pursuit of the unknown, but my favorite part of that journey has been finding a sisterhood with her that I know will carry beyond this lifetime.

Over 15 years later, we are still making memories that we will look back on fondly when we’re old and grey. Now I get to add Thaísa and Eli’s wedding, woven by their Catholic and Jewish faiths into my memory box. I’ll look back at these photos and cry happy tears to have experienced the magic of this day.

Best of all, there’s one thing I know for sure. I’ll never have to sit alone again. Our chosen family has expanded. ❤️ by @bibirochacha

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a year ago

“You are the happiest person I’ve ever seen” said a frequent customer checking out at Ace Hardware. I was the cashier.

That same day, I went home and journaled about what happiness really meant, considering that I was questioning my place on Earth. About two years later, I received a similar comment from Paul Feig — yes, the director — as he entered No. 9 Park, a restaurant he became a regular at during his time shooting “Ghostbusters” in Boston, where I was the Guest Relations Manager.

These comments were confusing to me. If I was being perceived as this beacon of happiness, does this mean that what everyone else is feeling is worse than what I am experiencing or am I just such a good faker of my own pain?

I’ve been journaling since I first learned to string words together, trying to make sense of the world and the injustices I experienced and witnessed. Writing helped keep me intact. It became my mirror for reflection.

I created The Healing Hut on Substack after spending most of my life since battling depression trying to figure out what it means to be happy and to be free. In that journey, I learned that diving deep into the things I love and constantly being a student gave me purpose. Looking at life from a child’s eye. With that, I got certified in meditation and mindfulness (I can officially teach it now — woohoo!), the science of happiness and Chinese philosophy of happiness.

The systems we operate within have always disturbed me, but I’ve learned through my own life and in classes that our transformation is not ours alone. We don’t get to choose whether we affect each other, we only get to choose how.

If you want to come join the journey, The Healing Hut is a place we can learn to find meaning in life’s messy in betweens together :) by @bibirochacha

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a year ago

Through the years 🥹❤️

Watching my little sister walk down the aisle to the love of her life was one of life’s greatest honors. We may not be blood related but we are absolutely family. At this point, she’s basically Brazilian-Vietnamese and you can’t convince me otherwise.

Phuong and I first met at the library and it didn’t take too much time for us to become inseparable. So much so, she would skip school (yes, her own school) just to follow me around my classes at Malden High. She would sit in the back with me and we would hope that the teacher wouldn’t notice, even though we were not quiet by any means.

We spent all of our teenage years side by side — yapping about nothing, laughing way too loud on 6am trains, pushing each other off sidewalks because we couldn’t walk straight, fangirling a little too hard over One Direction, Justin Bieber, and even Juicy J.

But more than anything, we held space for each other. As we both went through our own journeys of self-discovery, we never lost sight of the love that brought us together and we took the time to get to know the new versions of one another (as observed through my many changes in hair colors through the years).

She brought light to some of my most transformative years. She taught me loyalty, joy, and love, without conditions. These memories will always live in my heart.

I say all of this because my best friend just got married. There was a time in my life where I didn’t think I would be alive to see this day. It is because of her that I’m still here and I’m so glad that I am.

Phuong and Mike, I love you both and I can’t wait to be there for your upcoming chapters in life. ❤️🌺

Please plan for our senior living community in the future accordingly. Thank you! Xoxo by @bibirochacha

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a year ago

It blows my mind how many things had to happen for us to meet, and yet, it feels like this was inevitable.

What if I never moved to the U.S.? What if Ray’s parents hadn’t moved here when they did? What if I hadn’t picked “Chicago” out of a hat filled with other cities for my spontaneous move?

On our second date, we went to Drag Night at the Lincoln Park Zoo. After cheating at bingo (hoping to win cruise tickets together, obviously), we stood on a bridge overlooking ducks and flamingos as the sun set. We talked for hours, about personal philosophies, hopes for a better world, stories that shaped us, what religion means to us… among other things.

Later that night, we went dancing and realized we were the same kind of awkward and weird.

When the park closed, Ray suggested we play We’re Not Really Strangers.

Somewhere between that bridge and that game, it stopped feeling like I was getting to know someone new. It felt like I was remembering. Like we’d met before, but I couldn’t place where.

We’ve been inseparable since.
Happy 1st wedding anniversary to my otter. ❤️🦦

Random pics and videos of experiences together from the past year. by @bibirochacha

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a year ago

Doechi wore green Gazelles, so I wore green Gazelles.

Chinatown - the one place I will roll my sleeves up and fight for a parking spot

Thanks @_moshun for this picture 🥹. Kbbq memories by @bibirochacha

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2 years ago

Happy Filipino history month to my second family and all Filipinos out there! 🇵🇭

7,641 islands, the world’s largest archipelago, and some of the most resilient and creative people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. Despite a tumultuous history, Filipinos are never afraid to share what they have, even when they may not have much. The table is always extended for others. Their abundance of love, care, and unwavering sense of community is unmatched.

Anyways, if you’re in Chicago, here’s a list of my favorite Filipino spots:
@boonieschicago
@umagabakehouse
@bayankochicago
@kasamachicago
@cebuchicago
@titomikesplace

Favorite artists:
@omoidayy 😘😘😘
@hermusicofficial
@esta
@chadhugo
@oliviarodrigo
@saweetie
@kingmarie

Give them all some love!

If you’d like to celebrate as well - @titatootsies is hosting a celebration for Filipino history month on October 20. Check out their page for details! by @bibirochacha

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2 years ago