21st Century Literature in Various Regions, 21st Century Literature from the Philippines

and the World

Philippine Literature during the Spanish Colonial Period

 Lesson5 chapters
 Questions

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

 name some literary works published during the Spanish Colonial Period, and
 analyze some literary works.

What literary works were published during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines?
What do those works reflect about the life of Filipinos during this period in history?

Learn about it!

Notes on the Spanish Colonial Period (1521–1898)
 Expeditions to the Philippines were sent by Spain in the 16th century. In their conquest, the
Spaniards brought Christianity with them. The clergy made a great impact on faith,
education, and government.
 Through the Manila-Acapulco trade (1565–1815), liberal ideas entered the country. Also, the
trade gave rise to a wealthier middle class. Children in middle class families could then be
sent to Europe to get an education. Upon their return, they brought European ideals of liberty
and freedom with them. Such ideals would then give rise to Filipino nationalism.
 Philippine Literature
 during the Spanish Occupation
 The Spanish missionaries taught the gospel through the native language, so they hired
natives to translate Spanish religious instructional materials. Eventually, the natives became
fluent in Spanish and became known as ladinos.
 Ladinos mainly wrote devotional poetry. Two of them were Fernando Bagongbanta and
Gaspar Aquino de Belen. Bagongbanta wrote “Salamat nang walang hanga/gracias de sin
sempiternas,” which appeared in Memorial de la vida cristiana en lengua tagala (1605), a
book containing basic Catholic doctrines. On the other hand, de Belen wrote “Ang Mahal na
Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon natin na tola” (1704), the earliest version of pasyon.
 Also, the native drama called the komedya or moro-moro was popular. It depicted the war
between Christians and Muslims, wherein the former always wins. The poet Jose de la Cruz
(1746–1829) was a master of such art form.
 Native literature continued. Though the Spaniards destroyed the written literature in their
effort to replace it with their own, the oral tradition survived and flourished in areas beyond
the reach of the Spaniards.
 Learn about it!
 Francisco Baltazar (1788-1862), the master of traditional Tagalog poetry, became well-
known for his work Florante at Laura (1838–1861), the most famous metrical romance of the
country.
 Pedro Paterno (1857–1911) wrote Sampaguitas y poesias varias (1880), the first poetry
collection in Spanish by a Filipino; and the novel in Spanish Ninay(1885), considered to be
the first Filipino novel.
 Jose Rizal (1861–1896), a prominent ilustrado and the country’s national hero, is famous for
the novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These novels portray the corruption and
abuse of the Spanish officials and the clergy.
 Andres Bonifacio (1863–1897), the founder of the Katipunan, wrote the poem “Pag-ibig sa
Tinubuang Lupa.” This poem appeared in the Kalayaan, the official newspaper of the
Katipunan, in March 1896.
 Leona Florentino (1849–1884), known as the “mother of Philippine women’s literature,” was
a poet in both Ilocano and Spanish. Twenty of her poems were preserved and exhibited in
Europe. The poems were included in the Encyclopedia International des Oeuvres des
Femme in 1889.

 Summary
 Philippine Literature during the Spanish occupation was mostly influenced by Christianity as
well as the European ideals of liberty and freedom through trade. Filipino writers either wrote
in Spanish or in their own tongue or both.