{"id":96303,"date":"2017-04-01T18:47:22","date_gmt":"2017-04-01T22:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=96303"},"modified":"2017-04-01T18:47:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-01T22:47:22","slug":"clamor-grows-for-poet-balagtas-hero-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/01\/clamor-grows-for-poet-balagtas-hero-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Clamor grows for poet Balagtas’ hero status"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Francisco<\/a>
‘Francisco Balagtas’ was the pen name Baltazar chose for his work. (Photo: Regenerate \/ Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2013An expert joined calls for renowned Filipino poet Francisco Baltazar’s formal recognition as Philippine hero.<\/p>\n

Writer and educator Michael Coroza believes such accolade is due, noting Baltazar harnessed the pen’s might to advocate love of country and fellowmen.<\/p>\n

“He inspired even our heroes,” Coroza said.<\/p>\n

‘Francisco Balagtas’ was the pen name Baltazar chose for his work.<\/p>\n

The country will celebrate Sunday the annual Araw ni Balagtas to mark Baltazar’s 229th birth anniversary.<\/p>\n

Baltazar’s defining work was ‘Florante at Laura’ which experts consider as one of the country’s literary gems.<\/p>\n

They noted Dr. Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini and other Philippine heroes recognized ‘Florante at Laura’ as being work of the highest caliber.<\/p>\n

The late Filipino writer Lope K. Santos also saw the spirit of nationalism in ‘Florante at Laura’ and believed this to be already enough for Baltazar to gain hero status.<\/p>\n

“He started the campaign to make Baltazar a hero,” noted Coroza.<\/p>\n

Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino is likewise seeking hero status for Baltazar, citing his advocacy for love of country and writing prowess that helped enrich Philippine literature.<\/p>\n

Available data show Baltazar was born on April 2, 1788 in Bulacan province’s Bigaa municipality, the youngest among four children of Juan Balagtas and Juana de la Cruz.<\/p>\n

Baltazar attended school and eventually learned to write poetry under the guidance of Tondo’s famous poet Jose de la Cruz whose pen name was ‘Huseng Sisiw.’<\/p>\n

Philippine literary pieces then were mostly written in Spanish but this didn’t dissuade Baltazar from writing his poems in Tagalog, a local language.<\/p>\n

Rivalry for the love of Maria Asuncion Rivera ended with Baltazar’s imprisonment as his competitor used influence and money to make this happen, available data show.<\/p>\n

It was during such imprisonment that Baltazar wrote ‘Florante at Laura,’ a poem about love between fictional characters Duke Florante and Princess Laura.<\/p>\n

According to some observers, ‘Florante at Laura’ likely mirrors events in Baltazar’s own life.<\/p>\n

Santos saw ‘Florante at Laura’ as being much more than a love story, however.<\/p>\n

In 1955, Santos cited four rebellions which he perceived from ‘Florante at Laura.’<\/p>\n

He said those are rebellions against oppressive government, false beliefs and wrong practices which undermine people’s unity and distort their mores and customs.<\/p>\n

Also hidden in the poetry of ‘Florante at Laura’ was rebellion against proliferation of low-quality literature, he said.<\/p>\n

Santos considered such rebellions as unmistakable acts ofnationalism, available information further show.<\/p>\n

“Baltazar’s ‘Florante at Laura’ taught us to be good people,” Coroza observed.<\/p>\n

In modern-day Philippines, Baltazar remains a popular literary figure.<\/p>\n

Authorities renamed his birthplace as Balagtas.<\/p>\n

His ‘Florante at Laura’ continues being discussed in schools and performed onstage.<\/p>\n

Local extemporaneous debates are still called ‘balagtasan’ after his pen name.<\/p>\n

Coroza said ‘balagtasan’ commenced in 1924.<\/p>\n

KWF is marking Baltazar’s birth anniversary this year byspearheading until Sunday the three-day 2017 Pambansang Kampong Balagtas student-writers’ camp in Bataan province’s Orion municipality<\/p>\n

Orion is reportedly the modern name of Udyong municipality where authorities said Baltazar died on Feb. 20, 1862.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2013An expert joined calls for renowned Filipino poet Francisco Baltazar’s formal recognition as Philippine hero. Writer and educator Michael Coroza …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":96304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[17304,17303,17305],"class_list":["post-96303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-balagtasan","tag-francisco-balagtas","tag-philippine-hero","mauthors-catherine-j-teves","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}