DR.
LILIA QUINDOZA-SANTIAGO
Philippine literary production during the American Period in the
Philippines was spurred by two significant developments in education
and culture. One is the introduction of free public instruction for all
children of school age and two, the use of English as medium of
instruction in all levels of education in public schools.
Free public education made knowledge and information
accessible to a greater number of Filipinos. Those who availed of this
education through college were able to improve their social status and
joined a good number of educated masses who became part of the
country’s middle class.
The use of English as medium of instruction introduced Filipinos
to Anglo-American modes of thought, culture and life ways that would
be embedded not only in the literature produced but also in the psyche
of the country’s educated class. It was this educated class that would
be the wellspring of a vibrant Philippine Literature in English.
Philippine literature in English, as a direct result of American
colonization of the country, could not escape being imitative of
American models of writing especially during its period of
apprenticeship. The poetry written by early poets manifested studied
attempts at versification as in the following poem which is proof of the
poet’s rather elementary exercise in the English language:
Vacation days at last are here,
And we have time for fun so dear,
All boys and girls do gladly cheer,
This welcomed season of the year.
In early June in school we’ll meet;
A harder task shall we complete
And if we fail we must repeat
That self same task without retreat.
We simply rest to come again
To school where boys and girls obtain
The Creator’s gift to men
Whose sanguine hopes in us remain.
Vacation means a time for play
For young and old in night and day
My wish for all is to be gay,
And evil none lead you astray
– Juan F. Salazar
Philippines Free Press, May 9, 1909
The poem was anthologized in the first collection of poetry in
English, Filipino Poetry, edited by Rodolfo Dato (1909 – 1924). Among
the poets featured in this anthology were Proceso Sebastian Maximo
Kalaw, Fernando Maramag, Leopoldo Uichanco, Jose Ledesma,
Vicente Callao, Santiago Sevilla, Bernardo Garcia, Francisco Africa,
Pablo Anzures, Carlos P. Romulo, Francisco Tonogbanua, Juan
Pastrana, Maria Agoncillo, Paz Marquez Benitez, Luis Dato and many
others. Another anthology, The English German Anthology of
Poetsedited by Pablo Laslo was published and covered poets
published from 1924-1934 among whom were Teofilo D. Agcaoili,
Aurelio Alvero, Horacio de la Costa, Amador T. Daguio, Salvador P.
Lopez, Angela Manalang Gloria, Trinidad Tarrosa, Abelardo Subido
and Jose Garcia Villa, among others. A third pre-war collection of poetry
was edited by Carlos Bulosan, Chorus for America: Six Philippine
Poets. The six poets in this collection were Jose Garcia Villa, Rafael
Zulueta da Costa, Rodrigo T. Feria, C.B. Rigor, Cecilio Baroga and
Carlos Bulosan.
In fiction, the period of apprenticeship in literary writing in English
is marked by imitation of the style of storytelling and strict adherence to
the craft of the short story as practiced by popular American fictionists.
Early short story writers in English were often dubbed as the Andersons
or Saroyans or the Hemingways of Philippine letters. Leopoldo Yabes
in his study of the Philippine short story in English from 1925 to 1955
points to these models of American fiction exerting profound influence
on the early writings of story writers like Francisco Arcellana, A.E.
Litiatco, Paz Latorena. .
When the University of the Philippines was founded in 1908, an
elite group of writers in English began to exert influence among the
culturati. The U.P. Writers Club founded in 1926, had stated that one of
its aims was to enhance and propagate the “language of Shakespeare.”
In 1925, Paz Marquez Benitez short story, “Dead Stars”was published
and was made the landmark of the maturity of the Filipino writer in
English. Soon after Benitez, short story writers began publishing stories
no longer imitative of American models. Thus, story writers like Icasiano
Calalang, A.E. Litiatco, Arturo Rotor, Lydia Villanueva, Paz Latorena ,
Manuel Arguilla began publishing stories manifesting both skilled use
of the language and a keen Filipino sensibility.
This combination of writing in a borrowed tongue while dwelling on
Filipino customs and traditions earmarked the literary output of major
Filipino fictionists in English during the American period. Thus, the
major novels of the period, such as the Filipino Rebel, by Maximo
Kalaw, and His Native Soil by Juan C. Laya, are discourses on cultural
identity, nationhood and being Filipino done in the English language.
Stories such as “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife” by
Manuel Arguilla scanned the scenery as well as the folkways of
Ilocandia while N.V. M. Gonzales’s novels and stories such
as “Children of the Ash Covered Loam,” present the panorama of
Mindoro, in all its customs and traditions while configuring its characters
in the human dilemma of nostalgia and poverty. Apart from Arguilla and
Gonzales, noted fictionists during the period included Francisco
Arcellana, whom Jose Garcia Villa lauded as a “genius” storyteller,
Consorcio Borje, Aida Rivera, Conrado Pedroche, Amador Daguio,
Sinai Hamada, Hernando Ocampo, Fernando Maria Guerrero. Jose
Garcia Villa himself wrote several short stories but devoted most of his
time to poetry.
In 1936, when the Philippine Writers League was organized,
Filipino writers in English began discussing the value of literature in
society. Initiated and led by Salvador P. Lopez, whose essays
on Literature and Societyprovoked debates, the discussion centered
on proletarian literature, i.e., engaged or committed literature versus
the art for art’s sake literary orientation. But this discussion curiously
left out the issue of colonialism and colonial literature and the whole
place of literary writing in English under a colonial set-up that was the
Philippines then.
With Salvador P. Lopez, the essay in English gained the upper
hand in day to day discourse on politics and governance. Polemicists
who used to write in Spanish like Claro M. Recto, slowly started using
English in the discussion of current events even as newspaper dailies
moved away from Spanish reporting into English. Among the essayists,
Federico Mangahas had an easy facility with the language and the
essay as genre. Other noted essayists during the period were Fernando
Maramag, Carlos P. Romulo , Conrado Ramirez.
On the other hand, the flowering of a vibrant literary tradition due
to historical events did not altogether hamper literary production in the
native or indigenous languages. In fact, the early period of the 20th
century was remarkable for the significant literary output of all major
languages in the various literary genre.
It was during the early American period that seditious plays, using
the form of the zarsuwela, were mounted. Zarsuwelistas Juan Abad,
Aurelio Tolentino ,Juan Matapang Cruz. Juan Crisostomo Sotto
mounted the classics like Tanikalang Ginto, Kahapon, Ngayon at
Bukas and Hindi Ako Patay, all directed against the American
imperialists. Patricio Mariano’s Anak ng Dagat and Severino
Reyes’s Walang Sugat are equally remarkable zarsuwelas staged
during the period.
On the eve of World War II, Wilfredo Maria Guerrero would gain
dominance in theatre through his one-act plays which he toured through
his “mobile theatre”. Thus, Wanted a Chaperone and The Forsaken
Housebecame very popular in campuses throughout the archipelago.
The novel in Tagalog, Iloko, Hiligaynon and Sugbuanon also
developed during the period aided largely by the steady publication of
weekly magazines like the Liwayway, Bannawag and Bisaya which
serialized the novels.
Among the early Tagalog novelists of the 20th century were
Ishmael Amado, Valeriano Hernandez Peña, Faustino Aguilar, Lope K.
Santos and Lazaro Francisco.
Ishmael Amado’s Bulalakaw ng Pag-asa published in 1909 was
one of the earliest novels that dealt with the theme of American
imperialism in the Philippines. The novel, however, was not released
from the printing press until 1916, at which time, the author, by his own
admission and after having been sent as a pensionado to the U.S., had
other ideas apart from those he wrote in the novel.
Valeriano Hernandez Peña’s Nena at Neneng narrates the story
of two women who happened to be best of friends as they cope with
their relationships with the men in their lives. Nena succeeds in her
married life while Neneng suffers from a stormy marriage because of
her jealous husband.
Faustino Aguilar published Pinaglahuan, a love triangle set in the
early years of the century when the worker’s movement was being
formed. The novel’s hero, Luis Gatbuhay, is a worker in a printery who
isimprisoned for a false accusation and loses his love, Danding, to his
rival Rojalde, son of a wealthy capitalist. Lope K. Santos, Banaag at
Sikat has almost the same theme and motif as the hero of the novel,
Delfin, also falls in love with a rich woman, daughter of a wealthy
landlord. The love story of course is set also within the background of
development of the worker’s trade union movement and throughout the
novel, Santos engages the readers in lengthy treatises and discourses
on socialism and capitalism. Many other Tagalog novelists wrote on
variations of the same theme, i.e., the interplay of fate, love and social
justice. Among these writers are Inigo Ed Regalado, Roman Reyes,
Fausto J. Galauran, Susana de Guzman, Rosario de Guzman-Lingat,
Lazaro Francisco, Hilaria Labog, Rosalia Aguinaldo, Amado V.
Hernandez. Many of these writers were able to produce three or more
novels as Soledad Reyes would bear out in her book which is the result
of her dissertation, Ang Nobelang Tagalog (1979).
Among the Iloko writers, noted novelists were Leon Pichay, who
was also the region’s poet laureate then, Hermogenes Belen, and Mena
Pecson Crisologo whose Mining wenno Ayat ti Kararwa is
considered to be the Iloko version of a Noli me Tangere.
In the Visayas, Magdalena Jalandoni and Ramon Muzones would
lead most writers in writing the novels that dwelt on the themes of love,
courtship, life in the farmlands, and other social upheavals of the period.
Marcel Navarra wrote stories and novels in Sugbuhanon.
Poetry in all languages continued to flourish in all regions of the
country during the American period. The Tagalogs, hailing Francisco F.
Balagtas as the nation’s foremost poet invented the balagtasan in his
honor. Thebalagtasan is a debate in verse, a poetical joust done almost
spontaneously between protagonists who debate over the pros and
cons of an issue.
The first balagtasan was held in March 1924 at the Instituto de
Mujeres, with Jose Corazon de Jesus and Florentino Collantes as
rivals, bubuyog (bee) and paru-paro (butterfly) aiming for the love of
kampupot (jasmine). It was during this balagtasan that Jose Corazon
de Jesus, known as Huseng Batute, emerged triumphant to become
the first king of the Balagtasan. Jose Corazon de Jesus was the finest
master of the genre. He was later followed by balagtasistas, Emilio Mar
Antonio and Crescenciano Marquez, who also became King of
the Balagtasan in their own time.
As Huseng Batute, de Jesus also produced the finest poems and
lyrics during the period. His debates with Amado V. Hernandez on the
political issue of independence from America and nationhood were
mostly done in verse and are testament to the vitality of Tagalog poetry
during the era. Lope K. Santos, epic poem, Ang Panggingera is also
proof of how poets of the period have come to master the language to
be able to translate it into effective poetry.
The balagtasan would be echoed as a poetical fiesta and would
be duplicated in the Ilocos as thebukanegan, in honor of Pedro
Bukaneg, the supposed transcriber of the epic, Biag ni Lam-ang; and
theCrissottan, in Pampanga, in honor of the esteemed poet of the
Pampango, Juan Crisostomo Sotto.
In 1932, Alejandro G. Abadilla , armed with new criticism and an
orientation on modernist poetry would taunt traditional Tagalog poetics
with the publication of his poem, “Ako ang Daigdig.” Abadilla’s poetry
began the era of modernism in Tagalog poetry, a departure from the
traditional rhymed, measured and orally recited poems. Modernist
poetry which utilized free or blank verses was intended more for silent
reading than oral delivery.
Noted poets in Tagalog during the American period were Julian
Cruz Balmaceda, Florentino Collantes, Pedro Gatmaitan, Jose
Corazon de Jesus, Benigno Ramos, Inigo Ed. Regalado, Ildefonso
Santos, Lope K. Santos, Aniceto Silvestre, Emilio Mar. Antonio ,
Alejandro Abadilla and Teodoro Agoncillo.
Like the writers in English who formed themselves into
organizations, Tagalog writers also formed the Ilaw at Panitik, and
held discussions and workshops on the value of literature in society.
Benigno Ramos, was one of the most politicized poets of the period as
he aligned himself with the peasants of the Sakdal Movement.
Fiction in Tagalog as well as in the other languages of the regions
developed alongside the novel. Most fictionists are also novelists.
Brigido Batungbakal , Macario Pineda and other writers chose to dwell
on the vicissitudes of life in a changing rural landscape. Deogracias Del
Rosario on the other hand, chose the city and the emerging social elite
as subjects of his stories. He is considered the father of the modern
short story in Tagalog
Among the more popular fictionists who emerged during the period
are two women writers, Liwayway Arceo and Genoveva Edroza Matute,
considered forerunners in the use of “light” fiction, a kind of story telling
that uses language through poignant rendition. Genoveva Edroza
Matute’s “Ako’y Isang Tinig” and Liwayway Arceo’s “Uhaw
ang Tigang na Lupa” have been used as models of fine writing in
Filipino by teachers of composition throughout the school system.
Teodoro Agoncillo’s anthology 25 Pinakamahusay na Maiikling
Kuwento (1945) included the foremost writers of fiction in the pre-war
era.
The separate, yet parallel developments of Philippine literature in
English and those in Tagalog and other languages of the archipelago
during the American period only prove that literature and writing in
whatever language and in whatever climate are able to survive mainly
through the active imagination of writers. Apparently, what was lacking
during the period was for the writers in the various languages to come
together, share experiences and come to a conclusion on the elements
that constitute good writing in the Philippines.

About the Author:

Lilia Quindoza-Santiago is the author behind “Kagampanan at Iba
Pang Tula” and “Ang Manggagamot ng Salay-Salay” (a collection of
stories). She was named Makata ng Taon (1989) in the annual Talaang
Ginto of the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa for her work “Sa Ngalan ng
Ina, ng Anak, ng Diwata’t Paraluman”. She teaches Philippine
Literature at the University of the Philippines.