BANANACUE
REPUBLIC
Vol II, No. 15
Apr 15, 2005

 
 
 by Dulz Cuna

  




Contents


Website:
 synaesthetica
 



The Promdi Imelda da Movie
 

I sneaked away to watch Imelda the Movie. No, I'm not gonna miss it for my life...She's an Icon of Womynhood Im usually awestruck. In her I cannot deny the strange aesthetics (Imeldific) I acquired when I was molding to be an artist in Regimecultured Tacloban. I remember her, she's the movie I made in my mind before Ramona Diaz beat me to the Cam...Oh I know "Meldy", that's what my Mama used to call her. She was her student in Voice way back in the post-war era in nunnery academy called Holy Infant. Meldy had a beautiful contralto voice while she sang for the GIs during the American Occupation in hometown Tacloban. When she was crowned "Queen Imelda" in a moromoro-like beauty pageant in the 40s, she was poised, regal and focused while a little lizard run halfway inside her Terno....(says Mama and some close friends). No wonder Tia Lily Montejo, Tita Ansing Jimenez who were featured in the movie recalled the Tacloban socialite Meldy with girly relish...These were times when Malacaņang, and the FirstLadyship was still the unknown destiny that hang like the "sword of damontres"...I remember the parties in Olot, the wonderment of gawking at the Hollywood guests and friends of hers (Gina Lollobrigida, George Hamilton, Niarchos, Cristina Ford etc.) and I knew I was in a fairy tale 3D. The FLAG (First Lady's Action Group) where my Mom belonged was the "pinalangga" of the Madame when she came to Tacloban. They were her backwater Blue Ladies...It was Ayala, Ortigas, Tantoco blue-bloodedness "prom d probins"...and I took pride among other sons and daughters of the FLAG to be in "faux royalty" Tacloban style. I reminisced the time when she dragged the FLAG entourage around the Philippines (Jolo, Baguio, Corregidor, Las Pinas for the Bamboo Organ Concert, CCP and Decorator Ronnie Laing's mansion) in just ONE DAY! The Madame had too much Energy that I wondered if she had BIONICS (it was the 6-million-dollar-man times, mind you! the 70s) in her. But still I loved her singing voice..I even tried to copy her "voicing-over" stance when Mama practiced her in Malacanang when they were about to leave for a state visit to the States to meet the Johnsons. I was a gangly 12 year old then, when I saw myself in the mirror in her Malacanang recieving room, I put my foot in contrapposto, folded my arms against my waist with my palms on top of the other and voiced "Viiii-voooo-vaaa" . That caught Fe Gimenez (Madame's secretary then) furtive eye and was snickering behind the drapes...was I embarassed! My Esco-shod feet rubbed against each other in kiddie fidgetation...

High School in St. Theresa's College Cebu, earned me the "First Lady Interna" because I could sing "Dahil sa Iyo" like her and all because she was a "kababayan"...No, I had no blue blood...and it sounded like a mockery sometimes...

I lived near Malacanang during the times of the Flood before the 3rd Quarter Storm...Because of some "Influences" My Pa could come and collect me from an flooded Boarding House in Concepcion Aguila St...it was an Army Amphibious tank...

But those were the days...I am thankful we have only retained the "Bayong Crony" title...the faux blue-blood...So you see, I cried in Imelda the Movie, I could relate, I could empathize, Imeldifically in my own Circle of Life....

 

 

Posted 07/15/05. Send comments to: bananacue_republic@yahoo.com  

 



"In her I cannot deny the strange aesthetics (Imeldific) I acquired when I was molding to be an artist in Regimecultured Tacloban. I remember her, she's the movie I made in my mind before Ramona Diaz beat me to the Cam..."