Jose Palma y Velasco

On June 3, 1876, Jose Palma, famous poet who wrote the lyrics of the Philippine national anthem, was born in Tondo, Manila. He was the youngest child of Don Hermogenes Palma and Hilaria Velasquez. Palma continued his studies at the Ateneo Municipal after he concluded his primera. It was while in Ateneo when he started composing verses. Their relationship, however, was cut short by the girl's parents who didn't approve of him.

Palma busied himself with his literary interests. In 1894, when the revolution broke out he joined the Katipunan but didn't join his comrades in the battlefield,.

Since he couldn't physically cope up with the difficulties of war, he often stayed in camps and amused the soldiers. He joined the staff of the Tagalog section of the radical newspaper, La Independencia. This provided him to fire his patriotic sentiments and wage battle against the Americans in a way that he was not able to do in the battleground.

Palma and his co-workers in the paper frequently amused themselves with songs and poems while resting in camps or other places during their marches from the pursuing American forces. It was during one of their breaks in Bautista, Pangasinan when Palma's poetic spirit created the poem "Filipinas" that fitted the music of the "Marcha Nacional Filipina" of Julian Felipe.

 

FILIPINAS (Letra para la Marcha Nacional)

I

Tierra adorada Hija del sol de Oriente Su fuego ardiente En ti latiendo esta, !Patria de amores! Del heroismo cuna, Los invasores No te hallaran jamas

II

En tu azul cielo, en tus Auras En tus montes y en tu mar Esplende y late el poema De tu amada libertad. Tu pabellon, que en las lides La Victoria ilumino, No vera nunca apagados Sus estrellas y su sol

III

Tierra de dichas, del sol y de amores, En tu regazo dulce es vivir. Es una Gloria para tus hijos, Cuando te ofenden, por ti morrir.

In late 1899, the radical press was eventually gained by American forces. Left to do, his brother and Jose Palma, Rafael, who was a staff of the La Independencia, returned to Manila. They and Juan Abad collaborated in setting up another paper Laong Laan, which, nevertheless, failed to continue long after American authorities detained Jose Palma and found some of its contents subversive.

On September 3, 1901, El Renacimiento was created with Rafael Palma as editor and encouraged Jose Palma to write a column for the newspaper. The columns were written Vida Manileñan under the pen name Esteban Estebañez and Cuartilla Licerarias by Jose Palma. Palma used other pen names for his poems and short stories that appeared in publications including La Moda Filipina, El Comercio, La Patria, La Union and Revista Catolica like Gan Hantik and Ana Haw. Among Palma's poems

Kundiman (1898), De mi jardin (1900), En la hamaca (1900). To honor him, his brothers, Manuel and Rafael Palma and his pal and fellow acclaimed poet, Cecilio Apostol, released a group of his poems under the name Melancolicas in 1912 from 1893 to 1901.

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