Maria Venus Raj was born to an Indian father and a Filipina mother. Upon birth, Raj was taken by her mother to Bato, Camarines Sur in Bicol Region, Philippines as an infant and was registered by an aunt as a Philippine-born child to Roman Catholic parents.^[2] Raj grew up with her mother, a former tenant farmer and dressmaker who brought Maria Venus Raj up as a child.^[3]