Who is Imelda Marcos and why is she famous (or infamous)?
“Imelda Trinidad Romualdez-Marcos (born July 2, 1929 in Manila) was the wife of Ferdinand Marcos, former First Lady, and an influential political figure in the Philippines. She is known as the “Steel Butterfly” and remains a controversial figure not only in her home country, but around the world. Her extensive shoe collection is world-renowned.” “As a Special Envoy, Mrs. Imelda Marcos was instrumental in the opening of Philippine diplomatic relations with China, the Soviet Union, and the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, etc.), Middle East, Libya, and Cuba, in the securing of a cheap supply of oil from China and Libya; and in the signing of the Tripoli Agreement. Imelda Marcos’ extravagant lifestyle reportedly included five-million-dollar shopping tours in New York, Rome and Copenhagen in 1983, and sending a plane to pick up Australian white sand for a new beach resort. She purchased a number of properties in Manhattan in the 198
