Ilokano Literature

Ilokano writers have also published their works in foreign countries. One of the most popular authors of Ilocano ancestry abroad was the late Carlos Bulosan, a California immigrant born to Ilokano parents in Pangasinan. And currently, the most internationally translated Filipino author is an Ilokano from Rosales, Pangasinan--Francisco Sionil Jose, popularly known as F. Sionil Jose. He is famous for his Rosales saga, a five-novel work about an Ilokano clan, virtually documenting Philippine history from Spanish time to the years of the Marcos administration. The novels, translated in about 22 languages, are circulated and read around the world.

Back home, many Iloko writers have won major prizes in the annual Palanca Awards, the most prestigious and most anticipated of all literary contests in the Philippines. These famous winners' names include Reynaldo A. Duque, Ricarte Agnes, Aurelio S. Agcaoili, Lorenzo G. Tabin, Jaime M. Agpalo Jr., Prescillano N. Bermudez, William V. Alvarado, Maria Fres-Felix, Clarito G. Francia, Arnold Pascual Jose, Eden Aquino Alviar, Severino Pablo, Ariel S. Tabag, Daniel L. Nesperos, Roy V. Aragon, Danilo Antalan, Joel B. Manuel and others.

Urbana at Felisa

Written in Tagalog by a priest famous for his powerful sermons, Urbana at Felisa is an example of the book of conduct that emerged in Europe during the Renaissance. Its author used the epistolary style wherein a series of thirty-four letters, members of a family in Paombong, Bulacan gave each other advice on the ideal conduct and behavior expected of a middle-class and Christian family. Thus in her letters to her younger siblings Felisa and Honesto, who remained in Paombong, Urbana, who left for Manila to study, wrote not only of the need to follow the values and norms found in Christian teaching, but as importantly, to observe the proper mode of conduct as one dealt with people in society. The series of correspondences, including a letter from a priest on the duties and responsibilities of married life, touched on various facets of experience that a person underwent from birth to death both in the secular and spiritual realms. In retrospect, Urbana at Felisa should be perceived as a text not only meant to regulate conduct and behavior, but as a discourse to contain the moral excesses of the period and affirm basic Christian tenets.

Father Dámaso

Father Dámaso or Padre Dámaso is one of the notorious, if not the memorable, characters in the novel Noli Me Tangere. The novel was written by José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not or "Social Cancer") is a controversial and anticlerical novel that exposed the abuses of the Spanish Friars (belonging to the Roman Catholic Church) and the Spanish elite during colonial Philippines in the 1800s.

The novel, according to the author, represented the state of Phililppine society under Spanish colonial rule. The novel was intended as a liberal-nationalist wake-up call for the people of the Philippines. While natives of the Philippines (indios) were trained to become secular clergy, ethnic Spanish priests in the powerful religious orders were given preferential treatment in the assignment to parishes.

Father Dámaso, a Franciscan Spain priest, is the former curate of the town of San Diego. His secret past is revealed when Father Salvi discloses to Maria Clara that Father Dámaso is her true father.

"Anak ni Padre Dámaso" meaning "child of Father Dámaso" has become a stereotype or classic cliché in the Philippines to refer to a Caucasian or half-Caucasian child whose father is unknown. It can also refer to a child whose father was (or who was suspected to be) an ethnic Spanish clergyman.

Without Seeing the Dawn

The title of Stevan Javellana's only novel in English Without Seeing the Dawn was derived from one of José Rizal's character in the Spanish-language novel Noli Me Tangere or Touch Me Not. Javellana's 368-paged book has two parts, namely Day and Night. The first part, Day, narrates the story of a pre-war barrio and its people in the Panay Island and Iloilo City, and Night, which begins in the start of World War II in both the U.S. and the Philippines, while the second part, Night retells the story of the resistance movement against occupying military forces of the barrio people first seen in Day. His novel sold 125,000 copies in the U.S. and was reprinted in paperback edition in Manila by Alemar's-Phoenix in 1976.

The same novel was made into a film by the Filipino film maker and director, Lino Brocka under the title Santiago!, which starred the Filipino actor and former presidential candidate, Fernando Poe, Jr. and the Filipino actress, Hilda Koronel. It was also made into a mini-series film for Philippine television. The published novel received praises from the New York Times, New York Sun and Chicago Sun. Without Seeing the Dawn, the novel, became the culmination of Javellana's short-story writing career. The said novel was also known under the title The Lost Ones.

Stevan Javellana's Without Seeing the Dawn was all about the village and the man, the man who lived on the farm but became a rebel when one of the land owner betrayed the farmers. He tried the life on the city, but it was never easy for them.