A most interesting character and a favorite subject of discussion in Cebuano daily life, the querida is a figure of debate and controversy who has been interpreted diversely in literature by Cebuano women short fiction writers like Hilda Montaire, Flora Rafanan, Teofila Daniel and others. The portraits of the querida advertised the radical changes she went through because of the effects of colonization, war, and modernization. The short stories that feature the querida continue to captivate us several decades later with their historical as well as textual concerns with immorality and corruption.
Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu will discuss the fantasy regarding the querida. Her lecture will tackle the querida's disruption of the fantasy of domestic space, her mobility through social boundaries and classes, and her sexualized appropriation of modernity. Her argument is concerned with reimagining the social construction of the querida, particularly as it spread throughout the Philippines, as well as with registering the parallel mental projections of sexual immorality in the minds of the characters.
The lecture will be held on September 20 at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral Museum from 4:30 - 6:00 pm. Admission is free and open to the public.
Hope Sabanpan-Yu is an associate professor of literature at the Department of Languages and Literature of the University of San Carlos. She has published numerous articles on women and gender. Sabanpan-Yu's books include Paglaum (2000), Ang Tingog ni Maria (2001), Beads (2002), Mga Dad-onon sa Biyahe (2003), Kapulongan: Conversations with Cebuano Writers (2008) (editor) and Ang Inahan ni Mila/ Mila's Mother (2008) (translator) .