4

National Artists in Literature: Roles

and Contributions

LEARNING COMPETENCIES:
At the end of this chapter, the learners will be able to:
1. Enumerate some distinguished Philippine’s National Artist
2. Recognize National Artists’ contributions to Philippine contemporary arts and
culture.

The Order of the National Artists Award (Orden ng Gawad

Pambansang Alagad ng Sining) is the; namely, Music, Dance,
Theater, Visual Arts, Literature, Film and Broadcast Arts, and
Architecture and Allied Arts. The order is jointly administered
by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and
Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and conferred by the
President of the Philippines upon recommendation by both
institutions.
(https://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph/programs/awards-and-
grants/the-national-artists-award/details)

Here are the criteria to become a National Artist awardee.

• Living artists who have been Filipino citizens for the last ten years prior to nomination as
well as those who have died after the establishment of the award in 1972 but were
Filipino citizens at the time of their death;
• Artists who have helped build a Filipino sense of nationhood through the content and
form of their works;
• Artists who have distinguished themselves by pioneering in a mode of creative
expression or style, making an impact on succeeding generations of artists;
• Artists who have created a significant body of works and/or have consistently displayed
excellence in the practice of their art form, enriching artistic expression or style; and
• Artists who enjoy broad acceptance through prestigious national and/or international
recognition, awards in prestigious national and/or international events, critical acclaim
and/or reviews of their works, and/or respect and esteem from peers within an artistic
discipline.
 Jose Garcia Villa is a Filipino poet, literary critic,
short story writer, and painter. He was awarded as the
National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in
1973, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative
writing by Conrad Aiken. He is known to have introduced
the "reversed consonance rhyme scheme" in writing
poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation
marks—especially commas, which made him known as
the Comma Poet. Villa's tart poetic style was considered
too aggressive at that time. In 1929 he published Man
Songs, a series of erotic poems. At same year, Villa won
Best Story of the Year from Philippine Free Press
magazine for Mir-I-Nisa.

After the publication of Footnote to Youth in 1933,

Villa switched from writing prose to poetry, and published only a handful of works until 1942.
During the release of Have Come, Am Here in 1942, he introduced a new rhyming scheme called
"reversed consonance" wherein, according to Villa: "The last sounded consonants of the last
syllable, or the last principal consonant of a word, are reversed for the corresponding rhyme.
Thus, a rhyme for near would be run; or rain, green, reign."

As an editor, Villa first published Philippine Short Stories: Best 25 Short Stories of 1928
in 1929, an anthology of Filipino short stories written in English literature. It is the second
anthology to have been published in the Philippines, after Philippine Love Stories by editor Paz
Márquez-Benítez in 1927. Villa, however, went under "self-exile" after the 1960s, even though
he was nominated for several major literary awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. This
was perhaps because of oppositions between his formalism (literature) formalist style and the
advocates of proletarian literature, who misjudged him as a petty bourgeois. Villa only
"resurfaced" in 1993 with an anthology entitled Charlie Chan Is Dead, which was edited by Jessica
Hagedorn.

Several reprints of Villa's past works were done, including Appasionata: Poems in Praise
of Love in 1979, A Parliament of Giraffes (a collection of Villa's poems for young readers, with
Tagalog language Tagalog translation provided by Larry Francia), and The Anchored Angel:
Selected Writings by Villa that was edited by Eileen Tabios with a foreword provided by Hagedorn
(both in 1999).
 Amado Vera Hernandez, commonly known as
Amado V. Hernandez (September 13, 1903 – March 24,
1970), was a writer and labor leader.
While still a teenager, he began writing in Tagalog
for the newspaper Watawat (Flag). He would later write a
column for the Tagalog publication Pagkakaisa (Unity)
and become editor of Mabuhay (Long Live).
His writings gained the attention of Tagalog
literati and some of his stories and poems were included
in anthologies, such as Clodualdo del Mundo's Parolang
Ginto and Alejandro Abadilla's Talaang Bughaw.
In 1922, at the age of 19, Hernandez became a member
of the literary society Aklatang Bayan which included
noted Tagalog writers Lope K. Santos and Jose Corazon
de Jesus.
His socio-political novels were based on his experiences as a guerrilla, as a labour leader and as
a political detainee, Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Birds of Prey),1969.; Luha Ng Buwaya (Crocodile's
Tears), 1972.; Pili sa Pinili (Chosen from the Select), 1964.

Among his poems are Isang Dipang Langit, Panata sa Kalayaan, Ang Mga Kayamanan ng
Tao, Ang Dalaw Kay Silaw, Bartolina, Kung Tuyo Na ang Luha Mo Aking Bayan, Bayang
Malaya, Ang Taong Kapos, Bayani, Sa Batang Walang Bagong Damit, Isang Sining ng
Pagbigkas, Ang Panday, Inang Wika, Ang Tao, Pamana, Ang Aklasan.

His essays include Si Atang at ang Dulaan (Atang and the Theater) dedicated to his wife Atang
dela Rama and Si Jose Corazon de Jesus at ang Ating Panulaan (Jose Corazon de Jesus and
Our Poetry).

Nick Joaquin, by name of Nicomedes Joaquin, (born May 4, 1917-

April 29, 2004) Filipino novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and
biographer whose works present the diverse heritage of the Filipino
people.

Joaquin was awarded with a scholarship to the Dominican monastery

in Hong Kong after publication of his essay “La Naval de Manila”
(1943), a description of Manila’s fabled resistance to 17th-century
Dutch invaders. After World War II he traveled to the United States,
Mexico, and Spain, later serving as a cultural representative of the
Philippines to Taiwan, Cuba, and China.

Starting as a proofreader for the Philippines Free Press, Joaquin rose to contributing editor and
essayist under the nom de plume “Quijano de Manila” (“Manila Old-Timer”). He was well known
as a historian of the brief Golden Age of Spain in the Philippines, as a writer of short stories
suffused with folk Roman Catholicism, as a playwright, and as a novelist.

The novel The Woman Who Had Two Navels (1961) examines his country’s various
heritages. A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1966), a celebrated play, attempts to reconcile
historical events with dynamic change. The Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay on History as Three
Generations (1983) presents a biography of Benigno Aquino, the assassinated presidential
candidate. The action of the novel Cave and Shadows (1983) occurs in the period of martial law
under Ferdinand Marcos. Joaquin’s other works include the short-story collections Tropical
Gothic (1972) and Stories for Groovy Kids (1979), the play Tropical Baroue (1979), and the
collections of poetry The Ballad of the Five Battles (1981) and Collected Verse (1987). Joaquin’s
later works are mostly nonfiction, including Manila, My Manila: A History for the Young (1990),
The D.M. Guevara Story (1993), and Mr. F.E.U., the Culture Hero That Was Nicanor Reyes (1995).

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nick-Joaquin
 Carlos Peña Rómulo, (14 January 1898 – 15 December
1985) was a Filipino diplomat, statesman, soldier,
journalist and author. He was a reporter at 16, a
newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32.
He was a co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines,
a general in the US Army and the Philippine Army,
university president, President of the UN General
Assembly, was eventually named one of the Philippines'
National Artists in Literature, and was the recipient of
many other honors and honorary degrees. His hometown
is Camiling, Tarlac.
Romulo, in all, wrote and published 22 books, which
includes The United (novel), I Walked with Heroes
(autobiography), I Saw the Fall of the Philippines, Mother
America and I See the Philippines Rise (war-time memoirs), My Brother Americans, Crusade in Asia
(The John Day Company, 1955; about the 1953 presidential election campaign of Ramon
Magsaysay), The Meaning of Bandung, The Magsaysay Story (with Marvin M. Gray, The John Day
Company 1956, updated re-edition by Pocket Books, Special Student Edition, SP-18, December
1957; biography of Ramon Magsaysay, Pocket Books edition updated with an additional chapter
on Magsaysay's death), I Walked with Heroes (autobiography), Last Man off Bataan (Romulo's
experience during the Japanese Plane bombings.), Romulo: A Third World Soldier at the UN,
Daughters for Sale and Other Plays

Francisco "Franz" Arcellana (September 6, 1916 – August 1,

2002) was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist
and teacher. He was born on September 6, 1916. His actual
writing, however, started when he became a member of The
Torres Torch Organization during his high school years.
Arcellana continued writing in various school papers at the
University of the Philippines Diliman. Later on he received a
Rockefeller Grant and became a fellow in Creative Writing at
the University of Iowa and at the Breadloaf Writers'
Conference from 1956– 1957.

He is considered an important progenitor of the modern

Filipino short story in English. Arcellana pioneered the
development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form
within Filipino literature. His works are now often taught in
tertiary-level syllabi in the Philippines. Many of his works were translated into Tagalog,
Malaysian, Russian, Italian, and German. Arcellana won 2nd place in the 1951 Don Carlos Palanca
Memorial Awards for Literature, with his short story, The Flowers of May. Fourteen of his short
stories were also included in Jose Garcia Villa's Honor Roll from 1928 to 1939. His major
achievements included the first award in art criticism from the Art Association of the Philippines
in 1954, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila in
1981, and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for English fiction from the Unyon ng mga
Manunulat sa Pilipino (UMPIL) in 1988.

The University of the Philippines conferred upon Arcellana a doctorate in humane letters,
honoris causa in 1989. Francisco Arcellana was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in
Literature on June 23, 1990 by then Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino. Arcellana's
published books include: Selected Stories (1962), Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing
in English in the Philippines Today (1977), The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990)

The table shows the awarded National Artists in Literature

NATIONAL YEAR Residency Region
AWARDED
ARTIST
Amado V. 1973 Tondo, Manila Region 16. NCR
Hernandez
Jose Garcia Villa 1973 Singalong, Manila Region 16. NCR
Nick Joaquin 1976 Paco, Manila Region 16. NCR
Carlos P. Romulo 1982 Intramuros, Manila Region 16. NCR
Francisco Arcellana 1989 Sta. Cruz Manila Region 16. NCR
Rolando S. Tinio 1997 Tondo, Manila Region 16. NCR
N.V.M. Gonzales 1997 Romblon Region 4b MIMAROPA
Levi Celerio 1997 Manila Region 16. NCR
Carlos Quirino 1997 Ilocos Sur Region 1
Edith L. Tiempo 1999 Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya Region 2
F. Sionil Jose 2001 Rosales, Pangasinan Region 1
Virgilio Almario 2003 San Miguel, Bulacan Region 3
Alejandro R. Roces 2003 Manila Region 16 NCR
Bienvenido 2006 Lipa, Batangas Region 4a
Lumbera CALABARZON
Lazaro Francisco 2009 Orani, Bataan Region 3
Cirilo F. Bautista 2014 Manila Region 16. NCR
Ramon Muzones 2018 Iloilo City Region 6
Resil Mojares 2018 Cebu City Region 7

Each National Artists had made significant contributions to Philippine Literature and
have consistently displayed excellence in the practice of their art form, enriching artistic
expression or style. They have passed the National Artist criteria which means that their works
reflect Filipino culture, identities and narratives as a nation.