Amado V. Hernandez

 

Autobiography

Amado V . Hernandez (Amado Vera Hernandez) aka Amante Hernani, Herminia dela Riva, Julio Abril. b. Tondo, Manila 13 Sept 1903 d. Manila 24 March 1970. National Artist in Literature. He is the son of Juan Hernandez and Clara Vera. He married sarswela actor and kundiman queen Atang dela Rama. He studied in Gagalangin, Tondo, the Manila High School, and the American Correspondence School where he finished a bachelor of arts degree. He began his writing career, as a journalist and later editor of various pre-WWII Tagalog newspapers, like Watawat, Pagkakaisa, Makabayan, Sampaguita and Mabuhay Extra. He joined the Akademya ng Wikang Tagalog and the Manila Press Club, During WWII; he served as an intelligence officer for the resistance. After the war, he was appointed and elected as councilor of Manila in 1945 and 1947, respectively. He sponsored ordinances aimed at promoting worker's rights and freedom. As he immersed himself in the labor movement in the late 1940's and early 1950's, Hernandez's sympathy for the working class grew into strong identification with their struggle for social justice and liberation. He represented the Newspaper Guild of the Philippine in the country's biggest and most militant labor federation, the Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO). In 1947, he was elected the president of the CLO. Because of pursuing the worker's cause, he was imprisoned in 1951 for alleged subversive activities. He was released on parole in 1956 after five years and six months of detention, and was finally acquitted of all charges in 1964. He returned to journalistic practice, writing as a columnist for Taliba from 1962 to 1967, serving as editor of the radical newspaper, Ang Masa , until his death 1970.

Works

•  Luha ng Buwaya (1963)

• Mga Ibong Mandaragit (1964)

• Bullets and Roses: The Poetry of Amado V. Hernandez (2003)