Gilda Cordero Fernando’s autobiography

Gilda Cordero Fernando is well known as a writer, as a publisher of books, and as a producer of plays. Therefore the publication of her autobiography is welcome news to her many admirers. It is entitled The Last Full Moon.

Two chapters in this book are outstanding. The chapter entitled "Literary Angst" (page 81) is important because it not only discusses her own writing, but also gives an insight into the literary scene in the Manila of the 1950s and 1960s.

An even more outstanding chapter has a romantic title: "The Dark Side of the Moon" (page 190). It discusses the problems involved in the production of a play entitled "Luna" the Spanish word for moon but which also happens to be her mother’s family name. The play is about the terrifying figure of Philippine folklore, the aswang. But this superbly written chapter deals with much more than the production of a play. It is a chapter about human pride and humility, human love and hate, human resentments and human (or should we say divine) forgiveness.

But besides these two chapters, everything else in this book is worth reading. It is an interesting autobiography. Born into a well-to-do middle class family (her father a professor in a medical school) Gilda spent her childhood in Manila with her family and in Batangas with her grandmother. It was a troubled childhood. (Which significant writer or artist has not had a troubled childhood?) Her student days in a good convent school (narrated in less than enthusiastic terms) were interrupted by the War. The family evacuated to Malabon and were thus spared the horrors of the last days of the War in Manila. Renting out their old home in Quiapo, they rebuilt their house in Malate where they lived in the post-war years in close proximity with many other middle class families, before the diaspora of such families into the more modern subdivisions. The book goes on to describe her marriage and the many events of family life and her various activities.

Gilda Cordero Fernando writes clearly, incisively, vividly and with an eye for the interesting detail. She is thus an excellent writer (small w) and not one of those who consider themselves superior to lesser mortals by designating themselves as Writers (capital W).

In her writing Gilda Cordero guides herself by an excellent principle which she learned from one of her friends: When you write autobiography, be kind, but also tell the truth.

This book is published by the University of the Philippines Press and GFC Books (37 Panay Street, Quezon City). The title page carries a quotation from an unnamed source: "The great beings say the moon is always full. It is us mortals who say it is not."