Imelda Marcos Essay Example for Free

Imelda Marcos Essay Imelda R. Marcos (born Imelda Remedios Visitacion Romualdez on July 2, 1929) is a Filipino politician and widow of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon the ascension of her husband to political power, she held various positions to the government until 1986. She is the first politician elected as member of the Philippine legislature in three geographical locations (Manila, Leyte, Ilocos Norte). In 2010, she was elected to become a member of the House of Representatives to represent Ilocos Nortes second district. She is sometimes referred to as the Steel Butterfly or the Iron Butterfly. [1][2] She is often remembered for symbols of the extravagance of her husbands political reign, including her collection of 2,700 pairs of shoes. [3] Ancestry Marcos was born in Manila, Philippines. Her paternal ancestors were wealthy, landed and prominent, and claimed to have founded the town of Tolosa, Leyte. The Lopezes were descended from the Spanish friar and silversmith Don Francisco Lopez, originally from Granada, in the Andalusian region of Spain. Together with Fray Salustiano Buz, he arrived by way of Acapulco to build Roman Catholic missions in the island provinces of Samar and Leyte (Buz would establish his home base in Palapag, Samar, the exit-entry point of the Manila Galleons in the Visayas islands). [4] Early life and career Her branch of the family was not political. Her father, Vicente Orestes Romualdez, a law professor at Saint Pauls College and the administrator of the Romualdez Law Offices founded by his brother (Imeldas Uncle), Philippine Supreme Court Justice Norberto Lopez Romualdez, was a scholarly man more interested in music and culture than public life. He was a traditionalist, preferring to teach in Spanish while the rest of the students and faculty spoke English and Tagalog. Marcos had a younger brother, Benjamin Romualdez (1930-2012). [5] Her mother, Remedios Trinidad y de Guzman or Remedios T. Romualdez, a former boarder at the Asilo de San Vicente de Paul (Looban Convent) in Paco, Manila, was said to have been born out of wedlock, the child of a friar. [6] Remedios was from the town of Baliuag, Bulacan, and her own mother was from Capiz.