By Jenny Ortuoste
Artists and cultural workers across the country are celebrating National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera’s 89th birthday today (Sunday, April 11).
The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) posted a greeting for the famed writer, with some information about his career excerpted from the CCP’s Encyclopedia of Philippine Art.
It reads, in part: Lumbera “is a poet, playwright, essayist, and critic whose scholarly and popular writings have provided pioneering ideas and guidelines for many academicians, students, and writers. As an activist, his critical works reveal his nationalist stance in a wide range of fields such as literary history, literary criticism, theater, film, and popular culture.”
He was made National Artist for Literature in April 2006.
Lumbera is also an educator who has taught at Hanover College in the United States, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, and the University of Santo Tomas. He is a professor emeritus of the University of the Philippines’ Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature, where he has taught since 1976.
Among his many honors and awards are the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining for cultural research in 1991, and the CCP Centennial Honors for the Arts in 1999.
Lumbera was born on April 11, 1932, in Lipa, Batangas. He was orphaned at an early age and lived with his grandmother, and later, his godparents.
He received his Litt.B. and M.A. degrees from the University of Santo Tomas in 1950, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in 1968.
According to information from the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Order of National Artists (Orden ng mga Pambansang Alagad ng Sining) is the highest national recognition given to Filipino artists.
NA’s are “individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts; namely, music, dance, theater, visual arts, literature, film, broadcast arts, and architecture and allied arts.”
The order is jointly administered by the NCCA and CCP, and “conferred by the President of the Philippines upon recommendation by both institutions.”
