Sa aking mga kabata by Ambeth R. Ocampo was publish on august 22, 2011.

This poem entitled sa aking

mga kabata explains why should we give importance to our mother tongue which is Pilipino language.
We being identify as Pilipino its because of having our own language “Pilipino” that our Dr. Jose Rizal
fights for it. This language w ere using right now are not only to make pilipinos understand each one
another but it also reflect to our culture. According to Rizal “ He who loves not his own language is
worse than a beast and stinking fish” his definitely right because tagalog is for the pilipinos we should
love our own language cause it reflects of who we are right now. Rizal high lightened on this poem has
its own importance ang usage.

According to the author of this story Rizal didn’t write this poem because there is no exact time or date to
be proven that he is really the one who made it. More Filipinos believes that Rizal is the owner of the said
poem and every year we celebrate the buwan ng wika to show that we are real pilipinos. No original
manuscript, in Rizal’s own hand, exists for “Sa Aking Mga Kabata,” traditionally believed to be his first
poem. Rizal had 35 years to publish or assert authorship. He did not. The poem was published
posthumously, a decade after his execution, as an appendix to “Kun sino ang kumatha ng ‘Florante:
Kasaysayan ng Buhay ni Francisco Baltazar’ at pag-uulat nang kanyang karununga’t kadakilaan”
(Manila: Libreria Manila-Filatelico, 1906.) by the poet Herminigildo Cruz . Tracing the provenance of the
poem to its source, Cruz claims to have received the poem from his friend, the poet Gabriel Beato
Francisco, who got it from a certain Saturnino Raselis of Lukban, a bosom friend of Rizal and teacher in
Majayjay, Laguna, in 1884
Tagalog, according to the 8-year-old Rizal, has its own alphabet and letters. It goes back to pre-Spanish
times. The precocious child even compared Tagalog with Latin, English, Spanish and “the language of
angels,” whatever that is.