HUNGER By: Gilda Cordero-Fernando

Presented by: Keziah Bartolome, Eldee Apelit, & Jessa Apellido

MLS 2G
 About the author
◦ Gilda Cordero-Fernando is a writer and publisher from the
Philippines. She was born on June 4, 1932 in Manila.
◦ She has a B.A. from St. Therese College-Manila and an M.A. from
the Ateneo De Manila University
 Hunger
◦ Wendy Evans is the main character of the story. The speakers of the story is Ching Ling, one of Wendy’s
playmates. Children made fun of Wendy because she is always hungry and is always asking for food. At
the school picnic she finished fifty-six marshmallows, and at a party she accidentally dropped five sticks
of barbecue hidden under her blouse.
◦ Wendy survives on handouts and mouth-watering aromas of their neighbor’s kitchen. Her mother was too
busy practicing how to drive at the Chinese cemetery and her father was too busy on their business.
Wendy’s mom would tell her to eat something inside the fridge but it the only thing she could eat there
was ice and she called them “snow” and decided to go to the De Santos to see if she could get a taste of
Mrs. De Santos’ sponge cake.
◦ A ragged beggar totters at the De Santos’ house but Mr. De Santos closed the door immediately, telling
his wife that it is civic duty to discourage parasitism. Mrs. De Santos objects and said, “that’s all very
fine in theory. But when people don’t have enough money, or food, or love, they have to beg.”
◦ Wendy in the story is the alter ego of Gilda. Her mother loved serving other people with her pastries and
dishes. A love-hate relationship simmered and even boiled over mother and daughter. Although Gilda has
forgive her mother, she cannot forget.
◦ Hunger is a muted account of a period in Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s life when she yearned more for a
mother’s embrace than for a slice of her sugar-coated brazo de Mercedes.