NICK JOAQUÍN

Biography and Literary of Works

Nick Joaquín was born in the old district of Pacò in Manila, Philippines, on September 15, 1917, the feast
day of Saint Nicomedes, a protomartyr of Rome, after whom he took his baptismal name. He was born
to a home deeply Catholic, educated, and prosperous. His father, Leocadio Joaquín, was a person of
some prominence. Leocadio was a procurador (attorney) in the Court of First Instance of La Laguna,
where he met and married his first wife, at the time of the Philippine Revolution. He shortly joined the
insurrection, had the rank of colonel, and was wounded in action. When the hostilities ceased and the
country came under American rule, he built a successful practice in law. Around 1906, after the death of
his first wife, he married Salomé Márquez, Nick’s mother. A friend of General Emilio Aguinaldo, Leocadio
was a popular lawyer in Manila and the Southern Tagalog provinces. He was unsuccessful however when
he made a bid for a seat in the Philippine Assembly representing Laguna.

He was the greatest Filipino writer of his generation. Over six decades and a half, he produced a body of
work unmatched in richness and range by any of his contemporaries. Living a life wholly devoted to the
craft of conjuring a world through words, he was the writer. In the passion with which he embraced his
country’s manifold being, he was his people’s writer as well.