Woman with Horns and Other Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
"Woman with Horns and Other Stories" is a collection of short stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, reflecting on Filipino culture through the lens of history, nationalism, and personal experience. The narratives emerge from Brainard's desire to address the historical neglect of Filipino culture by foreign powers, using her birthplace of Cebu as a backdrop, reimagined as Ubec. The stories navigate complex themes of identity, memory, and the impact of colonialism, often highlighting the emotional struggles of characters caught between their native and adopted lands.
Brainard's creative interpretations of historical events, such as the death of Ferdinand Magellan and the experiences of individuals during various conflicts, showcase the resilience of the Filipino spirit amidst adversity. Each tale captures the essence of Filipino life, with its rich traditions and the lingering effects of war, while portraying characters who confront their painful pasts. The collection emphasizes the importance of storytelling in reclaiming history and offers a poignant exploration of love, loss, and the search for belonging. Through her work, Brainard invites readers to engage with the complexities of Filipino identity and the universal themes of human experience.
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Woman with Horns and Other Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
First published: 1987
The Work
The stories in this collection by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard derive from the author’s attempt to compensate for the fact that Filipino culture, for hundreds of years, was considered too primitive to be significant in the eyes of nations such as Spain, the United States, and Japan. The author’s nationalism (reinforced by nostalgia after her emigration to California) is reinforced by her placing many of the tales in Ubec—the reverse spelling of Cebu, the Philippine island of the author’s birth. The fact that invading forces so often destroyed or neglected native records provided the final impulse for Brainard to depend on her imagination for invention of details wherever history has been forced to remain silent. Her stories also show her division of allegiance between her native land and her adopted country.
An example of Brainard’s creative approach to history is found in the story “1521.” The failure of Ferdinand Magellan to complete his circumnavigation of the world is usually explained by his coming between two hostile Filipino chiefs. Yet “1521” suggests that Lapu-Lapu may have killed Magellan in revenge for the death of Lapu-Lapu’s infant son at Spanish hands. “Alba,” however, shows more tolerance when, in 1763, during the English occupation of Manila, Doña Saturnina gives birth to a fair-skinned son. The son is accepted by her husband. Similarly, in “The Black Man in the Forest” old guerrilla general Gregorio kills an African American soldier but will not let his body be cannibalized despite near-starvation brought on by the Philippine-American War. The title story recounts how, in 1903, an American Public Health director finds renewed interest in life, after the death of his wife, with Agustina, a seductive Filipina widow. The effects of war are remarked in “Miracle at Santo Niño Church,” in which Tecla suffers nightmares about the Japanese who bayoneted her family. “The Blue-Green Chiffon Dress” uses the period of the Vietnam War as occasion for a brief encounter between Gemma and a soldier heading back to combat. “The Discovery” describes a Filipina’s torn loyalties between her American husband and a former Filipino lover who, like her homeland, seems ravaged by time and violent circumstance.
The collection does not observe the historical sequence. For the modern Filipino, perhaps, all past time is being experienced for the first time by a people whose history has been withheld from them. In any given period, however, Filipino resilience has proved to outweigh victimization. Melodrama in the stories’ circumstances repeatedly gives way to quietude and certitude.
Bibliography
Casper, Leonard. Sunsurfers Seen from Afar: Critical Essays 1991-1996. Metro Manila, Philippines: Anvil, 1996.