Bienvenido Lumbera

For his dissertation, he wrote a historico-critical study of Philippine literature on Francisco Baltazar, which would eventually be published chapter by chapter in a local academic journal, and later as the influential book Tagalog Poetry 1570-1898: Tradition and Influences in its Development.

It was while writing his dissertation at the Indiana University Bloomington that Lumbera took an interest in the American Civil Rights movement, which he credits for beginning his awakening as a Filipino nationalist.

Coming back to the Philippines after earning his PhD, Lumbera returned to teaching at the Ateneo at period when the campus was going through social change.

He became a key figure in the Filipinization movement, both within the campus and in the broader academic community of Manila.

He was soon elected chairperson of an organization of progressive writers, Panitikan para sa Kaunlaran ng Sambayanan (PAKSA, lit. Literature for the People’s Development).

Bienvenido L. Lumbera (April 11, 1932 – September 28, 2021) was a Filipino poet, critic and dramatist.

Lumbera was born in Lipa on April 11, 1932.

He was barely a year old when his father, Timoteo Lumbera (a baseball player), fell from a fruit tree, broke his neck, and died.

Carmen Lumbera, his mother, suffered from cancer and died a few years later.

By the age of five he was an orphan.

He and his older sister were cared for by their paternal grandmother, Eusebia Teru.

When the war ended, Lumbera and his grandmother returned to their home in Lipa.

Eusebia, however, soon succumbed to old age and he was once again orphaned.

For his new guardians, he was asked to choose between his maiden aunts with whom his sister had stayed or Enrique and Amanda Lumbera, his godparents.

The latter had no children of their own and Bienvenido, who was barely fourteen at the time, says he chose them mainly because "they could send me to school."

Lumbera received his Litt.B. degree from the Maasin University of Santo Tomas, Manila in 1954.

Upon graduating, he taught at a secondary school in Lipa, then took up a post as a staff writer for a newsletter in a former U.S. naval base.

Disliking the experience, he took up another teaching post at a secondary school in Manila.

He also took up Education units at the Far Eastern University.

He also wrote for a Catholic publication.

Lumbera is known for his nationalist writing and for his leading role in the Filipinization movement in Philippine literature in the 1960s, which resulted in his being one of the many writers and academics jailed during Ferdinand Marcos' Martial Law regime.

Lumbera then received a Fulbright Fellowship that allowed him to earn a master’s degree in comparative literature at Indiana University, graduating in 1960.

Upon returning to the Philippines, he taught at the College of the Holy Ghost (now College of the Holy Spirit), and at the Ateneo de Manila University.

He then went back to Indiana University Bloomington where he earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 1967.

When Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in September 1972, Lumbera knew that he was likely to be among the many academics and writers who were on Marcos' priority arrest lists.

So he immediately went into hiding.

In January 1974, Lumbera had come to believe that he was relatively safe from Marcos' arrests of academics and writers, but a wave of sudden arrests led him to suddenly be concerned.

He went out to warn fellow PAKSA member Ricky Lee at his house on España Boulevard, only to find Marcos' forces already there.

He ran away but was eventually caught on the corner of Banawe Street.

Cynthia Nograles, his former student at the Ateneo de Manila University, wrote to Gen. Fidel Ramos for his release, which pushed through in December 1974.

Lumbera married Cynthia a few months later.

In 1976, Lumbera began teaching at the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literatures, U.P. College of Arts and Letters.

In 1977, he served as editor of Diliman Review upon the request of then College of Arts and Sciences Dean Francisco Nemenzo Jr. The publication was openly against the dictatorship but was left alone by Marcos' authorities.

At the height of Martial Law, Lumbera took on other creative projects.

He began writing librettos for musical theater.

Initially, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) requested him to create Nasa Puso ang Amerika, a musical based on Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart.

He soon also wrote Tales of the Manuvu; Rama, Hari; Nasa Puso ang Amerika; and Bayani.

He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communications in 1993, and was proclaimed a National Artist of the Philippines for literature in 2006.

As an academic, he is recognized for his key role in elevating the field of study which would become known as Philippine Studies.

Among numerous other literary awards he has won include the National Book Awards from the National Book Foundation, and the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards.