Review of Women’s Studies 21 (1): 38-53
HERE LIES LOVE
Notes on Fetishizing History
Katrina Angela R. Macapagal
Abstract
This essay examines “Here Lies Love,” a concept album based on the
life story of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos. The album,
produced by US-based artist David Byrne, is a fantasy-production of
Western imaginary that allows for the fetishization and feminization of
history through a sympathetic retelling of Imelda’s biography. Through
a discussion of the disco-opera genre and representative songs, the
essay moreover argues that the album reinforces the myth of Imelda as
it contrasts her life story with Estrella Cumpas, the woman who raised
Imelda, whose character serves as the album’s anti-star. The essay finally
contends that Byrne’s project dangerously reinforces the myth of Imelda
as a fascinating figure of power, as constructed from a distanced Western
perspective.
“Imelda began her stint as First Lady by building a fantasy to captivate her
country. She ended it as a prisoner of a ridiculous dreamworld.”1
-Katherine Ellison, Imelda: Steel Butterfly of the Philippines
The myth of Imelda Romualdez-Marcos remains powerful to
this day, not just in the literal sense that she has been re-elected into office or
that she walks the streets of Manila as a free woman, having been acquitted
from voluminous charges of corruption and human rights violations. The
myth of Imelda persists in the ambiguity of the verdict bestowed upon
her by Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike. Even as history attests to Imelda’s
role as Ferdinand Marcos’ partner-in-crime in twenty years of what has
been called the conjugal dictatorship, many still regard her as a woman of
charm, a subject of fascination, in spite or because of her role in Philippine
history.
The myth of Imelda is a strong example of myth personified, as it
“transforms history into nature” (Barthes 1973/2006, 300). As Barthes has
©2013 UP Center for Women’s Studies, University of the Philippines
ISSN 0117-9489