Maita Gomez (1947-2012): Beauty transfigured

Maita Gomez (1947-2012): Beauty transfigured

By CAROL PAGADUAN-ARAULLO
“The new woman, the new Filipina, is first and foremost a militant…She is a woman who has discovered the exalting realm of responsibility, a woman fully engaged in the making of history…”
- Ma. Lorena Barros, “Liberated Women II”

I only met Maita Gomez, one of two fabled beauty queens turned revolutionaries (the other one is Nelia Sancho), after she had already surfaced from the underground in the early ‘80s and became one of the leading lights of the resurgent women’s liberation movement in the Philippines. She helped found the nationalist and democratic women’s alliance GABRIELA, the anti-dictatorship women’s alliance WOMB (Women for the Ouster of Marcos and Boycott) and, after the Marcos Dictatorship had been overthrown, the first all-women political party, KAIBA (Kababaihan para sa Inangbayan), under whose banner she ran but lost for a seat in Congress representing the Malate district in Manila.

Still, she and I were only peripherally acquainted with one another. She was then studying for her masters degree in Development Economics, was involved with several non-government organizations that were politically more liberal than Left and, except for the annual March 8 International Women’s Day rally and some other GABRIELA activities, seemed busy with concerns other than mainstream Leftist projects or activities.

It was only as recent as 2008, when a long-time common friend asked us out to lunch, that Maita and I warmed up to each other. I had till then no idea that she had been holding some kind of grudge against me because she had been told I was spreading nasty rumors about her. She casually brought it up and when I denied it as completely false, she immediately took my word for it, setting the matter aside..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/07/19/maita-gomez-1947-2012-beauty-transfigured/