Always Hiding

My birth should have been an auspicious occasion for my parents because I was their first child. But I was born a girl and in the Philippines that made all the difference," writes Maria Violetta Rosario Dananay, the narrator of this story. Her life was at first a happy one, beloved by both father and mother. But when her father eloped with his latest flame, who was pregnant by him, the world turned sour. Her mother, unable to face the disgrace, fled to New York and became an illegal alien. Virtually deserted by her father, she lived as dangerously as she could until her father, who was in serious political trouble, sent her to her mother in New York. There she encountered an entirely new set of problems and courageously set out to conquer them. Always Hiding is a new and fascinating view of modern Filipino life.