Biography of : Amado V. Hernandez

Photo Credit to National Commission For Culture and the Arts

Amado V . Hernandez (Amado Vera Hernandez) aka Amante Hernani, Herminia dela Riva, Julio Abril. B. Tondo, was born in Manila 13 Sept 1903 and died in Manila 24 March 1970.

He is a National Artist in Literature. He is the son of Juan Hernandez and Clara Vera. He married sarswela actress and kundiman queen Atang dela Rama.

He studied in Gagalangin, Tondo, the Manila High School, and the American Correspondence School where he finished a bachelor of arts degree.

He began his writing career, as a journalist and later editor of various pre-WWII Tagalog newspapers, like Watawat, Pagkakaisa, Makabayan, Sampaguita and Mabuhay Extra. He joined the Akademya ng Wikang Tagalog and the Manila Press Club, During WWII; he served as an intelligence officer for the resistance.

After the war, he was appointed and elected as councilor of Manila in 1945 and 1947, respectively. He sponsored ordinances aimed at promoting worker's rights and freedom. As he immersed himself in the labor movement in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Hernandez's sympathy for the working class grew into strong identification with their struggle for social justice and liberation. He represented the Newspaper Guild of the Philippines in the country's biggest and most militant labor federation, the Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO). In 1947, he was elected the president of the CLO. Because of pursuing the worker's cause, he was imprisoned in 1951 for alleged subversive activities. He was released on parole in 1956 after five years and six months of detention, and was finally acquitted of all charges in 1964. He returned to journalistic practice, writing as a columnist for Taliba from 1962 to 1967, serving as editor of the radical newspaper, Ang Masa , until his death 1970.

"Amado V. Hernandez's poetic sensibility was initially developed in literary circles. "

During the second decade he was a member and vice-president of Aklatang Bayan where he associated with Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez- Peña, Iñigo Ed. Regalado, and Julian Cruz Balmaseda; later he joined Ilaw at Panitik, where he became close to Jose Corazon de Jesus, Florentino Collantes, and Deogracias Risario.

He wrote poems on sundry topics for his daily column “Sariling Hardin” (My Own Garden) in Pagkakaisa from 1926 to 1932. He continued writing poems for his column “Pangkasalukuyan” (Today) in Mabuhay from 1932 to 1934.

In 1929 he challenged de Jesus, the acknowledged “King of Balagtasan,” to debate in verse on the issue of nationalism and independence. For almost a month, they articulated their positions daily in the newspapers they worked for: de Jesus in Taliba, Hernandez in Pagkakaisa .

In 1940, he published his first anthology of poems entitled Kayumanggi at Iba pang Tula (Brown and Other Poems). His prison ordeal provided the creative impulse of most of the poems in his collection, Isang Dipang Langit (A Stretch of Sky), 1961 and the epic, Bayang Malaya (Free Country), 1969, both of which were written behind bars.. Most famous of his poems are “Isang Dipang Langit,” “Panata sa Kalayaan” (Oath to Freedom), “Bartolina” (Solitary Confinement), “Ang Dalaw” (The Visit), and “Kung Tuyo Na ang Luha Mo Aking Bayan” (When Your Tears Dry Up, My Country).

He published short stories in different newspapers among them “Wala ng Lunas” (No More Remedy), “Kulang sa Dilig” (Needs Watering), “Langaw sa Isang Basong Gatas” (Fly in a Glass of Milk), “Dalawang Metro sa Lupang Di-Malipad ng Uwak” (Two Meters in Land That Stretches Forever), “Ipinanganak ang Isang Kaaway sa Sosyedad” (An Enemy of the Society is Born), “Isang Ulo ng Litson” (Head of a Roast Pig), and “Kislap ng Utak,Pawis ng Noo” (Sparkle of Brain, Sweat on the Forehead).

His experiences as a guerilla, labor leader, and a political detainee were shaped into the novels Mga Ibong Mandaranggit (Birds of Prey), 1969, and Luha ng Buwaya (Crocodile's Tears), 1972.

Hernandez wrote plays based on prison experiences: Muntinglupa , 1957; Hagdan sa Bahaghari (Stairway to the Rainbow), 1958; Ang mga Kagalang- galang (The Venerables), 1959; and Magkabilang Mukha ng Isang Bagol (Two Sides of A Coin), 1960.

He has written many essays, among them, “Si Atang at ang Dulaan” (Atang and the Theater), “Si Jose Corazon de Jesus at ang Ating Panulaan” (Jose Corazon de Jesus and Our Poetry), and “Pilipinismo: Susi sa Bayang Tagumpay” (Filipinism: Key to a Successful Country), among others. In these works, he exposed what he perceived to be the neocolonial nature of Philippine Society and pushed for nationalist and progressive agenda to end the long history of the workers' and people's oppression.

"In the pre-WWII era, Amado V. Hernandez won more than 20 awards for his short stories and poems. "

In 1925, he was proclaimed “Makata ng Ilaw at Panitik” (Poet of Ilaw and Panitik). In 1931 his story “Wala Nang Lunas” won two gold medals also from the Ilaw and Panitik. His stories, “Pilipinas” (Philippines) and “Kayumanggi” (Brown), both won first prize in the Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1938 and 1940, respectively. He won the Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Isang Dipang Langit, 1962; the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature fro his four plays: Muntinglupa, 1958, Magkabilang Mukha ng Isang Bagol , 1961, both first prize winners; and Hagdan sa Bahaghari, 1959, and Ang mga Kagalang-galang , 1960, both second prize winners; the NPC-ESSO Journalism Award for his novel Luha ng Buwaya, 1963, his “Pili sa Pinili” (Chosen form the Select) in Taliba, 1964, and for his essay, “Report on Indonesia,” in 1965; the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila, 1964; the first Balagtas Memorial Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines for Bayang Malaya , 1969; and the Tanglaw ng Lahi Award from the Ateneo de Manila, 1970. He was proclaimed National Artist for posthumously in 1973 for “his contribution to the development of Tagalog prose.”