Sunday At The Cordozas By Laaz Suarez Summary

Placing 2nd in the Short Story category of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards of 2015, “Sundays at the Cordozas’” by Larissa Mae R. Suarez is centered on Elise, the most dutiful of daughters, wives, and mothers. Through her marriage to Tonio of the Cardoza clan, Elise has built a life for herself and her family, complete with a beautiful house and groomed children. When her son, Joaquin, gets engaged to Nora, a provincial scholar, her central beliefs are tested as she doubts approval of the bride-to-be. Further conflicts arise that complicate her son’s engagement when problems with his long-term ex-girlfriend Sophia, whom Elise loved dearly, surface. In a series of wedding plans, Sunday dinners, and glimpses into the past, Elise begins to question …show more content…
Suarez explores the capitalist ideals of today’s Philippine society through its analysis of characters’ ideologies, subtle nuances and references to our economic culture, and incorporation of superficial belief systems. These are highly emphasized by the main character of the story, Elise, whose humble beginnings have ingrained in her a capitalist mentality wherein she prides herself on superficial and material things. Having built her life up from the ground, Elise silently disapproves of her son’s fiancée because of her low socioeconomic status, secretly wishing he’d end up with his long-term ex-girlfriend Sophia, who comes from a wealthy clan like their own. As the story unfolds, it explores how even Elise’s life decisions were driven by her economic interests, including her own …show more content…
Not simply because there is a great disparity between the rich and the poor with poverty as one of the country’s biggest problems at a rate at 26.3% according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (2015), but also because capitalist ideals are ingrained in our very culture and belief systems. This can be explained by Marxist theories of the base and superstructure (Hirschfeld, 2009). As a highly industrialized developing country that heavily relies on businesses, our economic structure is the very foundation of our superstructures, which include our culture, politics, education, and family structure. In this light, the economic system colors the ideologies we end up having, thus shaping our value judgments. In essence, “Sundays at the Cordozas’” explores the capitalist ideals of today’s Philippine society through its analysis of characters’ ideologies, subtle nuances and references to our economic culture, and incorporation of superficial belief