Topic: Imelda Marcos

Imelda R. Marcos (born Imelda Remedios Visitacion Romualdez on July 2, 1929) is a Filipino politician and wife of 10th Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon the ascension of her husband to political power, she held various positions to the government until 1986. She is the first politician elected as member of the Philippine legislature in three geographical locations (Manila, Leyte, Ilocos Norte). In 2010, she was elected to become a member of the House of Representatives to represent Ilocos Norte's second district. She is sometimes referred to as the Steel Butterfly or the Iron Butterfly. She is often remembered for symbols of the extravagance of her husband's political reign such as her collection of 2700 pairs of shoes.

Her paternal ancestors, the Lopezes of Leyte, were wealthy, landed and prominent and claimed to have founded the town of Tolosa, Leyte. Spanish mestizos, the Lopezes were descended from the Spanish friar and silversmith Don Francisco Lopez, originally from Granada in the Andalusian region of Spain. Together with Fray Salustiano Buz, he arrived by way of Acapulco to build Roman Catholic missions in the island provinces of Samar and Leyte (Buz would establish his home base in Palapag, Samar, the exit-entry point of the Manila Galleons in the Visayas islands). It was common then for Spanish friars to take mistresses, and Lopez's life-long relationship with a Chinese mestiza, Maria Crisostomo y Talentin of Basey, Samar produced seven boys and seven girls. The eldest of these daughters was Trinidad Lopez or Doña Tidad in later years.

Tidad and her sisters were forced to accompany their aging father to Manila, where Francisco Lopez was assigned by the Spanish clergy to the church in Pandacan, Manila, known for a miraculous well sought by tuberculosis patients. Through his connections, Fray Francisco Lopez's daughters were able to attend to nearby schools of the home administered by the local nuns. One of the tuberculosis pilgrims, Daniel Romualdez, courted Tidad, who eventually agreed to marriage. Her husband's relatives did not like her, especially when she decided to leave Manila for Leyte; she believed that Leyte's sea baths would be good for his lungs and constitution.