The Filipino Woman

Carmen Guerrero Nakpil

The non-fiction essay entitled, “The Filipino Woman” is written by one of the
country’s most eminent writers, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil. In the essay, Carmen
states that the Filipino women are heterogenous and unpredictable, and that there
have been three men in her life- her Asiatic ancestor, the Spanish friar, and the
Americano, which made her the Filipino woman that she is.

The essay’s purpose is to persuade the readers that a Filipino woman could not be
narrowed down into a specific attribute or characteristic as her “infinite
unexpectedness, the abrupt contrariness, and her the plural predictability, is what makes
her both so womanly and so Filipino.”
 Carmen Guerrero Nakpil

⦁ a Filipino journalist, author, historian and

public servant
⦁ was born on July 19, 1922 in Ermita, Manila— in
what then the epicenter of the Hispano-Filipino
community, into the Guerrero clan of that town,
who were renown literary artists (painters and
poets), as well as scientists and doctors.
 Carmen Guerrero Nakpil

⦁ her parents were Alfredo Leon Guerrero, a doctor, and Filomena Francisco,

celebrated as Philippine's first pharmacist

⦁ married Lt. Ismael A. Cruz in 1942, with whom she had two children, one of whom,

Gemma Cruz- Araneta, a fictionist and Ismael G. Cruz.

⦁ She was widowed in World War II

 Carmen Guerrero Nakpil

⦁ Years after her first husband’s death, she married Harvard-trained modernist, the

city planner and architect Angel E. Nakpil in 1950 with whom she had three children:

Ramon Guerrero Nakpil, Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, and Luis Guerrero Nakpil.

⦁ Between 1946 and 2006: she worked either as staff member, editor or editorial

columnist for the Manila Chronicle for 12 years where she wrote a daily column and a

weekly column for the Sunday Times Magazine.

 Carmen Guerrero Nakpil

she was also a columnist or editor at Evening News Saturday Magazine, Weekly

Women’s Magazine, Malaya, and other newspapers.

In 1960: she served as the chairperson of the National Historical Commission and

the Cultural Committee of the Philippine Commission for UNESCO.

In 1983-1986: she worked as a representative elected by the UNESCO General

Assembly in Paris
 Carmen Guerrero Nakpil
⦁ Between 1984-1986: she was the managing director of the Technology and Livelihood

Resource Center.

⦁ Her published works include: Woman Enough and Other Essays, 1963; Question of

Identity, 1973; The Philippines and the Filipino, 1977; The Philippines: The Land of the

People, 1989; a novel, The Rice Conspiracy, 1990; History Today, the Centennial Reader

and Whatever; as well as a wildly successful autobiographical trilogy Myself, Elsewhere;

Legends & Adventures; and Exeunt.

 Carmen Guerrero Nakpil

⦁ She died peacefully at 1:30 a.m., July 30, 2018, at her home in Makati. She had been

suffering from a bout of incipient pneumonia when her heart stopped.

 According to an article that I have read written by Carmen’s daughter,
Gemma Cruz-Araneta:

“Very early in life, Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil learnt “…the most obvious kind of feminism by

being the youngest and only girl in a family of dominant, lordly males.” Her father, described

as “a gallant of the old school,” treated her with unabashed partiality simply because girls

were not expected to get better grades than boys, or keep their word and their temper. Her

pampered upbringing did not prepare her for the Battle of Manila (February 1945) during

which she lost the love of her life, Ismael Cruz, my father, as well as her childhood friends

and all her material possessions.

 According to an article that I have read written by Carmen’s daughter,
Gemma Cruz-Araneta:

Both her parents and two elder brothers survived, but they were all destitute. She was a war widow

at 22, with no income and two babies to feed. But, like the proverbial Phoenix, she rose intrepidly

from the ashes of war, that was probably why she wrote “Woman Enough” (December 1951), her first

essay on the Filipino woman.”

Thank You!