MikeLigalig.com

By Engr Jes Tirol

First Filipino Novel

Did you know that the first Filipino Novel entitled “La Teresa” was written in 1851 by Fr. Antonio Obeda in Bilar, Bohol? Even though the title is Spanish, the language used in the novel was Sugboanon Bisaya and the characters of the novel were Boholanos.

That novel was very successful that the lessons taught therein became the standard of morality and culture throughout the Bisayan regions. So I pay tribute to Fr. Antonio Obeda, a Parish Priest in different places in Bohol and later on in life became the Father Provincial of the Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines. He was really a good teacher.

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La Teresa (1851) certainly precedes other claims, such as Ninay (1880), Noli Me Tangere (1887), and El Filibusterismo (1891).

a little parsing though may not be out of order...

what's a filipino novel?  is it a novel written by a filipino using a foreign language or a novel written in a local language by a foreigner who happened to be assigned in the philippines?

considering the period, would it be safe to presume that fr. antonio obeda was a spanish agustinian recollect?  (a google search did not produce such a fraile, but then i'm not good at google search...)  

meanwhile, other academics say that it is pedro paterno's ninay that can lay claim to being the first filipino novel.

First Novel

According to literary expert Bievenido Lumbera, the first Filipino novel was Ninay, written by Pedro Paterno and published in 1880. Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere was published in 1887 while El Filibusterismo came out of the press in 1891. The first English novel written in English by a Filipino was Zoilo Galang's A Child of Sorrow. (http://www.txtmania.com/trivia/first.php)

        But if Rizal's novels are political, the novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is largely cultural and is considered the first Filipino novel.  Although Paterno's Ninay gave impetus to other novelists like Jesus Balmori and Antonio M. Abad to continue writing in Spanish, this did not flourish.

       Other Filipino writers published the essay and short fiction in Spanish in La Vanguardia, El Debate, Renacimiento Filipino, and Nueva Era. The more notable essayists and fictionists were Claro M. Recto, Teodoro M. Kalaw, Epifanio de los Reyes, Vicente Sotto, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Rafael Palma, Enrique Laygo (Caretas or Masks, 1925) and Balmori who mastered the prosa romantica or romantic prose. -excerpts from The Literary Forms in Philippine Literature, by Christine F. Godinez-Ortega (http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Literature/literary_forms_in_philippine_lit.htm)

n.b.  please note the discrepancy in years ninay was published, i.e., 1880, 1885.

additional reading:  The first Filipino novel, Looking Back, Ambeth R. Ocampo, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Jan 7, 2005

 

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