Rabi, Aubrey Gylle B. July 22, 2019.

HUMSS 11-06 Ms. Catherine Cinco

The Philippines is one of the countries with rich literature such as a history of legends,
fables, and poetry. Even though it is almost forgotten by other generations, we can’t
deny the fact that it is truly essential to our history.

Even before the Spaniards came and colonized our country, many of our ancestors
used to write on bamboo and the Arecaceae palm. Some of them even write in caves
and draw some symbols such as arrows either placed above or below. Some of them
use blood and knives to write the ancient Tagalog script. It is very limited because it
only has three vowels and consonantal symbols. The ‘raw’ version of their literature
needs to be studied and deciphered. It was limited since the symbols that are used are
a diacritical mark. The literature is preserved even Spaniards came to colonize our
country.

When Spaniards came to our country, they brought liberal ideas and changed our sense
into internationalism as they influenced us through the use of religion. Heroic poems
such as “awit” and religious poems called “corridos” became popular within the country.
One of the well-known chants is the “Memorial de la Vida Cristiana en Lengua Tagala”
that is written by Fernando Bagonbanta in 1605. Writers such as Castrillo, Fernandez,
Rivera, Licsi, and Estrada also spent a major part of their lives in the documentation of
'by-word-of-mouth' hand-downs. Columns and articles in newspapers such as "El
Renacimiento", "La Vanguardia", "El Pueblo de Iloilo", "La Democracia" and "El Tiempo"
are the ones that made the Spanish legacy alive.

Spaniards condemn Tagalog as unworthy of great works of writing. But then a man
suddenly upsurges from the fame that liked William Shakespeare's works. This man is
Francisco Balagtas. he uses our language as the medium of his literary works. Because
of that, he was persecuted in his lifetime. his greatest work "Florante at Laura" tells a
story about a man and woman during the reign of the Greek Empire. Nationalism was
propagated in some of our well-known novelists such as our national hero, Dr. Jose
Rizal, who became the father of indigenous Philippine literature although his works were
written in Spanish. His works "Noli me Tangere" and "El Filibusterismo" talks about the
problems in the Philippines during the reign of the Spanish colony such as corruption,
racism, worker abuse, denouncing women and other forms of inequality in our country.
Dr. Jose Rizal is a revolutionary that has high intelligence and wants the Philippines to
obtain independence. He was executed because he was accused that he was the one
that planned to attack both church and government.
Many years have passed and the regime of the Spaniards has come to an end. English
literature came to our country and influenced some of our ancestors. English became
the medium language in our country, replacing Spanish. The American religion called
"Protestantism" became one of the well-known religions within the country but there
aren't many Filipinos that are baptized in this religion compared to Roman
Catholic/Christian religion. The American missionaries and educators published
newspapers, books, magazines and many sorts of written literary works are written in
the English language. The founder of the English literature here in the Philippines is
"Philippines Herald" and "Manila Tribune". They are the well-known English publications
during this time and introduced many authors like Loreto Paras, Jose Garcia Villa and
other authors to the reading public. The arrival of the Second World War between
Americans and Japanese led most authors and writers to hide underground or write in
our language, Tagalog.

English literature regained its fame and enthusiasm after the war and introduce us to
well-known authors such as Carlos Bulosan, Alejandro Roces, Francisco Arcellana and
Nick Joaquin.

Years later and the spirit of literature is still alive in the souls inside of us. Now it is
available on Spanish conquest, native cultural heritage, pre-colonial and traditional
narratives. Epics and folk tales also became famous in our country such as "Biag ni
Lam-Ang", "Agyu", "Sandayo of Subanon", "Aliguyon, the Hudhud", and other forms of
the stated form of literature. In our generation, Philippine literature talks about national
issues with the use of political prose, essay writing, and novels. Jose Rizal became a
role model and others were inspired by his novels and they were inspired to revive the
rich folk traditions.

Up to this time, even though our world is modernized there are still well-known authors
in the new generation. Some of them are Bob Ong, Lualhati Bautista, Marcelo Santos,
Ambeth Ocampo, Bo Sanchez, and Miguel Syguco. They use both English and Filipino
language as the medium of their works. Other forms of literary works also arise in this
time such as flip-top battle in which people will exchange lines just like a debate but with
tones and below-the-belt words, spoken poetry, and other forms of literature. There is
also an application that allows authors to post their work to the public and when their
work becomes famous, publishing companies will look after them to offer them to
publish their work under the company that offered them the job. The said application is
called "Wattpad" and there are famous authors that became famous after posting their
work and publishing companies offered them a chance to publish their work. Some of
the well-known authors under Wattpad are "Jonaxx", "Sic Santos" "Binibining Mia", and
many other authors.
We can't deny the fact that even our world became more and more modernized as time
passes, Philippine literature unites the spirit and the heart of the people residing in this
very country. It represents the values and the traditions that we treasure and we keep
alive. It awakens the nationalism spirit in our veins and it makes us a people considered
to be called the people of the Philippines.

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