7 SEPTEMBER

Cecilio R. Apostol

1938 - Cecilio Apostol y de los Reyes, Filipino revolutionary poet  and patriot who helped edit the official organ of the  First Philippine Republic, La Independencia, dies of  cerebral hemorrhage in his home in Caloocan; a law  student when the Philippine Revolution against Spain  broke out, he used his pen to articulate his patriotic sentiments against both colonial Spain and the new colonial enemy, the imperialist United States, writing  in various newspapers like La Fraternidad, La  Democracia, La Patria, and the anti-American daily,  El Renacimiento as the protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914) raged on; Apostol is noted for translating into French the "Decalogue" of Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the Father of the Philippine Revolution, and the Ilocano epic "Lam-ang" into Spanish, and for his poetical masterpiece "To Rizal."

1922  -  Valeriano P. Hernandez y Pena, the "Father of Tagalog Novel" acclaimed for "Nena at Neneng," the first ever novel in the vernacular published in 1905, dies with his faithful wife and his sister at his side; while he did not directly join the Philippine Revolution, "Mang Anong" channeled his literary obsession into pointing out the problems plaguing the country, assisting the anti-friar propaganda work of patriot and fellow Bulakeno Marcelo H. del Pilar through the novels "Pagluha ng Matuwid" and "Bunga ng Maling Pag-iimbot" and, later, writing "Mag Inang Mahirap," "Mga Tinik ng Bulaklak," "Dangal ng Magulang" and "Hatol ng Panahon" during the American colonial period.