Si Lazaro Francisco (22 Pebrero 1898 17 Hunyo 1980) ay pang-apat na anak ni Eulogio

Francisco at Clara Angeles. Siya ay isinilang sa Orani, Bataan ngunit pumunta at tuluyang namalagi
sa Nueva Ecija.
Siya ay itinuturing na isa sa matibay na haligi ng panitikang Filipino. Ilan sa mga isinulat niyang mga
nobelang ay ang Singsing na Pangkasal, Bayang Nagpatiwakal, Sa Paanan ng Krus, Ilaw sa Hilaga,
Binhi at Bunga, Cesar, Sugat ng Alaala, Ama, Maganda Pa Ang Daigdig, at ang pinakahuli niyang
nobela, ang Daluyong. Maliban sa Bayang Nagpatiwakal, lahat ng kanyang nobela ay nalathala sa
Liwayway.
Makikita sa kanyang mga nobela na pinayaman niya ang panitikan ng bansa at sinubukan niyang
pagandahin ang Pilipinong daigidig sa pamamagitan ng kanyang pambihirang kakayahan sa wika at
pakikisangkot sa kapakanan at mithiin ng mga Pilipino.
Si Lazaro Francisco o "Saro" ay isa sa apat na napiling parangalan ng 2009 Gawad Pambansang
Alagad ng Sining (Panitikan). Kinikilala rin siya na ama ng Kapatiran ng mga Alagad ng Wikang
Pilipino (KAWIKA). Iginawad sa kanya ang mga karangalang Patnubay ng Lahi ng Maynila.
Dangal ng Lahi ng Lungsod ng Quezon, at noong 1970 ay ipinagkaloob sa kanya ang Republic
Cultural Heritage Award sa Panitikan. Ang nobelang _Ama_ ay isinalin sa wikang Pranses ni JeanPaul G. Potet sa ilalim ng pamagat na _Matre Tace_.
Amado Vera Hernandez, commonly known as Amado V. Hernandez (September 13, 1903March
24, 1970), was a Filipino writer and labor leader who was known for his criticism of social injustices
in the Philippines and was later imprisoned for his involvement in the communist movement. He was
the central figure in a landmark legal case that took 13 years to settle.
He 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 still a teenager, he began writing in Tagalog for the newspaper Watawat (Flag). He would later
write a column for the Tagalog publication Pagkakaisa (Unity) and become editor of Mabuhay (Long
Live).
His writings gained the attention of Tagalog literati and some of his stories and poems were included
in anthologies, such as Clodualdo del Mundo's Parolang Ginto and Alejandro Abadilla's Talaang
Bughaw.
In 1922, at the age of 19, Hernandez became a member of the literary society Aklatang Bayan which
included noted Tagalog writers Lope K. Santos and Jose Corazon de Jesus.

In 1932, he married the Filipino actress Atang de la Rama. Both of them would later be recognized
as National Artists: Hernandez for Literature, de la Rama for Theater, Dance and Music.

Works[edit]
Novels[edit]
His socio-political novels were based on his experiences as a guerrilla, as a labor leader and as a
political detainee.

Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey),1969

Luha Ng Buwaya (Crocodile's Tears), 1972

Poems[edit]

Isang Dipang Langit (A Stretch of Heaven)

Panata sa Kalayaan (Oath to Freedom)

Ang Dalaw (The Visit)

Bartolina (Solitary Confinement)

Kung Tuyo Na ang Luha Mo Aking Bayan (When Your Tears Dry Up, My Country)

Honorable Absente

Plays[edit]
His plays are mostly based on his experiences in prison.

Muntinglupa, 1957

Hagdan sa Bahaghari (Stairway to the Rainbow), 1958

Ang Mga Kagalang-galang (The Venerables), 1959

Magkabilang Mukha ng Isang Bagol (Two Sides of A Coin), 1960

Essays[edit]

Si Atang at ang Dulaan (Atang and the Theater)

Si Jose Corazon de Jesus at ang Ating Panulaan (Jose Corazon de Jesus and Our Poetry)

Freedom fighter[edit]
Hernandez joined the resistance movement when the Japanese invaded in the Philippines in 1941.
He was an intelligence operative of the guerilla outfit of Marking and Anderson, whose operations
covered Bulacan and the Sierra Madre mountains, throughout the Second World War.
While he was a guerilla, Hernandez came in contact with guerillas of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa
Hapon (Hukbalahap) which was founded by Luis Taruc and other communist ideologues continued
by the Philippine Commonwealth troops entered in Bulacan. It is believed that this was when
Hernandez developed sympathies, if not belief, with the communist movement.

Labor leader[edit]
After the war, President Sergio Osmea appointed him councilor of Manila during the reconstruction
of the war-devastated city. He also became president of the defunct Philippine Newspaper Guild in
coordination with its editor in chief, Narjeey Larasa.
But his most significant activities after the war involved organizing labor unions across the country
through the labor federation Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO). Influenced by the philosophy
of Marx he advocated revolution as a means of change. On May 5, 1947, he led the biggest labor
strike to hit Manila at that time. The following year, he became president of the CLO and led another
massive labor demonstration on May 1, 1948.
In 1950, the Philippine military started a crackdown against the communist movement, which was
had sparked open rebellion in some areas on Luzon island, and the CLO headquarters was raided
on January 20, 1951. Hernandez was arrested on January 26 on the suspicion that he was among
the leaders of the rebellion.

Imprisonment[edit]
But the authorities could not find evidence to charge him. For six months, he was transferred from
one military camp to another and it took nearly a year before he was indicted on a charge of
rebellion with murder, arson and robbery - a complex crime unheard of in Philippine legal history.
The case stirred the interest of civil rights activists in the Philippines and Hernandez was assisted at
various times by legal luminaries like Senator Claro M. Recto, former President Jos P. Laurel and
Claudio Teehankee, who would later become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
But he remained in prison while his appeal was pending.

It was while he was imprisoned that he wrote his most notable works. He wrote Isang Dipang
Langit (A Stretch of Heaven), which later won a Republic Cultural Heritage Award, and Bayang
Malaya (Free Nation), which later won a Balagtas Award. Also written in prison was his
masterpiece Luha ng Buwaya (Tears of the Crocodile). Portions of his novelMga Ibong
Mandaragit (Birds of Prey) was also written while he was at the New Bilibid Prison. He also edited
the prison's newspaper Muntinglupa Courier.
After five years of imprisonment, the Supreme Court allowed Hernandez to post bail on June 20,
1956. He then resumed his journalistic career and wrote a column for the Tagalog tabloid Taliba. He
would later be conferred awards in prestigious literary contests, like the Commonwealth Literary
Contest (twice), Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards (four times) and journalism awards given by
the National Press Club of the Philippines (four times).
On May 30, 1964, the Supreme Court acquitted Hernandez in a decision that would be a landmark in
Philippine jurisprudence. The case People of the Philippines vs. Amado V. Hernandez is now a
standard case study in Philippine law schools.
Hernandez continued to write and teach after his acquittal. He was teaching at the University of the
Philippines when he died on March 24, 1970. The University of the Philippines posthumously
conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Humanities honoris causa. The Ateneo de Manila
University awarded him its first Tanglaw ng Lahi award. He was posthumously honored as National
Artist for Literature in 1973. Together with poet Jos Garca Villa, Hernndez was the first to receive
the title in literature
Emmanuel Torres is poet, art critic, professor of English and Comparative Literature at the
Ateneo de Manila and curator of its art museum. He was born on April 29, 1932 in Manila. In
1954, he finished his BA in Education and received the Joseph Mulry Award for Literary
Excellence at the Ateneo de Manila University, and in 1957, on a Fulbright-Smith-Mundt
fellowship, he obtained his M.A. in English at the State University of Iowa where he enjoyed
an International Scholarship in Creative Writing and attended Paul Engles Writers
Workshop. He joined the Ateneo faculty in 1958, and since 1960 was curator of the Ateneo
University Art Gallery. In 1961, he was one of Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM Awardee
for Literature). At the Ateneo, he held the Henry Lee Erwin Chair in Creative Writing and the
FEBTC/Jose B. Fernandez Chair for art research. In addition to the extensive local and
international recognition he received for his work in the arts and letters, Torres was art
columnist in The Manila Times and SIM. He has also been a member of several committees
on art exhibits across the globe.
Torres works on art include St. Joseph the Worker Chapel (1968), The Drawings of Ang
Kiukok (1976), Jeepney (1979), and Kayamanan: 77 Paintings from the Central Bank
Collection (1981). Awarded often at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, his

poems have been collected in Angels and Fugitives (1966), Shapes of Silence (1972),
and The Smile on Smokey Mountain & Other Poems (1991)