Directions: With your partner, choose one National Artist/Gamaba Artist that you want to portray.

Make a VLOG that contains the life and works of the artists. One will act as the interviewer and the
other one will be the artist. This is a virtual activity so you are not allowed to meet physically/
personally with your partner.

F Sionil Jose

Voiceover: In today’s episode of Feature that Artist, we’re going to take a look on the life of one th e of
the most widely read Filipino writers in the English language. His novels, short stories and non-fiction
works highlight the social basis, class struggles and colonial history of Filipino society. Let’s get to
know the great mind of the 95 year old National Artist of Literature, Francisco Sionil Jose, fondly
known as Manong Frankie.

Among his masterpieces is the The Rosales Saga – a vivid documentary of Filipino life captured in five
novels embracing a hundred years of Philippine history.

F. Sionel Jose has received many awards for his work, including the
- Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts (1980)
- Philippine National Artist (2001)
- Pablo Neruda Centennial Award (2004) and
- Officer in the French Order of Arts and Letter (2014)

We look back at valuable lessons in Philippine history, life and loved with this living legend. First an
initial profile of the exemplary writer with some fast talk.

FAST TALK

Interviewer: What is your trademark characteristic?

Sionil: Frankness, candor, candidness

Interviewer: What is one of your favorite movies?

Sionil: Emiliano Zapata

Interviewer: How about a favorite song?

Sionil: that french song Pouring Greaves -- da da da diii~

Interviewer: Your favorite food or comfort food?

Sionil: Ilocano Dinengdeng

Interviewer: What do you think is the most admirable Filipino trait?

Sionil: tenacity and courage.. we are a very heroic people

Interviewer: name one of your favorite authors

Sionil: jose rizal of course

Interviewer: and one of your favorite books

Sionil: I have three because these were the first three books that I’ve read, the Noli and El Fili, Don
Quixote (ki-ho-ti) and My Antonia by Willa Cather

Interviewer: If you could have a superpower what would that be?

Sionil: Ah I’d like to be a dictator hahahahaha

GET TO KNOW F. SIONIL JOSE

Interviewer: So F. Sionil, you were born in the 1924 and your 95 yrs old nearing to hundred. You’ve
been living for so long what is the secret? Hahaha joke, tell us more about yourself, were you came
from, your background story and anything. Who is F. Sionil Jose.
Sionil: I was born in Rosales, Pangasinan in December 3, 1924. I studied at the University of Santo
Tomás and then took some pre-med courses, before starting a career as a journalist . I had worked as
a journalist, founded a publishing house, run a bookshop and art gallery as well as working as an
editor.

Voiceover: In 1966, he established Solidarity, a monthly magazine of “current affairs, ideas and the
arts,” whose contributors included Southeast Asia’s leading writers, poets, statesmen, scholars and
political activists.

Interviewer. you have been writing for so many years, when did you start…
Sionil: Yes, I’ve started my writing career since 1949, my first story was The God Stealer on 1968 but it
was only a short story. My very first published novel was Po-on in 1984. I’ve written more than 35
books, translated into more than 20 languages and published worldwide.

Voiceover: He began his writing career in 1949 in Manila as a journalist and for the past half-century,
José has dedicated his life to documenting the social injustices that plague Filipino society and the
persistent sickness he calls “national amnesia”. One of his greatest inspirations as a writer is the
National Hero, Jose Rizal, whose primary weapon was his quill when many of his contemporaries were
brandishing arms. José deeply admires Rizal’s “devotion to his art and to his country”.

Now in his nineties, he continues to be a prolific writer and relentless voice against social injustice and
national amnesia. Almost daily, he still climbs the three flights of steps to his writing corner at the
Solidaridad Bookshop in Manila. At the end of our interview, I’ve asked F. Sionil Jose about his legacy,
and this is what he said.

Sionil: How I wish it were possible for my readers to remember not just the narratives or the ideas that
I have written down, but to consider as well my motives for writing, and for my readers now and in the
future to understand them. These motives are rooted in man’s aspiration for justice and his enduring
search for truth in a world that is full of lies and in the beauty of a world demeaned by ugliness.