In this story by Estrella Alfon, a hard working Filipino servant girl works for a mistress who is a heavy drinker and often verbally and physically abusive. She rejects a local man who says he loves her, and is infatuated with an “angelic” cochero who once helped her after a fall. After a particularly brutal beating, she runs away to look for the cochero, who she fantasizes is in love with her. She finds him, but he doesn’t remember her. Seeing things more clearly, she returns home. Themes include social class, innocence, workplace abuse, humiliation, perseverance, fantasy, violence, enlightenment.
Servant Girl Text / PDF (4,150 words)