What does Sportex and Monte Vista CC represent? Pucha Gonzaga She's Rio's cousin and the life of the party. The first lady reveals a completely fabricated story about Romeo on national television. Pucha wants to elevate her position even further by marrying into the wealthy Alacran family. Pacifico Alacran: Severos brother; he is the blind father of Girlie and Boomboom. They are both having extramarital affairs. Pepe wants to marry Baby. He cannot trust anyone around him, but he uses this as license to use people however he sees fit. Pepe Carreon: works with General Ledesma. She is often under the influence of drugs when the general visits her, and she uses these drugs, which she calls vitamins, as a way of coping with his violent and demeaning sexual demands. They include Rio Gonzaga, Pucha Gonzaga and Freddie Gonzaga (Rio's father) who live in Manila but move to the United States after General Ledesma seizes power. In the melee, the police shoot, and Romeo is hit. She spends her time shopping, jetting around the world, and perfecting her English. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. She finds the fact that she can weep without shame over the soap operas and Tagalog songs a delicious tradition rather than something that appeals to the lowest common denominator, as Rios father states critically behind his mother-in-laws back. Joyce Goldenberg: Wife of the American consul; she is mentally unstable; she is Jewish and from California. The grownup Pucha sends numerous letters, spelling errors intact, to Rio, who is living in the US. She is the opening narrator, when she is 10-years-old. Dogeaters Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This comprehensive lesson plan includes 30 daily lessons, 180 multiple choice questions, 20 essay questions, 20 fun activities, and more - everything you need to teach Dogeaters! Baby Katigbak, Baby Abad, Baby Ledesma: Daughters of the doctors Katigbak, Congressman Abad, and General Ledesma; these three girls are contestants in the beauty contest that Daisy Avila wins. Senator Domingo Avila: He is the leader of the party opposing The President. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. Latest answer posted June 02, 2010 at 10:47:14 PM. "Who are the main characters in the plot of Dogeaters?" Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. They introduce the central characters of the play. A former beauty queen herself, she encourages all women to follow her example. Severo Alacran: a self-made man who owns corporations such as TruCola Soft Drinks and SPORTEX. She's Rio's cousin and the life of the party. Uncle teaches Joey to steal at the age of seven and arranges for Joey to have sex with a sex worker at the age of ten. Delores is obsessed with keeping up appearances. Ed. Word Count: 5696. She wishes to leave the Philippines for the United States.[3]. General Ledesma is the sadistic and powerful chief of the Philippine military. Free Shipping on all orders over $15. The general does not seem to mind, perhaps because he keeps a mistress, film actress Lolita Luna, who is always out of money and usually high on drugs. With 15 actors playing 37 characters, "Dogeaters" required intensive work just to make sure that the audience wouldn't be confused. Unlike her mother, she is plump, shy, and awkward. She has married an American, Whitman Logan, a leftover from recent wars who is ill and in the hospital when the novel begins. He is married to a deeply religious woman but is having an affair with Lolita Luna, the movie actress. She is tired of being a movie star, although she cannot explain why. Rio is often embarrassed by the way her cousin treats the servants and waiters. Pucha finally divorces Boomboom but keeps the surname Alacran., Rios account of these events is very dramatic, almost like an American movie, but all very untrue, according to Pucha. He engages in numerous affairs with his female servants and even Lolita Luna, the celebrity actress, much to his wife, Isabel's, dismay. Freddie loses all his money. Daisy Consuelo Avila: Daisy, the daughter ofSenator Domingo Avila, wins a beauty pageant. Older-acting than her ten years, she pals around with her cousin Pucha, who is fourteen when the story begins. Severo Alacran and Isabel Alacran Many of the characters in the novel also serve as embodiments of Philippine culture that the author wants to criticize; case in point Severo Alacran, given the moniker The King of Coconuts because he has a monopoly on the coconut industry. The general uses Lolita for sex, but Lolita uses him to support her and her young son, who lives with his grandparents. He watches the spectacle from the dark corner, the symbol of a government that allows others to rape the country while it remains aloof in an effort to hide its own guilt. Even though he sells himself to rich foreigners, he enjoys being wined and dined and waking up in fancy hotels. Non-Filipino readers may feel lost because of the hundreds of unglossed Tagalog words and phrases. 4 Mar. Esteban Gonzaga: Another of Freddies brothers. Cora Camacho, the Barbara Walters of the Philippines, interviews Senator Alacran for her television show, and a journalist named Steve interviews the first lady. Jessica Hagedorn was born and raised in the Philippines and came to the United States in her early teens. She can barely read! Babys fathers only response is, Youre her mother!. It challenges the concept of melancholia as. His wife leaves him and moves to the US with Rio. She represents her country in the sense that she is oppressed, controlled, and violated. Baby carries on a surreptitious phone relationship with Pepe Carreon, a soldier. This kind of wealth is extreme in any country but especially so in such an impoverished place as Manila which means Severo is a lonely man. Rio refers to her mother as my Rita Hayworth mother. Delores is a former beauty queen whose goal in life is to maintain her beauty. She later becomes a refugee in the mountains. He is an aristocrat, a self-made businessman who owns several companies. thissection. Briefly, characters include Imelda herself, who is delightfully impersonated by Ching Valdes-Aran in some of Hagedorn's most tartly satirical and strongest scenes; the country's merciless. The normally composed Isabel completely loses her composure over this impending marriage. While Rio belongs to the upper class, she has compassion for the lower class. The beauty pageant where Marcos met his future wife, Imelda, is satirized in the story of Daisy Avila. Dogeaters study guide contains a biography of Jessica Hagedorn, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Ed. She is tired of doing both. Joey Sands: A teenage Afro-Filipino hustler and DJ; young male sex worker, one of the three main narrators. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. She enjoys being the center of attention and craves a glamorous life. General Nicasio Ledesma: The cruel and powerful chief of the Philippine military; married to Leonor but having an affair with Lolita Luna; rumored to be either a half-brother or cousin to Senator Avila. Where in the novel Dogeatersdo we see either American or Spanish influence? She ends up marrying Boomboom Alacran for his wealth and prestige, but he ends up being a terrible husband. Freddie eats and drinks too much. On that day, he is mistaken for someone in a group of subversives based in the Cordilleras. Pucha is Rios cousin. The King of Coconuts, Severo Alacran is the richest man in the Philippines. The books characters are addicted to American-style glamor and Western entertainment. Despite her contempt for her husband and their stormy relationship, she watches his salt intake, reminding him about doctors orders. Like Delores Gonzaga, she does not want to become a widow; that would ruin everything. By chance Joey witnesses the murder of Senator Avila at his club one day. Oscar Avila: Domingos brother; Claritas father; he does not get along with his brother Domingo. Like the Gonzaga and Alacran women, the men share the same characteristics and are symbolic of the patriarchal Philippine society that objectifies women. The assassination is a turning point for Joey. discretion when relying onit. Rio describes her father and uncles as smug, mysterious men when they are together. She is not exceptional or beautiful, and she hardly speaks. General Nicasio Ledesma: He is a powerful army general who runs a camp where people opposed to the dictator are kept and often tortured. The tsismis (gossip) account is that Romeo is a Communist. There she's raped and tortured until she finally escapes. Daisy has just been crowned the most beautiful woman in the Philippines. His army career is marked by rapid advancement to the position of aide to General Ledesma. She has designed it herself. How would you summarise the plot ofthe novel Miguel Street? Unlike the other characters, Joeys world is the subculture of the Filipino underclass. Lola Narcisas character represents tradition, that part of Filipino history and culture that is fast disappearing in a country that idolizes everything American. She sweats profusely and must use mens deodorant. He embarks on a journey into the mountains to escape from those seeking to silence him from testifying to that extent. Lola Narcisa is Rios maternal grandmother. She visits once a year and considers herself to be very high society (this is the title of the chapter in which she appears). She nibbles. Last updated by Cat on 31 May 04:52 Answers: 1. Rio explains that Puchas been climbing so fiercely since the day she was born. Pucha and Rio have a weekly manicure, pedicure, and complimentary foot massage at Jojos New Yorker, but Pucha constantly complains about the unpretentious beauty parlor with its modest neighborhood clientele. She would prefer to patronize the ritzy salon of Chiquiting Moreno, hairdresser to the stars and to the first lady, but the girls cannot afford the exorbitant prices. The results: DJs in . . Lola Narcisa is convinced he is the only white man ever to be stricken with bangungot, the mysterious tropical disease that only affects men and which all of the doctors claim is native superstition, a figment of the overwrought Filipino imagination. While her husband is in the hospital, Lola Narcisa lives in the Gonzagas guest room, behind the kitchen. Father Jean Mallat: Nineteenth-century Jesuit priest, explorer, and author; snippets from his writings about the Philippines are included for realistic effects. Written by people who wish to remainanonymous. Eddie, Ricky, and Claudio Gonzaga: Rios grown-up Spanish cousins; sons of Esteban and Tita Menchu. She lives in Manila in thePhilippines but later moves to the United States. Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2020. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn. Rios story begins when she is ten years old. Reputed to have fled to the mountains with her guerrilla lover, she is captured by General Ledesma and tortured and raped by all of Ledesmas men except Pepe Carreon. In her cool, dark room, she can pretend that she is not aging; she can pretend that she is happy. publication online or last modification online. Dogeaters is a novel written by Jessica Hagedorn, published in 1990.The novel depicts the rich culture and society of the Philippines during the tumultuous period of Martial Law by contrasting and intertwining the lives of various characters from two different times. At Babys birth, her mother gazed down at her new baby curious but indifferent, and her fathers look was preoccupied, mysterious.. Jessica Hagedorn is a Filipino . Unconvinced, she begs the general to help her escape to America. She uses her fame to manipulate powerful men like General Ledesma. If I were you, prima (cousin), Id leave well enough alone.. He beats her and accuses her of being unfaithful. The plots are always sad and almost always, someone dies. Joey is a survivor, however. Romeo is an aspiring actor whose story is presented by an objective third-person narrator except for one chapter in which Romeo himself is the narrator. Last Updated on February 28, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. She is thin because she does not eat. Rio remarks that her mother often complains that she is strange, rebellious, and an ungrateful little brat who hates wearing dresses and going to parties, yet she also notes that her mother seems proud of her precociousness and worries about the negative influence the boy-crazy Pucha might have on her. Joey is the byproduct of American colonialism. The contrast is sharp. He is short and smells like expensive citrus. He is a self-made man with a beauty-queen wife. After Senator Avila is shot, the police see Joey fleeing down the street trying to escape from his wealthy German client. Dogeaters Jessica Hagedorn Characters Major Characters Rio Gonzaga: the first narrative voice in the novel, which sets the tone for the entire book. She recalls, from an unspecified time in the future, events of her childhood from the ages of ten to fifteen. Issues are conflicts made up by the opposition to tear my country apart. The opposition, she says, is ugly.. Leonor Ledesma is General Nicasio Ledesma's wife, an ascetic who spends her life in prayer and meditation, wanting nothing to do with her husband and dearly wishing that she would suddenly and painlessly drop dead. Lola Narcisa Divino: Rios maternal grandmother; a Filipina; married to American Whitman Logan. Hagedorn takes pleasure in cataloging names of foods, particularly street foods, and the characters seem always to be hungry. In Dogeaters, why was the Avila family considered "Communist"? Dogeaters follows a diverse set of characters through Manila, each exemplifying the country's sharp distinctions between social classes. Joey does not want to wind up an old junkie like Uncle and boasts that he deserves something better, yet he is a young drug addict who does not seem to want to kick the habit. The novel intersperses her story among a wide spectrum of diverse and unrelated characters to give the boisterous, noisy, and fast-paced sense of a crowded, corrupt, and decaying metropolitan center that the author both loves and hates, both feels compelled to embrace and longs to escape. At 17, she gets pregnant and elopes with Pepe Carreon. After winning a national beauty pageant, Daisy promptly becomes a recluse suffering from protracted crying spells. Steve: A foreign journalist that interviews Madame on a television program. Cora Comacho: A TV talk show hostess, the Barbara Walters of the Philippines.. Her first husband was Ramon Assad. For all of Babys life, she has been a detached, indifferent mother. Also like the Gonzagas, Severo and Isabel would never consider leaving each other. They, too, must keep up appearances. Boomboom Alacran: Severos spoiled nephew; brother to Girlie. I will render the walls another coat of paint, after the first coat dries. He was orphaned when his mother took her life; his father is unknown except that he was an American soldier of African American descent. Also like Delores, she is an asset to her husband at social functions, a manicured, oiled, massaged, exercised, pampered woman who invented another self, denying her past and focusing on the present. Moving to San Francisco in 1963, Hagedorn received her education at the American Conservatory Theater training program. With her background, a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Filipino-Spanish father with one Chinese ancestor, Hagedorn adds a unique perspective to Asian American performance and literature. She elopes with Pepe Carreon when she's only 17, determined to escape her unhappy family drama. He is obsessed with dying of cancer and worries that drugs might not be enough to alleviate his pain. 4 Mar. She never married Boomboom, she tells Rio. eNotes.com At the heart of the book is an all-purpose motto for the characters: Food is the center of our ritual celebrations. After her marriage, Baby is miserable and uncomfortably pregnant. publication in traditional print. Hagedorn creates many such marginalized Filipino characters to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Marcos regime, which was a time of not only political corruption but also of the worst moral decay. In an interview, she explains that during this period, pornography was part of life even though you had this regime that was trying to present itself as being squeaky clean. Characters like Joey Sands are the people who nobody cared about and nobody thought about because they were too easily dismissed, she explains. This suspicion is confirmed the deeper she searches until at last she renounces her title and denounces the contest. The marriage founders, and Malcolm returns to England. General Ledesma, eager to exploit Daisy's reputation and power as the former senator's daughter, kidnaps her and takes her to a military facility in the mountains. She has a chronic case of eczema, seborrhea and God knows what else, her mother complains. At the club, Joey meets prosperous foreign men, with whom he has affairs and from whom he sometimes steals drugs and money. Expensive powders and ointments were ordered from Europe, but they caused Baby to break out in an extreme case of nonspecific tropical fungus. Baby was unable to go to school for a year and had to spend her time in bed or in a wheelchair. Raul Gonzaga: Rios older brother; he becomes a fundamentalist Christian minister at the end of the novel. Their names are never explicitly mentioned, though there are several allusions to Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and his wife, Imelda Romualdez Marcos. 4 Mar. Romeos character illustrates the interplay of personal fantasy, political control, and truth versus reality in the Marcos-era Philippines. During the assassination scandal, Boy Boy helps Joey escape from Uncle and the police. Except for a final chapter, everything about her is revealed by Rio. Pucha would never be caught eating Filipino food with her hands. Severo even tells the president what to do. The first main character is Rio Gonzaga. Hagedorn (b. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn. Girlie Alacran: Severo Alacrans niece; runner-up to Daisy Avila in the beauty contest; when Daisy abdicates, Girlie becomes the winner. On screen, she controls an adoring public. He represents the corrupt Philippine government that must resort to violence to maintain power. General Ledesma is hungry for food and sex, and Lolita Luna is hungry for drugs. Joey works as a disc jockey and has a tumultuous sexual existence that incorporates theft of drugs and money. She is not always sure where she belongs and complains of having to reconstruct her genealogy. In this sense, her character is symbolic of the uncertainty of the postcolonial Philippine national identity. 35 books164 followers Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn was born (and raised) in Manila, Philippines in 1949. His wife, Leonor, has devoted herself to a sacrificial life of praying on the cold cement floor of her tiny bedroom, fasting on water, and on good days doing charity work for the Sisters of Mercy orphanage. His character is a symbol of the money, power, and corruption that exists in postcolonial Philippine society. Everything reminds Pucha of sex, Rio reports. The omniscient narrator states, Our country belongs to women who easily shed tears and men who are ashamed to weep.. He controls interests in Mabuhay Movie Studios. Later, Rio leaves Manila for the United States with her mother and only revisits her childhood home as an adult. She is Miss Philippines, a wildly successful beauty queen. Unlike others in her upper-middle-class family, Rio is respectful of the servants and does not treat them as if they were invisible. When her husband has a heart attack, she accusingly tells him that it is because he eats too much and his only exercise is fooling around and sitting on his ass, gambling long hours at the poker table. It is going to kill him, she complains, and she is too young to be a widow. Delores is dependent on her husband for her social status yet trapped by the marriage that allows her this status. When her Freddie Gonzaga. She has power. Daisys character is a foil to the gender-oppressed and apolitical characters such as Delores Gonzaga, Isabel Alacran, the first lady, and Cora Comacho, who all buy into the patriarchal view of women as objects, useful in social situations. Read more Previous page Print length 136 pages Pucha is fourteen when Rios narrative begins. A Close Reading of Kundiman in Jessica Hagedorns Dogeaters: Character Portrayal through Religious Symbolism of the Stigmata, Unable to Break Free of Him: Sexuality and Postcolonialism in Dogeaters. It was made into a movie in 1993. Rainer Fassbinder: A gay German film director who has a brief affair with Joey Sands. Set in Manila, the lives of a couple prestigious Filipino families as well as some relatively anonymous lower class citizens are randomly intertwined through a seeming conspiracy of political consequences. . She prefers to eat alone in her room or with the servants.