 The story of Hugo and Imelda, a couple living in Santa Rosa, tells the tale of why it is

women who was dishes. This story is often used in cultural studies, as it tells how this
tradition came to be in the Philippines.
 In this short story, the wife Imelda forces her husband Hugo to wash his own dishes,
threatening him with a broom if he refuses. Hugo finally gets tired of washing dishes
after working in the fields, and refuses. In the argument that ensues, the couple made a
wager that whoever spoke first had to do the dishes forever. The silence went on so
long that the neighbors thought the couple died, and came to bury them. Imelda,
terrified at the thought of being placed in a coffin, spoke first, shouting “Don’t touch
us!” Hugo shouted for joy, for his woman would have to do the dishes forever.
Source: www.reference.com

Why Women Wash the Dishes

Have you ever wondered why women always wash the dishes? Its because of this
story:
In the town of Santa Rosa, there once lived a couple named Hugo, and Imelda.
Every mealtime, they quarreled over the chore of washing the dishes. Imelda would scold
Hugo if he refused to wash the dishes. Sometimes, she would get angry and call him names,
and
(…) if he“Come
talkedout back,
fromshe would
under get a you
the table, coconut midrib
coward,” broomKaand
ordered chase him with it. He
Maldang.
would run“Layto the house of his compadre
down your broom,” said Ka Ugong. and hide there till his wife’s anger had passed.
Their neighbors familiarly called Imelda, Ka Maldang,
“All right, all right. Come out.” Ka Maldang placed her broom behind and Hugo, Ka Ugong.
the door.
One day, just as they were finishing their
Ka Ugong returned to his seat opposite her at the table. lunch, Ka Ugong announced: “I’m not
going to wash the dishes anymore.” He threw out
“What have you to say?” asked Ka Maldang, wiping her eyes.his chest and lifted his chin.
“Who
“Let’s says
stop so?” asked Ka
quarreling overMaldang,
the plates. holding
Let’s up
haveherachin,
wager.higher
The than
first his.
one of us who
“I say so. I worked so hard in the field
will speak after I’d said ‘Begin’ will wash the dishes. Always.” this morning. I’m not going to wash any
dish.” “Only that?” said Ka Maldang. “The first one who talks will always wash the plates,
and bowls, Kapots,
Maldang stood
and pans. up and with her arms akimbo, she glared down at Ka Ugong
Always?”
across the“Right.”
table. She was a
Said Ka Ugong. big woman.
“If you Her arms
ever saywere stout.
just one Hertovoice
word me or wasto also big. “And
anybody, or to
who, Mister Hugo, is going to wash the dishes?”
anything after I had said ‘Begin’, you will always wash the dishes.”she asked.
Ka Ugong’s
“That’s easy.chest
I cansank
keepagain.
my mouth His chinshutalso
evenwent
for adown.
week.He You held on the
can’t. You edge oftalk
even the
table nervously.
to your carabao.”
“You!”
“All right,he are
saidyouin aready?”
much lower
asked Ka tone. “You are the woman. You should do all the
Ugong.
housework.”Ka Maldang set upright in front of him across the table. She nodded her head,
compressed “And herwhat
lips, do
andyou do?” asked
Ka Ugong Ka Maldang. “You tie the carabao tpo the reeds in
said “Begin.”
the field and
They both fell silent. They sat at the watch
then you lie down on the grass, it graze.atYou
table looking eachcall thatacross
other hard work? I cook,
the unwashed
clean
plates and bowls and spoons. They did not like to leave each other for fear that one should
the house, wash your clothes, scrub the floor…I do all the work that only slaves would
do.
talk And yet, you
to himself eventherefuse
without other’stohearing.
help me Theywashsat the plate
there, which you have eaten?!” Ka
staring.
Maldang’s Soonvoice
thewas
cat now
beganraised to a for
to meow higher pitch Neither
its food. and her Ka tears posed on
Maldang norher
Kaeyelids
Ugongatpaid
Ka
Ugong and at her broom. She grabbed the broom.
attention to its meowing. The cat jumped upon the drying dishes to lick the leftovers. Ka
Maldang She didraised the broom
not drive the catto strike
away.him, crying.did
Neither “You,
Ka you,Ugong. you The
lazy man!”
cat licked the pot,
overturned a kettle, spilled its contents, then went to lie down understrike
Ka Ugong ducked under the table, “Don’t!” he cried. “Don’t me!” Ka Ugong
the table.
pretended that nothing happened. He continued to sit still, so did Ka Maldang.
It was getting late in the afternoon but they still went on sitting mutely at the table.
Their eyes were tired from staring hard at each other. Tears began to roll down their cheeks.
Ka Ugong’s shirt became damp with his sweat. Ka Maldang’s sweat gathered on her
forehead, and trickled down to the sides of her face, and fell drop by drop to her breast.
A neighbor called, “Compadre Ugong! Oh! Compadre!”
Ka Ugong did not answer.
The neighbor called again. “Comadre Maldang! Yoo-hoo Comadre Maldang! Yoo-
hoo Compadre Ugong, may I borrow your ax?”
Ka Maldang did not answer. Ka Ugong looked at her silently.
“Perhaps nobody’s at home.” They heard the neighbor say it to himself.
”But why did they leave their ladder at the door? They usually remove the ladder
when they go away. Well, I’ll just go up, get the ax, and return it later.” The neighbor went
(…) her shoulders too.
He pushed him roughly aside but still did not speak.
“Did you eat something poisonous? Some food that made you dumb?” He shook
each one alternately. But still, neither stood up nor talked.
The neighbor was alarmed. He did not get the ax but ran out to the rest of the
neighbors. He told them that something terrible had happened to his Compadre Ugong and
Comadre Maldang. The neighbors gathered at Ka Maldang’s dining room. They took turns
trying to make them speak. But the two continued to sit, and stare at each other in silence. Ka
Maldang looked at her husband threateningly for a moment then closed her eyes. Ka Ugong
knew that she did so to avoid looking at the neighbors. He also closed his eyes and ignored
every one who came up to his house. Ka Maldang was very angry with her Compadre’s
interference but she dared not to speak. She pretended to be asleep.
The compadre was very much worried. He ran to the village herb man. The herb
man came and when he saw the motionless, couple sitting at the table, he declared that they
were bewitched. He spread a woven mat in the center of the sala and asked the “bewitched”
couple to lie down. Ka Ugong obediently laid down and closed his eyes. He curled up and
went to sleep. But Ka Maldang refused to get up from where she sat. The herb man said,
“Ah, the spirit that has taken possession of her is very stubborn. I must break its spell. He
turned, then produced from a small bag which he always carried, nine pieces of betel leaf, a
piece of areca nut, and a little lime from a tiny bottle. He examined the leaves closely to
choose those which had veins running in identical arrangements on each side of the midrib.
He cut the nut into nine pieces. He spread a little lime on each betel leaf, rolled them, and
wrapped them around each piece of areca nut. He now had nine rings of the leaves.
“This represents the lost spirit of the couple,” he said.
He chewed the leaf and nut. When he had chewed it, he spat it on his palm, dipped a
forefinger of the other hand into the nut-colored saliva and marked it with a cross on the
foreheads of Ka Ugong and Ka Maldang. Ka Ugong did not seem to feel the old man’s finger
on his forehead. Ka Maldang caught the man’s forefinger and twisted it. The old herb doctor
cried “Aray!” and pulled his hand back. He moved toward Ka Ugong who was lying down.
Calling his name softly and slowly several times. “Come Ugong, come back, Ugong!”
Ka Ugong did not move nor speak. “Come Maldang…come back to your body
now…come Maldang!” the old man chanted. Ka Maldang did not answer. Evening fell on
the frightened village. Frightened because the herb doctor said that the spell might be cast on
some other villagers beside Ka Ugong and Ka Maldang. He called to the bewitched couple
softly at first, and then louder, but got tired so he recited against the bamboo wall. The old
herb man said,
(…) She had leaned rigidly against the back of her chair, closed her eyes, and shut her
lips tight. The herb man asked the men gathered around to fit the couple into the coffins.
“We shall bury them at sunrise. Some of us have to stay to keep the wake for the dead,” he
said. The man easily lifted Ka Ugong and placed him inside his coffin. Surely, he thought to
himself, he would win the wager. He would not be afraid of being buried. Why? He would
just get cut of the grave when the neighbors were gone. He thought everything going on was
fun, and was enjoying himself. How he would frighten them all when he returned from his
grave! The herb man approached Ka Maldang. Although her eyes were closed, she had been
listening to his directions. She was afraid that he would surely force her into the coffin if she
did not tell him to go away. But she did not want to talk. She hoped her husband would
object to the men, lifting her coffin tonight. “Surely, Hugo will not let me be buried
tomorrow. Uh, I’m afraid to sleep in the coffin tonight. No, I’ll not let them lift me into it,”
she thought to herself. But she did not hear Ka Ugong speak. She opened her eyes just as the
herb man, aided by two other men, put his arms around her to lift her up from her chair. Ka
Maldang pushed the men, got up to her feet, and shouted, “Don’t touch us! Et out! Get out of
my house. Shame on you for coming here, meddling with our lives!” Ka Ugong leaped to his
feet, and also shouted, “You talked first!” He jumped, clapping his hands and saying to the
astonished neighbors, “She talked first. We had a wager. Now she will wash the dishes.
Always!” Ka Maldang lifted up the lid of Ka Ugond’s coffin to strike his head with it but he
ran out with the neighbors, still shouting happily, saying “I won, I knew I would win! Now
I’ll never wash the dishes.”