Canonical Authors

and their
Representative Texts
Lesson Objectives:

1. Identify canonical authors and the works

2. Recognize their contribution in the Philippine

literature.

3. Make an analysis through the theme’s present

day relevance.
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever
humans endure suffering and humiliation. We must
always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter,
never the tormented.”

- (Elie Wiesel)
 Amado Vera Hernandez was born in Hagonoy,
Bulacan but grew up Tondo, Manila, where he
studied at the Manila High School and at the
American Correspondence School. While being a
reporter, columnist and editor of several newspaper
and magazines including Watawat, Mabuhay,
Pilipino, Makabayan and Sampaguita, he also honed
his poetic craft. He received the Republic Cultural
Heritage Award, a number of Palancas and an award
from the National Press Club for his journalistic
achievements.
 After World War II, he became a member of the
Philippine Newspaper Guild and his writings
increasingly dealt with the plight of the peasants and
laborers. Influenced by the philosophy of Hobbes
and Locke, he advocated revolution as a means of
change. In 1947, he became the president of the
Congress of Labor Organization (CLO). His
activities and writings led him to imprisonment from
1951 to 1956. 
 Even in prison, he was still a leader and artist,
spearheading education programs and mounting
musical productions, plays and poetry reading. It
was during his incarceration that he wrote one his
masterpiece, Mga Ibong Mandaragit (Predatory
Birds). His prison writings were smuggled out by
his wife, zarzuela star Honarata “Atang” dela
Rama, who would become our National Artist for
Music and Theater.
 Ka Amado died on 24 March 1970 in the wake of the First
Quarter Storm, whose leaders and activists recited his words.
He left a legacy that includes Isang Dipang Langit (An Arm-
Stretch of Sky), Kung Tuyo na ang Luha Mo, Aking Bayan
(When Your Tears Have Dried, My Country), Panata sa
Kalayaan (Pledge to Freedom), and the novel Luha ng Buwaya
(Crocodile Tears).

He was posthumously honored as our National Artist for

Literature in 1973. Together with poet Jose Garcia Villa,
Amado V. Hernandez was the first to receive the title in
literature.
 Isang Dipang Langit
The title of this poem by Amado V. Hernandez can be
translated into English as A Piece of Heaven. Signed in
Muntinlupa Prison on April 22, 1952.
 Ako’y ipiniit ng linsil na puno
hangad palibhasang diwa ko’y piitin,
katawang marupok, aniya’y pagsuko,
damdami’y supil na’t mithiin ay supil.

Ikinulong ako sa kutang malupit:

bato, bakal, punlo, balasik ng bantay;
lubos na tiwalag sa buong daigdig
at inaring kahit buhay man ay patay.
This is a very archaic Tagalog word.
lin·síl
improper, erroneous, faulty, wicked
linsil
error, fault, wickedness

Patawarin mo ako sa mga gawa kong linsil.

Forgive me for my improper actions.
Sa munting dungawan, tanging abot-malas
ay sandipang langit na puno ng luha,
maramot na birang ng pusong may sugat,
watawat ng aking pagkapariwara.

Sintalim ng kidlat ang mata ng tanod,

sa pintong may susi’t walang makalapit;
sigaw ng bilanggo sa katabing moog,
anaki’y atungal ng hayop sa yungib.
 Ang maghapo’y tila isang tanikala
na kala-kaladkad ng paang madugo
ang buong magdamag ay kulambong luksa
ng kabaong waring lungga ng bilanggo.

Kung minsa’y magdaan ang payak na yabag,

kawil ng kadena ang kumakalanding;
sa maputlang araw saglit ibibilad,
sanlibong aninong iniluwa ng dilim.
Kung minsan, ang gabi’y biglang magulantang
sa hudyat – may takas! – at asod ng punlo;
kung minsa’y tumangis ang lumang batingaw,
sa bitayang moog, may naghihingalo.

At ito ang tanging daigdig ko ngayon –

bilangguang mandi’y libingan ng buhay;
sampu, dalawampu, at lahat ng taon
ng buong buhay ko’y dito mapipigtal.
 Nguni’t yaring diwa’y walang takot-hirap
at batis pa rin itong aking puso:
piita’y bahagi ng pakikilamas,
mapiit ay tanda ng di pagsuko.

Ang tao’t Bathala ay di natutulog

at di habang araw ang api ay api,
tanang paniniil ay may pagtutuos,
habang may Bastilya’y may bayang gaganti.
 At bukas, diyan din, aking matatanaw
sa sandipang langit na wala nang luha,
sisikat ang gintong araw ng tagumpay…
layang sasalubong ako sa paglaya!
Guide Questions?

 What was the author’s purpose for writing such

masterpiece?

 How is this relevant to us Filipinos?

 Why did he compare the prison to a piece of heaven?

1. Translate the poem Isang Dipang Langit by
stanza in English based on your analysis and
interpretation of the writer’s point of view.
Criteria:
Content 30 points
Structure 20 points
Instruction:
1. Bring coloring materials and one white cartolina.
2. Discuss with your groupmates the things they
wanted to have in heaven and make a list.
3. Choose one person to draw a prison cell with all the
things they listed within it.
4. Make it appear like the group’s piece of heaven.
END
Answer the following questions below.
 The Wedding Rings

The wedding rings symbolises the unity,

completeness and eternal love for one
another. The physical meaning is that it is
a spoken reminder of faithful commitment
to the marriage.
 Bridal Veil

The Bridal Veil meaning has many different

meanings behind it, but the most popular
belief is that the bride covered her face with
the veil to protect her from any evil spirits
that might try to steal her away from her
groom. 
 The Unity Candles 
When the Unity Candles are lit during the
ceremony it symbolises that where ever we
go, the light of Jesus Christ will always be
with us and in our lives. There are two
candles to remind the couple that it is their
duty as a couple, to remind each other of
God's light in their world. 
 Holy Bible
The Holy Bible meaning is that it signifies
the couple's dedication and promise
to discuss and learn about God and spread
his message to the world. It is also the man's
role to lead the family
in spiritual practices such as going to church,
helping out in the church community and
serving in the church. 
 “Pope of Greenwich Village”
Characters:

 Dodong
 Teang
 Dodong’s Mother
 Dodong’s Father
 Jose Garcia Villa, a Filipino poet, critic, short story
writer and painter, is an important person to
recognize during Filipino American History Month.
 Villa was born in 1907 in the Philippine Islands.
His early path did not involve poetry. Instead he began
a pre-medical course of study at the University of the
Philippines, eventually switching to pre-law. After
some time, Villa recognized that his true passion was
in the creative arts, and his career as a writer began.
 Villa moved from the university in the Philippines to
attend the University of New Mexico where he went on
to found Clay, a “mimeograph literary magazine.” After
finishing his BA there, he moved to Columbia University
for his post-graduate education.

 Aside from publishing various collections of poetry,

Villa also added to the world of poetic style, introducing
a new rhyme scheme called “reversed consonance.” As
Villa explained, “The last sounded consonants of the last
syllable, or the last principal consonant of a word, are
reversed for the corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme
for near would be run; or rain, green, reign.”
 Villa also wrote something he called “comma
poems,” where a comma is included after each
word in the poem. As he explained in the preface
to his Volume Two, “The commas are an integral
and essential part of the medium: regulating the
poem’s verbal density and time movement:
enabling each word to attain a fuller tonal value,
and the line movement to become more measured.”
 Villa has won numerous awards, including the
1973 National Artist of the Philippines for
literature. His work in both poetry and challenging
traditional poetic style continues to have an impact
in modern poetry, both for members of the poetry
community and other Asian American writers.
Example of Comma Poem
The, hands, on, the, piano, are, armless.
No, one, is, at, the, piano.
The, hands, begin, and, end, there.

There, no-one’s, hands, are, there:

Crystal, and, clear, upon, the, keys.
Playing, what, they, play.

Playing, what, they, are.

Playing, the, sound, of, Identity.
Yet, how, absurd, how, absurd, how, absurd!
If you are Dodong, will you also make the same
choice?
“Since marriage is a partnership, I’d like to know
who I am and what I’m able to offer financially and
how stable I am, before I’m committed legally to
someone,” Ms. Simson said. “My mom says I’m
removing all the romance from the equation, but I
know there’s more to marriage than just love. If it’s
just love, I’m not sure it would work.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/well/mind/millennials-love-marriage-sex-relationships-dating.html
Instruction:
1. Interview your parent/ guardian about their married life through
the guide questions below.
A. What was your age when you get married?
B. What is your insight about married life when you were
single?
C. How will you describe your first year of marriage?
D. How will you describe your marriage now?
E. What is marriage?
F. What message can you share with the youth today?
END
 Carlos P. Romulo, in full Carlos Peña Romulo, (born
January 14, 1899, Camiling, Philippines—died
December 15, 1985, Manila), Philippine general,
diplomat, and journalist known for his activities on
behalf of the Allies during World War II and his later
work with the United Nations.

 In 1931 Romulo was made editor in chief of TVT

Publications, comprising three newspapers, one in
English, one in Spanish, and one in Tagalog (the second
most prevalent language in the Philippines). In 1937 he
became publisher of another chain of newspapers.
 When Japan attacked the Philippines in 1941, he
became an aide-de-camp to U.S. Gen. 
Douglas MacArthur on Corregidor Island, and his
broadcasts became widely known as the “Voice of
Freedom.” After Japan captured Corregidor,
Romulo went with MacArthur to Australia and
then joined the Philippine government-in-exile of
Pres. Manuel Quezon in Washington, D.C., as
secretary of information.
 He served as president of the University of the Philippines,
near Manila (1962–68), and secretary of education (1966–68).
He then became secretary of foreign affairs (1968–78) and
minister of foreign affairs (1978–84). In his later years, while
serving under Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos, Romulo became less
democratic in his views. He supported Marcos’s imposition of 
martial law in 1972 and had by the mid-1970s evolved from a
champion of a free press into an advocate of a controlled
press, charging Western journalists with unfavourably
reporting the problems of less-developed countries. Romulo’s
autobiography, I Walked with Heroes, was published in 1961.
I AM A FILIPINO
by Carlos P. Romulo
I am a Filipino–inheritor of a glorious past,
hostage to the uncertain future. As such I
must prove equal to a two-fold task–the task
of meeting my responsibility to the past, and
the task of performing my obligation to the
future.
I sprung from a hardy race, child many generations
removed of ancient Malayan pioneers. Across the
centuries the memory comes rushing back to me: of
brown-skinned men putting out to sea in ships that
were as frail as their hearts were stout. Over the sea I
see them come, borne upon the billowing wave and
the whistling wind, carried upon the mighty swell of
hope–hope in the free abundance of new land that
was to be their home and their children’s forever.
This is the land they sought and found. Every
inch of shore that their eyes first set upon,
every hill and mountain that beckoned to them
with a green-and-purple invitation, every mile
of rolling plain that their view encompassed,
every river and lake that promised a plentiful
living and the fruitfulness of commerce, is a
hallowed spot to me.
By the strength of their hearts and hands, by every
right of law, human and divine, this land and all the
appurtenances thereof–the black and fertile soil, the
seas and lakes and rivers teeming with fish, the
forests with their inexhaustible wealth in wild life
and timber, the mountains with their bowels swollen
with minerals–the whole of this rich and happy land
has been, for centuries without number, the land of
my fathers. This land I received in trust from them
and in trust will pass it to my children, and so on
until the world is no more.
I  am a Filipino. In my blood runs the immortal
seed of heroes–seed that flowered down the
centuries in deeds of courage and defiance. In
my veins yet pulses the same hot blood that
sent Lapulapu to battle against the first invader
of this land, that nerved Lakandula in the
combat against the alien foe, that drove Diego
Silang and Dagohoy into rebellion against the
foreign oppressor.
That seed is immortal. It is the self-same seed that flowered
in the heart of Jose Rizal that morning in Bagumbayan when
a volley of shots put an end to all that was mortal of him and
made his spirit deathless forever, the same that flowered in
the hearts of Bonifacio in Balintawak, of Gergorio del Pilar
at Tirad Pass, of Antonio Luna at Calumpit; that bloomed in
flowers of frustration in the sad heart of Emilio Aguinaldo at
Palanan, and yet burst fourth royally again in the proud heart
of Manuel L. Quezon when he stood at last on the threshold
of ancient Malacañan Palace, in the symbolic act of
possession and racial vindication.
The seed I bear within me is an immortal seed. It is
the mark of my manhood, the symbol of dignity as a
human being. Like the seeds that were once buried
in the tomb of Tutankhamen many thousand years
ago, it shall grow and flower and bear fruit again. It
is the insignia of my race, and my generation is but a
stage in the unending search of my people for
freedom and happiness.
For I, too, am of the West, and the vigorous peoples of
the West have destroyed forever the peace and quiet
that once were ours. I can no longer live, a being apart
from those whose world now trembles to the roar of
bomb and cannon-shot. I cannot say of a matter of
universal life-and-death, of freedom and slavery for all
mankind, that it concerns me not. For no man and no
nation is an island, but a part of the main, there is no
longer any East and West–only individuals and nations
making those momentous choices which are the
hinges upon which history resolves.
I am a Filipino, child of the marriage of the East and
the West. The East, with its languor and mysticism,
its passivity and endurance, was my mother, and my
sire was the West that came thundering across the
seas with the Cross and Sword and the Machine. I
am of the East, an eager participant in its spirit, and
in its struggles for liberation from the imperialist
yoke. But I also know that the East must awake from
its centuried sleep, shake off the lethargy that has
bound his limbs, and start moving where destiny
awaits.
At the vanguard of progress in this part of the world
I stand–a forlorn figure in the eyes of some, but not
one defeated and lost. For, through the thick,
interlacing branches of habit and custom above me, I
have seen the light of the sun, and I know that it is
good. I have seen the light of justice and equality
and freedom, my heart has been lifted by the vision
of democracy, and I shall not rest until my land and
my people shall have been blessed by these, beyond
the power of any man or nation to subvert or destroy.
I  am a Filipino, and this is my inheritance. What
pledge shall I give that I may prove worthy of my
inheritance? I shall give the pledge that has come
ringing down the corridors of the centuries, and it
shall be compounded of the joyous cries of my
Malayan forebears when first they saw the contours
of this land loom before their eyes, of the battle cries
that have resounded in every field of combat from
Mactan to Tirad Pass, of the voices of my people
when they sing:
 Land of the morning,
Child of the sun returning–
****
Ne’er shall invaders
Trample thy sacred shore.
Out of the lush green of these seven thousand isles, out of the
heartstrings of sixteen million people all vibrating to one song, I
shall weave the mighty fabric of my pledge. Out of the songs of
the farmers at sunrise when they go to labor in the fields, out of the
sweat of the hard-bitten pioneers in Mal-lig and Koronadal, out of
the silent endurance of stevedores at the piers and the ominous
grumbling of peasants in Pampanga, out of the first cries of babies
newly born and the lullabies that mothers sing, out of the crashing
of gears and the whine of turbines in the factories, out of the
crunch of plough-shares upturning the earth, out of the limitless
patience of teachers in the classrooms and doctors in the clinics,
out of the tramp of soldiers marching, I shall make the pattern of
my pledge:
“I am a Filipino born to freedom, and I shall not
rest until freedom shall have been added unto my
inheritance—for myself and my children and my
children’s children—forever.”
Alejandro Roces was a Filipino author, essayist and
dramatist. He was better known for his humorous
short stories in English. Roces was born on July 13,
1924 in Manila, Philippines; the son of Rafael
Gonzlez Roces and Inocencia Batista (Reyes) Roces.
Roces attended elementary and high school at the
Ateneo de Manila University. He received a
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State
University.
He was given a Master of Arts degree from Far Eastern
University. Also Alejandro was given an honorary
doctorates from Tokyo University, Baguio's St. Louis
University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines
and the Ateneo de Manila University. Roces began his
career as a dean at the Institute of Arts & Science of Far
Eastern University in 1955 and held it for seven years.
Also he was a captain in the Marking’s Guerilla during
World War II and a columnist in Philippine dailies,
including "Manila Chronicle" and "Manila Times".
He served as a secretary at the Department of Education from
1961 to 1965. In 2001, Roces was appointed a chairman of the
Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, where
he served until 2002. In addition, he published books, including
"Of Cocks and Kites", 1959, "Fiesta", 1980 and "Something to
Crow About", 2005. Roces was known for his changing the date
of Philippine Independence Day from July 4 to June 12. He also
recovered the stolen original manuscripts of Noli Me Tangere, El
Filibusterismo and Mi último Adiós. In addition, Alejandro
changed the language used in Philippine passports, coins, bills
and diplomas to Wikang Pambansa.