Dr. Garding

Gardeopatra Gador Quijano

had a passion for writing stories, poems and essays since when she was just a teenager. She grew up to become a doctor, whom people fondly called Doktor Garding. Still, she continued to write and eventually joined the ranks of respected local authors.

CEBU, Philippines - As a writer, Doktor Garding made more women think about education, through her body of works. In her time, girls did really seek to go to school. Many got married at an early age.

Through Doktor Garding’s characters in her novels and short stories, she encouraged women to consider that they had better choices; that education was their right and not a privilege as many girls then thought. In those days, women thought that because they were poor, they had no place in college or the university.

She produced 150 stories and two novels, works that influenced many girls to find their true worth and assert their place in society.

Dr. Garding was born in the town of Alcantara, southwest of Cebu, on April 27, 1918. Her parents were Aglipayan bishop Juan Quijano, who was also a writer, and Segundina Gador. She was eldest of nine children.

She studied in various places like Cebu, Lanao, Manila, and Oroquieta in Misamis Occidental. She became a college teacher and a dentist. Her stories Maayong Ngalan (1937) and Ang Asawa nga Dala sa Akong Uyoan (1941) won top prizes in writing contests. She used two pen names, Flora Burgos and Gerardo Largavista.

Her novel Lourdes is considered as the first Cebuano novel that speaks strongly for the women’s right to vote. It was serialized in the most popular pre-war newspaper Bag-ong Kusog from August to September 1939.

Dr. Garding continued to write in the years after the war. In fact, she was one of active contributors to The Freeman, which was then in magazine format.

She took residence in Oroquieta, where she spent most of her life. She didn’t marry and, instead, stood as mother to the family.

Her best short stories are now compiled in Nabanhaw nga Himaya, translated into English by Dr. Hope Sabanpan Yu of the University of San Carlos Cebuano Studies Center and Haidee Emmie Palapar of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. The book entitled Reawakened Bliss is available at the Casa Gorordo Museum.