Fernando María Guerrero
Encyclopedia
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
politician, journalist, lawyer and polyglot
Polyglot (person)
A polyglot is someone with a high degree of proficiency in several languages. A bilingual person can speak two languages fluently, whereas a trilingual three; above that the term multilingual may be used.-Hyperpolyglot:...
who became a significant figure during the Philippine
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
's golden period of Spanish literature
Philippine Literature in Spanish
Philippine literature in Spanish is a body of literature made by Filipino writers in the Spanish language. Today, this corpus is the third largest in the whole corpus of Philippine literature . It is slightly larger than the Philippine literature in the vernacular languages...
, a period ranging from 1890 to the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1940.
Biography
Guerrero was born to a highly educated family. His father was Lorenzo Guerrero, a painter and art teacher and his mother was Clemencia Ramirez. He began writing literature at a young age. He excelled in the facility of language and obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Ateneo Municipal and the Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Santo TomasUniversity of Santo Tomas
The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines , is a private Roman Catholic university run by the Order of Preachers in Manila. Founded on April 28, 1611 by archbishop of Manila Miguel de Benavides, it has the oldest extant university charter in the...
and wrote journals during the years 1898 to 1900. He became a lawyer and he taught criminology and forensic oratory. He served as chairman of the board of study at the law school La Jurisprudencia (The Jurisprudence). He also became a councilor, secretary of the senate and secretary of the Philippine Independence commission. He was also a director of the Academia de Leyes (Academy of Regulation). Apart from Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Guerrero spoke Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and he was an editor of El Renacimiento (The Renaissance), La Vanguardia (The Outer works) and La Opinion (The Opinion). He was a member of the First Philippine Assembly, the Academia Filipina (Philippine Academy) and also became a leader of the Municipal Board of Manila. He was also a correspondent to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. His poetry book Crisálidas was published in 1914. Subsequently he published another verse compilation called Aves y Flores. Guerrero died on June 12, 1929, coinciding with that year's anniversary of the República Filipina (Philippine Republic). A school in Paco
Paco
Paco is - together with Pancho - the Spanish nickname for Francisco, as in Pancho Villa, the legendary Mexican revolutionary.The nickname has its origins in Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the father of the Franciscan order...
, Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
was named after him in his honor.
He was writer of the lyrics of songs such as "Flor filipina".