Batangas State University

ARASOF Nasugbu Campus

Nasugbu, Batangas

College of Industrial Technology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prepared by:

              Jennifer G. Villalobos

BIT-CPET III

 

 

Prepared for:

Mr. Gregorio Apacible

Professor

 

 

 

 

 

Filipino Writers:

(Biography and their Works)

 

 

Nick Joacquin

Jose Garcia Villa

Francisco Arcellana

Carlos P. Romulo

Bienvenido N. Santos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tunay/Buong pangalan              Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín

Kapanganakan                                           Mayo 4, 1917

Paco, Maynila

Kamatayan               Abril 29, 2004

San Juan, Kalakhang Maynila

Kabansaan               Pilipino

Larangan               Panitikan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín

Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín (May 4, 1917–April 29, 2004) was a Filipino writer, historian and journalist, best known for his short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. Joaquin was conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for Literature.

 

Biography

Joaquín was born in Paco, Manila, one of the ten children of Leocadio, a colonel under General Emilio Aguinaldo in the 1896 Revolution, and Salome Marquez, a teacher of English and Spanish. Being read poems and stories by his mother, Joaquin taught himself by reading widely at the National Library of the Philippines and the library of his father, who by that time was a successful lawyer after the revolution. This developed further his interest in writing.

At age 17, Joaquín was first published in the literary section of the Pre-World War II Tribune under writer and editor Serafín Lanot. Before publishing in the Tribune, Joaquin worked as a proofreader of the paper.

After winning a Dominican Order-sponsored nationwide essay competition for La Naval de Manila, the University of Santo Tomas awarded Joaquín an honorary Associate in Arts (A.A.) and a scholarship to St. Albert's Convent, the Dominican monastery in Hong Kong. Upon his return to the Philippines, he joined the Philippines Free Press, starting as a proofreader. Soon, he was noticed for his poems, stories and plays, as well as his journalism under the pen name Quijano de Manila. His journalism was markedly both intellectual and provocative, an unknown genre in the Philippines at that time, raising the level of reportage in the country.

Nick Joaquin is interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

 

 

Joaquín deeply admired José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Joaquín paid tribute to Rizal by way of books such as The Storyteller's New Medium - Rizal in Saga, The Complete Poems and Plays of Jose Rizal, and A Question of Heroes: Essays in Criticism on Ten Key Figures of Philippine History. He also translated the hero's valedictory poem, "Land That I Love, Farewell!"

Joaquín served as a member of Motion Pictures under President Diosdado Macapagal and President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Joaqun's first move as National Artist was to secure the release of imprisoned writer José F. Lacaba. Later, at a ceremony on Mount Makiling attended by First Lady Imelda Marcos, Joaquín delivered an invocation to Mariang Makiling, the mountain's mythical maiden. Joaquín touched on the importance of freedom and the artist. As a result, for the remainder of the Marcos regime, Joaquín no longer received invitations to address important cultural events.

Joaquín died of cardiac arrest in the early morning of April 29, 2004. He died in his home in San Juan, Metro Manila. At the time of his death, he was editor of Philippine Graphic magazine and publisher of its sister publication, Mirror Weekly, a women’s magazine. He also wrote columns (“Small Beer”) for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Isyu, an opinion tabloid.

 

Tatarin

Tatarin, a movie based on Philippine National Artist Nick Joaqin’s short story The Summer Solstice, was directed by Amable “Tikoy” Aguiliz and released in 2001. The screenplay was written by Ricardo Lee. Nick Joaquin was consulted on his portrayal. The cast consisted of famous Filipino actors Edu Manzano (Paeng Moreta,) Dina Bonnevie (Lupe Moreta), Rica Peralejo (Amada), and Raymond B. Bagatsing.

 

Works

Prose and Poems (1952) The Woman Who had Two Navels (1961) La Naval de Manila and Other Essays (1964) A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1966) Tropical Gothic (1972) A Question of Heroes (1977) Jeseph Estrada and Other Sketches (1977) Nora Aunor & Other Profiles (1977) Ronnie Poe & Other Silhouettes (1977) Reportage on Lovers (1977) Reportage on Crime (1977) Amalia Fuentes & Other Etchings (1977)

Gloria Diaz & Other Delineations (1977) Doveglion & Other Cameos (1977) Language of the Streets and Other Essays (1977) Manila: Sin City and Other Chronicles (1977) Tropical Baroque (1979), Stories for Groovy Kids (1979) Language of the Street and Other Essays (1980) The Ballad of the Five Battles (1981) The Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay on History as Three Generations (1983) Almanac for Manileños Cave and Shadows (1983) The Quartet of the Tiger Moon: Scenes from the People Power

Apocalypse (1986) Collected Verse (1987) Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine

Becoming (1988) Manila, My Manila: A History for the Young (1990), The D.M. Guevara Story (1993), Mr. F.E.U., the Culture Hero That Was Nicanor Reyes (1995). Rizal in Saga (1996)

 

Awards

José García Villa 's Honor Roll (1940) Philippines Free Press Short Story Contest (1949) Ten Most Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM), Awardee

for Literature (1955) Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Literary Awards (1957–1958; 1965; 1976) Harper Publishing Company (New York, U.S.A.) writing fellowship Stonehill Award for the Novel (1960) Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1961) Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award from the City of Manila (1964) National Artist Award (1976). S.E.A. Write Award (1980) Ramon Magsaysay Award for Literature (1996) Tanglaw ng Lahi Award from the Ateneo de Manila University (1997) Several ESSO Journalism awards, including the highly-covetedJournalist

of the Year Award. Several National Book Awards from the Manila Critics' Circle for The

Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay in History as Three Generations; The Quartet of the Tiger Moon: Scenes from the People Power Apocalypse; Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming; The World of Damian Domingo: 19th Century Manila (co-authored with Luciano P.R. Santiago); and Jaime Ongpin: The Enigma: The Profile of a Filipino as Manager.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample Work

 

Verde Yo Te Quiero Verde

 

The river- cool sea- serpent skin

Of your deep arms enfolds my flesh in silence.

 

Red assaults; rains fire, blood; excites,

Devours. Red, our terror aloud,

Cried out, of death. ( Green is the nights luxuriant waters jeweled thick

with islands.)

 

White is wisdom, the scourge of God.

Insanity, her neediness. Pain,

Her blinding deserts. Noon, her shroud.

( O moss- grown wells, raw fruits, slopes hung with curtains!)

 

Blare is thought, despair; the ink stain

Time prints on all matter; the cold

Vague melancholy, eyes retain

Of voyages long perished from importance......

 

Yet from these, senses, though in their

Decadence, this rises four fold

A hunger for that other color, virgin, girlish!

 

That abrupt, sharp waking up, bare

Of blankets, of all drams- with dawn on the grasses: all water air

And earth caught for an instant clean and careless!

 

Have I built of such moments one

More sanctuary? Have enthralled

Stupid the flesh as swine that none

May interrupt these ears turned to the siren……

 

Deep the jungle. Here have I walked

We stranded from the rainbow; in

This leaf-wooed shrine the emerald

Stone-unripe guavas pack their smell of iron.

 

Yea, this my world-spun, sped between

Fire branching under, fire above: you

Are its whisper of Eden, Queen

Crowned over color:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born                             August 5, 1908

Singalong, Manila, Philippines

Died              February 7, 1997

New York, USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jose Garcia Villa

Jose Garcia Villa (August 5, 1908 – February 7, 1997) was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken. He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rime scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet. He used the penname Doveglion (derived from "Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based on the characters he derived from himself. These animals were also explored by another poet e.e. cummings in Doveglion, Adventures in Value, a poem dedicated to Villa.

 

Biography

Early life

Villa was born on August 5, 1908, in Manila's Singalong district. His parents were Simeon Villa (a personal physician of Emilio Aguinaldo, the founding President of the First Philippine Republic) and Guia Garcia (a wealthy landowner). He graduated from University of the Philippines High School in 1925. Villa enrolled on a pre-medicine course in UP, but then switched to pre-law. However, he realized that his true passion was in the arts. Villa first tried painting, but then turned into writing after reading Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson.

 

Writing career

Villa (standing, third from right) appeared with top American and British writers during a party in New York's Gotham Book Mart on November 9 1948

Villa was considered the leader of Filipino "artsakists", a group of writers who believe that art should be "for art's sake" hence the term. He once pronounced that "art is never a means; it is an end in itself." Villa's tart poetic style was considered too aggressive at that time. In 1929 he published Man Songs, a series of erotic poems, which the administrators in UP found too bold and was even fined P70 for obscenity by the Manila Court of First Instance. In that same year, Villa won Best Story of the Year from Philippine Free Press magazine for Mir-I-Nisa. He also received P1,000 prize money, which he used to migrate for the United States. He enrolled at the University of New Mexico, wherein he was one of the founders of Clay, a mimeographed literary magazine. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and pursued post-graduate work at Columbia University. Villa had gradually caught the attention of the country's literary circles, one of the few Asians to do so at that time. After the publication of Footnote to Youth in 1933, Villa switched from writing prose to poetry, and published only a handful of works until 1942. During the release of Have Come, Am Here in 1942, he introduced a new rhyming scheme called "reversed consonance" wherein, according to Villa: "The last sounded consonants of the last syllable, or the last principal consonant of a word, are reversed for the corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme for near would be run; or rain, green, reign."

In 1949, Villa presented a poetic style he called "comma poems", wherein commas are placed after every word. In the preface of Volume Two, he wrote: "The commas are an integral and essential part of the medium: regulating the poem's verbal density and time movement: enabling each word to attain a fuller tonal value, and the line movement to become more measures." Villa worked as an associate editor for New Directions Publishing in New York between 1949 to 1951, and then became director of poetry workshop at City College of New York from 1952 to 1960. He then left the literary scene and

concentrated on teaching, first lecturing in The New School for Social Research from 1964 to 1973, as well as conducting poetry workshops in his apartment. Villa was also a cultural attaché to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 1952 to 1963, and an adviser on cultural affairs to the President of the Philippines beginning 1968.

 

Personal

In 1946 Villa married Rosemarie Lamb, with whom he has two sons, Randy and Lance. They divorced ten years later. He also has three grandchildren.

 

Works

As an editor, Villa first published Philippine Short Stories: Best 25 Short Stories of 1928 in 1929, an anthology of Filipino short stories written in English that were mostly published in the literary magazine Philippine Free Press for that year. It is the second anthology to have been published in the Philippines, after Philippine Love Stories by editor Paz Márquez-Benítez in 1927. His first collection of short stories that he has written were published under the title Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others in 1933; while in 1939, Villa published Many Voices, his first collection poems, followed by Poems by Doveglion in 1941. Other collections of poems include Have Come, Am Here (1942), Volume Two (1949), and Selected Poems and New (1958).

In 1962, Villa published four books namely Villa's Poems 55, Poems in Praise of Love, Selected Stories, and The Portable Villa. It was also in that year when he edited The Doveglion Book of Philippine Poetry in English from 1910. Three years later, he released a follow-up for The Portable Villa entitled The Essential Villa. Villa, however, went under "self-exile" after the 1960s, even though he was nominated for several major literary awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. This was perhaps because of oppositions between his formalist style and the advocates of proletarian literature who misjudged him as a petty bourgeois. Villa only "resurfaced" in 1993 with an anthology entitled Charlie Chan Is Dead, which was edited by Jessica Hagedorn.

Several reprints of Villa's past works were done, including Appasionata: Poems in Praise of Love in 1979, A Parlement of Giraffes (a collection of Villa's poems for young readers, with Tagalog translation provided by Larry Francia), and The Anchored Angel: Selected Writings by Villa that was edited by Eileen Tabios with a foreword provided by Hagedorn (both in 1999).

Among his popular poems include When I Was No Bigger Than A Huge, an example of his "comma poems", and The Emperor's New Sonnet (a part of Have Come, Am Here) which is basically a blank sheet of paper.

 

 

 

Writing style

Villa described his use of commas after every word as similar to "Seurat's architectonic and measured pointillism—where the points of color are themselves the medium as well as the technique of statement". This unusual style forces the reader to pause after every word, slowing the pace of the poem resulting to what Villa calls "a lineal pace of dignity and movement". An example of Villa's "comma poems" can be found in an excerpt of his work #114:

“ In, my, undream, of, death,

I, unspoke, the, Word.Since, nobody, had, dared,With, my, own, breath,I, broke, the, cord! ”

Villa also created verses out of already-published proses and forming what he liked to call "Collages". This excerpt from his poem #205 was adapted from Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, volume 1:

“ And then suddenly,

A life on which one couldStand. Now it carried one andWas conscious of one while it

Carried. A stillness in which

Reality and miracle

 

Had become identical –

Stillness of that greatest

Stillness. Like a plant that is to

Become a tree, so was I

Taken out of the little container,Carefully, while earth ”

While Villa agreed with William Carlos Williams that "prose can be a laboratory for metrics", he tried to make the adapted words his own. His opinion on what makes a good poetry was in contrast to the progressive styles

of Walt Whitman, which he said: "Poetry should evoke an emotional response. The poet has a breathlessness in him that he converts into a breathlessness of words, which in turn becomes the breathlessness of the reader. This is the sign of a true poet. All other verse, without this appeal, is just verse."

He also advised his students who aspire to become poets not to read any form of fiction in order for their poems "(not become) contaminated by narrative elements", insisting that real poetry is "written with words, not ideas".

 

Awards

Villa was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by American writer Conrad Aiken, wherein he was also awarded a $1,000 prize for "outstanding work in American literature", as well as a fellowship from Bollingen Foundation.[11] He was also bestowed an Academy Award for Literature from The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1943. Villa also won first prize in the Poetry Category of UP Golden Jubilee Literary Contests in 1958, as well as the Pro Patria Award for literature in 1961, and the Heritage Award for poetry and short stories a year later. He was conferred with a honoris causa doctorate degree for literature by Far Eastern University in Manila on 1959 (and later by University of the Philippines), and the National Artist Award for Literature in 1973.

He was one of three Filipinos, along with novelist Jose Rizal and translator Nick Joaquin, included in World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time published in 2000, which featured over 1,600 poems written by hundreds of poets in different languages and culture within a span of 40 centuries dating from the development of early writing in ancient Sumer and Egypt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample Work

 

I was not young long: I met the soul early

 

I was not young long: I met the soul early;

Who took me to God at once; and seeing?

God the incomparable sight, I knelt my body

Humbly: whereupon God saw the star upon,

My brow; stooped to kiss it: o then the

Blinding radiance there! Explosion of all

 

My earthiness: sparks flying till I was all

Embers: long, long did God hold me: till

He rose and bade me to raise saying: now

 

Go back

Now go back where you came

Go back: understanding is yours now

Only beware: beware!

Since you and God and have lovered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francisco Arcellana

Francisco Arcellana (September 6, 1916 – August 1, 2002) was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher. He was born on September 16, 1916. Arcellana already had ambitions of becoming a writer during his years in the elementary. His actual writing, however, started when he became a member of The Torres Torch Organization during his high school years. Arcellana continued writing in various school papers at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He later on received a Rockfeller Grant and became a fellow in creative writing the University of Iowa and Breadloaf's writers conference from 1956- 1957.

He is considered an important progenitor of the modern Filipino short story in English. Arcellana pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form within Filipino literature. His works are now often taught in tertiary-level-syllabi in the Philippines. Many of his works were translated into Tagalog, Malaysian, Russian, Italian, and German. Arcellana won 2nd place in 1951 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, with his short story, "The Flowers of May." 14 of his short stories were also included in Jose Garcia Villa's Honor Roll from 1928 to 1939. His major achievements included the first award in art criticism from the Art Association of the Philippines in 1954, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila in 1981, and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for English fiction from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipino (UMPIL) in 1988. Francisco Arcellana was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in Literature in 1990.

Arcellana died in 2002. As a National Artist, he received a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

 

Arcellana's published books include:

Selected Stories (1962) Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the

Philippines Today (1977) The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990).

Sample Work

 

Sonnet

Squat, cafty, little guy

Set a long time on my clust

Slut but all I know of sky

Fed upon my twinning breast

 

Broad, wavy, fodeful sword

Swept the air above my head

Was master, sovereign, Lord

Of both my quick and dead

 

But wart was body’s merit

And godly soul proved able kept secret

Sky of spirit

Breast was endless table

 

To arrest, still the sword

I hold banner of the sword

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tunay/Buong pangalan               Carlos Peña Romulo

Kapanganakan                                          Enero 14, 1899

Camiling, Tarlak

Kamatayan                                                        Disyembre 15, 1985

Maynila

Kabansaan                                                         Pilipino

Larangan                                                         Panitikan

Pinag-aralan/Kasanayan              Pamantasan ng Pilipinas,

Pamantasang Columbia,

Pamantasang Notre Dame,

Indiana,

Kolehiyong Rolins,

Florida,

Pamantasan ng Atenas

Carlos Peña Rómulo (14 January 1899, Camiling, Tarlac, Philippines – 15 December 1985, Manila, Philippines) was a Filipino diplomat, politician, soldier, journalist and author. He was a reporter at 16, a newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32. He is the co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.

He graduated from the University of the Philippines, (BA) 1918; Columbia University, New York City, (MA), 1921, Received from Notre Dame University, Indiana, Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa), 1935; Rollins College, Florida, Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa), 1946; University of Athens, Greece, Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa), 1948, University of the Philippines, Honorary Doctor of 'Laws, April 1949, Harvard University, Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa, 1950.

Rómulo served eight Philippine presidents from President Manuel L. Quezon to President Ferdinand Marcos as a cabinet member or as the country’s representative to the United States and to the United Nations.

He served as the President of the Fourth Session of United Nations General Assembly from 1949-1950, and chairman of the United Nations Security Council. He had served with General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific, was Ambassador to the United States, and became the first Asian to win the Pulitzer Prize in Correspondence in 1942. The Pulitzer Prize website says Carlos P. Romulo of Philippine Herald was awarded "For his observations and forecasts of Far Eastern developments during a tour of the trouble centers from Hong Kong to Batavia."

He served as Resident Commissioner of the Philippines to the United States Congress from 1944 to 1946. He was the signatory for the Philippines to the United Nations Charter when it was founded in 1946. He was the Philippines' Secretary (Minister from 1973 to 1984) of Foreign Affairs under President Elpidio Quirino from 1950 to 1952, under President Diosdado Macapagal from 1963 to 1964 and under President Ferdinand Marcos from 1968 to 1984.

In his career in the United Nations, Rómulo was a strong advocate of human rights, freedom and decolonization. During the selection of the UN's official seal, he looked over the seal-to-be and asked, "Where is the Philippines?" US Senator Warren Austin, head of the selection committee, explained, "It's too small to include. If we put the Philippines, it would be no more than a dot." "I want that dot!" insisted Romulo. Today, a tiny dot between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea can be found on the UN seal. In 1948 in Paris, France, at the third UN General Assembly, he strongly disagreed with a proposal made by the Soviet delegation headed by Andrei Vishinsky, who challenged his credentials by insulting him with this quote: "You are just a little man from a little country." In return, Romulo replied, "It is the duty of the little Davids of this world to fling the pebbles of truth in the eyes of the blustering Goliaths and force them to behave!", leaving Vishinsky with nothing left to do but sit down. He was a candidate for the position of United Nations Secretary-General in 1953, but did not win. Instead, he returned to the Philippines and was a candidate for the nomination as the presidential candidate for the Liberal Party, but lost at the party convention to the incumbent Elpidio Quirino, who ran unsuccessfully for re-election against Ramon Magsaysay. Quirino had agreed to a secret ballot at the convention, but after the convention opened, the president demanded an open roll-call voting, leaving the delegates no choice but supporting Quirino, the candidate of the party machine. Feeling betrayed, Romulo left the Liberal Party and became national campaign manager of Magsaysay, the candidate of the opposing Nacionalista Party who won the election.

In April 1955 he led the Philippines' delegation to the Asian-African Conference at Bandung. Rómulo, in all, wrote and published 18 books, which included The United (novel), I Walked with Heroes (autobiography), I Saw the Fall of the Philippines, Mother America and I See the Philippines Rise (war-time memoirs).

He died, at 86, in Manila on 15th of December 1985 and was buried in the Heroes’ Cemetery (Libingan ng mga Bayani). He was honored as the Philippines’ greatest diplomat in the 20th Century. In 1980, he was extolled by United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim as "Mr. United Nations" for his valuable services to the United Nations and his dedication to freedom and world peace.

 

Awards and decorations

Rómulo is perhaps among the most decorated Filipino in history, which includes 82 honorary degrees from different international institutions and universities and 74 decorations from foreign countries:

Philippine Congressional Quezon Service Cross, April 17, 1951 Philippine National Artist in Literature, 1982 United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, January 12, 1984 Boy Scouts of America Silver Buffalo Award Distinguished Service Star of the Philippines Philippine Gold Gross Presidential Unit-Citation with Two Oak Leaf Clusters Philippine Legion of Honor (Commander) Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix from the Greek Government Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos Manuel do Cespedes from the Republic of Cuba Pulitzer Prize in Correspondence, 1942 World Government News First Annual Gold Nadal Award (for work in the United Nations

for peace and world government), March 1947 Princeton University - Woodrow Wilson Memorial Foundation Gold Medal award ("in

recognition Of his contribution to public life"), May 1947 International Benjamin Franklin Society 's Gold Medal (for “distinguished world

statesmanship in 1947”), January 1948 Freeman of the City of Plymouth, England, October 1948 United Nations Peace Medal World Peace Award Four Freedoms Peace Award Named in the 100 Most Prominent Rotarians in the world Philippine Presidential Medal of Merit, July 3, 1949 Hero of the Republic Award, 1984

 

Anecdotes from Beth Rómulo through Reader's Digest (June 1989)

At the third UN General Assembly, held in Paris in 1948, the USSR’s deputy foreign minister, Andrei Vishinsky, sneered at Romulo and challenged his credentials: “You are just a little man from a little country.” “It is the duty of the little Davids of this world,” cried Rómulo, “to fling the pebbles of truth in the eyes of the blustering Goliaths and force them to behave!”

When the UN official seal, which depicts the world, was being selected, Romy looked it over and demanded, “where is the Philippines?” “It’s too small to include,” explained US Senator Warren Austin, who headed the committee. “If we put in the Philippines it would be no more than a dot.” “I want that dot!” Romy insisted. Today, if you look at the UN seal, you will find a tiny dot between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.

Rómulo was a dapper little man (barely five feet four inches in shoes). When they waded in at Leyte beach in October 1944, and the word went out that General MacArthur was waist deep, one of Romy’s journalist friends cabled, “If MacArthur was in water waist deep, Romulo must have drowned!”

In later years, Romulo told another story himself about a meeting with MacArthur and other tall American generals who disparaged his physical stature. "Gentlemen," he declared, "When you say something like that, you make me feel like a dime among nickels."

 

Books

I Saw the Fall of The Philippines Mother America My Brother Americans I See The Philippines Rise The United Crusade in Asia (The John Day Company, 1955; about the 1953 presidential election

campaign of Ramon Magsaysay) The Meaning of Bandung The Magsaysay Story (with Marvin M. Gray, The John Day Company 1956, updated re-

edition by Pocket Books, Special Student Edition, SP-18, December 1957; biography of Ramon Magsaysay, Pocket Books edition updated with an additional chapter on Magsaysay's death)

I Walked with Heroes (autobiography) Last Man off Bataan (Romulo's experience during the Japanese Plane bombings.)

 

Sample Work

 

I saw the fall of the Philippine

 

              All of us know the story of faster Sunday. It was the triumph of light over. Darkness; life death. It was the vindication of a leader, only three days before defeated and executed life a common felon. Today, on the commemoration of that resurrection, we can humbly and without presumption declare our faith and hope in our own inevitable victory.

              We too were betrayed by Judases. We were taken in the night by force of arms, and though we have done wrong to no man, our people were bound a delivered into the hands of our enemies. We have been given all to drink and we have stud our blood. To those who look upon us from afar it must seem that the Filipino people have not descended into hull-into the valley of death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born                                          1911

Tondo, Manila

Died                                           1996

Nationality                             Filipino

Writing period               1955-1987

Genres                             short story,

novel

Notable work(s)               Scent of Apples (1979)

What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco? (1987) Notable award(s) Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards (1956, 1961, 1965)Republic Cultural Heritage Award in LiteratureAmerican Book Award (1980)Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship

 

 

 

 

Bienvenido N. Santos

Bienvenido N. Santos (1911-1996) is a Filipino-American fictionist, poet and nonfiction writer. He was born and raised in Tondo, Manila. His family roots are originally from Lubao, Pampanga, Philippines. He lived in the United States for many years where he is widely credited as a pioneering Asian-American writer.

 

Biography

Santos received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Philippines where he first studied creative writing under the tutelage of pioneering fictionist Paz Marquez Benitez. Santos was a government pensionado (scholar) to the United States at the University of Illinois, Columbia University, and Harvard University in 1941. During World War II, he served with the Philippine government in exile under President Manuel L. Quezon in Washington, D.C. together with the playwright Severino Montano and Philippine National Artist Jose Garcia Villa.

In 1946, he returned to the Philippines to become a teacher and university administrator. He received a Rockefeller fellowship at the Writers Workshop of the University of Iowa where he later taught as a Fulbright exchange professor. Santos has also received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a Republic Cultural Heritage Award in Literature as well as several Palanca Awards for his short stories. Scent of Apples, his only book to be published in the United States, won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1980.

Santos received honorary doctorate degrees in Humanities and Letters from the University of the Philippines, and Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay) in 1981. He was also a Professor of Creative Writing and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Wichita State University (Kansas, U.S.A.) from 1973 to 1982. Santos also received an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from Wichita State University in 1982. After his retirement, Santos became Visiting Writer and Artist at De La Salle University in Manila.

De La Salle University honored Bienvenido Santos by renaming its Creative Writing Center after him. Santos received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Philippines where he first studied creative writing under the tutelage of pioneering fictionist Paz Marquez Benitez. Santos was a government pensionado (scholar) to the United States at the University of

Illinois, Columbia University, and Harvard University in 1941. During World War II, he served with the Philippine government in exile under President Manuel L. Quezon in Washington, D.C. together with the playwright Severino Montano and Philippine National Artist Jose Garcia Villa.

In 1946, he returned to the Philippines to become a teacher and university administrator. He received a Rockefeller fellowship at the Writers Workshop of the University of Iowa where he later taught as a Fulbright exchange professor. Santos has also received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a Republic Cultural Heritage Award in Literature as well as several Palanca Awards for his short stories. Scent of Apples, his only book to be published in the United States, won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1980.

Santos received honorary doctorate degrees in Humanities and Letters from the University of the Philippines, and Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay) in 1981. He was also a Professor of Creative Writing and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Wichita State University (Kansas, U.S.A.) from 1973 to 1982. Santos also received an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from Wichita State University in 1982. After his retirement, Santos became Visiting Writer and Artist at De La Salle University in Manila.

De La Salle University honored Bienvenido Santos by renaming its Creative Writing Center after him.an

 

Works

Novels

The Volcano (1965) Villa Magdalena (1965) The Praying Man (1977) The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor (1983) What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco? (1987)

Short Story Collections

You Lovely People (1955,1976) Brother, My Brother (1960) The Day the Dancers Came (1967,1983) Toledo is the Love (1969)

Dwell in the Wilderness (1985)

Poetry

The Wounded Stag (1956,1992) Distances: In Time (1983) The March of Death

Nonfiction

Memory's Fictions: A Personal History (1993) Postscript to a Saintly Life (1994) Letters: Book 1 (1995) Letters: Book 2 (1996) My Most Memorable Christmas

Awards, Honors and Prizes

Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the University of Iowa Guggenheim Fellowship Republic Cultural Heritage Award Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for short fiction (1956, 1961 and 1965) Fulbright Program Exchange Professorship American Book Award from Before Columbus Foundation Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters, University of the

Philippines Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters, Bicol University

(Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines) Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, Wichita State University

(Kansas, U.S.A.)

 

 

 

Sample Work

Gift Bearers

 

The morning nears and chill fog wraps the arele

In nothingness and vague murmurings about floods

While men scan the sullen skies,

Wishing for stars

 

To brighten the dawn of many promises

Prophets have erred and history is now an old man

Rowing for lost toys in a desolate corner

Of another childhood, and we who must tempt the earth

 

With seed await the caring day with hope, speak on dull voices.

In the awakened sun, spell out the errors

You have made on grotesque leaves grotesque yet

Even as the daylight breaks and prophets speak no more.

 

Where are the deeper colors that stained cathedral glass?

The thundering threnodies that stood Corinthian walls?

Here now is the new day, but where are those

Who have wondered far, seeking the sound without depth?

For the men who walked the earth bearing gifts,

Are wondering still lost in some forsaken city

Where they rest their burden of gold and frankincense

 

And myrrh and dose their wearied eyes in sleep,

Dreaming of goodness in the heart and peace of rivers

Winding down a happy valley where a wounded stag

Lies down to die wonder the poplars flecked with morning