Arts and Literature of the Ilocanos

The Arts and Literature of the Ilocanos pertains to the literary works of writers of Ilocano ancestry
regardless of the language they used. The terms “Iloko” and “Ilocano” are different; “Iloko” is their
language while “Ilokano” are the people or the ethnicity of the people who speak the Iloko language.
The term Ilokano originates from i- which is “from”, and looc means “cove or bay”, thus “people of the
bay”. In the precolonial times to the 19 th century of the Ilocanis their arts and literature composed of
folk songs, riddles, proverbs, lamentations or what they called dung aw, and epic stories which is either
written or oral. An example of this is the Dallot it is the improvised, versified and at times impromptu
long poem delivered in a sing-song manner. The earliest known written Iloko peoms are translated from
Spanish by Francisco Lopez, he published his own Iloko translation of the Doctrina Cristiana by Cardinal
Bellarmine, the first book to be printed in Iloko. Another example is the popular “Biag ni Lam-ang” or the
“Life of Lam-ang”. There is also their religious works which are the “Sumario de las Indulgencias” (1719)
by Fr. Jacinto Rivera and the “Pasion” (St. Vincent Ferrer’s Sermons into Iloko, 1845) by Fr. Antonio
Mejia. Aside from the religious works there is also the Comedia (moro-moro) which is a play that
became popular in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period and Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-
dynamic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and
popular song as well as dance. Comedia (moro-moro) and Zarzuela was first staged in Ilocos. In the 20 th
century most Ilocanos started to write literary pieces and one of this is the Bannawag Magazine. It is a
Philippine weekly magazine published in the Philippines by Liwayway Publications Inc. and the content is
written in Ilokano. There are more literature and arts that is hidden in the Ilocos that will surely
fascinate us, so it is nice that we have research the things that we needed.