PH authors and writers

1. Canonical Authors
and their
Representative Texts

2. Lesson Objectives:
1. Identify canonical authors and the works
2. Recognize their contribution in the Philippine
literature.
3. Make an analysis through the theme’s present
day relevance.

3. “I swore never to be silent whenever and
wherever humans endure suffering and
humiliation. We must always take sides.
Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormenter, never the
tormented.”
- (Elie Wiesel)

6.  Amado Vera Hernandez was born in Hagonoy,
Bulacan but grew up Tondo, Manila, where he
studied at the Manila High School and at the
American Correspondence School. While being a
reporter, columnist and editor of several
newspaper and magazines including Watawat,
Mabuhay, Pilipino, Makabayan and Sampaguita,
he also honed his poetic craft. He received the
Republic Cultural Heritage Award, a number of
Palancas and an award from the National Press
Club for his journalistic achievements.

7.  After World War II, he became a member of the
Philippine Newspaper Guild and his writings
increasingly dealt with the plight of the peasants
and laborers. Influenced by the philosophy of
Hobbes and Locke, he advocated revolution as a
means of change. In 1947, he became the
president of the Congress of Labor Organization
(CLO). His activities and writings led him to
imprisonment from 1951 to 1956.

8.  Even in prison, he was still a leader and artist,
spearheading education programs and
mounting musical productions, plays and
poetry reading. It was during his incarceration
that he wrote one his masterpiece, Mga Ibong
Mandaragit (Predatory Birds). His prison
writings were smuggled out by his wife,
zarzuela star Honarata “Atang” dela Rama, who
would become our National Artist for Music
and Theater.

9.  Ka Amado died on 24 March 1970 in the wake of the
First Quarter Storm, whose leaders and activists recited
his words. He left a legacy that includes Isang Dipang
Langit (An Arm-Stretch of Sky), Kung Tuyo na ang Luha
Mo, Aking Bayan (When Your Tears Have Dried, My
Country), Panata sa Kalayaan (Pledge to Freedom), and
the novel Luha ng Buwaya (Crocodile Tears).
He was posthumously honored as our National Artist for
Literature in 1973. Together with poet Jose Garcia Villa,
Amado V. Hernandez was the first to receive the title in
literature.

10. Isang Dipang Langit
The title of this poem by Amado V. Hernandez can
be translated into English as A Piece of Heaven.
Signed in Muntinlupa Prison on April 22, 1952.

11. Ako’y ipiniit ng linsil na puno
hangad palibhasang diwa ko’y piitin,
katawang marupok, aniya’y pagsuko,
damdami’y supil na’t mithiin ay supil.
Ikinulong ako sa kutang malupit:
bato, bakal, punlo, balasik ng bantay;
lubos na tiwalag sa buong daigdig
at inaring kahit buhay man ay patay.

12. This is a very archaic Tagalog word.
lin·síl
improper, erroneous, faulty, wicked
linsil
error, fault, wickedness
Patawarin mo ako sa mga gawa kong
linsil.
Forgive me for my improper actions.

13. Sa munting dungawan, tanging abot-malas
ay sandipang langit na puno ng luha,
maramot na birang ng pusong may sugat,
watawat ng aking pagkapariwara.
Sintalim ng kidlat ang mata ng tanod,
sa pintong may susi’t walang makalapit;
sigaw ng bilanggo sa katabing moog,
anaki’y atungal ng hayop sa yungib.

14. Ang maghapo’y tila isang tanikala
na kala-kaladkad ng paang madugo
ang buong magdamag ay kulambong luksa
ng kabaong waring lungga ng bilanggo.
Kung minsa’y magdaan ang payak na yabag,
kawil ng kadena ang kumakalanding;
sa maputlang araw saglit ibibilad,
sanlibong aninong iniluwa ng dilim.

15. Kung minsan, ang gabi’y biglang magulantang
sa hudyat – may takas! – at asod ng punlo;
kung minsa’y tumangis ang lumang batingaw,
sa bitayang moog, may naghihingalo.
At ito ang tanging daigdig ko ngayon –
bilangguang mandi’y libingan ng buhay;
sampu, dalawampu, at lahat ng taon
ng buong buhay ko’y dito mapipigtal.

16. Nguni’t yaring diwa’y walang takot-hirap
at batis pa rin itong aking puso:
piita’y bahagi ng pakikilamas,
mapiit ay tanda ng di pagsuko.
Ang tao’t Bathala ay di natutulog
at di habang araw ang api ay api,
tanang paniniil ay may pagtutuos,
habang may Bastilya’y may bayang gaganti.

17. At bukas, diyan din, aking matatanaw
sa sandipang langit na wala nang luha,
sisikat ang gintong araw ng tagumpay…
layang sasalubong ako sa paglaya!

18. Guide Questions?
 What was the author’s purpose for writing such
masterpiece?
 How is this relevant to us Filipinos?
 Why did he compare the prison to a piece of
heaven?

19. 1. Translate the poem Isang Dipang Langit by
stanza in English based on your analysis
and interpretation of the writer’s point of
view.
Criteria:
Content 30 points
Structure 20 points

20. Instruction:
1. Bring coloring materials and one white
cartolina.
2. Discuss with your groupmates the things they
wanted to have in heaven and make a list.
3. Choose one person to draw a prison cell with
all the things they listed within it.
4. Make it appear like the group’s piece of
heaven.

21. END

22. Answer the following questions below.

29. The Wedding Rings
The wedding rings symbolises the
unity, completeness and eternal love
for one another. The physical meaning
is that it is a spoken reminder of
faithful commitment to the marriage.

31. Bridal Veil
The Bridal Veil meaning has many
different meanings behind it, but the
most popular belief is that the bride
covered her face with the veil
to protect her from any evil spirits that
might try to steal her away from her
groom.

33. The Unity Candles
When the Unity Candles are lit during
the ceremony it symbolises that where
ever we go, the light of Jesus Christ will
always be with us and in our lives. There
are two candles to remind the couple
that it is their duty as a couple, to remind
each other of God's light in their world.

35. Holy Bible
The Holy Bible meaning is that it signifies
signifies the couple's dedication and
promise to discuss and learn about
God and spread his message to the
world. It is also the man's role to lead the
family in spiritual practices such as going
to church, helping out in the church
community and serving in the church.

38. “Pope of Greenwich Village”

39. Characters:
 Dodong
 Teang
 Dodong’s Mother
 Dodong’s Father

40.  Jose Garcia Villa, a Filipino poet, critic, short story
writer and painter, is an important person to
recognize during Filipino American History
Month.
 Villa was born in 1907 in the Philippine Islands.
His early path did not involve poetry. Instead he
began a pre-medical course of study at the
University of the Philippines, eventually switching
to pre-law. After some time, Villa recognized that
his true passion was in the creative arts, and his
career as a writer began.

41.  Villa moved from the university in the Philippines to
attend the University of New Mexico where he went on
to found Clay, a “mimeograph literary magazine.” After
finishing his BA there, he moved to Columbia
University for his post-graduate education.
 Aside from publishing various collections of poetry,

42.  Villa also wrote something he called
“comma poems,” where a comma is included
after each word in the poem. As he explained
in the preface to his Volume Two, “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 measured.”

43.  Villa has won numerous awards, including the
1973 National Artist of the Philippines for
literature. His work in both poetry and
challenging traditional poetic style continues
to have an impact in modern poetry, both for
members of the poetry community and other
Asian American writers.

44. Example of Comma Poem
The, hands, on, the, piano, are, armless.
No, one, is, at, the, piano.
The, hands, begin, and, end, there.
There, no-one’s, hands, are, there:
Crystal, and, clear, upon, the, keys.
Playing, what, they, play.
Playing, what, they, are.
Playing, the, sound, of, Identity.
Yet, how, absurd, how, absurd, how, absurd!

46. If you are Dodong, will you also make the
same choice?

47. “Since marriage is a partnership, I’d like to know
who I am and what I’m able to offer financially
and how stable I am, before I’m committed
legally to someone,” Ms. Simson said. “My mom
says I’m removing all the romance from the
equation, but I know there’s more to marriage
than just love. If it’s just love, I’m not sure it
would work.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/well/mind/millennials-love-marriage-sex-relationships-dating.html

48. Instruction:
1. Interview your parent/ guardian about their married life
through the guide questions below.
A. What was your age when you get married?
B. What is your insight about married life when you were
single?
C. How will you describe your first year of marriage?
D. How will you describe your marriage now?
E. What is marriage?
F. What message can you share with the youth today?

49. END

51.  Carlos P. Romulo, in full Carlos Peña Romulo,
(born January 14, 1899, Camiling, Philippines—
died December 15, 1985, Manila), Philippine
general, diplomat, and journalist known for his
activities on behalf of the Allies during World War
II and his later work with the United Nations.
 In 1931 Romulo was made editor in chief of TVT
Publications, comprising three newspapers, one in
English, one in Spanish, and one in Tagalog (the
second most prevalent language in the
Philippines). In 1937 he became publisher of
another chain of newspapers.

52.  When Japan attacked the Philippines in 1941,
he became an aide-de-camp to U.S.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur on Corregidor Island,
and his broadcasts became widely known as
the “Voice of Freedom.” After Japan captured
Corregidor, Romulo went with MacArthur
to Australia and then joined the Philippine
government-in-exile of Pres. Manuel
Quezon in Washington, D.C., as secretary of
information.

53.  He served as president of the University of the
Philippines, near Manila (1962–68), and secretary of
education (1966–68). He then became secretary of
foreign affairs (1968–78) and minister of foreign affairs
(1978–84). In his later years, while serving under
Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos, Romulo became less
democratic in his views. He supported Marcos’s
imposition of martial law in 1972 and had by the mid-
1970s evolved from a champion of a free press into an
advocate of a controlled press, charging Western
journalists with unfavourably reporting the problems of
less-developed countries. Romulo’s autobiography, I
Walked with Heroes, was published in 1961.

54. I AM A FILIPINO
by Carlos P. Romulo

55. I am a Filipino–inheritor of a glorious
past, hostage to the uncertain future. As
such I must prove equal to a two-fold
task–the task of meeting my
responsibility to the past, and the task
of performing my obligation to the
future.

56. I sprung from a hardy race, child many
generations removed of ancient Malayan
pioneers. Across the centuries the memory
comes rushing back to me: of brown-skinned
men putting out to sea in ships that were as frail
as their hearts were stout. Over the sea I see
them come, borne upon the billowing wave and
the whistling wind, carried upon the mighty
swell of hope–hope in the free abundance of
new land that was to be their home and their
children’s forever.

57. This is the land they sought and found.
Every inch of shore that their eyes first set
upon, every hill and mountain that
beckoned to them with a green-and-
purple invitation, every mile of rolling
plain that their view encompassed, every
river and lake that promised a plentiful
living and the fruitfulness of commerce, is
a hallowed spot to me.

58. By the strength of their hearts and hands, by every
right of law, human and divine, this land and all the
appurtenances thereof–the black and fertile soil,
the seas and lakes and rivers teeming with fish, the
forests with their inexhaustible wealth in wild life
and timber, the mountains with their bowels
swollen with minerals–the whole of this rich and
happy land has been, for centuries without number,
the land of my fathers. This land I received in trust
from them and in trust will pass it to my children,
and so on until the world is no more.

59. I am a Filipino. In my blood runs the
immortal seed of heroes–seed that
flowered down the centuries in deeds of
courage and defiance. In my veins yet
pulses the same hot blood that sent
Lapulapu to battle against the first invader
of this land, that nerved Lakandula in the
combat against the alien foe, that drove
Diego Silang and Dagohoy into rebellion
against the foreign oppressor.

60. That seed is immortal. It is the self-same seed that
flowered in the heart of Jose Rizal that morning in
Bagumbayan when a volley of shots put an end to all
that was mortal of him and made his spirit deathless
forever, the same that flowered in the hearts of
Bonifacio in Balintawak, of Gergorio del Pilar at Tirad
Pass, of Antonio Luna at Calumpit; that bloomed in
flowers of frustration in the sad heart of Emilio
Aguinaldo at Palanan, and yet burst fourth royally
again in the proud heart of Manuel L. Quezon when he
stood at last on the threshold of ancient Malacañan
Palace, in the symbolic act of possession and racial
vindication.

61. The seed I bear within me is an immortal seed.
It is the mark of my manhood, the symbol of
dignity as a human being. Like the seeds that
were once buried in the tomb of Tutankhamen
many thousand years ago, it shall grow and
flower and bear fruit again. It is the insignia of
my race, and my generation is but a stage in the
unending search of my people for freedom and
happiness.

62. For I, too, am of the West, and the vigorous
peoples of the West have destroyed forever the
peace and quiet that once were ours. I can no
longer live, a being apart from those whose world
now trembles to the roar of bomb and cannon-
shot. I cannot say of a matter of universal life-and-
death, of freedom and slavery for all mankind, that
it concerns me not. For no man and no nation is an
island, but a part of the main, there is no longer
any East and West–only individuals and nations
making those momentous choices which are the
hinges upon which history resolves.

63. I am a Filipino, child of the marriage of the East and
the West. The East, with its languor and mysticism,
its passivity and endurance, was my mother, and
my sire was the West that came thundering across
the seas with the Cross and Sword and the
Machine. I am of the East, an eager participant in its
spirit, and in its struggles for liberation from the
imperialist yoke. But I also know that the East must
awake from its centuried sleep, shake off the
lethargy that has bound his limbs, and start moving
where destiny awaits.

64. At the vanguard of progress in this part of the
world I stand–a forlorn figure in the eyes of some,
but not one defeated and lost. For, through the
thick, interlacing branches of habit and custom
above me, I have seen the light of the sun, and I
know that it is good. I have seen the light of justice
and equality and freedom, my heart has been lifted
by the vision of democracy, and I shall not rest until
my land and my people shall have been blessed by
these, beyond the power of any man or nation to
subvert or destroy.

65. I am a Filipino, and this is my inheritance. What
pledge shall I give that I may prove worthy of
my inheritance? I shall give the pledge that has
come ringing down the corridors of the
centuries, and it shall be compounded of the
joyous cries of my Malayan forebears when first
they saw the contours of this land loom before
their eyes, of the battle cries that have
resounded in every field of combat from Mactan
to Tirad Pass, of the voices of my people when
they sing:

66. Land of the morning,
Child of the sun returning–
* * * *
Ne’er shall invaders
Trample thy sacred shore.

67. Out of the lush green of these seven thousand isles, out of
the heartstrings of sixteen million people all vibrating to one
song, I shall weave the mighty fabric of my pledge. Out of
the songs of the farmers at sunrise when they go to labor in
the fields, out of the sweat of the hard-bitten pioneers in
Mal-lig and Koronadal, out of the silent endurance of
stevedores at the piers and the ominous grumbling of
peasants in Pampanga, out of the first cries of babies newly
born and the lullabies that mothers sing, out of the crashing
of gears and the whine of turbines in the factories, out of the
crunch of plough-shares upturning the earth, out of the
limitless patience of teachers in the classrooms and doctors
in the clinics, out of the tramp of soldiers marching, I shall
make the pattern of my pledge:

68. “I am a Filipino born to freedom, and I shall
not rest until freedom shall have been added
unto my inheritance—for myself and my
children and my children’s children—forever.”

70. Alejandro Roces was a Filipino author, essayist
and dramatist. He was better known for his
humorous short stories in English. Roces was
born on July 13, 1924 in Manila, Philippines; the
son of Rafael Gonzlez Roces and Inocencia
Batista (Reyes) Roces. Roces attended
elementary and high school at the Ateneo de
Manila University. He received a Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree from Arizona State University.

71. He was given a Master of Arts degree from Far
Eastern University. Also Alejandro was given an
honorary doctorates from Tokyo University,
Baguio's St. Louis University, Polytechnic University
of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila
University. Roces began his career as a dean at the
Institute of Arts & Science of Far Eastern University
in 1955 and held it for seven years. Also he was a
captain in the Marking’s Guerilla during World War
II and a columnist in Philippine dailies, including
"Manila Chronicle" and "Manila Times".

72. He served as a secretary at the Department of Education
from 1961 to 1965. In 2001, Roces was appointed a
chairman of the Movie and Television Review and
Classification Board, where he served until 2002. In
addition, he published books, including "Of Cocks and
Kites", 1959, "Fiesta", 1980 and "Something to Crow
About", 2005. Roces was known for his changing the date
of Philippine Independence Day from July 4 to June 12. He
also recovered the stolen original manuscripts of Noli Me
Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Mi último Adiós. In addition,
Alejandro changed the language used in Philippine
passports, coins, bills and diplomas to Wikang Pambansa.