Philippine Literature in Spanish

=Colonial Literature (16th-18th Century)=

The arrival of the Spaniards in 1565 brought Spanish culture and language editors. The Spanish conquerors, governing from Mexico for the crown of Spain, establish a strict classes system that was based on rapes and soon imposed Roman Catholicism on the native population. Augustinian and Franciscan missionaries, accompanied by Spanish soldiers soon spread Christianity from island to island. Their mission was made harder by the force relocation of indigenous peoples during this time, as the uprooted natives turned to the foreign, structured religion as the new center of their lives. The priests and friars preached in local languages and employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a bilingual class known as ladinos.

The natives, called "indiosao", generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language. "Pasyon", begun by Aquino de Belen, is a narrative of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Mexican ballads of chivalry, the "corrido", provided a model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or "komedya", were performed in the regional languages for the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman alphabet in the principal languages and widely circulated.

In the early seventeenth century a Tagalog printer, Tomas Pinpin, sets out to write a book in romanized phonetic script writer, which would teach Tagalogs the principles of learning Castilian. His book, published by the Dominican press where he worked, appeared in 1610. Unlike the missionary's grammarer (which Pinpino had set in type), the Tagalog native's book dealt with the language of the dominant rather than the subordinate other. Pinpin's book was the first such work ever written and published by a Philippine native. As such, it is richly instructive for what it tells us about the interests that animated Tagalog translation and, by implication, Tagalog conversion in the early colonial period. Pinpin construed translation in ways that tended less to oppose than to elude the totalizing claims of Spanish signifying conventions.

Classical Literature (XIX Century)

Classical literature (José Rizal,Graciano López Jaena, Pedro Paterno, Jesús Balmori, Huerta, Farolán, Licsi, Lumba, Castillo, etc.) and historical documents (the national anthem, "Constitución Política de Malolos", Noli Me Tangere, Fray Botod, etc.) were written in Spanish, which is no longer an official language. Nationalism was first propagated in the Spanish language, especially in the writings of Marcelo H. Del Pilar or "Plaridel" in the La Solidaridad publications. In Cebu, the first Spanish newspaper, "El Boletin de Cebu", was published in 1886.

Modern Literature (XX Century)

Ironically, the greatest portion of Spanish literature by native Filipinos was written during the American commonwealth period, because the Spanish language was still predominant among the Filipino intellectuals. One of the country's major writers, Claro Mayo Recto, continued writing in Spanish until 1946. Other well-known Spanish-language writers, especially during the American period were Isidro Marfori, Cecilio Apostol ("Pentelicas", 1941), Fernando Ma. Guerrero ("Crisalidas", 1914), Gaspar Aquino de Belen, Flavio Zaragoza Cano ("Cantos a Espana" and "De Mactan a Tirad") and others.

Among the newspapers published in Spanish were "El Renacimiento", "La Democracia", "La Vanguardia", "El Pueblo de Iloilo", "El Tiempo" and others. Three magazines, "The Independent", "Philippine Free Press" and "Philippine Review" were published in English and Spanish.

In 1915, the local newspapers began publishing sections in English. Cebu had its share of writers in Spanish, most of whom flourished during the early decades of the century. Although their output would diminish in later years, Jose del Mar won a Zobel Prize (Premio Zobel) for his work "Perfiles" in 1965.

Notable writers in Spanish

* Jose Rizal
* Marcelo H. Del Pilar
* Claro M. Recto
* Cecilio Apostol
* Guillermo Gómez Rivera
* Jesus Balmori
* Graciano López Jaena
* Fr. Ignatio Francisco Alzina
* Antonio Abad
* Edmundo Farolan
* Lourdes Castrillo Brillantes
* Uldarico A. Alviola
* Fernando María Guerrero

Notable Spanish Works

* "Doctrina Christiana"
* " [http://www.filipiniana.net/readbook_content.jsp?filename=BKW000000001 Noli Me Tangere] " and " [http://www.filipiniana.net/readbook_content.jsp?filename=BKW000000003 El Filibusterismo] " - both written by Jose Rizal in Spanish - created controversy among the Spanish authority in the Philippines. They were instrumental in creating a Filipino sense of identity during the Spanish colonial period by caricaturing and exposing the abuses of the Spanish colonial government and religious authority.
* [http://www.filipiniana.net/readbook_content.jsp?filename=BKW000000013 Urbana at Felisa] Book written by a friar telling the Filipino women about modesty, chastity, and other virtues.
* [http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/resources/english/etext-project/history/philippine/chapter1.html Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas] by Antonio de Morga
*"Maragtas" - A collection of legends of ten chiefs(datus) who escaped from the tyranny of Datu Makatunaw of Borneo to the island of Panay. The chiefs and followers are believed to be ancestors of the Visayans. The arrival is celebrated in the festival of the Ati-atihan ni Kalibo, Aklan.While they are legends, they are also based on actual facts and events. The legends were compiled into a book by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro in 1907.