Acosta

Arada
Alonsagay

Doctora Doña
Victorina de los Reyes
de Espadaña
 APPEARANCE (DISGUISE)
Arrogant. Pretentious. Appears to be superior when she’s not. Distorted
her true identity as a Filipino. She is a hundred percent Filipino but
her vanity made her otherwise. A vain person who’s a pretend-to-be
Spanish woman. Her obsession with praises and admiration from other
people give her life—fuels her self-esteem, more likely a silent
degradation, an insult to her fellow Indios. She hids herself with those
fancy heavy make-up, European dresses, and her curly hair.

Doctora Doña Victorina

Imagine how she abandoned her national identity to the extent where
de los Reyes de Espadaña.

she’ll do anything to get to a higher social status at their time. Forced
her husband, Don Tiburcio de Espadaña to pretend as a doctor, now as
a wife of a doctor it will eventually upgrade or elevate their social
standing before.

 SYMBOLISM/
RELEVANCE TODAY
COLONIAL MENTALITY (Post-Colonialism Theory)
Well, we couldn’t blame Donya
Victorina for who she became that
person in the novel. She lived in a society where there were
preconceived notions of social classes—Indios are inferior and
everything that is foreign is considered to be the superior one. Her
way of seeing things was not something she could completely be
blamed for. Almost everyone tried to do the same, as they saw how
the Spaniards controlled every aspect of life and how they were
prosperous as a nation.

First world countries would often influence the 3rd world

countries, that European colonizers misrepresented the people of
the colonized regions to be weak, irrational, and inferior from
others.

 SOCIAL CLIMBER

As easy as anyone can tell, Donya Victorina has this thirst for greed and
attention.
It was easy to see how Doña Victorina became the kind of person she was. She
lived, after all, at a time when being an Indio made you automatically inferior
to the Spanish colonizers. She saw that she would get none of the prestige she
desired unless she became one of those who were on top. Degrading other people
just to get into the highest pedestal that she’s aiming for. There is a fine line
between appearing to be great and being acknowledged with sincerity, and
honesty. How could she even be respected by other people when she couldn’t even
do it for herself?

 SOCIETY’S STANDARD OF BEAUTY

In today’s Donya Victorinas, we can tell, that ‘til this day, they
already normalize the stereotyping of colors, race, and ethnicity.
(NOT ALL), but the notion is still there. They adopt the most desired
qualities by the majority because they believe this is everyone’s
preference. The use of beauty products to whiten their skin because
they were bullied off their kuyumanggi skin or Morena— and some people
would undergo various procedures just to fit in with society’s
standard of beauty.

OVERALL, personally, Rizal just wanted to remind us through his works

—and he already foresaw this that, those conceptions and oppression
that are very rampant at that time, has always become a hindrance for
the nation to grow itself.
Through Donya Victorina, Rizal wanted to show Filipinos that the only way they
could rise above the maltreatments was to face the oppressor—to embrace their
national identity.
Embracing our country’s flaws to be able to attain a utopian approach is already
a progress, because we are trying. Our altruistic attitude will always lie within
us, as we are the hope of our country. Stand up for it, and become the voice of
the voiceless.

Rizal also showed us we would remain enslaved by our country’s present problems
and our colonial mentality, if we could not stand up for ourselves, for our country
and find our undying love and pride for the betterment of our country.

 Presented by:
Acosta, Nina Pearl
Arada, Pauline Marie
Alonsagay, Jenny Len

Thank You!! End.