Macapagal 47 a biography which put her life in danger. In the song, Estrella addresses Imelda: “So take back��all your money/Although I need it—more than you/Just acknowledge—that/you knew me/On Solano Avenue.” Estrella will resurface again in the backdrop of “Order 1081,” where her house will be bulldozed by Imelda’s beautification projects in Manila. She joins Imelda in a duet in the final song that closes the album’s narrative (a song which I will address later). While the choice of Imelda as the star of Byrne’s disco-opera is not at all strange given that the First Lady remains a fascinating Third World figure, the more important question is: Why Estrella? Why juxtapose the narrative of the powerful Iron Butterfly to the anonymous Estrella? On the surface, it may be argued that the album is able to surface the forgotten character of Estrella by giving her a voice in Imelda’s story. However, a closer look at the development of Estrella’s character reveals the limitations of this attempt at recuperation. Even as the album claims to “also” be about Estrella who appears at “key” moments in Imelda’s life, it is obvious that she is not privileged in the same way as Imelda’s character. While Imelda’s dreams are the fantasies of the album’s star, Estrella is portrayed as the anti-star, almost like the anti-heroine of this disco-opera (like how “Solano Avenue” initiates Imelda’s downfall in the final act). The album invites listeners to understand, and to sympathize with Imelda, but fails to do the same for Estrella’s character. While listeners are also invited to pity Estrella, this character’s primary function in Imelda’s love story is to highlight what could have been the greater tragedy of Imelda’s life story: the failure to climb the class hierarchy, the failure to overcome her class origin. Estrella’s character shows the real tragedy that Imelda escaped from: a life of poverty, devoid of capital and power. Estrella’s tragedy is Imelda’s triumph. Even as the album considers the Marcoses’ ouster as Imelda’s tragedy, it celebrates, at the same time, Imelda’s triumph in terms of moving up the class hierarchy. And that particular tragedy was obviously short-lived. After all, the Marcoses remain rich and powerful today. To return to Western fantasy-production, I argue that this album “dreams about” Imelda, while on a more violent level, the album “dreams for” Estrella. Dreaming about suggests that the subject has the capacity to dream; dreaming for suggests that the subject cannot even dream for herself. Imelda had dreams of grandeur, and these dreams were accommodated by Western imaginary as fantasy-production practices, insofar as these dreams were literally translated into support for American imperialist projects during the Marcos years. The West allows itself to dream about Imelda, to recognize her (limited) subjectivity by recognizing her dreams, but only to