Guillermo Gómez y Rivera (; born 12 September 1936) is a Spanish-Filipino multilingual author, historian, educator and linguistic scholar whose lifelong work has been devoted to the advocay to preserve Spanish culture as an "important element" of the Filipino identity (according to
Hispanista movement).
Gómez is the most senior academic director of the
Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española.
In 1975, he was awarded the
Premio Zobel
Premio Zóbel is a Philippine literary award conferred on Filipino writers in Spanish language. It was established to revivify the Spanish language and to promote the best writing created by Filipino authors in the language. Founded in 1920, it ...
, the Philippines' highest literary honor bestowed on works in Spanish.
He was appointed secretary of the
Commission on the Filipino Language Committee of the
Philippine Constitutional Convention (1971–73).
Biography
Guillermo Gómez y Rivera was born in
Dingle, Iloilo
Dingle (), officially the Municipality of Dingle ( krj, Banwa ka Dingle, hil, Banwa sang Dingle, tgl, Bayan ng Dingle), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 45 ...
on the southeast portion of
Panay Island
Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City ...
and graduated from the
University of San Agustin
The University of San Agustin – Iloilo, also referred to by its acronym (USAI or as San Ag), is a private, Roman Catholic, research, coeducational, non-profit basic and higher education institution run by the Augustinian Province of Santo Nià ...
in
Iloilo City
Iloilo City, officially the City of Iloilo ( hil, Siyudad/Dakbanwa sang Iloilo; fil, Lungsod ng Iloilo), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines on the island of Panay. It is the capital city of t ...
with degrees in commerce and in education. In 1967, he earned a
BA from the
Colegio de San Juan de Letrán
The Colegio de San Juan de Letran, (transl: College of San Juan de Letran) also referred to by its acronym CSJL, is a private Catholic coeducational basic and higher education institution owned and run by the friars of the Order of Preachers i ...
. Shortly afterwards, he obtained a doctorate in Philippine Literature under the tutelage of a Jesuit academic.
He has been a lifelong advocate of
the Spanish language in the Philippines. Most of his written works argue in favor of the preservation of the Philippine-Hispanic identity of the country.
As secretary of the National Language Committee of the
Philippine Constitutional Convention (1971–1973) during the presidency of
Ferdinand E. Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
, he favored
Tagalog to become the basis of the country's national language. In the same convention, he joined forces with other nationalists to preserve Spanish as one of the country's official languages. Spanish, however, was later made an optional language (together with
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
) under the Constitution of 1987 which was promulgated under the presidency of
Corazón Aquino
Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People ...
who abolished the 1973 constitution under
Marcos Marcos may refer to:
People with the given name ''Marcos''
*Marcos (given name)
Sports
;Surnamed
* Dayton Marcos, Negro league baseball team from Dayton, Ohio (early twentieth-century)
* Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer
* Nélson Marcos, Portug ...
.
Literature, history and culture
Literary critics regard Gómez's writing style as combative.
Organizers of the Premio Zóbel, in awarding him the prize in 1975, cited "his efforts to preserve the Spanish language and culture in our country," although some literary historians mistakenly believe he won the award solely for his play "El caseron." Prior to winning the Premio Zóbel, Gómez won second place in the Premio Manuel Bernabé for an essay on the historical and nationalistic value and importance of the Spanish language.
Gómez, as editor of ''Nueva era'', a weekly and only remaining Spanish language newspaper in the Philippines,
has used his editorials to attack government officials whom he accuses as "vile puppets of
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
WASP neocolonialism," claiming proofs to bolster his accusations. Through his body of literary works, he has urged Filipino readers to "rediscover" their Spanish past in order for them to gain knowledge of their true national identity.
He views cultural dissemination as a tool to accomplish his advocacy, particularly through dance. His research on Philippine songs and dances, especially those of Hispanic influence, was used by the internationally acclaimed
Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company The Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company is the oldest dance company in the Philippines.[Chavacano
Chavacano or Chabacano is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. ...]
. He is credited for reintroducing to the modern local film industry the now forgotten film ''
Secreto de confesión'', the first locally produced film spoken and sung in Spanish (''la primera pelÃcula hablada y cantada en español producida en Filipinas'').
His efforts to bring back the Filipino national identity based on Spanish have led some critics, such as poet-academician
Edmundo Farolán and poet-novelist
Gilbert Luis R. Centina III, to call him ''El Don Quixote Filipino.''
In May 2015, Gómez published his first novel, ''Quis ut Deus'' (Who Is Like God), the first Spanish-language novel published in the Philippines in the last 55 years.
Flamenco
Gómez honed his dancing skills in short courses conducted by Spanish international dancers such as ''Los Chavales de España,'' Antonio Ruiz and
José Greco
José Greco ( Costanzo Greco; December 23, 1918 – December 31, 2000) was an Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer known for popularizing Spanish dance on the stage and screen in America mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.
Backgro ...
who visited Manila in the 1970s and the 1980s. But his introduction to flamenco came much earlier at the age of four when he learned it, along with many other Spanish dances, from Rosa Jiménez. She was a flamenco dancer from
Sevilla
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...
, Spain and the second wife of his maternal grandfather, José Rivera Franco.
Educator
Gómez spent several years teaching Spanish
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, Philippine history and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
at
Adamson University. For a time, he served as the head of Adamson's Spanish department. He retired from the university in 2001.
During his teaching stint, he was president of ''Corporación Nacional de Profesores en Español'' (CONAPE), an organization of Filipino educators who teach the Spanish language.
Media
Gómez's journalism career started with the magazine ''El maestro'' during the 1960s. Its goal was to aid Filipino teachers in Spanish in the practice of their profession. Aside from being the editor of ''Nueva era'', he also edits two other weeklies: ''The Listening Post'' and ''The Tagalog Chronicle.'' In 1997, he worked on television as a segment host of
ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...
's now defunct early morning program
Alas Singko y Medya
This is a list of programs broadcast by ABS-CBN, a Philippine television network. The network is headquartered in ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center, Diliman, Quezon City.
On May 5, 2020, ABS-CBN was issued a Cease and desist, cease-and-desist order ...
, presenting a five-minute Spanish lesson. Gómez released an LP back in 1960 when he was producing ''La voz hispanofilipina'', a radio program on
DZRH
DZRH (666 AM) is a radio station owned and operated by Manila Broadcasting Company, which serves as the flagship station. The station's studio is located at the MBC Building, Star City, Vicente Sotto St., CCP Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay ...
. It was a product of his research on a number of 'lost' Filipino songs sung in Spanish during the Spanish colonial era. He reintroduced the songs through the LP entitled ''Nostalgia filipina'', where his vocal interpretation is accompanied by a
rondalla
The rondalla is an ensemble of stringed instruments played with the plectrum or pick and generally known as plectrum instruments. It originated in Medieval Spain, especially in the ancient Crown of Aragon: Catalonia, Aragon, Murcia, and V ...
.
Digitally remastered with funding from the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation, the LP was reissued and launched at Instituto Cervantes de Manila on August 14, 2006.
Works
Theatre
* ''El Caserón (La Fortaleza Escondida). Comedia Filipina en Tres Actos'' (1978);
Poems
* ''Con cÃmbalos de caña'' (2011);
* ''La nueva Babilonia'' (2018);
Novel
* ''Quis ut Deus, o el Teniente Guimô, el brujo revolucionario de YloÃlo'' (2015);
Essays
* ''The Filipino State And Other Essays: Is Rodrigo Duterte the Savior of the Filipino People?'' (2018);
Musical recordings
* ''Pascuas en Manila'' (1967);
* ''Nostalgia Filipina. AntologÃa del folclore filipino de los siglos XVIII y XIX (2007);
* ''El collar de Sampaguitas y Zamboanga Hermosa (2009);
References
External links
The Filipino State/El Estado Filipino
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez Rivera, Guillermo
1936 births
Colegio de San Juan de Letran alumni
Filipino educators
Filipino Hispanists
Filipino journalists
Filipino male poets
Filipino people of British descent
Filipino people of Spanish descent
Filipino poets
Filipino Roman Catholics
Filipino translators
Flamenco dancers
Linguists from the Philippines
Living people
People from Iloilo
Hiligaynon people
Visayan people