Julián Cruz Balmaceda (sometimes spelled as ''Balmaseda'') (January 28, 1885 – September 18, 1947) was a Filipino

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. He made several works written in Filipino, English and

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

Early life

Balmaceda was born on Orion,

Bataan Bataan (, , , ; ) , officially the Province of Bataan, is a province in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Balanga while Mariveles is the largest town in the province. Occupying the entire Bataan Peninsula ...

on January 28, 1885. He attended

Colegio de San Juan de Letran The Colegio de 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 in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. I ...

for college. Two years later, he finished law on ''Escuela de Derecho'' (School of Law) under the same college. When he was fourteen, his first written play entitled ''Sugat ng Puso'' (Broken Heart). His major play, ''Ang Piso ni Anita'' (Anita's One Peso Coin) won first place in a play writing contest sponsored by the Bureau of Posts. The play is all about thriftiness and was composed of three stages.

Major works

* ''Sa Bunganga ng Pating'' (On the Shark's Mouth) - condemns usurers and usurpers. * ''Budhi ng Manggagawa'' (Worker's Will), ''Dugo ng Aking Ama'' (My Father's Blood), ''Kaaway na Lihim'' (Secret Enemy) - discussed his ideals on socialism. * ''Ang Tala sa Kabundukan'' (The Star on the Mountains) - a musical play composed of three stages. * ''Kayamanang Lumilipad'' (Treasury Flies) - an opera of three stages. * ''Ale-aleng Namamayong'' (Lady under the Umbrella) - a poem about sacrifice of love. * ''Ang Hampas ng Lupa'' (Nature's Guilt) - one stage. * ''Ligayang Nawawala'' (Dissipating Happiness) - short story. * ''Heneral Gregorio del Pilar'' - historical play of three stages that narrates the death of Filipino war general

Gregorio del Pilar Gregorio Hilario del Pilar y Sempio (; ; November 14, 1875 – December 2, 1899) was a Filipino general of the Philippine Revolutionary Army during the Philippine–American War. As one of the youngest generals in the Revolutionary Army, he ...

on the

Battle of Tirad Pass The Battle of Tirad Pass, sometimes referred to as the Philippine Thermopylae, took place during the Philippine–American War on December 2, 1899, in northern Luzon in the Philippines. A 60-man Filipino rear guard commanded by Brigadier Gener ...

. * ''Sangkuwaltang Abaka'' (One Penny-worth Abaca) - one of his major breakthrough; it was played many times during Japanese occupation. ''Sangkuwaltang Abaka'' was re-played after the war using the title ''Sino Ba Kayo?'' (Who are They?) that likewise, became a major play. * ''Sining at Agham ng mga Dulang Iisahing Yugto'' (Science and Arts of One-Staged Plays) - book compilation of his different plays. It explained the existence of arts and sciences when making one-staged plays. The book includes ''Sino Ba Kayo?''; ''Dahil sa Anak'' (Because of His/Her Child); ''Ang Palabas ni Suwan'' (Suwan's Show); ''Higanti ng Patay'' (Dead Man's Revenge); ''Ang Libingan ng Bayani'' (The Hero's Tomb); ''Gregorio H. del Pilar''.

References

* ''The Julian Cruz Balmaseda Collection at the University of the Philippines Library''.

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

Library. Published in 1974, (Diliman,

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read and pronounced in Filipino language, Filipino as Kyusi), is the richest and List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 c ...

: The Library, 1974) * *
Full text: Sino Ba Kayo? by Julian Cruz Balmaceda
Tagalog-language writers Filipino male dramatists and playwrights Filipino male poets People from Bataan 1885 births 1947 deaths 20th-century Filipino poets 20th-century dramatists and playwrights Colegio de San Juan de Letran alumni 20th-century Filipino male writers {{philippines-writer-stub