Describe the literature of the Philippines during the following periods:

a. Spanish Colonization- Spanish colonization of the Philippines began in 1565 but it

was not until the late 19th century that significant writing in Spanish by Filipino emerged.
A key reason for the late development is that while printing was introduced in 1593 (with
the first book printed in the Philippines, Doctrina Cristiana), the conditions for a “culture
of literacy” – particularly, the rise of journalism and an educational system based on
letters – developed only in the 19th century. Between 1593 and 1800, only 541 books
were published in the Philippines. Before 1800, the only noteworthy Filipino writers in
Spanish were those who wrote religious literature, usually in collaboration with the
Spanish missionaries.
The production and circulation of literature were regulated by the colonial
government. Censorship was in force, restricting the entry into the colony of books like
those of Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, and Eugene Sue. Even Cervantes’ Don
Quixote was initially banned for depicting “immoral customs.” Yet, the force of social
economic changes created openings for the emergence of Filipino writing in Spanish.
An important vehicle was the nationalist “Propaganda Movement” carried out by
Filipinos in Europe and the Philippines. The generation of the Propaganda Movement
produced a major wave of literary activity. The most important figure is that of Jose
Rizal (1861-1896), who produced, among many other writings, Noli me Tangere(1887)
and El Filibusterismo (1891) which remain, to this day, the most important novels written
by a Filipino. Important writers of Rizal’s generation include Pedro Paterno (1858-1911),
Marcelo H. del Pilar (1850-1896), Graciano Lopez-Jaena (1856-1896), and Mariano
Ponce (1863-1918). The organ of the Propaganda Movement in Spain, La Solidaridad
(1889-1895), was the leading medium for 19th-century nationalist writings in Spanish.
The early years of the century — which some call “the golden age” of Philippine
literature in Spanish – produced a substantial body of work. The most vigorous activity
was in poetry, spurred by the presence of Spanish-language periodicals, like El
Renacimiento and La Vanguardia, and the popularity of publicly-performed poetic jousts
called balagtasan. The most important poets are Fernando Ma. Guerrero (1873-1929),
Cecilio Apostol (1877-1936), Jesus Balmori (1886-1948), Manuel Bernabe (1890-1960),
Claro M. Recto (1890-1960), and Flavio Zaragoza y Cano (1892-1965). Significant
books of poetry include Recto’s Bajo los Cocoteros (1911), Guerrero’s Crisalidas
(1914), Balmori’s Mi Casa de Nipa (1938), and Apostol’s Pentelicas (1941).

b. American Colonial Rule- Philippine literary production during the American Period in
the Philippines was spurred by two significant developments in education and culture.
One is the introduction of free public instruction for all children of school age and two,
the use of English as medium of instruction in all levels of education in public schools.
 Free public education made knowledge and information accessible to a greater
number of Filipinos. Those who availed of this education through college were able to
improve their social status and joined a good number of educated masses who became
part of the country’s middle class.

The use of English as medium of instruction introduced Filipinos to Anglo-

American modes of thought, culture and life ways that would be embedded not only in
the literature produced but also in the psyche of the country’s educated class. It was this
educated class that would be the wellspring of a vibrant Philippine Literature in English.
In fiction, the period of apprenticeship in literary writing in English is marked by imitation
of the style of storytelling and strict adherence to the craft of the short story as practiced
by popular American fictionists. Early short story writers in English were often dubbed
as the Andersons or Saroyans or the Hemingways of Philippine letters. Leopoldo Yabes
in his study of the Philippine short story in English from 1925 to 1955 points to these
models of American fiction exerting profound influence on the early writings of story
writers like Francisco Arcellana, A.E. Litiatco, Paz Latorena. .

When the University of the Philippines was founded in 1908, an elite group of
writers in English began to exert influence among the culturati. The U.P. Writers Club
founded in 1926, had stated that one of its aims was to enhance and propagate the
“language of Shakespeare.” In 1925, Paz Marquez Benitez short story, “Dead Stars”
was published and was made the landmark of the maturity of the Filipino writer in
English. Soon after Benitez, short story writers began publishing stories no longer
imitative of American models. Thus, story writers like Icasiano Calalang, A.E. Litiatco,
Arturo Rotor, Lydia Villanueva, Paz Latorena , Manuel Arguilla began publishing stories
manifesting both skilled use of the language and a keen Filipino sensibility.
This combination of writing in a borrowed tongue while dwelling on Filipino
customs and traditions earmarked the literary output of major Filipino fictionists in
English during the American period. Thus, the major novels of the period, such as the
Filipino Rebel, by Maximo Kalaw, and His Native Soil by Juan C. Laya, are discourses
on cultural identity, nationhood and being Filipino done in the English language. Stories
such as “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife” by Manuel Arguilla scanned the
scenery as well as the folkways of Ilocandia while N.V. M. Gonzales’s novels and
stories such as “Children of the Ash Covered Loam,” present the panorama of Mindoro,
in all its customs and traditions while configuring its characters in the human dilemma of
nostalgia and poverty. Apart from Arguilla and Gonzales, noted fictionists during the
period included Francisco Arcellana, whom Jose Garcia Villa lauded as a “genius”
storyteller, Consorcio Borje, Aida Rivera, Conrado Pedroche, Amador Daguio, Sinai
Hamada, Hernando Ocampo, Fernando Maria Guerrero. Jose Garcia Villa himself wrote
several short stories but devoted most of his time to poetry.
 In 1936, when the Philippine Writers League was organized, Filipino writers in
English began discussing the value of literature in society. Initiated and led by Salvador
P. Lopez, whose essays on Literature and Societyprovoked debates, the discussion
centered on proletarian literature, i.e., engaged or committed literature versus the art for
art’s sake literary orientation. But this discussion curiously left out the issue of
colonialism and colonial literature and the whole place of literary writing in English under
a colonial set-up that was the Philippines then.