N.V.M.

GONZALEZ
BIOGRAPHY
Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez (guhn-ZAH-lehs), who
sometimes adopted the surname spelling Gonzales,
was born into a family of educators, his mother being a
teacher and his father a school supervisor. When he was
four years old, Gonzalez moved with his family to the
barrio of Wasig in Mindoro. This locale had a seminal
influence on his writing, as the titles of his works Hunger
in Barok, Life and Death in a Mindoro Kaingin, and
Mindoro and Beyond suggest. From 1927 to 1930,
Gonzalez stayed with aunts and uncles in Romblon, his
last year being spent at Mindoro High School.
BIOGRAPHY
Gonzalez failed his University of the Philippines entrance
examination, but in 1949 he became the first to teach college
courses there without holding a degree. In 1933 Gonzalez
visited Manila and met famed Commonwealth period president
Manuel Quezon y Molina but quickly returned to Mindoro. The
next year he went back to Manila, where he joined the
Veronicans, certainly the finest literary organization in the pre-
World War II Philippines, noteworthy for such luminaries as
Manuel A. Viray among its members. In that same year,
Gonzalez entered an essay commemorating Theodore
Roosevelts visit to Calapan in a students literary contest
(Gonzalez did two years of college studies at National
University and Manila Law College).
BIOGRAPHY
Noted poet and literary critic A. E. Litiatco awarded
Gonzalez the five-peso first prize. This was the first of
numerous awards, prizes, and other honors Gonzalez
garnered. Among the most prestigious were an honorable
mention in the First Commonwealth Literary Contest
(1940) for The Winds of April; Rockefeller grants in 1949-
1950, 1952, and 1964; a Republic Award of Merit (1954),
and a Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1960) for The
Bamboo Dancers; a National Artist Award for Literature
(1997); and a Philippines Centennial Award for Literature
(1998).
BIOGRAPHY
Although his renowned works are in English, the
language was acquired; Hiligaynofl is the native
tongue of Romblon. He also was accomplished
in Tagalog, as his third prize in the 1943
Liwayway Short Story Contest for Lunsod,
Nayon, at Dagat-dagatan (city, town, and lake)
attests.
FAMOUS WORKS
CHILDREN OF THE ASH-COVERED LOAM
THE BAMBOO DANCERS (FILIPINO
LITERARY CLASSICS)
THE BREAD OF SALT AND OTHER STORIES
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