Documentary About Imelda Marcos: Reaction Paper

Documetary About Imelda Marcos - Reaction Paper

2013-17819

I first knew of Imelda Marcos during my Sibika class back in grade school. Her name was repeatedly mention as I studied history in higher years of primary school all the way until high school. The thing is, I've only read about her. I've never really seen or heard her. The first time I actually saw her was when we watched the documentary about her in our STS class.

While watching Imelda talk and move about in the film, she reminded me a lot of my Aunt. When I relayed this information to my father, the only thing he said was "Well, that's because Imelda is my sister's idol."

They were similar because they were both:

• An Elitist. In the film, you could easily see Imelda's prestige life. She lives in a house that is luxuriously furnished, wears fancy clothes with different brooches to suit each style and talks in a way that seems like her only purpose in doing so is to impress people by not speaking the native language. It was even mentioned in the film that Imelda would continuously have parties and karaoke sessions in a yacht with people she invited.
• Enthusiastic. Imelda Marcos was highly optimistic. She was a happy-go-lucky person who always saw the brighter side of things. At the time when she was brutally stabbed by a bolo, she just made a joke about the weapon being ugly. She said that if she was going to die, the murder weapon should be neatly tied with a pink ribbon. When his husband, Ferdinand Marcos, was in his death bed, she sang him a lullaby with her beautiful voice. Imelda Marcos is a very strong woman to be able to hide all her pain and cover it up with smiles.
• An Altruist. Although Imelda was always full of herself, she never hesitated to help others who she deemed was in need. One can't deny that the first lady has played a major role in the betterment of the country during the Marcos reign. She had several projects including the building of hospitals, which further helped those in need.

A lot of people dislike my Aunt because of her attitude the same way some people hate Imelda Marcos. But, just because some people have negative values doesn't mean they can't be of help to our society. Imelda may be one of the biggest contributors to our country, but people can't see this because they stop learning more about her when they see her attitude.