Magdalena Gonzaga Jalandoni was a Filipino novelist,
playwright, short story writer, poet, sculptor and painter.
Magdalena Jalandoni was born on May 27, 1891, to an
affluent land-owning family of Gregorio Jalandoni and
Francisca Gonzaga in Calle Alvarez now renamed as
Calle Benedicto in the former city of Salog now Jaro,
Iloilo City, a present-day district of Iloilo City. She began
writing at a young age wherein she already had her
poems published at the age of 12. She published her first
novel Ang Mga Tunoc Sang Isa Ca Bulac (The Thorns of
a Flower), which was later followed by many novels,
compilations of poems and short stories. Jalandoni only
wrote for publication purposes due to the male-dominated
society at the time. Back then, female voices in literature
were not taken seriously by the general public. Although her mother strictly forbade her to take
literature seriously, she refused to do so and devoted her life entirely to literature.
In her childhood autobiography, Ang Matam-is Kong Pagkabata (My Sweet Childhood), she
cites: "I will be forced to write when I feel that my nose is being assaulted by the scent of
flowers, when my sight is filled with the promises of the sun and when my soul is lifted by
winged dreams to the blue heavens."
Her famous poem, Ang Guitara (The Guitar), is read in classrooms all over the country today.
Literary critics and historians claim that she has mastered a special talent for poetry and
description as well as dramatic evocations of landscapes and events in her novels and short
stories. Her works span from the coming of Malay settlers in the Middle Ages up to the Spanish
and American colonial era as well as the Japanese occupation of World War II, all portraying the
history of Panay and the evolution of the Ilonggo culture. According to Riitta Varitti of the
Finnish-Philippine Society in Helsinki, "Jalandoni was the most productive Philippine writer of
all time."Other famous works include Anabella, Juanita Cruz, Sa Kapaang Sang Inaway (In the
Heat of War), Ang Dalaga sa Tindahan (The Young Woman in the Market) and Ang Kahapon ng
Panay (The Past of Panay). Throughout her turbulent and displaced life, she still managed to
publish 36 novels, 122 short stories, 7 novelettes, 7 long plays, 24 short plays and dialogos in
verse compiled in two volumes, seven volumes of personally compiled essays including some
translations from Spanish and two autobiographies. She has been displaced from her hometown
twice and has survived the Philippine Revolution, the Filipino-American War and the Japanese
Occupation. In 1977, she received the prestigious Republic Cultural Heritage Award for her
literary achievements from the government. She died on September 14, 1978, at the age of 87 she
is now remembered as one of the most prolific Filipino writers in the Hiligaynon language.
Hailing from Western Visayas, her works are said to have left permanent and significant
milestones in Philippine literature.