LITERATURE UNDER THE US COLONIALISM
common historical experience
INTRODUCTION
 Taga-bayan and taga-bukid polarization (Spanish
colonization, revolution of 1896 @ tejeros convention)
 Taga-bayan – illustrados of cavite
 Wealtheducationleadership
o education – a requirement for leadership
o wealth – a requirement for education
o leadership – role of determining filipino response
to independence and nation-building
 Inauguration of the 1st philipppine republic – taga-bukid
was shunted by the ilustrados (pedro paterno, benito
legearda, felipe calderon) ppblfc
 Taga-bayan culture
o Colonial creation
o Owed intellectual and emotional allegiance to the
culture of colonizers
 illustrados find it to themselves to abandon the taga-bukid
 (1900) prominent members of aguinaldo’s cabinet gone
over to the side of the americans
o Partido Federal was founded
o Pres of malolos congress – pedro paterno
o Director of public works – felipe buencamino
o VP of malolos congress – benito legarda
o Author of malolos congress – felipe calderon
 (July 4, 1902) theodore roosevelt - proclaimed that
insurrection has ended
o Guerillas (artemio ricarte and macario sakay) still
inflicted losses on American troops
 To counteract guerilla activity in manila and provinces:
o Sedition law (1901) – death penalty/long time
improsinment to those who advocated
idependence/separation from US and those who
advocated (scurrilous libels) against it
o Birgandage act (1902) – classified guerillas as
bandits (bandoleros) punishable by death. Long
sentence
o Reconcentration act (1903) – deprive guerillas of
their protective cover
o Flag law (1907) – prohibited display of anything
Katipunan-related
 (1907) pacification by military campaign had begun to
slacken
o Colonial administration set up political institutions
that would pre-empt/co-opt nationalist leadership
 Philippine Assembly – participation was based on
qualification (showed the dichotomy between taga bayan
and bukid)
o Independence of the Philippines must be secured
within the limits set by colonial system
 Philippine literature – indicative of creative energy by
revolution and phil am war
o Newspapers and magazines (venues for creative
writing and socio-political commentary, in Spanish,
American, and vernacular languages)
o Literary forms of Spanish period were firmly
grasped by young writers of the time (essay, novel,
allegorical drama, narrative ppoetry, patriotic
views)
o Writers shared common concerns brought by
EURO-HISPANIC TRADITION
 Literary part of the cultural heritage of Spanish colonialism
which brought over into Philippine writing forms
 This informed the literary development of the first half of
American occupation
 Writers were inspired by works during the Revolution and
the Propaganda Movement as they continue the struggle
against US
THEATER
 Severino Reyes (1861-1942) – widely acclaimed playwright
 Sarsuwela
o a komedya with the new self-image of the filipino
that resulted from struggle against spain and US
o (18th cen) originally a Spanish theater form (depict
contemporary life in spain)
o (19th cen) it came to the philippines as zarzuela –
an entertaining mix of social comment, music, and
humor w/ luv story
 Severino Reyes, Patricio Mariano, Hermogenes Ilagan,
Fulgencio Tolentino, Bonifacio Abdon, Leaon Ignacio, Juan
Hernandez
 Walang Sugat, 1902 (Severino Reyes) – tenyong and julia
(corrupt friars and heroism of katip)
 Hindi Aco Patay, 1903 (Juan Matapang Cruz) – tangulan,
karangalan, macamcam
 Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas, 1903 (Aurelio Tolentino) –
tagailog and inangbayan (fil and motherland), haring bata
(Chinese), dilat-na-bulag (spain), matanglawin (col admin of
spain), halimaw (friars), bagong sibol and malaynatin (US
and its col admin)
o resurrecting hero as theme
o Allegorical presentation of the history of
nationalist struggle
o Deception
o Tolentino set high standards for political drama,
one of the best of his contemporaries
 Sarsuela depicted scenes from Philippine life, komedya
depicted a society distant in time and culture
 Imparts patriotic pride in times of struggle
 Tagabayan drama has turned into tagbukid entertainment
 Komedya was to retreat to the provinces where it would
continue to be popular to the masses
ALLEGORY
 Convenient mode for bringing ideas to life
 Human characters represent ideas to make an abstract
message easier to grasp
 Tanikalang ginto, 1902 (Juan Abad) – liwanag (filipino) and
k’ulayaw (freedom), maimbot (US), nagtapon (renegeade
filipinos collab with US)
PUBLISHED POETRY
 Gave nationalist theater excellent support
 Rizal, revolution, and deceitfulness of US were themes
  Crisalidas (Fernando ma. Guerrero) and Pentelicas (Cecilio
Apostol) – poetry collections showing Spanish writing at its
liveliest
 Mi Casa de Nipa (Jesus Balmori) – concentrate on personal
themes, the best of balmori’s four books of verse
 Experimenting with variet of technical effects through
innovations in meter, rime, stanza forms
o Benigno Ramos – balagtasan poems (dagangang
bayan laban sa dalagang bukid, balagtasan ng
Kalayaan and SAKDAL
o Tungkos ng Alaala (Pedro Gatmaitan) – ironic,
oratorical, exhortative
o Mga gintong dahoon (1920), “Batute”( a social
and political poet) – non traditional themes, anti
colonial streak and sympathy for victims of
injustice and Sa Dakong Silangan (1928) –
returned to awit form and in allegory (guise of
friendship) (443 stanzas, Haring Iberio, Haring
Samuel)
 Battue as bard and lover, love poet par
excellence
NOVELS
 Triology (Fulgencia Galbillo, Capitan Bensio, Alfaro), by
Gabriel Beato Francisco – last 30 yrs of Spanish rule
 Madaling Araw (1909) by Inigo Ed. Regalado – issues and
contemporary Philippine society
 Lalaking Uliran o Tulisan (1914) by Juan LAuro Arsciwals –
allusion to colonial law that branded filipino patriots as
bandits
POETRY FOR FILIPINOS DURING THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
o Universities as venues for the plays
o English language productions
o Playwright : Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero (english as
medium)
 Poetry
 Short story
o His native soil by Juan C. Laya w/ Americanized
filipino as main character
o Deogracias A Rosario – father of Philippine short
story
 Panitikan - society founded by Abadilla
and del mundo (radical aristocratic)
 Veronicans - wrote in eglish but fiil
writers (story manuscsripts)
 Both were literary rebels avant garde
artists
 Renato constantino - on importance of puublich education
system
 Enchance economic exploitation
 Tydings mc duffie law – constitution o the Philippine
commonwealth
 Great crash of 1929 - wrecked us economy
 Manuel quezon – social justice program : preventive
measre for unrest
 LOPE K. SANTOS – BANAAG AT SIKAT – introduce fils to
socialism (delfin – capitalist, felipe – radical)
o Expose greed and corruption of the social
wealthy class
o Also wrote Pangginggera
 FAUSTINO AGUILAR – Pinaglahuan
 Sakdal (tabloid) by benigno r ramos

 Balagtasan – poetic joust; title of “makata”

o Mettle in declamation and argumentation
o Debate in verse
 Newspapers were rated more on the quality of novels they
serialized rather than the reportage/commentary
 Valeriano Hernandez Pena – Father of the tagalog novel
o nena at neneng (1903) - primer on love and
courtship
 Roman Reyes – wrote tagalog translation of pedro
paterno’s Ninay and Pusong Walang Pag-ibig, Bagong
Dalaga
 Iñigo Ed. Regalado – may pagsinta’y walang puso,
sampaguitang walang bango

AMERICAN IMPOSITION, FILIPINO RESPONSE

 US learned from spain misakes – denying Spanish language

to the filipinos
 English the medium of instruction in Philippine schools
 Flow of cultural influence
 Floodgates of colonial values
 UP was founded to train young pinoys for tasks in colonial
bureaucracy
o Intelligentsia - broader sector of populace, public
school system within reach of many filipinos
 Jose Garcia Villa – footnote to youth, other stories
 Vaudeville and movies replaced sarsuwela that replaced
komedya
o Urban centers in provinces