1.

Donya Lupeng Moreta – long

married woman with three
children.
2. Don Paeng Moreta – the
highly moral husband Donya
Lupeng.
3. Guido – young cousin to the
Moretas who studied in Spain.
4. Amada – the family cook and
Entoy’s wife.
5. Entoy – the family driver.
The story takes place in
1850’s Philippines during
the festival days of St.
John.
It depicts a Filipino way of living
during the 1850s set on the
Spanish era, and it explored a
patriarchal structure – status
and gap between men and
women. It depicts everyday
living as evidenced on the
demands of the society on
women, and gender stereotypes.
Women were given voice in the
narrative, and with this voice
they are saying, “That women
ruled over men and such,
women created what man see
as themselves right now and
can therefore destroy it.
Women bear the children and
should be adored.” In the
narrative the oppressed are
empowered by the authors use
of the Tatarin – a pagan
celebration celebrating
women’s fertility as a
representation of women
breaking free from societal
norms and having men adore
them. A women’s fertility =
power.
The Moretas family was
enjoying the day of the St.
John’s Festival. Donya
Lupeng awake feeling faint
with the heat, a sound
screaming in her ears. In the
dining room, the three boys
already attired in their
holiday suits, were at
breakfast, and come
crowding around her all at
once.
Guido, the young man,
makes suggestive
comments to Donya Lupeng
propping up his elbows,
dragged himself forward on
the ground and solemnly
kiss the tips of Donya
Lupeng’s shoes. This made
Donya Lupeng leave
abruptly. She felt that there
is something missing to her
as women and became
jealous and curious to the
Tatarin ritual.
Donya Lupeng decided to
join the Tadtarin ritual. Don
Paeng tried to stop her but
the fellow women ganged
up on him. Entoy found Don
Paeng bleeding and with
bruises and they
immediately went home
with Donya Lupeng.
Don Paeng wants to get his
wife which is Dona Lupeng at
the Tadtarin festival while the
ritual is ongoing. Then
suddenly, the women
recognizes a presence of a
man they tried to throw him.
As they see Don Paeng, he
was tortured going home, the
blood is running in his lips and
his cloth are torn.
As the two return home,
Paeng says he must whip
his wife because he
loves her and feels that
she needs to be put in
her place. To this, she
shouts and says that she
wants to be adored not
respected.
The summer solstice
represented stereotypical
notions of masculinity and
femininity, the difference
between two gender and the
hierarchy that bind the two
sexes.

It is a pro-woman story. A
tale of a triumphant woman
because of Don Paeng’s
submssion to Donya Lupeng
and the portrayal of woman’s
reproductive role that made
them ruler’s of men.
The St. John’s festival is about
men and their fertility, which
seems quite vulgar to Lupeng
and makes her start to realize
how she wishes woman could be
seen in the same way.

The Tatarin festival is the exact

opposite, showing women as
leaders of fertility since they
carry children. This festival is
the last trigger to make Lupeng
feel as though she is stronger
than a man and deserves
adoration.
The narrative is in a third
person point of view, addressing
the readers. It reveals a
stereotypical world imposing
upon people gender roles where
in order to survive in the
society you have to live by what
it – the society impose upon
you. This happens everyday, in
our daily lives and is no longer
strange to us in way - gender
stereotypes and female
oppression.