VIDEO

PRESENTATION
IN 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE
“LIFE OF LEONA FLORENTINO”
Submitted by:
Ma. Josephine A. Reyes
Jastine Faye Ragasa
Tyfanny Pejo
Rolly Realin Jr.
Joshua Rebaula
Angel Ragasa
Godwin Anicas

Submitted to:
Mrs. Merilyn R. Pre
NARRATOR: JASTINE RAGASA

INTRO: Vigan is one of the famous cities in the world and known
because of their own ilocano literature and treasure. And it is the
hometown of Leona Florentino.

LEONA FLORENTINO

1848-1884

Leona Florentino was born on April 19, 1848 and was a famous
ilocana poet, satirist, and playwright during the Spanish period.
Through her exemplary works, she was able to gain international
recognition. She is the daughter of Marcellino and Isabel Florentino.
Her works were translated in different languages but the original
copies were destroyed during the Philippine Revolution. Don Isabelo
delos Reyes, the father of Philippine Labor Movement, is her son.

She died on October 4, 1884, leaving a legacy to the Filipino people

as the most outstanding woman writer during the Spanish Era.

Leona Florentino was a Pilipina poet who wrote both in Spanish and
Ilokano. She is known as the “mother of Philippine women’s
literature” and the “bridge from oral to literary tradition”.

Her poems were dedicated to her fellow Ilokanos and they were
exhibited in the Exposicion General de Filipinas in Madrid in 1887 and
in the International Exposicion in Paris in 1889. They earned fame and
her works were included in the Encyclopedia Internationale des
Oeuvres des Femmes (International Encyclopedia of Women’s
Works) in 1889.

Though most of her brilliant work has been lost over time since her
death, some of the original manuscripts have been preserved and
kept in Madrid, London, and Paris. Today her former home has been
transformed into the Provincial Tourism Center (Vigan Heritage
Commission) where a statue of her in her honor and dedication sits
watching over those who come to Vigan. The restaurant there is also
named after her, Café Leona, which was named by a scholar of her
work who studied who studied Leona’s work. He wrote that she was
“a pillar of feminism in the country.”
 BLASTED HOPES (ca. 1880)
by Leona Florentino

What gladness and what joy

are endowed to one who is loved
for truly there is one to share
all his sufferings and his pain

My fate is dim, my stars so low

perhaps nothing to it can compare,
for truly I do not doubt
for presently I suffer so.

For even I did love

the beauty whom I desired
never do I fully realize
that I am worthy of her.

Shall I curse the hour

when first I saw the light of day
would it not have been better a thousand times
I had died when I was born.

Would I want to explain

but my tongue remains powerless
for now do I clearly see
to be spurned is my lot.

But would it be my greatest joy

to know that it is you I love,
for to you do I vow and a promise I make
it’s you alone for whom I would lay my life.