Negotiating colonial modernity: Filipinas as consumers and citizens in the American Colonial Philippines, 1901-1937

Abstract

This study revolves around the story of two women. Like many stories, it is a tale of two people who, at first glance, would seem to be opposites. One was thirty years older, born a generation ahead of the other. One was wealthy, and one was a commoner. One was a society girl; the other, a barrio girl. One enjoyed a lifestyle of wealth and endless opportunity; the other had to work hard to achieve a middle-class standard of living for her and her family. One lived in the Philippines her entire life; the other eventually gave into the tantalizing promise of life in the United States. Still, as in any story of opposites, there exist circumstances that connected the lives of these two women. No, they never met, but they did share similar life experiences. They were both teachers who were deeply committed to the education of young Filipinos. They were both family women, devoted to their husbands and children. And at the root of it all, they were both products of the world in which they grew up. This world was the American colonial Philippines, and Paz Marquez Benitez and Ofelia Hidalgo Dacanay were two women who became part of the bigger story of the evolution of "modern Filipino womanhood" during the first few decades of the twentieth century.