Contemporary

Hispanophilippine Literature

ANDREA GALLO

T HE PH CLIPPINES can boast of a unique treasure: linguistic vari­

ety. Apart from the autochthonous languages found in the ar­
chipelago, Filipinos speak languages that, despite originating from
foreign shores, have come to form part of their own linguistic patri­
mony through historico-cultural processes. We refer to English and
Spanish.
Notwithstanding perceptions to the contrary, Spanish-now
almost extinct in the Philippines'-can be considered a Philippine
language. Over the years it has evolved into a species of the Spanish
language from the Iberian Peninsula, so shaped and formed that it
has become explicitly Filipino with its typically Filipino phonemes,
lexicon, and syntax, a language that is distinct from the Spanish spo­
ken in, say, Madrid or Mexico City. This language, which adheres to
the linguistic norms of the illustrious peninsular literario, but is at
the same time encrusted with Filipinismos, had its own niche in Phil­
ippine literature and culture until World War IL The result is the 1-Iis­
f'rom the l'ilipinas Heritage Librnrr Phot,, t .,11, 1 11, 1 panophilippine literary corpus,2 which flourished until recently and
Por ser so/dado de todo
lo tuyo, de tus pala/nas,
I 11,is article is the synthesis of another published in Spanish. I wish to thank Ms.
de tus letras y tus glorias,
Rose Maramba for her excellent translation, along with Mr. Gaspar Vibal and Mr. Isaac
jVe, Oh lengua castellana
Donoso for their support.
wa11to bregar y sufi·ir Sec studies made by Q,,ilis, Rodriguez-Ponga and other linguists. Today, Spanish in
comprcnde la gran batalla the Philippines has become a minority language. f'ilipinos study it for cultural reasons or
que se libra por lusfueros for job-related purposes. However, there still remain a few l:'ilipino families who consider
en esta tierra malaya! the language their own.
2 Philippine literature is a multilingual body of oral and written texts: Tagalog,
Visaya, Bicolano, English, Spanish, and more. The term "Philippine literature" denotes
Guillermo G6mcz Rivera
literature written by l·'ilipinos but 110/ in what language. The literature written in Spanish is
"Por soldado de tu vcrbo'; 1962
a part of the Philippine literary corpus. The terms that refer to this part arc varied:"" liter-

363
 Cvntr.:mporary Hi:-.panophilippinc Liti.:rarnrc 365
364 iVlorc I lispanic Tlun \Vr.: :\dmit

is key to the understanding of the elusive modern Filipino id111111 Given the above, it would be logical to wonder if something
This body of literature, which is simultaneously Hispanic :ind/\ 1 1 1 1 of the unique old literary tradition has survived at all, or if every­

is worth propagating for the sheer beauty of its peculiar cha 1·.11, 1 1 It thing has been Jost. Residual bits and pieces of it actually live on

was once an integral part of the Filipino literary-cultural sn· 1 11 111, I in the prestigiousAcademia Filipina de la Lengua Espanola, which
prominent personalities in culture and politics, who have unlni I 11 was founded in 1922 and is the equivalent of the Real Academia Es­

nately now passed away, turned out outstanding works in Sp,11 1 1 11 panola de la Lengua in Spain, and the exemplary among them are
way past the post-American colonial era. honored by the Premio Zobel, which was created on 25 July 1920

Among the many notable representatives of this disting111•,l1, I by Enrique Zobel de Ayala. The Premio Zobel has been awal'ded by

circle were Guillermo Gomez Windham ( 1880-J 975 ),Jesus 11.11 1 111 11, the Zobel family since 1922. 3

(1886-1949), Manuel Bernabe (1890-1960), Claro Mayo I{,•, 1,1 Nor are these the only traces of the Spanish heritage of the Fili­

( 1890-1960), Antonio Abad ( 1894-1970 ), Adelina G ur rea Mo1 1 1 pinos that could be gleaned in the present-day Philippine cultural

terio ( 1896-1971), and Enrique Fernandez Lumba ( 1899-19'1()) panorama. Publications in Spanish by Filipino authors keep ap­
pearing on the scene, albeit in trickles. Works in different genres
are published locally and abroad now and then: books of Spanish
atura (,lipina en cspaiiol" (or •·ca,tcllano"), "litcr,1tura illhispana" (contraction <•I' ld11'ill• poetry, memoirs, autobiographies, plays, stories; and essays with
hispanJ''), •· literatura hispano-filip ina," "literatura hispanofiI ipina."
Our choice here is "hispanofilipina," which docs not in any way ch.1 1 ,11 i.- 1 ,,. 111 , historical, literary and linguistic themes. Other forms of literary
Philippine-Hispanic relationship, let alone implies the importance of the Sp,11 d•1lo" , output include periodicals," literary pieces written in Filipino lan­
the Filipino. The term simply indicates the language (Spanish) in this body ,,1 11 11• 1 ,11111
guages and translated to Spanish, and didactic texts for Filipinos
is written.
In the nco-Latin languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.) tll \' Ii, ,1 w, 1 I learning Spanish.5
in composite terms, such as "hispanofilipina," indicates language; the second 1·('!,,1 , 1,, 1( 1
country or culture of that country, thus "anglocanadicnsc," "francocanadic- 111,1•, '1 11 11
afr icano," "angloindio," ''angloafricano;• "hispanoguineano.'' ·-r he reverse orJ,·r ",• 1 1 1 ,.1 Current Hispanophilippine writers
ous; one docs not say "canadicnscfranco" or "canadicnsefranccs." At this point, the reader might well ask what this is all about. Our
Behind our choice of ''hispanofilipina" (unhypcnated one word wh 1 d 1 'I" ,I ,.(
attempt to account for the Spanish works by Filipinos that have
the combination of two distinct clements) is also the idea that the term und ('"'"'' ii
relationship of the Philippines with Latin America (and that which i, Lalin""", 11 ,11 been published in recent times is an attempt to take these works not
Since the sixteenth century the Philippines and Lalin America (the /o ispw,i, 1\ 1111•1 11 ., I
Mexico, above all had been closely rela1·cd. 'fhis was evident even in lilerat11,·c N,.1,, 1,,,
example, that modernism, which Latin America gave birth to, had found cxp1·c"ll'll l 1 1 I I i 3 At present, those in charge of the prestigious award arc Georgina Padilla y Zobel
writings of such Filipino authors as Lorenzo Perez Tuclls ( 1898-19S6). de 1VbcCrohon and Alc'jandro Padilla y '/,,\bcl.
Finally, we must remind the reader that "Spanish" and "hispano"/"hisp,1ni," ,11, 1111( 4 Between 1994 and 1997 the Ma11ila Cloro11icle published in its Sunday edition a
synonymous. Clearly Spanish refers to Spain, whereas "hispano" or "hispank" w 01 ,1,I 1 1 r, 1 four-page section in Spanish titled "Cronica de Manila." It dcall with Philippine culture,
lo the Spanish-spc,1king world and I lispanic culture. It is therefore a much hn,,111 1• 1 , ,111 the history of the Philippi11es during the Spanish era, current events, etc. Its contributors
cept and transcends Spain. were Wystan de la Pe,'ia ( we arc taking this opportunity to thank him ror the information),
'(he foregoing is excerpted, in sumrnary form, from Andrea Gallo, ",1,,"1,· 1111, 1 Iii Emmanuel Luis Romanillos, Erwin Thaddeus l1auti,ta, Lourdes Brilbntes (all of whom
cralure hispanofilipina contcmpor�nea'" Civilizaci<i11 Filipi11,1 y J/elr1r io11cs (.'11 /1111111,, 111 arc professors of the University of the Philippines), and other scholars like (.;uillermo
pd110-l\sialic"s, Cuadl'n10 lntcnwcio,,a/ de Estudios Hw11r111fstfro� y Literatw,, j l n 1,•, 11,1t 11111 d Gomez Rivera a11d the staff of the Spanish-speaking embassies in Manila.
Journal of Humanistic Studies .rnd Liler,1turc), Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1111111 11, 1,1, S Note the absence of novels. Carmen G,icll's L11 Mti11w de l'ilip i,rns (Barcelona:
2008 (in press). Note further that the foregoing explains our direct tran,l,111<> 1 1 ,,1 ii" 1,, 1,1 Bclacqua, 2005), which is based 011 true-lo-life experiences of a 111cslizo family of lloilo,
lilera/11r11 loi,pa11ofilip i11n to loispn11oploilipp111c literature, which, though ,un,�wh, 11 111,, Iii and M,rnena Munar's Y s,1p/11rii d 1\111ijw1 (Barcelona: Alay, 2003), can110L be considered
cral1 is consistcnl \•Vith the JlOrcmcnlioncd terms and concepts wh u ..;c mc.1n111g 1, wl 1 .d ,,1 Filipino works since the authors arc not Filipinos, despite the foci thal both novels ;pe.,k
want our English Lcrm to mc;in. of the Philippines and the authors have lies with the country.
366 i\·lorc l-lisp;1nic Than \Xlt.: Admir Conn:n11mrary Hisp:i.rn,philippinc L.itcraturt.: 367

as isolated, disconnected, and archaic oddities of a dying historn ,ii Gomez Rivera was awarded the Prernio Zobel in 1975 for his
phenomenon, but, for the moment at least, as a rich part oi' 1111 stage play El caser6n, which saw print that same year (Manila: Nueva
identity of the Filipino people. Era Press). El caser6n is about the dilemma over national identity as
Among the Filipino writers of today who use the Spa111•il1 experienced through personal and generational conflicts within a
language as a medium of their profession but who, for many Yl'.ll mestizo family at the beginning of the l 900s. lt is a comedy written in
now, have withdrawn from the cultural scene, are Federico Esp 1111, elegant Spanish. 111rough it one can deduce that the playwright iden­
Licsi, noteworthy Filipino poet in three languages, who was awanli-, I tifies himself with other Filipino plays like Recto's Solo entre las som­
the first Premio de la III Bienal de Poesia Ramon de Basten\1 111 bras. Gomez Rivera's linguistic works are valuable. He participated
Spain in 1977, and the Premio Zobel in 1978 in the Philippi111· , in the Philippine Constitutional Convention (1971-1973) where he
1965 Zobel awardee Conchita Huerta, once an energetic ad vn, .it 1 fought for the preservation of the Spanish language. He is the oldest
of the use of Spanish in the pages of El Maestro, the official 1)1')•,,111 member of the Academia Filipina.
of the Corporacion Nacional de Profesores de Espanol (co N /\ I' 1 l. In a recent interview, the Zobel awardee defended his propen-
who now lives in Australiai Rosario Clemente Zulueta and T�•11", 1 sity for writing in Spanish as follows:
Andueza Salazar.
lhere remain, however, some active Filipino writers in the fit•ld 'The Spanish-speaking intellectual enjoys a very limited, if not closed,
One of them is Guillermo Gomez y Rivera (lloilo, 1936), a vVl'II space within the actual Philippine setting. The Spanish language was
known exponent ofHispanophiJjppine culture. He is the greal-1H'l,l1 the object of genocidal persecution on the part of the new coloni­
ew of Guillermo Gomez Windham, a Filipino intellectual and 11w111 alism bent on imposing, by means of laws made for the purpose as
ber of the US colonial government in the Philippines, who in I 1)' 1 well as economic sanctions, the English language on each and every
was the first to win the Premio Zobel. Gomez Rivera studied .,1 1111 Filipino without giving him the choice to officially cultivate his ow n
University of San Agustin in Iloilo and Sanjuan de Letran Colk-g,· 111 natural [i.e., native] language and the Spanish language of his anccs
Manila, and would later become a professor at Adamson Univcn,lt y 111 tors and of national heroes like Jose Rizal, to name one of the man y
Manila. A multilingual journalist, writer, poet, linguist, and cssay,�1 national leaders. Yours truly writes in Spanish to proclaim hi s Filip ino
for decades he has engaged in various activities that support the Sp.111 identity. 6
ish language insofar as it contributes to the cultural enhancenw111 , 11
the Philippines. Edmundo Farolan Romero, a Filipino who was born in 1943 in
Gomez Rivera was a CONAPE member. He managed the 111,1) 1,,1 Manila, is another writer who still writes in Spanish. He taught at At­
zines El lvfaestro, El Nuevo Horizonte, and Nueva Era, which now,,, eneo University and the University of the Philippines (UP) before he
mains as the only Spanish magazine in the Philippines ;ind wl11111, moved to Canada. Today he divides his time between the Philippines
with commendable effort, Gomez Rivera continues to publish. I I, and Canada. Like Gomez Rivera he is a member of the Acadcmi,l
worked as contributor for other magazines in the 1960s, '70si ,111il Filipina and a 1981 awardee of the Premio Zobel. ··n,at year Parol6n
'80s. His bilingual pamphlet, El con.flicto de las Malvinas, stirred 1 011 Romero shared the honor of the award with Enrique Centcnero.
troversy. Special n,ention might be made of Gomez Rivern's ess,,y "I ,1
literatura filipina y su relacion al nacionalismo filipino." I le h.,� ,il\1, 6 G6mcz Rivera, interview by Gallo, Novcmbcr-Dc,c1nbc1 .1,()(17; l1,111'l.1t,·d l111111
produced several didactic Spanish books for Filipinos. th e original in Spanish.
368 J\1lorc: I li..,panii.: Than \V.Jc.: Admit
C c 111n.:111pOL\ry I lispa11ophilippinl: Uu:1.u1irt· ,6l)

Farolfo Romero has published several poetry books: Liu vi ( /,, j,/ 1 Other newcomers to the shelves are the multilingual poetry
pinas, Tercera primavera and, recently, ltinerancias/Comings and ( 11, book Witch's Dance/ with a Spanish section by Marra Lanot, who
ings. His poetry has broken off from traditional formalism and 1,.i otherwise writes in English and Filipino; and the quatrilinguJI
since gone into postmodernism where he could freely inclulw· 111 Noelses, a book of poems by Noel Cuivani Ramiscal with sections in
preference for existentialism. His favorite theme is the fragmc,11,• i l English, Pilipino, Spanish, and [banag. The Ibanag section isJuanitJ
ego of the contemporary ind iviclual. E-lis Nostalgia, which was st, 1,1 I Ramiscal's.
ized in Nuevo Horizonte magazine in 1997, is the only short .Spo111
ish novel in contemporary Philippines. He has published the cs,,1y1 Trends here and abroad
"Literatura filipino-hispana: una breve ant-ologia" and "Antolog/11 d, I If we must Jccount for other literary genres that are keeping the
lea-tro hispano-filipino," and has written the didactic Gra1ncil1< 11 1 Spanish literary tradition in the Philippines alive (if barely), then
praclica and EspaFlol para universitarios filipinos. the works of Lourdes Castrillo de Brillantes must be brought forth.
FaroIan Romero is a bilingual writer and some of his works ,111 Born in San Juan, Manila, Castriilo de Brillantes is a professor at
written in English and Spanish-Ilincrancias/Comings and C:0111,1,, the University of the Philippines, a member of the Academia Fili­
for example. He also has unpublished pieces like the play Ag11 i1111/,/ 1 , pina, and was awarded the Premio Zobel in J 998. Two years later
y los bur6cratas and the Palali story. she wrote 80 afios def Premio Zobel, the first book to trace the history
TI1e reason he writes in Spanish and will continue to do �u I of the Premio as well as that of the Zobel family. Bienvenido Lum
because, as he himself said in an interview not long ago: bera's monographic Pelikula: un ensayo sob re cine filipino is a tr:.ins
lation to Spanish by Castrillo de Brillantes. Same with R..etralo de/
My gr andfather was Spanish, from Malaga. For t his reason, Wl' 11,1 d artista como Jilipino, an original play of Nick Joaquin.
to speak Spanish at home. My mother spoke to me in Spanish. I ' vi ' II A member of the Academia Filipina and professor of the Uni
tened to Spanish everywhere around me [ ... ] TI1e Filipino is Sp.1111• 11 versity of Santo Tomas (UST), Macario Ofilada Mina is currently in
in his culture. If it were not for a historic accident, wh en t he /\ 11, 11 1 Manila teaching Spanish. Having studied philosophy and tbcolo�y
cans came, the Filipino l anguage would still be Spanish.7 in leading universities in Spain and the Philippines, is his magnum
opus San Juan de la Cruz, el sentido experiencial del conocimienlo r/1;
Recently another book of poetry was published, Lanao d e /\l,1 Dias: Claves para un acercarniento filos6fico a San Juan de la Crnz.
nila by Hilario Zialcita y Legarda. More recently he wrote Filosofia, lenguaje, mistica: Desde las enlra11fls
Various magazines have been publishing the poems ofZiakil ,1 1 1 def espiritu.
member of the Academia Filipina, for a long time. La nao de t / 1111/ 1 v
1 1 Published in the Philippines, Chabacano Studies: Essays 011 C1111
is a bilingual compilation of his poems (originally in Spanish, 11·.111', ite's Clwbacano Language and Literature is a compilation by UP Pro-
lated into English), twenty of which were composed in the I ()'l(h
and ten in the new millennium. Only three belong to the t imc ol 1 11 �
youth. 8 In the trilingual Wild,'.< Oa11cc (Manila: ,\nvil) the third part, "l\,1il.1 co,unig","
comes with the following poems: "C6mo quisicra," "Picnso en li," ''Sol,11niwll' pl.Hi.,1
mns," "()J.1icrn," "Mexico," "Espa11a," "Cantar al hombre," "El dice quc la q11il•rc,'' "1'1·1,l.11"
7 Gallo, Andrea, C11ar/,•n,o /11(en111cio11al de E.<1111/iu, I /11111111,fsfi,·,,s y /,1f,•,,11u,,1, I' "Rcvolucionarias," "Rczo," "Lluvia,'' "Vida," 'Tlorcs," "B,1ila co11111i[\l>" ( 167 H9). '1111• I'•'
!OS; translated from the original in Spanish. ems arc translated lo English.
fessor Emmanuel Luis Romanillos of articles on wli:1L 0111• 111l)1li1 y Memijc, who died in 2000. Molina's contribution to 1:ilipino hisll)
call the criollo del espanol. riography in Spanish is invaluable. He was the author of Lhe rnonu
All the works cited here-with the exception of some ol I ,11,, mental Historia de Filipinas, the only known book on Philippinc his
lan's-have been published by small- and medium-size pul1ll•,l1 111 tory by a Filipino, writing in Spanish. He wroteA111erica rn J-"ili11i111,s,
houses and have been selected for publication because of tli1· �111 Obras clcisicas para la historia de Filipinas, and Yo, Jose Rizal, among
cific subjects they deal with or because they fall within Lhc r.111H1' 111 other important pieces that have contributed in no small measure lo
cultural exchange and cooperation programs. spreading the word about the Philippines in the Spanish-spc:1king
Of all the university presses, the one which has paid the llll 1•,I ii world. A member of the Academia Filipina, Molina Memije won the
tention to Filipino works in Spanish is University of the J hilipp1111 Premio Zobel in 1985.
Press. UP's College of Arts and Letters offers the most i:1Hnpl, 1, An anthology of poems written by Filipinos living in Spain w:1s
range of Spanish studies in the Philippines, with courses lh,11 11•,11 1, published in that country in 2001 by Jaime B. Rosa. Lo ulti1110 de
up to the postgraduate level. It is also the university with Lh1• 11111 1 hlipinas compiles works by Filipino poets in English, Tagalog and
instructors and professors in the Academia Filipina. ln recc111 y,•,11 Spanish (including Spanish translations of the non-Spanish poems).
UP's Sentro ng Wikang Filipino has published Los hisµa11is11111, , 11 'TI1e poets are Wystan de la Pena, Salvador Malig, Mario Aguado,
las medias de comunicacion, a sociolinguistic essay writen by l'.11 till Ramon Guevara y Biel, Emmanuelle Perlas A. Andaya, Amador Rey
member Teresita Alcantara y Antonio. The Sentro has also puhl1•,h1 ii A. Beloncillo, Marra Lanot, Noel Guivani Ramiscal, and Macario
bistorico-cultural essays such as Edgardo T iamson y Mendm,1\ / ,1 Ofilada Mina.
colonizadores de Filipinas ante las ojos de Claro M. Recto y J'vl111111, I Other publications are slowly coming out in other countries.
Bernabe and Filipinas a Cristobal Colon, as well as some book•, 1111 Edwin Agustin Lozada has two bilingual books of poetry: Suc1ios
teaching SpanishY anonimos/Anonyrnous Dreams, which includes Jose R.izal's Mi ulti­
The bulk of the works that have been hitherto mentioned l11•11 mo adios that Lozada translated to English; and Bosquejos/Skclc/1c:s
are recent publications in the Philippines. 10However there .1n· hi! whose first edition was in Spanish only. Lozada, who now lives in
pino works in Spanish that have seen print outside the t:0111111 I San Francisco where he teaches Spanish, said in an interview that:
Most noteworthy among these are those written by Antonio M11l111 1
l :1rrived in the United States when I was only ten years old but a I
9 For example: Edgardo Tiamson and Conchila Villar, Abrega11as: �Sf"'""' /1,I 1 ready with a well-developed Filipino identity. l write in Spanish 111
ram 1111ivasil11riosjilipi1ws (Quezon Cit�·: Sentro ng Wibng Pilipino, Unibersid.id 11p, I 1h
pinas, 2003); or its continuation: Edgardo Tiamson, Conchita Villar and Febc S<>l1·,l.1,I 'I order to contribute to the Filipino-Hispanic literature. 11
Lunt.10, S11erte: cspa1lol b,isico p11rn 1111iversilariosjilipi110s (�1ezon City: Sentro "fl WI!, 111
Filipino, Unibcrsidad ng Filipinas, 2005). 11,csc and other similar books attest 1.. 1l1o
curious fact that in the Philippines there is some proliferation of"Spanish for 1:,l,p111"
Not so long ago Lozada produced an English anthology titled
books. Field of Mirrors. In the process he discovered that some of the poets
IO Great effort was made to gather and catalogue ,111 known Filipino p11hl11 .,11,111
in the anthology (Nick Carbo, Eilleen Tabios, and Patrick Rosal)
although it is more than likely that some !\lay have escaped our attention.
Even when it cannot be considered a Hlipino public:ition in Sp:inish, we an• 111,1�1111 not only compose poems in English but also in Spanish.
special mention of the lovely book by l'clicc Prudente Santa Marfa which offer, 1111!•11 �t
ing clippings i11 Spanish from Filipino newsp:ipcrs of the time. Sec Felipe Prudc,11<' S.1111,
M:irb, "11,e Go11er11()r-Gc11eml's /(itcl1e11: Philippi11e Culi,wry \lig 11etfrs (Pasig Cil)': A11vll
2006). II Edwin Agustin Lozada, interview by Andrea Gallo,July 2007.
 Yet another 1:ilipino author who lives abroJd 1s l•:liz, 1 i>l'!l 1 /\I, lknealh my A111crica11iz11tio11 there l:iy a deep substratu111 th:11 w.1s
dina Seno. She has established her residence in Santi.1gu dv ( '1 11 1\ neither Spanish nor native t'ilipino but mestizo, that my living ,1111t111�
where she not only works as a translator but also dedic,1lcs h\ 1 11111, 0
the Latin Americans has revived. 11,is is my personal experiencr ,111d
to the study and retrieval of the Filipino collective memol'y wl ii1 l 1 it goes hand in hand with the realization that we Filipinos need In
she tries to relate to Latin American history. In 2006 she pul>l 1 �l 1 , ,I resurrect our historical past, recover the lost centuries th:il have lk'l'l1
an interesting book 12 whose thought-provoking title is � n 1111m�:111 deliberately wiped from our memory, revere our ancestors with rcvo
tas en la cordillera: Reencuentro con Filipinas en Chile. It is ,l mo•.. 111 lutionary passion-ancestors who died defending our country f'ro n1
of a book, an auto-ethnobiography in which she relates signi/ 11 ,1111 the American aggressors who robbed us of our identity purrortcdly
events of her life and that of the Medina family, especially du, 1111• to liberate us from Spain. ··11,is is an endeavor that goes again�t my
the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. A very interesting .1sp1 1 I upbringing, which is impregnated with very strong anti-Sp,111ish 1111
of this story is her reflection on her Filipino identity by draw111g 1 dertones and pro-American, pro-English sentiments disdainful of"tl it ·
parallelism with the formation of Latin American identity. 'I h.11 I , autochthonous Tagalog. 1·1
as she constructs a genuine Filipino identity for herself, the Sp.1111• 1 1

language begins to develop a distinct value of its own. Regarding I I,,. Paulina Constancia Lee y Cornejo is a Cebuana living in Crn
fact that Medina Seno writes in Spanish, she says: ada. An artist, her main occupation is painting, but she also writes.
She is the author of the brief Spanish-English book of poetry /3mzos
My ethos as a writer is to serve as a bridge between the Filipinos ,1,1,I abiertos/Open Arms, which serves as a commentary to her artistic
the Latin Americans. Spanish is a Filipino language and yet it isl p111 works. Lee Cornejo plans to write short stories in the near futmc.
monly believed that l�ilipinos never speak Spanish. That's 011 11111 She justifies her use of Spanish in the following passage:
hand. On the other, in Latin America, English is being touted .1� ,1
language of the elite. And I'm not subscribing to either fallacy. 11 (•1,• 1 For me, it's something sentimental. 11,e language has given my hc,11 t
the content and intent have transformed the languages into a nw.111� a new and alternative voice that l would only want to share with thos,:
to divide and rule. I want us [l�ilipinos and Latin Americans] to gl't 111 who want to listen to the echoes of happiness that are a gift of th,11
know each other wcl I and use the languages as a bridge that is cap.1 hi t • language. 15
of creating common bonds instead of mutual alienation."
In 2006, Parnass of Barcelona published Maria Dolores Tapia
Sampaguita is not just a story of the author's digging into the Iii(, de] Rio's memoirs, Mis rnernorias de la guerra de .Filipinas. As the Li
of her grandfather, through whose extraordinary personal expcn tie indicates, the book is about her experiences during the Second
ences the author came to realize, as she herselfwould tell us, that: World War in the Philippines. Tapia de! Rio is the daughter o( a
Spaniard who immigrated to the Philippines at the turn of the twcn
tieth century and married a Bicolana. After the war the Tapia dcl
12 Elizabeth Medina is also the author of Rizal Ac.-ordi11g lo Rel'a11n: Portrail of,,
1-/ero and n Re110/utio11 (Annotated selective translation by Medina), Santiago de Chil l':
[s.c.], 1998. The book tries to rc-cvalualc the legacy ofWenceslao Retana y Gamboa :111.I 14 Elizabeth S. Medina, interview, Santiago de Chile, May 2008; tr:insl.1kd l 1<1 n1
make it more accessible to Filipinos. the origin.ii in Spanish.
13 Elizabeth S. Medina, interview by Andrea Gallo, May-June 2007; translated 15 P. Tony 1-'ernandcz, "Entrcusta con Paulina Const,rncia," Rc1,i.<l 11 f.'1/i1111111 7, ''"
from the original in Spanish. 4 (Primavera: n.p., 2004)
,7 I 1\1 .,,. 11111•,1111, 111,111 \\, •\.1 11111

IZ/o f:imily moved lo .SpJin. ll could thus be s,1id th,1l M.1rf.1 l'l 11 l1111 th.1t1 these works Jo nol -and cannot possibly cxisl i11 ,1 v,1cuum.
is a Spaniard and her book should be treated as cl .Spani:inl',, ltll 11I 1, 1 We view these works not as disjointed or unrelated elerncnls with
n o relevance to the real-as opposed to imaginary-country; their
it, however, she not only speaks about the Philippines but .il Hitil 1 1 11

lo n gin g for the country that has never ceased to be her ow11 d i "•I'"• raz6n de ser is well within an autochthonous tradition of the Phil
h er absence from it. A year after the publication of her Mc,11 11 1111 , 1 1 ippines, that is to say, within the Philippine cultural and literary
was translated into .English in order to be accessible to non ,\p,ull ii, continuum that has been con structed and shaped throughout the
speaking Filipino read ers, not least of which include her own 1, 1111 11 centur ies. And even if today the general public is unaware or indi1-
in the Philippines. feren t to their ex iste n ce, these works are a legacy which continues
to p ossess certa in value and worth no matter how limited or feeble.
A continuing heritage That being the case, it pays to take stock of the Hispanophilip
If on e takes "contemporary hispanophilippin e literature'' t\l 11 w, 111 pine body of literature from the dawn of its hist ory to the presl'nt.
that today a nation al community expresses itself in the Sp.1111�! 1 If we compare that corpus w ith other natio n al tradit ions that orit,i1
language, and that the majority of its members ide n tify the111�i•l\i nate in the colo nial experience-consider, by way of comparison,
with the language that at one time played a n ational role as tl, 1, 1111 hispanoguinean or portotimorese ( lusotimores) literature-we wi 11
rnary language of the colonial era and, later, became the lang11.1g 1• ,ii find that the current Hispanophilippine output is outstan d in g for
the reformers and founders of the independent Filipino ml ion its origin ality and aesthetic worth. That is why today, more and
which happe n ed similarly in count ries like Mexico, Colom1 >1 .i 111 more p eople are try in g to draw the public's attention to the dignity
V�n ezuela-then obviously there is no such thin g as contempu,-.11) and vitality of these pieces.
H1spanophilippine literature. These p iec es are n ot anachronisms but are part of a long pro­
Howeve1; if we are to obj ectively examin e the perti nent d.1t.1, cess. ( Or are they actually part of an on going ope n -ended phase:')
we can hardly deny that a certain amount of valid-not arch:ii, They are the creatio n s of wr iters who try to show readers what they
Hispan ophilippine l iterary output continues to be produced 1od.1y have always considered to be their valued heritage, or those who at
Here's the qualifier: whether Spanish is the family language or 0111. a certain point in their lives, (re)discover contemporary Hispano­
that has been acquired outside the home, not all writers and po philippine literature and begin to embrace it as part of their nation's
ets can express themselves with equal facil ity in that lan guage. · I l w legacy. ln so doin g, they breathe new life into it.
focus of our study is not so much on the elegan ce of the verse 0, Our br i ef study of contemporary Hispanophilippine l iterature
p rose as o n the very existence of these literary works. We think th.ii is geared toward the ge n eral Filipino public who have remained im­
this existence-the persistent production of these literary-cultur:il pervious to this l iterary treasure due to lack of in terest, or because or
pieces-has an intrin sic value of its own. For the same reason, wr ignorance. This literature can open up a rich a nd rewarding world,
have counted even those publicat ions that are n ot, strictly speaking, one that o ffers new clues to the un derstanding of the present, which,
'
usually considered l iterature. once understood, would hopefully lead to a more promising future.
W hat we have attempted in this study is to enumerate an d sum Only if we see this heritage as interlinked rings in a chain Lhat
marize the individual works that might seem discon nected from has n ever been broken, as fibers of a cl oth that may be worn thin hut
n ot torn, ca n we see the subtle thread of a persistent tradition th.it
each other, or even meaningless, compared with the quality and
quantity of the literary corpus in Filipino or English; but, fo r all has defied extin ction. And as to the quest ion of whether or not it •�
 , .... 11 t .... 1'1111{ 1 IUII \\ \d111lt
,,,,

possible lll spc.1k ol .1 lll11lc111por,1ry I lisp.lllophil1ppi11v li11•1 ,t1111, Lime, various writers ''manifested their yearning and nosl,1lgia for
we can affirm lbal it r/ocs exist even if perhaps it is i11 ils 1wtl11-l,1 the Spanish past."17 oday this would sound elitist and colonialist,
T

hours. As long as it is understood that this is .1 liter.1lurc th.11 •,111 .I but in those days a native Spanish-speaking group, feeling violently
of the world of the Filipinos, from a particularly Filipino pl11111 111 dispossessed of its culture, had an understandable need for a strong
view and vision, and that one way or another addresses Lhl· 1:tl,1111111 point of reference in order to counter the massive linguistic-cultural
public despite being written in Spanish. [t is a literature tli.11 111.1 onslaught perpetrated by the Americans.
catch the attention of the Filipino even through the �,Iler ol 1, ,111 Such pro-Spain sentiments, with their anachronistic and reac­
lation.(Some Hispanophilippine pieces are bilingual, the o, 1g111 ii tionary yearnings, arc absent among the more recent authors except
Spanish text juxtaposed with the English, in an attempl lo t l',11 11 , in Gomez Rivera, who stands apart from the others for an aesthetic
wider-non-Spanish speaking-readership.) and poetic vision that is distinguished by his vis polemica. 1l1ese au­
Filipinos who write in Spanish are aware that they arc w, 11111 • thors belong to another world, a different reality, which focuses on
in their very own languages, in the language of Rizal and ll1·1111 the recovery of its culture and identity rather than on pitting one
indeed in the language of their immediate grandparents and di\L11t1 antagonistic culture against another.
ancestors. In this sense, the Spanish language can never be rn11•,1il Giving the Spanish language its due, saving that language, are
ered a foreign tongue. We can even say that the Spanish lang11.1g1• 1 crucial to the recovery of a part of the Filipino heritage. Writing in
possessed of the psychological dimension inherent in the mi1111, 111 Spanish is therefore not so much the taking of a political stand by a
languages of the Philippines, and herein lies one more exampit- 1tl conservative or reactionary group as the desire to regain what is felt
the "Philippineness" of that language. ln the same way that Mnl111,1 to be genuinely and uniquely l?ilipino.
said the Spanish language is the language of the minority, we c111 ,ti
firm that Hispanophilippine literature is a literature of the mi11u111 \' No more "mestizo purity"
Such has been the difficulty of promoting this literature that, in tli, Like all other former Spanish colonies, the Philippines has assimi­
second year of the Premio Zobel ( 1923), no winner was prochi 11w1 I lated many of the Iberian cultural models, and because of this as­
because according to the jurors there was "not much life (porn ,1111 similation it has emerged as a distinct entity on its own. But what
maci6n) among the local writers."' 1' makes the Philippines different is its being impacted successively
Ironically, early examples of Hispanophilippine literature we,·,· by two culture shocks ( without counting the brief Japanese occu­
eulogistic, recalling the mystique and grandeur of Spain as Llw pation), the second deriving from the American colonization even
mother country. 111is sort of literature peaked during the Amt11 before the Philippines could form a definite image of itself. The im­
can colonization of the Philippines. In the political climate at th�· pact of the American colonization was of such magnitude that in
just a few decades it was able to replace one language with another.
16 ·n,c p.u,cl of judge, (Victorino Onruuia, Fr,111ci>co Varona ands M.11nu•I The criollos and mesti,.,os resisted, but to no avail. If as in the case of
Rincon) dccideJ not to award the prize in 1923 a11d i11 sn doing the panel agreed to \11- India it could be said that:
clarar desicrto cl prcmio de cstc a110 c11 atcncion ,\ la poca a11imaci,in habida cnl re lo,
autorcs locales,}' en juslicia ,\ los mismos, quc p11clicndo haber rncrccido mayor atc11cH111
hoy, por cl valor rclalivo Jc sus obr.,s, hub,cran lriunfado sin p,1'ar por cl tamiz de lilt
vcrdadcro Concurso quc 110 cxbtc en su justo signific,,do por la rcpctida poca animaci,�11
registrada.'· Sec Lourdes Castrillo de flrill,rntes, 80 wio;; tid l'rc111io '/,obcl (Manila: ln,11 17 Leondo Cabrero,·· El sc11lirnicnlo de los poet as Filipinos a raiz de la imkpcnd
t11lo Cerv,rntcs-Fund.icion S,111Li,1go, 2000), 62. cncia de 1898," Rcvis/11 Espa1io/11 de/ 1'11,ifi,o, no. 9, a,io 8 ( I 998): 191-239.
\"'X �1 .. ,. 11,,1 ,,1111, 11,. .. , \\, ,\,1,,.,,

'Jhc precolo11i,1I punly was not "d.1111agcd" and, on the u1111,.i ') , 1' 1 , i:.scobedo de 'J':1pi.1, Carmen .111d Jose Luis Cara mes L1gc. /1 1 troil111·ci<>1 1 11

pre sence of the English culture for two centuries has hdpl·d , ,1',dt , la /i/crn/1m1 J11din en Ingles: co11/cxlo /1is/6rico, wll1m1 y litcnrri".
reg ional l i terature in the vernacular which serves as sci( .lfli rn ,.1111111 Uvicu: Trabe, 1992.
the invader and, on the other hand, a literature in I h t ll 11 i:lto,l 1
agai nst Fernandez, P. Tony. "Entreusta con Pa ulina Constancia." Rc11islr1 1"ili11i1111 7,
langua ge which is the depo s itory of all Indian memor y tkspi1 1· I I i no. 4 (Pr imavera: n.p., 2004).
fact that it i s a language that is extraneous to the J ndian con lex 1,' Fern andez, Raymund. "Up close: L ooking at Paulina." Suns/r,r I lorizo11
(Febru ary 1995 ).
In the case of tbe Philippines it almost seems tbat " rn esli11> p11 Gallo, Andre;i. "lExiste una literature hisp anofdip ina contempor.\nc,1:"
rity," at least until the 1930s, tried to asse rt itself in the very m,111, Civilizaci6n Filipina y Relaciones Culturales Hispn110-A,11fli rn .1,
tenance of a language-Spanish-that, like the vernacular, 1 1 .1d Cuaderno Internacional de £studios I-lumanfsticos y Litcn1/11,·,1 ( I 11
embodied the Filipino cultural heritage and traditional values. 'I 1 11 tern ati ona !Journ al of Huma nistic Studies and Literature). LJnl
battle of languages raged on until World War II when Spanish b�·r,,111 versidad de Puerto Rico, H u macao, in press.
to lose ground in the steady progression towards English. Gi.iell, Carmen. La itltima de Filipinas. Barcelona: Belacqua, 2005.
At p resent, Hispanophilippine lite rature is languishing; perh.q1•, Joa quin, Nick. Retrato de/ arl'ista como Filipino. Translated into Spanish by
it is even lost foreve r. This might be tbe natural course of things. 11 1 ,1 Lourdes Castrillo de Bri llantes. Q!.1ezon City: University of lhc
as long as people ding to that literature as the true expression of I I t , Philippines, 2000.
meaning of their experiences, then perhaps it is too soon to be si 111; Lanot, Marra PL. Witch's Dance. Manila: Anvil, 2000.
ing De profundis to Hispanophilippine literature. Lee, Paulina Consta nc ia C ornejo. Brazos abiertos ( Open Arms). New West
mi nster: \Vorld Poetry Publish ing Co., 2003.
18 Ca r ,ncn Escobedo de T'apia and Jose Luis Caram cs Lage, /11 /rod11 cciJ 11 a /11 /,1,•, Lozada, Edwin Agustin. Bosquejos (Sketches). Sa n Franci so: C arayan Pres�,
a/11ra l1 1dia w Ingle,: contcxl.o l,islorico, cult11m y literario (Uvicu: Trabc, 1992), 190. 2002.
---. Field of Mirrors. San Francisco: Phi lipp in e -American Writers and
Artists, 2008.
---. Sucfios an6nimos (Anonymous Drearns). San Francisco: Caray�n
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