Macapagal 41 work of fantasies” (Tadiar 2004, 7). Such fantasies may be located within the context of the global dreamwork, the fantasy-production of the global capitalist order, according to critic Neferti Tadiar. To illustrate the theory of fantasy-production, Tadiar opened her book with a discussion of an infamous video that captured Ferdinand and Imelda singing the anthem “We are the World” during a party on their yacht. For Tadiar, “The tawdry dreams of the Marcoses to be equivalent with world power (‘We are the World’) as well as the dreams of ‘ordinary’ Filipinos, apparently nostalgic for a world they never lost, are deeply implicated in the dreamwork of the capitalist interstate world-system” (Ibid 5). While the Marcoses fantasized that they were “the world,” the world knew otherwise. The US imperialist nation, then and now, owns the “codes of fantasy” in the global capitalist dreamwork, proven true when the Marcoses were deposed shortly after the US withdrew support for Ferdinand, otherwise known as “America’s Boy.” How do we locate “Here Lies Love” within the existing global dreamwork? Released almost twenty-five years after the 1986 People Power uprising that ousted the Marcos regime, “Here Lies Love” is a product of the Western imaginary, reflective of American fantasy-production built on Imelda’s excessive dreams. Under the imperialist gaze, Imelda’s story is both condemnable and intriguing—her beauty and lavishness are juxtaposed with accounts of corruption and fascism. In an interview, Byrne expressed this ambiguity: “It’s not like they’re all bad: they did some horrible things but they also did some good things.” Fantasy-production allows for this kind of distanced ambiguity. Tadiar moreover points to the heteronormative framing of Western fantasy-production: “This mode of relations between the Philippines and America operates according to a fantasy of heteronormative relations…a sexual masquerade in which the Philippines serves the US as a feminine ideal…” (Ibid 73). This explains the choice of female subject in Byrne’s Western project, as Imelda’s biography may also be read as a representation of the nation’s biography. Byrne’s interest in Imelda thus derives from the desire to understand the dreams not just of any national figure, but those of a female national figure. Imelda’s active participation in political affairs and the power she shared with her husband was unprecedented in Philippine political history. As First Lady, she considered herself the Mother of the Republic, whose role was to cultivate the True, Good, and Beautiful in the sphere of national culture. American reporter Katherine Ellison observed that “[Imelda] acquired more power than any other first lady in history,