Region 8:

Eastern Visayas
Background

Province Capital
Biliran Naval
Eastern Samar Borongon
Leyte Tacloban
Northern Samar Catarman
Southern Leyte Maasin City
Samar Catbalogan
- Humid
- Coconut, banana, potatoes, cassava, abaca,
& sugarcane
- Fishing

Tacloban City-major center of trade &

commerce & education in region.
The Sociolinguistic Situation
Waray and Cebuano

The Literature
German priests-managing a university in
Tacloban City. Saw the necessity of gathering &
preserving the literary heritage of the region.
Waray literature-has been collected, recorded
& documented by scholars & researchers.
Fr. Ignatio Francisco Alzina 1668
-Spanish Jesuit, documented the poetic forms
such as:
1. Candu 5. Bical
2. Haya 6. Balac
3. Ambahan 7. Siday
4. Canogon 8. Awit
Described the Susumaton & Posong early forms
of narrative
Theater tradition was very much in place-in the
performance of poetry, rituals & mimetic
dances. Dances mimed the joy & activities of
the ancient Waray.
3 centuries of Spanish colonization & another
period of American occupation, old rituals,
poetic forms & narratives had undergone
reinvention
Balac-poetic love joust between a man &
woman
Amoral-Spanish period
Ismayling-during American occupation.
-smile
-has been reinvented to express anti-
imperialist sentiments where the woman
represents the motherland & the man, the
patriot who professes his love of country.

An Kaadlawon- 1st Waray newspaper in 1901

flourishing of poetry in Waray
Eco de Samar y Leyte-long running magazine in
1900, published articles & literary works in
Spanish, Waray & English.
-has poetry section An Tadtaran which
presented a series of satirical poems that
attacked the changing values of the people at
the time. Eco likewise published occasional and
religious poems.
An Lantawan-has extant copies from 1931 to
1932, printed religious & occasional poetry. Also
published satirical poems of:
1. Bagong Katipunero
3. Datoy Anilod
4. Marpahol
5. Vatchoo (Vicente I. de Veyra
6. Julio Carter (Iluminado Lucente)
7. Ben Tamaka (Eduardo Makabent)
8. Kalantas (Casiano Trinchera)
Under these pseudonyms, poets criticised corrupt
government officials, made fun of people’s vices, &
attacked local women for adopting modern way of
social behaviour.
Sanghiran San Binisaya-organization in 1909,
writers as well as the illustrados in the community
banded together for the purpose of cultivating
the Waray language.
Norberto Romualdez Sr.- leader of Sanghiran had
literary luminaries that included the members-
Iluminado Lucente, Casiano Trinchera, Eduardo
Makabenta, Francisco Alvarado, Juan Ricacho,
Francisco Infectana, Espiridion Brillo & statesman
Jaime C. de Veyra. For a time, Sanghiran was
responsible for the impetus it gave to new writing
in the language.
Leyte News & The Leader-in 20’s first local papers
in English, brought about the increasing
legitimization of English as a medium of
communication, the gradual dispacement of
Waray and eventual disappearance of its poetry
from the pages of local publication.
MBC’s DYVL & local radio stations 70’s-assumed the
role where the local newspapers no longer served as
vehicles for written poetry in Waray.
-up to the present time poetry sent to the stations are
written by mostly by local folk –farmers, housewives,
lawyers, government clerks, teachers & students.
A common quality of their poetry is that they tend
to be occasional, didactic & traditional in form.
The school writers, write poems in English lately
there has been an romantic return to their ethnic
mother tongue as the medium for their poetry.
Hermano Mayor-commissioned the writing and
presentation of Waray Drama during fiestas to
entertain constituents in the town.
Hadi-hadi & the Zarzuela-the tradition that
essential drawn from the pool of plays written.
Filipinas-an authority on the Waray Zarzuel
An Pagtabang ni San Miguel-earliest Zarzuela
production involved that of Norberto Romualdez
which was staged in Tolosa, Leyte 1899. -
Iluminado Lucente, Emilion Andrada Jr., Francisco
Alvarado, Jesus Ignacio, Margarita Nonato,Pedro
Acerden, Pedro Separa, Educardo Hilbano,
Moning Fuentes, Virgilio Fuentes & Agustin El
O’Mara.
Iluminado Lucente stands out in terms of literary
accomplishment.
He wrote about 30plays & most of these dealt
with domestic conflicts & the changing mores of
Waray society during his time. Although a number
of his longer works tend to be melodramatic, it
was his satirical plays that are memorable for their
irony & humor, the tightness of their plot structure,
& the specious use of language.
The Hadi-hadi antedates the zarzuela in
development. It used to be written & staged in
many communities of Leyte as part of town fiesta
festivities held in honor of a Patron Saint.
It generally dealth with Christian & Muslim
kingdoms at war. Today one hardly hears about
hadi-hadi being staged even in the Cebuano
speech communities of the region.
Fiction in Waray has not Flourish because it lacks a
venue for publication.
Cebuano literature produced in Eastern Visayas is
still undocumented terrain. To the writers from the
Cebuano speech communities in the region,
Cebu City is their center. It is thus not surprising if
much of the literature from these communities,
Particularly fiction & poetry, have found their way
into Cebu City publications.
Cebuano writers of Leyte:
Eugenio Viacrusis, Angel Enemecio, Enemecio
Fornarina & Fernando Buyser first published their
fiction & poetry in Cebu publications, & their
works have afterward formed part of the literar
anthologies in the Cebuano language.
Thank you