Nick Joaquin - Culture and History

Lifted from Likhaan

“Identity is the history that has gone into bone and blood and reshaped the flesh. Identity is not what we were but what we have become what we are at this moment.” ~Nick Joaquín, in “Culture and History"

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He might have preferred to keep his birthday a secret, but 106 years ago, a titan of the Philippine letters was born in Paco, Manila. 

A genius of narrative be it in his works in fiction, journalism, poetry, and drama, Nicomedes “Nick” Joaquín, who also wrote under the nom de plume Quijano de Manila, is widely regarded as the most prolific Filipino writer in English – and even as he wrote in a borrowed tongue, his works are unmatched not only in his mastery of the language but above all, in their incisive exploration and interrogation of what makes a Filipino, especially with his signature baroque, Spanish-flavored English.

Through celebrated works such as novel “The Woman Who Had Two Navels,” the short story “May Day Eve,” and the play “A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino” — all considered classics of Philippine literature in English — as well as his intellectual and provocative reportage for the Philippines Free Press, Joaquín took on the mantle of being a keeper of our national memory.

In 1976, nearly four years since the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos placed the entire country under martial law, Joaquín was conferred the title National Artist for Literature. He initially refused the award, but he eventually accepted it on one condition: the release of his longtime friend and fellow writer Jose “Pete” Lacaba from his two-year imprisonment.

Joaquín passed away on April 29, 2004 — just a few days short of his 87th birthday; still, his timeless words live on.

Photo credit: Fringe Magazine