Nick Joaquin

Filipino Author by name of Nicomedes Joaquin

born May 4, 1917, Paco, Manila, Philippines.

died April 29, 2004, San Juan, Philippines.

A Filipino novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and biographer whose works present the diverse heritage of the Filipino people.

Joaquin was awarded a scholarship to the Dominican monastery in Hong Kong after publication of his essay “La Naval de Manila” (1943), a description of Manila’s fabled resistance to 17th-century Dutch invaders. After World War II he traveled to the United States, Mexico, and Spain, later serving as a cultural representative of the Philippines to Taiwan, Cuba, and China.

Starting as a proofreader for the Philippines Free Press, Joaquin rose to contributing editor and essayist under the nom de plume “Quijano de Manila” (“Manila Old-Timer”). He was well known as a historian of the brief Golden Age of Spain in the Philippines, as a writer of Short Stories suffused with folk Roman Catholicism, as a playwright, and as a novelist.

He dropped out of high school and did odd jobs on Manila's waterfront and elsewhere. He taught himself by reading widely at the National Library of the Philippines and the library of his father, Leocadio Joaquín, who had been a lawyer and a colonel in the Philippine Revolution. This developed further his interest in writing. His mother was named Salome Marquez Joaquin. Joaquín was first published in the literary section of the Pre-World War II Tribune under writer and editor Serafín Lanot.

Joaquín served as a member of the Philippine Board of Censors for Motion Pictures under President Diosdado Macapagal and President Ferdinand E. Marcos. According to writer Marra PL. Lanot, Joaquín was untouched by Marcos' iron fist. Joaqun's first move as National Artist was to secure the release of imprisoned writer José F. Lacaba. Later, at a ceremony on Mount Makiling attended by First Lady Imelda Marcos, Joaquín delivered an invocation to Mariang Makiling, the mountain's mythical maiden. Joaquín touched on the importance of freedom and the artist. As a result, for the remainder of the Marcos regime, Joaquín no longer received invitations to address important cultural events.

WEB RESOURCES:

(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/304268/Nick-Joaquin)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Joaquin)

SOURCE:

(http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/ImgAwardees/ImgJoaquinNic.jpg)