Title:

Dead Stars

Author: Paz Mrquez-Bentez was a Filipina short-story writer. Born in 1894 in Lucena City,
Quezon. Marquez - Bentez authored the first Filipino modern English language short story, Dead Stars, published in the Philippine Herald in 1925. Born into the prominent Marquez family of Quezon province, she was among the first generation of Filipino people trained in the American education system which used English as the medium of instruction. She graduated high school in Tayabas High School now, Quezon National High School and college from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. "Marquez"Benitez. She was a member of the first freshman class of the University of the Philippines, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. Two years after graduation, she married UP College of Education Dean Francisco Bentez with whom she had four children. Mrquez-Bentez later became a teacher at the University of the Philippines, who taught short-story writing and had become an influential figure to many Filipino writers in the English language, such as Loreto Paras-Sulit, Paz M. Latorena Arturo Belleza Rotor,Bienvenido N. Santos and Francisco Arcellana. The annually held Paz Marquez-Benitez Lectures in the Philippines

honors her memory by focusing on the contribution of Filipino women writers to Philippine Literature in the English language. Though she only had one more published short story after Dead Stars entitled "A Night In The Hills", she made her mark in Philippine literature because her work is considered the first modern Philippine short story. For Marquez-Benitez, writing was a lifelong occupation. In 1919 she founded "Woman's Home Journal", the first women's magazine in the country. Also in the same year, she and other six women who were prominent members of Manila's social elites, namely Clara Aragon, Concepcion Aragon, Francisca Tirona Benitez, Carolina Ocampo Palma, Mercedes Rivera, and Socorro Marquez Zaballero, founded the Philippine Women's College now Philippine Women's University. "Filipino Love Stories", reportedly the first anthology of Philippine stories in English by Filipinos, was compiled in 1928 by Marquez-Benitez from the works of her students. When her husband died in 1951, she took over as editor of the Philippine Journal of Education at UP. She held the editorial post for over two decades. In 1995, her daughter, Virginia Benitez-Licuanan wrote her biography, "Paz MarquezBenitez: One Woman's Life, Letters, and Writings."

Characters:
Alfredo Salazar - son of Don Julian, a more than 30 years old man and a bachelor. He is engaged to Esperanza but him still fleeting to Julia Salas. Esperanza - wife of Alfredo Salazar. She is a homely woman, literal minded and intensely acquisitive. She is one of those fortunate women who have the gift of uniformly beauty. Julia Salas - sister-in-law of Judge Del Valle. She is the other girl of Alfredo Salazar that remains single in her entire life. Don Julian - an old man, a father of Alfredo Salazar and Carmen. Carmen - sister of Alfredo Salas. Judge Del Valle - brother-in-law of Julia Salas. Donna Adella - sister of Julia Salas. She is small and plump, a pretty woman with a complexion of a baby with a expression of a likeable cow. Calixta - note-carrier of Alfredo Salazar and Esperanza. Dionisio - husband of Donna Adella. Vicente - husband of Carmen. Brigida Samuy - She is the illusive woman whose Alfredo is looking for.

Summary:
Alfredo Salazar was betrothed to Esperanza, his girlfriend for four years. The start of their relationship was relatively warm, with Alfredo wooing Esperanza like a man in dire lovesickness. But as the years went by, the warm loves fire slowly flickered. And it was because of Julia Salas. She was charming and gleeful. He shared moments of light but sometimes deep conversations with her when the lawyer Alfredo visited Julias brother-in-law, who was a judge. He always went there with his father and since it was his father who needed to talk to the judge, he was always left to Julias company. He never told her he was engaged. At first he didnt notice that a change in his heart was taking form. But then he started keeping details of his activities to his fiance and then the guilty feeling crept in. when he found out that Julia was about to head back to her distant hometown, he felt blue and frightened. He met her in church after the Holy Thursday procession, although he knew that Esperanza was already waiting for him. He approached her and she conversed with him with an expression that told him she finally knew. She congratulated him and said she will be at his wedding. Then they parted. When he visited Esperanza in her house, he overheard her talking to another woman about infidelity and immorality, to which he reasoned in favor of the condemned. The statement caused an intense fury to Esperanza and she told him that she knew. She dared Alfredo to abandon her, along with morality and reason and her dignity as a woman as well as her image before the society all for the sake of his being fair to himself. Eventually the wedding took place. And after several years, Alfredo was sent to a distant village due to a legal assignment. It bothered him so much because it was near Julias hometown. But he still found himself making his way to her house despite of himself. And he found her there, just as how and where he expected her to be. She never married. And he wondered how life would be if he ended up with her. But all was too late and he could never bring things back. He also noticed that Julia lost something, albeit the fact that he didnt know what that is youth, love, luster? And when he looked at her he doubted if she ever cared for him, if he has mistaken the past light in her eyes as manifestations of a possible romance. But now theyre all gone. And so it was all indeed done.

Moral Lesson:
This piece of literary was one of the most magnificent works because tackles about love, the greatest thing of all. The lesson that we can get from the story is that we must follow our heart in choosing the perfect person for us because we are the one who made our destiny and not by just a dream or guess. To follow our heart is the great effort that we can give to the person we love. It also tells us that the greatest thing we can give to our love ones is our time because when we give our time, we are giving a portion of our life that we will never get back.