Poetry and metrical romances

Tanaga - 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.
Classical literature in Spanish during the 19th Century
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 Boleaet�n de Ceb�
(The Bulletin of Cebu) was published in 1890.
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 N�nay
(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 T�ngere (Touch Me Not), and El Filibusterismo.
Especially potent was La Solidaridad, more fondly called La Sol by the members of
the propaganda movement, founded on 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.
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 processions�one 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.
� Sen�kulo � 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 production�i.e., between the
independence of Spain in 1898 and well ahead into the decade of the 1940s�is 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 Mar�a 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 Rub�n Dar�o, the Mexican Amado Nervo, the Spaniard Francisco
Villaespesa, and the Peruvian Jos� Santos Chocano as major models)