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Nick Joaquin

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Nicomedes "Nick" Márquez Joaquín (May 4, 1917 – April 29, 2004) was a Filipino writer and journalist
best known for his short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name
Quijano de Manila. Joaquín was conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for
Literature. He has been considered one of the most important Filipino writers, along with José Rizal and
Claro M. Recto. Unlike Rizal and Recto, whose works were written in Spanish, Joaquin's major works
were written in English despite being a native Spanish speaker.

Nick Joaquín

Nick Joaquin Portrait from Fringe.jpg

Portrait of Joaquin

Born

Nicomedes Joaquín y Márquez

May 4, 1917

Paco, Manila, Philippines

Died

April 29, 2004 (aged 86)

San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines

Resting place

Heroes' Cemetery

Occupation

Journalistplaywrightnovelist
Awards

National Artist of the Philippines.svg

National Artist of the Philippines

Before becoming one of the leading practitioners of Philippine literature in English, he was a seminarian
in Hong Kong – who later realized that he could better serve God and humanity by being a writer. This is
reflected in the content and style of his works, as he emphasizes the need to restore national
consciousness through important elements in Catholic Spanish Heritage. In his self-confessed mission as
a writer, he is a sort of "cultural apostle", whose purpose is to revive interest in Philippine national life
through literature – and provide the necessary drive and inspiration for a fuller comprehension of their
cultural background. His awareness of the significance of the past to the present is part of a concerted
effort to preserve the spiritual tradition and the orthodox faith of the Catholic past – which he perceives
as the only solution to our modern ills.[1][2]

Biography

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Early life & family

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Nicomedes “Nick” Joaquín y Márquez, fondly called “Onching” by close family and friends was born on
May 4, 1917 in Pacó, Manila.[3] There are varying accounts on the date of his birth, some cite it as
September 15, 1917. This could stem from how Joaquín himself refrained from revealing his date of birth
because he disliked the fuss of people coming over and celebrating his birthday.

Joaquín was the fifth out of the ten children of Don Leocadio Joaquín and Salomé Márquez. Don
Leocadio fought in the Philippine Revolution by the side of his friend General Emilio Aguinaldo, and
reached the position of Colonel. He retired after he was wounded in action and moved on to a prolific
career as a lawyer in Manila and the southern province of Laguna. Salomé Márquez was a well-educated
woman who taught in a Manila public school. She was trained by Americans in English to teach at the
public schools when the United States colonized the Philippines.[3]

The Joaquín family lived in a two-story residential and commercial building, greatly uncommon at that
time, on Herran Street (now Pedro Gil Street) in Pacó, Manila.[4] Joaquín was said to have had an
extremely happy childhood. The Joaquín children were tutored in Spanish & piano, and the children
were encouraged to have an interest in the arts. The Joaquín home communicated in Spanish and heard
mass regularly. Joaquín is a notably devout Christian and continued being so his whole life.[3]

The Joaquíns had lived a handsome life until Don Leocadio lost the family fortune in a failed investment
on an oil exploration project in the late 1920s.[4] The family moved out of their Herran home and into a
rented house in Pasay. Don Leocadio passed not long after. The young Joaquín was only twelve years old
and this signalled a big change in their family.

Education

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Nick Joaquín attended Pacó Elementary School and went to Mapa High School for secondary education.
However, in his third year informed his mother that he wanted to drop out because he felt that the
classroom was too confined for him and that he learned more outside of it.[3] His mother Salomé, a
former teacher, was devastated by the news, but still allowed him to do so.

After leaving school, Joaquín worked as an apprentice in a bakery in Pasay and later on in the publishing
company TVT (Tribune-Vanguardia-Taliba.)[4] This allowed him a small taste of an industry he would
spend most of his life in.

An avid reader, Joaquín, used this time to pursue his passion for it. He was described as having a “rabid
and insane love for books” by his sister-in-law Sarah K. Joaquín. His parents had encouraged his interest
in books early on. He already had a borrower's card at the National Library when he was ten. He
purveyed his father's personal library and loved the bookstores in downtown Manila. He read
voraciously and intently, he read everything that had caught his eye. He enjoyed the “poetry of Edna St.
Vincent Millay and Vachel Lindsay to the stories of Anton Chekhov, to the novels of Dostoyevsky, D. H.
Lawrence, and Willa Cather. He read American magazines (Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan,
Harper’s Magazine) and discovered the fiction of Booth Tarkington, Somerset Maugham, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway.”[4]

Career beginnings

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Very early on, Joaquín was already exploring his literary voice. At age 17, he published his first English
poem about Don Quixote, in the literary section of the pre-World War II Tribune, where he worked as a
proofreader. It was accepted by the writer and editor Serafín Lanot. Joaquín had felt a strong connection
with the story of Don Quixote; he felt like he could identify with the character. Later in life, he used a
similar iteration of Quixote in his various pen names, Quijano de Pacó and Quijano de Manila.

A little later, in 1937 he published his first short story in the Sunday Tribune Magazine, “The Sorrows of
Vaudeville” telling the story of the vaudevilles in Manila—a city he was endlessly enamored by. [4] It was
accepted by the writer and editor Serafín Lanot.

After Joaquín won a nationwide essay competition to honor La Naval de Manila, sponsored by the
Dominican Order, the University of Santo Tomas awarded him an honorary Associate in Arts (A.A.) and a
scholarship to St. Albert's Convent, the Dominican monastery in Hong Kong. There he was once again
close to his family's original goal for him to enter the seminary. Joaquín and his family were devoutly
Christian. He notably heard mass daily and was fond of praying the Holy Rosary. He only stayed in Hong
Kong for two years before returning to Manila.

Joaquín continued publishing stories and poems between 1934 and 1941 in the Herald Mid-Week
Magazine and the Sunday Tribune Magazine. The Commonwealth years were a particularly vibrant era in
Philippine literature. Later, the Japanese occupation closed down the Tribune and other publications.
The young Joaquín had to look for ways to support his family.

Throughout the occupation, Joaquín had continued writing. “The Woman Who Felt Like Lazarus” and the
essay “La Naval de Manila” were borne out of this war period Joaquín had detested. His work had
appeared in the Philippine Review, an English-language journal, in 1943. His story, "It Was Later Than We
Thought" and his translation of Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios were also published. He was beginning to spark
an interest from readers. However, the reticent Joaquín shied away from recognition. He had created this
mysterious and distant author. [4]

Career

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After returning to the Philippines, Joaquín joined the Philippines Free Press, starting as a proofreader. He
soon attracted notice for his poems, stories and plays, as well as his journalism under the pen name
Quijano de Manila. His journalism was both intellectual and provocative, an unknown genre in the
Philippines at that time, and raised the country's level of reportage.
Nick Joaquín is interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Joaquín deeply admired José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, paying him tribute in such books
as The Storyteller's New Medium – Rizal in Saga, The Complete Poems and Plays of Jose Rizal, and A
Question of Heroes: Essays in Criticism on Ten Key Figures of Philippine History. He translated the hero's
valedictory poem, in the original Spanish Mi Ultimo Adios, as "Land That I Love, Farewell!".[5]

Joaquín represented the Philippines at the International PEN Congress in Tokyo in 1957, and was
appointed as a member of the Motion Pictures commission under presidents Diosdado Macapagal and
Ferdinand E. Marcos.[5]

After being honored as National Artist, Joaquín used his position to work for intellectual freedom in
society. He secured the release of imprisoned writer José F. Lacaba. At a ceremony on Mount Makiling
attended by First Lady Imelda Marcos, Joaquín delivered an invocation to Maria Makiling a diwata and
the mountain's mythical maiden. Joaquín touched on the importance of freedom and the artist. After
that, Joaquín was excluded by the Marcos regime as a speaker at important cultural events.[5]

Joaquín died of cardiac arrest in the early morning of April 29, 2004, at his home in San Juan, Metro
Manila. He was then editor of Philippine Graphic magazine, where he worked with Juan P. Dayang, the
magazine's first publisher. Joaquín was also publisher of its sister publication, Mirror Weekly, a women's
magazine, and wrote the column “Small Beer” for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Isyu, an opinion
tabloid.[5]

Works

Legacy

Awards

See also

References

External links

Last edited 4 days ago by Jack90s15

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