Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez, better known as N.V.M.

Gonzalez, an
important icon among the Filipino literary community, feels like a fitting
way to wrap up Filipino American History Month.
Born in the Philippines in 1915 in the province of Oriental Mindoro,
Gonzalez expressed passion for music at a young age. He learned to play
the violin and made his own guitars by hand. For college, he attended
National University at Manila, Philippines, but did not finish his degree.
During his time there, he wrote for the Philippine Graphic and later edited
for both Evening News Magazine and Manila Chronicle.
Gonzalez published his first essay in the Philippine Graphic and his
first poem was published in 1934. These early publications started
Gonzalez’s literary career. He went on the found The Diliman Review and
worked as a member on the Board of Advisers of Likhaan: the University of
the Philippines Creative Writing Center and president of the Philippine
Writers’ Association.
His lack of college degree didn’t stop him from pursuing teaching, and
he received teaching positions at multiple universities in the Philippines,
including the University of the Philippines (U.P) and the Philippine
Women’s University. In fact, Gonzalez was one of only two faculty
members at U.P. to teach without holding a college degree. Since then,
he’s taught at numerous universities in California.
During his writing career, Gonzalez wrote five novels, eight short
fictions and multiple essays, with his work translated into languages like
English, Chinese, German, Russian, and Indonesian. His first novel, The
Winds of April, was published in 1941 and won honorable mention for the
Commonwealth Literary Awards. Unfortunately, most of the copies were
destroyed when the Japanese occupied the Philippines during the war. An
article in LA Times explains that “soldiers…used copies of the book as fuel
for cooking and making tea.” Recently, the University of the Philippines
Press republished copies of this lost book.
Gonzalez has received numerous awards including the City of Manila
Medal of Honor in 1971, the Cultural Center of the Philippines award in
1990, and the role of Regents professor at the University of California at
Los Angeles in 1988-9.

Gonzalez passed away in 1999 at the age of 84, leaving behind his wife,
four children, and five grandchildren. In 2016, Gonzalez’s son, Dr. Michael
Gonzalez, led an N.V.M. Gonzalez Workshop in Oriental Mindoro. This
workshop was in honor of the 2015 centenary of Gonzalez’s birth and was
held in the province of Gonzalez’s childhood. As an article in The Philippine
Star explains, this workshop brought together writers, many Filipino-
Americans who visited for the workshop. During the writers’ time together,
“the mixed composition of the group and the diversity of the participants’
backgrounds led to some very interesting discussions dealing with identity,
race, language, and representation.” This workshop, and the redistribution
of his destroyed novel, work as ways to keep his memory alive and
continue to share the impact N.V.M. Gonzalez had for Filipino and Filipino
American literature
Nicomedes "Nick" Marquez Joaquin (Tagalog: [hwaˈkin]; May 4, 1917 –
April 29, 2004) was a Filipino writer and journalist best known for his short
stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name
Quijano de Manila. Joaquin was conferred the rank and title of National Artist
of the Philippines for Literature. He has been considered one of the most
important Filipino writers, along with José Rizal and Claro M. Recto. Unlike
Rizal and Recto, whose works were written in Spanish, Joaquin's major works
were written in English despite being a native Spanish speaker.
Before becoming one of the leading practitioners of Philippine literature in
English, he was a seminarian in Hong Kong – who later realized that he could
better serve God and humanity by being a writer. This is reflected in the
content and style of his works, as he emphasizes the need to restore national
consciousness through important elements in Catholic Spanish Heritage. In
his self-confessed mission as a writer, he is a sort of "cultural apostle", whose
purpose is to revive interest in Philippine national life through literature – and
provide the necessary drive and inspiration for a fuller comprehension of their
cultural background. His awareness of the significance of the past to the
present is part of a concerted effort to preserve the spiritual tradition and the
orthodox faith of the Catholic past – which he perceives as the only solution to
our modern ills.

Nick Joaquin started to write short stories, poems, and essays in 1934.
Consider as a brilliant kid, he did not get to finish high school, he discovered
that he could study more by reading books on his own, and his father’s library
had countless of the books he mind to read. He wrote so variedly and so well
about so many phase of the Filipino throughout his entire life span.

He helps form and led the union of employees of the pre-martial law
Philippines Free Press. Unidentified to the country, Joaquin wrote in
opposition to Martial Law for the subversive press during that dim era.

He primarily triumph national compliments with his essay La Naval de Manila

in 1943 in a competition supported by the Dominican Fathers. The University
of Sto. Tomas (UST) afterward awarded him an Associate in Arts certificate as
of his literary talents.
Among his huge works that have become tack readings in English classes are
The Woman Who Had Two Navels, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, Manila,
My Manila: A History for the Young, The Ballad of the Five Battles, Rizal in
Saga, Almanac for Manileños, Cave and Shadows, to name a few
In current years, Joaquin took to writing custom-built biographies, among
these are Jaime Ongpin The Enigma: A Profile of a Filipino as Manager; The
Dance-drama That is Leonor Goquinco; The Aquinos of Tarlac; Nineteenth
Century Manila: The World of Damian Domingo; La Orosa; and Mr. FEU: The
Culture Hero That was Nicanor Reyes.

Among his most recent titles were Madame Excelsis: Historying Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo; Palacio de Malacañan: 200 Years of a Ruling House and
Rizal in Saga.
Joaquin also acknowledged the following awards: City of Manila’s Patnubay
ng Sining at Kalinangan Award in 1964; the Harry Stonehill Novel Award in
1962; the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1961; and the Most
Outstanding Young Man in Literature in 1955.

After returning to the Philippines, Joaquin joined the Philippines Free Press,
starting as a proofreader. He soon attracted notice for his poems, stories and
plays, as well as his journalism under the pen name Quijano de Manila. His
journalism was both intellectual and provocative, an unknown genre in the
Philippines at that time, and raised the country's level of reportage.

Joaquin deeply admired José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines,
paying him tribute in such books as The Storyteller's New Medium – Rizal in
Saga, The Complete Poems and Plays of Jose Rizal, and A Question of
Heroes: Essays in Criticism on Ten Key Figures of Philippine History. He
translated the hero's valedictory poem, in the original Spanish Mi Ultimo
Adios, as "Land That I Love, Farewell!".

Joaquin represented the Philippines at the International PEN Congress in

Tokyo in 1957, and was appointed as a member of the Motion Pictures
commission under presidents Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand E. Marcos.

After being honored as National Artist, Joaquin used his position to work for
intellectual freedom in society. He secured the release of imprisoned writer
José F. Lacaba. At a ceremony on Mount Makiling attended by First Lady
Imelda Marcos, Joaquin delivered an invocation to Maria Makiling a diwata
and the mountain's mythical maiden. Joaquin touched on the importance of
freedom and the artist. After that, Joaquin was excluded by the Marcos regime
as a speaker at important cultural events.
Joaquin died of cardiac arrest in the early morning of April 29, 2004, at his
home in San Juan, Metro Manila. He was then editor of Philippine Graphic
magazine, where he worked with Juan P. Dayang, the magazine's first
publisher. Joaquin was also publisher of its sister publication, Mirror Weekly, a
women's magazine, and wrote the column “Small Beer” for the Philippine
Daily Inquirer and Isyu, an opinion tabloid.