Santos, Lope (1879-1963), was one of the most influential members of the Philippine literature movement of the 1900’s. He was a novelist, poet, literary critic, journalist, labor leader, and public servant. Santos worked to further the spread of Tagalog, a version of the Philippine language spoken by people in the Manila area. He wrote Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa (Grammar of the National Language, 1940), the official Tagalog grammar book. He was also a member of the Nationalist Party and a supporter of Philippine independence.
Lope Canseco Santos was born on Sept. 25, 1879, in Barangca, Bayang Bato, Pasig, Rizal, which was then part of Manila. Santos’s father worked in the printing business and introduced Lope to literature, including novels and poetic romances, at an early age. In 1900, Santos began working for several newspapers and Tagalog publications. His subjects expanded to include fiction, studies of the Tagalog language, and political writings.
Santos wrote 6 novels and 10 volumes of poetry. His major poetic works are “Puso at Diwa” (“Heart and Spirit”, 1908), “Mga Hamak na Dakila” (“The Great Downtrodden”, 1945), and “Ang Pangginggera” (“Card Player”, 1912), which was first serialized in the nationalistic magazine Renacimiento Filipino. “Ang Pangginggera” is a narrative poem consisting of 788 stanzas (groups of lines) with six lines each. It tells of the tragedy of a woman who developed an addiction to gambling. “Ang Pangginggera” was the first Filipino poem to move away from the European-based popular romances of the time. It emphasized instead the situations and problems of the everyday life of Filipinos.
Santos wrote pioneering critical essays in Spanish and Tagalog on the Philippine language and its literature. From 1941 to 1945, he served as director of the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa (Institute of National Language), where he vigorously promoted the use of Tagalog in schools and public offices.
Santos’s political writings included Banaag at Sikat, which embodied the aspirations of unionism and the labor movement. In 1902, Santos founded the Union Obrera Democratica (Workers Democratic Union) with revolutionary leader Isabelo de los Reyes. After de los Reyes’s arrest, Santos continued to fight for the cause of Filipino workers, becoming president of Unión del Trabajo de Filipinas (Workers Union of the Philippines) and Congreso Obrero (Workers’ Congress). See De los Reyes, Isabelo.
Santos also won respect for his public service work. As a member of the Partido Nacionalista (Nationalist Party), he advocated Philippine independence. He was governor of Rizal province from 1910 to 1913, the first Filipino governor of Nueva Vizcaya province from 1918 to 1920, and senator of the 12th district of the Philippines, which comprised Mindanao, Sulu, Mountain Province, and Nueva Vizcaya, from 1921 to 1922. As senator, he established Bonifacio Day, a national holiday in memory of Andrés Bonifacio, the national hero and leader of the secret revolutionary party Katipunan. Santos sponsored various bills to improve the conditions of Filipino workers. He died on May 1, 1963.
See also Tagalog language.
