'Ang Unang Reyna,' dokumentaryo ni Howie Severino, ngayong Sabado, sa 'I-Witness'

“ANG UNANG REYNA”

Dokumentaryo ni Howie Severino

January 26, 2018

Bukas ang isipan at matatas magsalita ang kampeyon ng Pilipinas na si Catriona Grey.  Masasabing namumukod tangi siya bilang beauty queen.

Para sa mga historyador ng paligsahan sa pagandahan, kailangan pang bumalik ng mahigit isang daang taon para makahanap ng reyna na kasing galing niya.

At mayroon nga… siya si Pura Villanueva na tubong Iloilo.

Taong 1908 nang ihirang siya sa Maynila bilang kauna-unahang beauty queen ng bansa.  Pero bago pa man itinanghal na reyna, inukit na niya ang kaniyang pangalan sa larangan ng pamamahayag.  Isa na siyang sikat na manunulat at peryodista, at isa sa mga unang peminista noong panahong iyon.  Bilang isang Pilipina sa bagong kolonya ng Amerika, maging si Pura nakaranas ng diskriminasyon.

Sa kabila nito, ginamit ni Pura ang kaniyang katanyagan upang isulong ang kaniyang mga adbokasiya at ipaglaban ang mga karapatan ng mga kababaihan.  Una sa kaniyang mga isinulong ang karapatan ng mga kababaihan para bumoto.  Nakamit ito noong 1937 matapos ang mahabang pagpupunyagi.

Sa isang kabalintunaan, sa paligsahan ng pagandahan umusbong ang mga matatapang na kababaihan na tumulong sa paghubog ng bansa.  Pagkatapos ni Pura, ilan sa mga nanalo bilang carnival queen ang naging unang babaeng senador ng bansa, unang babaeng ropesor sa literatura, at first lady.

Sa dokumentaryong “Ang Unang Reyna” ipapakilala ang orihinal na Pinay beauty queen na nagbago sa lumang imahe ng mga kababaihan bilang Maria Clara tungo sa pagiging modernong Pilipina.  Susunod kaya si Catriona Grey sa yapak ng unang reyna?

English version

The First Queen

An independent-minded and well-spoken champion of the Philippines, Catriona Grey strikes many as a one-of-a-kind beauty queen.

For some pageant historians, you’d have to go back more than a century to find a pageant winner with the same potential to be a societal game changer.

Catriona would then have large heels to fill.

In 1908, a 21-year-old Ilongga traveled to Manila to compete in the country’s first national beauty pageant. Pura Villanueva was then already an accomplished writer, newspaper columnist and social reform advocate when she was crowned the first Manila Carnival Queen. As a Filipina in a new US colony, Pura faced discrimination even as a pageant winner.

She used her fame to fight for women’s rights and became a feminist pioneer, leading the campaign for women’s suffrage in the Philippines. When women finally won the right to vote in 1937, it capped a long struggle by Pura and other Filipinas of her generation.

In what could be seen as an irony of history, a beauty pageant – often the target of modern feminist ire – jump-started the women’s movement in the Philippines. There would be several accomplished carnival queens after Pura Villanueva, who went on to produce another winner, the future senator Maria Kalaw Katigbak.

Howie Severino and his documentary team take on the challenge of making old Manila and early pageant history come alive, searching for old photos and vintage clothes, and interviewing one of Pura’s outspoken granddaughters.

“The First Queen” introduces current audiences to the original Pinay beauty queen, who created a new prototype for the modern Filipina. Viewers might be tempted to ask how Catriona will use her new fame to live up to Pura’s compelling legacy.