The Filipino Spirit Through Time

Image credit: https://www.facebook.com/nqc2021/photos/philippine-history-is-replete-with-examples-of-how-our-forebears-overcame-their-

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National Artist Francisco Coching courtesy of Vibal Group; Gabriela Silang courtesy of the Ayala Museum; Andres Bonifacio from National Artist
Botong Francisco’s “Filipino Struggles through History” courtesy of the National Museum of the Philippines (property of the Manila City
Government); Fighting Filipino poster courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; a front liner courtesy of Ginebra San Miguel.

The Philippines has no dearth of brilliant minds, creative juices, rhetorical skills, or
literary interests. The Filipino people who live in modern times and exist in a virtually media-
oriented dimension have developed a true sense of literary history and cultural context. As they
embrace and value their distinctive heritage and opulent tradition, they unveil the indomitable
and living soul of their personhood―the Filipino pride―before the borderless world.
Filipinos take pride in their rich literature. Reading and appreciating its body of writings
is one of the best avenues for its students and teachers to acquire, select, compare,
discriminate, incorporate and formulate values and ideals and bases of characters and conduct.
The diversity and richness of Philippine literature has evolved side by side with its
history. It has become a showcase of the Filipino people’s vibrant and colorful past as it merges
with its frenetic, diverse and equally chromatic present. From ancient writings and inscriptions
on bamboos and palms to blogs and e-books, Philippine literature has continuously mirrored its
people’s thoughts feelings, dreams and frustrations, glories and grievances, triumphs and
defeats, elation and despair and a host of myriad ideas and emotions. What Philippine
literature is today is a joyful interlocking of the threads of Filipino life and spirit at its best,
proud and ready to face the challenges of a globally-connected and demanding world.
 The Filipino spirit, both gentle and indomitable, expressed itself through the different
forms of oral and written literature with the passage of time. In pre-colonial times, each song,
dance, chant, riddle or proverb reflected a people’s simple and gentle way of life steeped in
moral values and upright ways. With the coming of the Spaniards and Americans, its
subservience, resiliency, struggle and eventual nationalistic fervor rose to the fore. As it
acculturated itself with its colonial masters, it slowly blended its unique old ways with its
foreign counterparts. Mimetic dances and rituals mixed with the cenaculos, corridos and
zarzuelas of the Spaniards and the English short stories and vaudevilles of the Americans.
However, its patriotic yearnings simmered and finally burst its dams when it protested,
struggled and defied its foreign rulers. When it eventually regained it independence, a new-
found sense of freedom developed a new angst as it continued to struggle as a liberated nation.
This new angst found its expression its political essays, social commentaries, and underground
writings side by side with its feminist and gay literature. Today, as it advances and tries to cope
with a technology-ridden world, the Filipino mind continues to ride the crests and survive the
troughs of culture with an eclectic spirit, a happy blend of the old and new, the indigenous and
alien, the East and the West, a melting pot of different but similar minds and hearts, truly
unique and Filipino.

Evolution of Philippine Literature

Below is a brief summary of how Philippine literary history evolved through time. From
pre-colonial times to contemporary/modern period. Walk through time and experience the
reflection and influences of a culture rich with tradition that continues to be enhanced by
modern changes and challenges as it continues to adapt to an ever-changing world.

Literary Characteristics Literary Genres Major Writers/Writings

Pre-colonial Period (---1521) • Riddles Communal Authorship

• Considered as the longest • Proverbs
literary period • Ambahan
• A showcase of a rich and • Tanaga (poem)
civilized past • Duplo (verbal
• Most of the literature are joust)
handed down orally from • Folk narratives
one generation to another
• Reflects the daily common
activities and life of the
people and their
environment (language of
daily life)
• Written literature is
inscribed in bamboo, barks
of trees and palm leaves
 with the use of knives and
styli
• Ancient Tagalog used script
which had 17 basic symbols,
3 of which were the vowels
a/e, I, and o/u and each
basic consonantal symbol
had the inherent a sound:
ka, ga, nga, ta, da, na, pa,
ba, ma, ya, la,wa, sa, and ha
• Philippine literatures
started with fables and
legends

Spanish Period • Pasyon • Pedro Bukaneg

• Religious in nature • Cenaculo (Lam-ang)
• Alibata (first Filipino • Tibag • Tomas Pinpin
alphabet) is replaced by the • Carillo (shadow (Librong Pag-
Roman alphabet play) aaralan ng Mga
• Printing press is run and • Political essays Tagalog ng
monopolized by the friars • Comedia Wikang Castilla,
• Pre-colonial literatures are • Zarzuela 1610)
destroyed because they are • Gaspar Aquino de
“works of the devil”; that Other Revolutionary Belen (Ang Mahal
survived did so because of papers include: na Pasyon ni Jesus,
isolation from the power a. El Heraldo de la Christong
centers and by resistance of Revolucion Panginoon Natin,
the natives b. La Independencia 1704)
• Spanish becomes the c. La Republica • Pedro Paterno
literary language and many Filipina (Sampaguita,
Spanish terms assimilated in d. La Libertad Ninay)
the Filipino language e. La Revolucion • Dr. Jose Rizal (Noli
• European literature brought Me Tangere, El
by the Spaniards are Filibusterismo, Mi
assimilated in our songs, Ultimo Adios)
corridos and moro-moros • Marcelo H. del
• Birth of the propaganda Pilar (Pag-ibig sa
movement and La Tinubuang Lupa,
Solidaridad Dasalan at
• Tagalog becomes the Tocsohan, Kaiingat
language of revolution and Kayo)
of the nationalist • Graciano Lopez
movement Jaena (Fray Botod)
 • Literature of reform • Francisco Baltazar
• Many grammar books are (Florante at Laura)
printed in Filipino • Fr. Modesto de
• Women writers emerge in Castro (Urbana at
the latter half of the 19th Feliza)
century although they • Emilio Jacinto
already exist prior to the (Liwanag sa Dilim)
19th century • Jose Palma (Himno
Nacional Filipino,
De Mi Jardin)
• Jose de la Cruz
(Ibong Adarna)
• Magdalena
Jalandoni (Ang
Guitara, Si
Anabella, Ang Mga
Tunok sang Isa ka
Bulak)

Japanese Period • Vernacular

• Between 1941-1945, due to magazines like
the short period of Liwayway
colonization by the • Three newspapers
Japanese, English was no were operating in
longer popular and Filipino Manila: Tribune,
literature was given a break Bulletin, and
during this period since Herald
Japanese preferred the use • Radio San
of vernacular than English Francisco
• Liwayway as a nonpolitical
magazine was allowed to
continue its publication
• All radio stations, except
KZRH which was renamed
PIAM were padlocked
• Guerillas using makeshift
communications
equipment, aired anti-
Japanese news based on
reports received from Radio
San Francisco
American Period • Free verse poetry • Sergio Osmeña (El
• English becomes the • Zarzuela Nuevo Dia)
medium of instruction in all • Essay • Jose Garcia Villa
schools • Novel (Footnote to
• Printing press is freed from • Short story Youth, The Fence)
religious censorship under • Balagtasan • Angela Manalang
the management of • News reports Gloria (Change,
patriotic businessman • Newspaper Yanks, Querida)
• Spanish remains the Daily Pacific, Stars • Paz Marquez
language of literature and Stripes and Benitez (Dead
during the first decade condensed Stars)
• American colonial values versions of Time • Lope K. Santos
are integrated in student and Newsweek (Banaag at Sikat)
textbooks • Manuel Arguilla
• Reflects Philippine life in (How My Brother
English Leon Brought
• Considered as the period of Home a Wife)
apprenticeship and • Carlos P. Romulo
imitation (Daughters for
• Magazines in local dialects Sale, My Brother
emerge Americans)
• Mainstream literature is • Jorge Bocobo (My
written in Filipino/Philippine Ideal University)
dialects/languages • Salvador Lopez
• Anti-colonial literature (Literature and
continues to exist Society)
• Common themes are love, • Alejandro Roces
patriotism and social issues (We Filipinos are
representing life and nature Mild Drinkers)
• Philippine literature is • Jose Corazon de
commercialized (1920s) Jesus (Mga
through publication of Gintong Dahon)
stories, novels, and poems • Bienvenido Santos
in weekly magazines like (Scent of Apples)
Bisaya Yuhum, Liwayway, • Stevan Javellana
etc. (Without Seeing
• Writings in English by the Dawn)
Filipino writers are stilted, • Severino Reyes
artificial, unnatural and lack (Walang Sugat)
vitality and spontaneity due • Fernando
to lack of proficiency of the Maramag (The
English language Rural Maid)
 • Philippine literature attains
its identity as national
literature at the end of US
colonialism
• Newspapers published in
Spanish were El
Renacimiento, La
Democracia. La Vanguardia,
El Pueblo de Iloilo, El Tiempo
and three magazines, The
Independent, Philippine Free
Press and Philippine Review
were published in English
and Spanish
• Pre-war period in the
Philippines is sometimes
referred to as the Golden
Age of Vernacular
Literature, with the 1930s
marking a boundary
between two kinds of
popular writing: the
predominantly
propagandistic and the
more commercialized
escapist literature that
proliferated since the
Commonwealth
• Newspapers proliferated
when peace returned to the
country in 1945 and the US
Armed Forces were the first
to put out information
materials

Contemporary Period • Short story • Nick Joaquin aka

• ‘50s- ‘80s writers explore • Poems Quijano de Manila
other themes such as • Novels (The Summer
generation gap, working • Drama Solstice, The
moms, national identity, • Blogs Woman with Two
etc. • E-books Navels, The House
• Journals on Zapote Street)
• Use of slang is legitimized; • Popular crony • Marjorie Evasco
writers avoid theatrical and media: (Sampaguita Song,
rhetorical language government Caravan of the
• Acceptance of the use of stations run by Waterbearers)
Filipinized foreign words National Media • N.V.M. Gonzalez
(anderpas, istambay, Production Center (A Grammar of
plastic, etc.) (NMPC) and Dreams, Bread of
• Martial Law years give birth included Daily Salt and Other
to social and political Express and Stories, The Winds
unrests masked in literature Kanlaon of April)
(theatre, fiction, poetry) Broadcasting • Isagani Cruz (The
―literature of System Praying Man, The
circumvention/underground • Alternative Press Lovely Bienvenido
writings • Malaya, Filipino Santos)
• Most writings that are Times, Kabayan, • Bienvenido
antagonistic and hostile The Guardian, Lumbera (Nasa
towards the government Veritas, Las Puso ang Amerika,
are discreetly disseminated Solidaridad Apat na Dulang
• ‘80s- ‘90s brings about Filipinas, Mr. & May Musika,
different schools of writing Philippine
Mrs., Supplement
theory and styles Literature: A
and Peryodiko
• Gay literature and feminist History and
Libre
writings emerge Anthology)
• “Xerox Journalism” •
• Creative writing centers Virgilio Almario
with writers-in-residence aka Rio Alma
are established in (Huling Hudhud,
universities and other Kwentuhan Mo
learning institutions Ako, Bakit
• Creative writing becomes a Kailangan ang
part of the school’s Himala)
curriculum • Thelma Kintanar
• Writers’ associations (UP Cultural
sponsor regular writing Dictionary for
workshops/symposia for its Filipinos, Primer on
members and other aspiring Gender-Fair
writers Language)
• Writings in regional • Kerima Polotan-
languages/dialects, their Tuvera (The Hand
retrieval and recuperation of the Enemy, A
are encouraged House Full of
• Publishers are more Daughters, The
adventurous and willing to Virgin)
gamble on “nontraditional”
 projects; encourages novel • Cristina Pantoja-
writings Hidalgo (The Path
• Rise of commercial of Heart, Coming
publishing firms Home,
• Annual competitions are Skyscrapers,
given by award-giving Celadon and
bodies motivated writers to Kimchi)
keep on producing quality • Danton Remoto
written work (Palanca (Buhay Bading,
Awards, Manila Critics Rampa, Seduction
Circle, NCCA, etc.) and Solitude)
• New Society • Gemino Abad
• Ferdinand Marcos (Caracoa, The
• Under the period of Martial Space Between,
Law (Proclamation No. Poems and
1081) Parables)
• All publications, radio and • Jose Maria Flores
TV stations were ordered aka Pete Lacaba
closed until given a permit (Prometheus
to operate Unbound, Jaguar,
• Birth of the alternative Bayan Ko: Kapit sa
press or the government Patalim)
called it “mosquito press”
• Restoration of Democracy
(EDSA I) Corazon Aquino
• Greatest legacy is the
restoration of peace,
democracy, freedom and
justice in the Philippines