The Filipino Woman (Essay)

by Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil

BIOGRAPHY:

Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil (born on July 19, 1922 in Ermita, Manila) was born to Alfredo
Leon Guerrero, a doctor, and Filomena Francisco, first Filipino pharmacist. Brother Leon Ma. III
is an essayist and fictionist. Poet and essayist Fernando Ma. Guerrero and Manuel S. Guerrero are
her uncles; playwright and stage director Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero and poets Nilda Guerrero-
Barranco and Evangelina Guerrero-Zacarias, her cousins. Painter Lorenzo Guerrero is her
paternal grandfather and fictionist Gabriel Beato Francisco, her maternal grandfather. She
married Ismael Cruz, with whom she had two children, one of whom, Gemma Cruz, is a
fictionist. Years after her husbands death, she married architect Angel E. Nakpil with whom she
had three children. She studied at St. Theresas College, where she edited the campus paper, The
Orion. She taught literature at the same college.

A widow at the end of WWII, Guerrero-Nakpil went into journalism. Starting as proof-
reader, she rose to become magazine editor and columnist. She wrote a daily column for the
Manila Chronicle for 12 years and a weekly column for the Sunday Times Magazine; she was also
a columnist or editor at Evening News Saturday Magazine, Weekly Womens Magazine, Malaya,
and other newspapers. Later, she became the chairperson of the National Historical Commission
and the cultural committee of the Philippine commission for UNESCO. In 1983-1986 she worked
as a representative elected by the UNESCO General Assembly in Paris. In 1984-1986 she was
managing director of the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center.

Guerrero-Nakpils published works include: Woman Enough and Other Essays, 1963;
Question of Identity, 1973; The Philippines and the Filipino, 1977; The Philippines: The Land of
the People, 1989; and a novel, The Rice Conspiracy, 1990.

She received the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas Award for English fiction in
1988 from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) and the Southeast Asian Writers
(SEAWRITE) Award in 1990. Also in 1990, she won the National Book Award for anthology
from the Manila Critics Circle for her The Philippines: The Land and the People.
SUMMARY:

Who are the Filipinos? What is it like to be a Filipino woman? How do you describe
yourself? These are important questions is finding our true identity as a nation and the identity of
a Filipino woman in our modern world. Nakpil chose four historical women, Cory, Leonor,
Gabriela and Imelda, to represent most, if not all, the women in our nation throughout the years.

Cory and Leonor both came from the same small town and had both gone through the loss
of a loved one. However, that is where the similarities end. Their differing personalities and the
decisions they made lead them to very opposite roads in life. While Leonor was obedient and
submissive to her parents and society, Cory overcame the tragic loss of her husband and became
the first woman president of the Philippines.

Gabriela and Imelda also had different stories to tell. Gabriela became a rich widow after her
first husband died. However, she married a peasant leader and took up his revolution against
Spain after he was shot in the back. The opposite was true for Imelda. She was the daughter of the
least successful child in a family of professionals and government officials, but she later married
the only Philippine president to reign for 20 years in office.

Nakpil highlights that these women, although somehow similar, reflect the different
personalities and attitudes that make up a Filipina. All the traits these women show, both positive
and negative, can be seen in Filipino women migrant workers. These women migrant workers
have sacrificed time, memories and contact with their families just to earn a suitable income.
Many of them are overqualified for the work given to them overseas, sacrificing their dignity but
rising above the challenge of poverty to provide a future for their families. Despite everything
Filipino women have gone through throughout the centuries, they keep an identifiable Filipino
trait with them, their unquenchable optimism.

REFERENCES:

Galang, R. (nd). The Paz Marquez-Benitez Memorial Lectures. Retrieved on November 25,
2015 from http://rizal.lib.admu.edu.ph/aliww/pmb_carmen_guerrero_nakpil.htm

Erika (2012). Reaction to The Filipino Woman: Cory and Leonor, Gabriela and Imelda by
Carmen Guerrero Nakpil. Retrieved on November 25, 2015 from
http://readmymindenglishblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/reaction-to-filipino-woman-cory-
and.html