lassical literature in Spanish during the 19th Century

Main article: Philippine literature in Spanish

On December 1, 1846, the first daily newspaper, La Esperanza, was published in the country.
Other early newspapers were La Estrella (1847), Diario de Manila (1848) and Boletin Oficial de
Filipinas (1852). The first provincial newspaper was El Eco de Vigan (1884), which was issued
in Ilocos. In Cebu City, El Boleaetn de Ceb (The Bulletin of Cebu) was published in 1890.
On 1863, the Spanish government introduced a system of free public education that increased the
population's ability to read Spanish and thereby furthered the rise of an educated class called the
Ilustrado (meaning, well-informed). Spanish became the social language of urban places and the
true lingua franca of the archipelago. A good number of Spanish newspapers were published
until the end of the 1940s, the most influential of them being El Renacimiento, printed in Manila
by members of the Guerrero de Ermita family.
Some members of the ilustrado group, while in Spain, decided to start a Spanish publication with
the aim of promoting the autonomy and independence projects. Members of this group included
Pedro Alejandro Paterno, who wrote the novel Nnay (first novel written by a Filipino)[citation
needed]
and the Philippine national hero, Jos Rizal, who wrote excellent poetry and his two
famous novels in Spanish: Noli Me Tngere (Touch Me Not), and El Filibusterismo.
Especially potent was La Solidaridad, more fondly called La Sol by the members of the
propaganda movement, founded in 15 February 1885. [citation needed] With the help of this paper,
Filipino national heroes like Jos Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and Marcelo H. del Pilar were
able to voice out their sentiments.

Poetry and metrical romances

Tanaga or haiku - Are short poems consisting of four lines with seven syllables each
that rhyme at the end of each line.
Ladino Poems Were natives of first Tagalog versifiers who saw print: highly literate in
both Spanish and the vernacular.
Corridos Were widely read during the Spanish period that filled the populace's need
for entertainment as well as edifying reading matter in their leisure moments.
Awit like corridos, these were also widely read during the Spanish period as
entertaining, edifying, reading manner in their leisure time. It is also a fabrication of the
writers imagination although the characters and the setting may be European. The
structure is rendered dodecasyllabic quatrains.

Prose
This section requires expansion. (August 2013)

The prose works of the Spanish Period consisted mostly of didactic pieces and translations of
religious writings in foreign languages.

Dramas
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Religious

Moriones Refers to the helmets of participants dressed as Roman soldiers, their

identities hidden behind colorful, sometimes grotesque, wooden masks. Found only on
the island of Marinduque, it is down during Holy Week, culminating in a Passion play
that adds the scene of Saint Longinus' conversion and martyrdom.
Panunuluyan the Tagalog version of the Mexican Las Posadas, and literally means
"seeking passage". Held during Christmastime but especially on Christmas Eve, it depicts
Joseph and Mary' search for room at the inn in Bethlehem. The actors playing the Holy
Couple chant their pleas for lodging in slow, mournful tones, while the innkeepers and
householders would drive them away with haughty verses sang in dance-like metre.
Pangangaluwa A practice formerly widespread during All Saints' Day which literally
means for the soul[s], it is analogous to the now-defunct English custom of Souling.
Salubong A ritual performed in the early morning of Easter Sunday a few hours after
the Easter Vigil and before the Easter Mass, dramatising the meeting between the
resurrected Jesus and his mother. In its basic form, the rite begins with two separate
processionsone consists of males accompanying a statue of the Risen Christ, the other
of women with a statue of the Virgin Mary veiled in black. Both processions meet at the
churchyard, town plaza, or some other suitable area, where a girl, dressed as an angel,
stands from a scaffold or descends on a rope and sings the Regina Caeli. The angel then
removes the black veil to the sound of pealing bells and firecrackers, ending the penance
and mourning of Lent.
Senkulo Essentially a Passion play, which depicts the passion and death of Jesus
Christ. It is customarily performed during Holy Week, and bears similarities to Mystery
plays popular in medieval Europe.
Santacruzan Performed during the month of May, which reenacts Saint Helena's
Finding of the True Cross and serves as an expression of devotion to the Virgin Mary.
The young women of a town, parish, or village dress in formal gowns and bear attributes
related to religious themes, such as titles of Mary, with the last (often most beautiful)
lady "Reyna Elena" representing the empress, and holding a crucifix, representing the
True Cross. Its May observance is due to the pre-1962 date for the feast of Roodmas.

Secular

Comedia It is about a courtly love between, a prince and a princess of different

religions, and highlights concepts of colonial attitudes to Christian-Muslim relations.
Duplo A forerunner of the balagtasan. The performances consist of two teams; One
composed of young women called Dupleras or Belyakas; and the other, of young men
called Dupleros or Belyakos.

Karagatan comes from the legendary practice of testing the mettle of young men vying
for a maiden's hand. The maiden's ring would be dropped into sea and whoever retrieves
it would have the girl's hand in marriage.

Modern literature (20th and 21st century)

The greatest portion of Spanish literature was written during the American period, most often as
an expression of pro-Hispanic nationalism, by those who had been educated in Spanish or had
lived in the Spanish-speaking society of the big cities, and whose principles entered in conflict
with the American cultural trends.[citation needed] Such period of Spanish literary productioni.e.,
between the independence of Spain in 1898 and well ahead into the decade of the 1940sis
known as Edad de Oro del Castellano en Filipinas. Some prominent writers of this era were
Wenceslao Retana and Claro Mayo Recto, both in drama and essay; Antonio M. Abad and
Guillermo Gomez Wyndham, in the narrative; Fernando Mara Guerrero and Manuel Bernab,
both in poetry. The predominant literary style was the so-called "Modernismo", a mixture of
elements from the French Parnassien and Symboliste schools, as promoted by some Latin
American and Peninsular Spanish writers (e.g. the Nicaraguan Rubn Daro, the Mexican Amado
Nervo, the Spaniard Francisco Villaespesa, and the Peruvian Jos Santos Chocano as major
models).