THE RUNAWAY kid has come home.
Long after National Artist for Literature Nicomedes “Nick” Joaquin left the Dominican-run St Albert’s College in Hong Kong to pursue a writing career, his love for the Dominican order in the end led him to “come home” again. As one of his final acts, he donated his collection of over 4,000 books to the UST Central Library.
“He is the national artist closest to the hearts of the Dominicans,” Rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P., said in the opening of the exhibit The Life and Legacy of Nick Joaquin at the UST Central Library last Nov. 15.
The exhibit, a tribute of the Thomasian community to the late artist, showcases some of Joaquin’s rare photographs, awards, and possessions, including clothes, books, and even his old Underwood typewriter.
“Before my uncle Nick Joaquin passed away, he made it known to me that he wanted his collection of books be donated to the University of Santo Tomas,” Eduardo said.
The collection will be installed on the fifth floor of the Central Library in a section named Nick Joaquin.
According to Aparicio, the books under the special section will be open to students for use, but cannot be taken out of the library. Some of the books, however, have already been duplicated and installed in the Filipiniana section.
“It’s not only for the museum. It’s for the students to make use of,” he said.
Bing Noel Joaquin, Eduardo’s wife, said Joaquin was “very much in support of the youth,” especially those who showed passion for the literary arts. She recalled Joaquin giving students special permits to use his works for academic purposes.
“If it can help promote awareness of Philippine Literature, we will give our support. We will give no restriction (to use Nick’s works). But they have to ask for permission,” she said.
Meanwhile, Antonio Joaquin, another nephew, disclosed that Eduardo Joaquin, will take over the copyright and other administrative functions related to the late artist’s works. Billy Lacaba, the author’s literary agent, has also agreed with the Joaquin family that the copyright has a five-year validity before reverting to the University.
Nevertheless, Bing said the Joaquin family is bent on “continuing the legacy of (their) Tito Nick,” who passed away last year.
Last September, the UST Graduate School Academic Theater staged Nick Joaquin’s celebrated play, “The Portrait of an Artist as a Filipino,” at the Medicine Auditorium. It has since then performed the play in various parts of the United States for both Filipino and American audiences.
“I received several text messages telling me that they (UST Graduate School Academic Theater) receive standing ovations for the performance of the play written by Nick Joaquin,” Lana said.
Life and works
Born on May 4, 1917, Joaquin got his love for reading from his mother, Salome, who was a teacher. Although he did not finish his secondary education, he educated himself by going to the National Library everyday to read books.
When his essay, La Naval de Manila, won in a literary contest organized by the Dominicans, he was given the opportunity to pursue priesthood in St. Albert College, a Dominican convent in Hong Kong. The Dominicans, impressed by his literary genius, awarded him not only a scholarship but also the honorary Associate for the Arts certificate years later. However, he only stayed for less than two years in St. Albert because he was made to choose between priestly life and literary activity. He chose the latter.
His nephew, Bing Joaquin, recalls during an interview with the Varsitarian that even though his uncle had some “seminarian” ways like his habit of folding his clothes neatly and tightly, he kept his awards scattered around his house.
“In a way, it may have been his expression of humility,” Bing said.
During the 1950’s Nick Joaquin worked as a proofreader for the Philippines Free Press where he eventually became a staff writer, under the pen name, Quijano de Manila, and editor for the next 27 years. His first novel, The Woman Who Had Two Navels, was the result of the fellowship given by Harper Publishing Company. It won the first Stonehill award in 1960. He later worked as the first editor of Asia-Philippines Leader. He also became the editor in chief of Philippine Graphic.
Some of the awards he received include the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication, and the Republic Cultural Heritage award for Literature.
In 1976, he accepted the National Artist award on the condition that President Ferdinand Marcos free his writer-friend, Jose Lacaba, from Martial law detention.
But he donated his Ramon Magsaysay Award medallion to the Most Holy Rosary La Naval one year after he received it since he was a Marian devotee.
His other works include: Tropical Gothic, Cave and Shadows, Pop Stories for Groovy Kids, La Naval de Manila and Other Essays, The Complete Poems and Plays of Rizal, Reportage of Crimes, Reportage on the Marcoses, Reportage on Lovers, A Question of Heroes, Almanac for Manileños, and Manila: Sin City and Other Chronicles.
Quijano de Manila and Nick Joaquin
One of his biographers, poet and essayist Marra Lanot in her book, The Trouble with Nick and Other Profiles describes Joaquin’s style of writing as “scintillating” and that there is only a thin line separating Nick Joaquin the writer and Quijano de Manila the journalist.
“He records what is happening around him and transforms it all into literary art, as in a very memorable story. Whatever he writes, he writes with relish. Whatever he offers to the readers, he offers with the sensibility and the sensitivity of a literary great,” Lanot said.
“He paints the inner landscape of his characters, who are pulled by all sorts of tension, filled with passion, torn between sensuality and spirituality, at once attracted to and repelled by power,” she added.
Literature and philosophy professor Dr. Florentino Hornedo said that when Joaquin wrote literature, it was as if he was writing history; and when he wrote non-fiction, he wrote as if it were creative fiction.
Although Joaquin’s first language was Spanish, he had an excellent command of the English language. His works had a flavor of the past Hispanic era combined with fantastic and real elements.
Party-list representative Teodoro Locsin called Nick’s fiction a “transforming experience” in an introduction to Joaquin’s Prose and Poems which was published in 1963.
“Joaquin’s themes are the universal ones of good and evil, time and eternity, past and present, honor and its opposite, love and its absence, freedom and what the weak call as ‘fate’,” he said.
The exhibit will run until Nov. 29. The University will also host a series of lectures which will touch more on the life and works of Nick Joaquin from Nov. 22 to 23.
UST Center for Creative Writing and Studies director Ophelia Dimalanta will talk about the creative works in “Nick Joaquin as a Literary Artist,” Joselito Zulueta publications adviser of The Varsitarian and chair of the National Literary Arts Committee of the National Commission for Culture and the Art, will tackle “Nick Joaquin as a Literary Journalist.”
Philippine Star columnist Isagani Cruz will discuss Joaquin’s dramatics in the forum, “Nick Joaquin as a Dramatist” which will be followed by a dramatic reading of Nick Joaquin’s fiction directed by Ophelia Dimalanta on Nov. 23. Bernadette G. Irinco and Czeriza Shenille Valencia
