At Large
‘Filipinas’
By Rina Jimenez-David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:44:00 08/27/2008
Ongoing until Aug. 30 at the main hall of the SM Mall of Asia (MOA—behind the free-standing globe) is “Filipinas,” a photo exhibit on 30 Filipino women in tribute to the heroism of Filipinas—past, present and future.
Coinciding with the celebration of National Heroes Day, the exhibit features intimate portraits, by Isa Lorenzo, of living (at the time) women who represent the arts, education, social work, civil society and politics. Although the portraits were previously shown in other venues—at the Cultural Center and at the Unesco House in Paris, to mention two—the exhibit at the MOA has garnered the largest audience yet for the photographs, educating the Filipino public not just about these women and their accomplishments, but also about the role—often unheralded—that women have played throughout Philippine history. (There is a planned tour through other SM Malls.)
Seven of the 30 women included in the exhibit were at the opening rites at the MOA, and they were: Virgie Moreno, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Maribel Ongpin, Tessie Ang See, Alice Lorenzo, Eggie Apostol and Santanina Rasul. The ceremonies were hosted by Cheche Lazaro.
The exhibit is a project of the Women’s Media Circle, SilverLens Gallery and the Women’s Committee of SM Super Malls. It was curated by Deanna Ongpin-Recto.
“All my life, I have been fascinated by the Filipina,” writes Lorenzo, “how she holds power within our societal system, how she manages this power by quietly taking on pivotal roles, and how she uses this power to eventually come into her own. The result of her individual journey is what I am interested in: the strong, timeless Filipina with a humanity that transcends history and legacy.”
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Ii’s noteworthy that among the generation of women represented by those whose portraits appear in “Filipinas,” are pioneers in their respective fields: the country’s first woman president, Cory Aquino; Solita “Mareng Winnie” Monsod, who was the first woman director general of the National Economic and Development Authority; and Dr. Fe del Mundo who pioneered pediatric medicine in the country. Others blazed their own trails and opened doors to women following in their wake, mainly by fighting for women’s rights and showing women what they could do: former senators Rasul, Leticia Ramos Shahani and Helena Z. Benitez; former ambassador Rosario G. Manalo, who worked tirelessly for women in both the Department of Foreign Affairs and within the UN system.
Some are my personal heroes: Apostol, who founded this paper and continues to fight for both freedom of expression and the upgrading of our educational system; Cordero-Fernando, who has left an indelible mark in Philippine literature and cultural education with her championing of everything Filipino; Ang-See, a cultural researcher who became the voice of a beleaguered Filipino-Chinese community; Haydee Yorac, who became a role model for all feisty, fearless Filipinas; Armida Siguion-Reyna, pioneering film and TV producer and outspoken oppositionist; Estafania Aldaba-Lim, who championed causes as varied as children’s rights and women’s reproductive health well into her twilight years; and Maribel Ongpin, social commentator, cultural scholar, women’s advocate.
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Indeed, it’s astonishing how recently Filipino women have grown into our current status as citizens and participants in nation-building. Just a generation ago, Filipino women were making inroads into areas previously thought out-of-bounds for our gender, be these the professions, politics, business, the arts. Even more astonishing is the realization of how fragile these gains have been, such that just a generation after, we stand to lose many of the rights our foremothers have won, or else face the prospect of seeing these rights eroded, diminished, trivialized.
Perhaps, what the women in these portraits—taken, says Lorenzo, with no “elaborate costumes, frivolous props, nor backdrops … (with) a simple background in the style of studio photography from the 1940s and 1950s”—have to tell us women today is that while it hasn’t been easy being a woman in a hostile world, surviving and prevailing is as much a matter of grace and fortitude as of wisdom and influence.
Lorenzo says that the qualifications she considered in choosing her subjects were “accomplishment and age—they must have done a lot in their lives and they must be old enough to not screw up their achievements.”
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Coinciding with what we hope will be a roving exhibit of “Filipinas” is the progress being made on the possible passage of the Magna Carta of Women, with the House version already passed on second reading while the Senate version already undergoing scrutiny on the floor.
I’m sure that if the women in “Filipinas” were to be acquainted with this pending legislation and what this would mean to protect and institutionalize women’s rights in our laws, they would all lend their enthusiastic support and endorse the legislation.
While the generation of women represented in “Filipinas” battled against the more visible and palpable manifestations of gender bias, today we confront discrimination in more hidden, subtle forms. We fight today for equity in terms of opportunity and livelihood, including greater access to credit, skills and markets. We fight for equally fundamental but less recognized rights, such as reproductive rights and freedom from violence, especially from the men in our lives.
But together with the women who came before us, we celebrate, too, our womanhood and our sisterhood, the sense of belonging to one another, because of our shared experience and common dreams.
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