Monday, September 16, 2013

BIOGRAPHY

N.V.M. Gonzalez

He was born on 8 September 1915 in RomblonPhilippines.[1] González, however, was raised in Mansalay, a southern town of the Philippine province of Oriental Mindoro. González was a son of a school supervisor and a teacher. As a teenager, he helped his father by delivering meat door-to-door across provincial villages and municipalities. González was also a musician. He played the violin and even made four guitars by hand. He earned his first peso by playing the violin during a Chinese funeral in Romblon. González attended Mindoro High School (now Jose J. Leido Jr. Memorial National High School) from 1927 to 1930. González attended college at National University (Manila) but he was unable to finish his undergraduate degree. While in Manila, González wrote for the Philippine Graphic and later edited for the Evening News Magazine and Manila Chronicle. His first published essay appeared in the Philippine Graphic and his first poem in Poetry in 1934. González made his mark in the Philippine writing community as a member of the Board of Advisers of Likhaan: the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center, founding editor of The Diliman Review and as the first president of the Philippine Writers' Association. González attended creative writing classes under Wallace Stegner and Katherine Anne Porterat Stanford University. In 1950, González returned to the Philippines and taught at the University of Santo Tomas, the Philippine Women's Universityand the University of the Philippines (U.P.). At U.P., González was only one of two faculty members accepted to teach in the university without holding a degree. On the basis of his literary publications and distinctions, González later taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara,California State University, Hayward, the University of Washington, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Gonzalez is buried at theLibingan ng mga Bayani.
On 14 April 1987, the University of the Philippines conferred on N.V.M. González the degree of Doctor of Humane Lettershonoris causa, "For his creative genius in shaping the Philippine short story and novel, and making a new clearing within the English idiom and tradition on which he established an authentic vocabulary, ...For his insightful criticism by which he advanced the literary tradition of the Filipino and enriched the vocation for all writers of the present generation...For his visions and auguries by which he gave the Filipino sense and sensibility a profound and unmistakable script read and reread throughout the international community of letters..."
N.V.M. González was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in 1997. He died on 28 November 1999 in Quezon CityPhilippines at the age of 84. As a National Artist, Gonzalez was honored with a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

"Literature is an affair of letters," N.V.M. Gonzalez once said. A teacher, author, journalist and essayist, Gonzalez is one of the most widely recognized, anthologized and closely studied among Filipino writers.  His most notable works include the novels The Winds of AprilThe Bamboo Dancers and A Season of Grace, short story collections Children of the Ash-Covered Loam and The Bread of Salt and Other Stories and essay collections Work on the Mountain and The Novel of Justice: Selected Essays.  Gonzalez distinctively wrote of the Filipino life, of the Filipino in the world. Gonzalez is himself a Filipino in the world, traversing between the United States and the Philippines and exploring Europe and Asia.  The affair of letters Gonzalez created is more than literature. It is the story of a Filipino in the world. It is his story.

Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez, familiarly known as simply "N.V.M.," was born on September 8, 1915 in Romblon, Romblon and moved to Mindoro at the age of five. The son of a school supervisor and a teacher, Gonzalez helped his father by delivering meat door-to-door. Gonzalez attended Mindoro High School from 1927 to 1930, and although he studied at National University in Manila, he never obtained a degree. While in Manila, Gonzalez wrote for the Philippine Graphic and later edited for the Evening News Magazine and Manila Chronicle. His first published essay appeared in the Philippine Graphic and his first poem in Poetry in 1934.
"For the good of my soul lately I have been reading Jose Rizal and as much as I admire Mr. Rizal's political sentiments, I must say I prefer Gonzalez as a novelist."
-Wallace Stegner, 1950
A Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, awarded to Gonzalez in 1948, allowed the aspiring author to travel to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and Columbia University in New York City. While at Stanford, Gonzalez attended lectures and classes from many prominent writers, Wallace Stegner and Katherine Anne Porter amongst them.

After Gonzalez returned to the Philippines in 1950, he began a long teaching career, beginning with a position at the University of Santo Tomas. Gonzalez also taught at the Philippine Women's University, but it was the lengthy position at the University of the Philippines that gave distinction to Gonzalez's career - as a teacher at the university for 18 years, Gonzalez was only one of two people to teach there without holding a degree. Gonzalez hosted the first University of the Philippines writer's workshop with a group who would soon form the Ravens. In addition, Gonzalez made his mark in the writing community as a member of the Board of Advisers of Likhaan: the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center, founder The Diliman Review and as the first president of the Philippine Writers' Association.

Gonzalez continued to teach when he returned to California in the 1960s, serving as a visiting professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara; professor emeritus at California State University, Hayward; and professor at University of California at Los Angeles' Asian American Studies Center and English department.
Throughout Gonzalez's teaching career, the author produced 14 books and accumulated many awards along the way. Through these writings, Gonzalez received many prestigious awards, including repeated Palanca Memorial Award for Literature awards, the Jose Rizal Pro Patria Award, and the City of Manila Medal of Honor. In addition, his books became internationally recognized, and his works have been translated into Chinese, German, Russian and Bahasa Indonesian.

Gonzalez received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Philippines in 1987 and became its first international writer in residence in 1988. He served as the 1998-1999 Regents Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and continued to receive distinctions such as the National Artist Award for Literature in 1997 and the Centennial Award for Literature in 1998. In 1990 and 1996, "N.V.M. Gonzalez Days" were celebrated in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively. Despite Gonzalez's travels, he never gave up his Filipino citizenship. Critics feared that Gonzalez would someday settle into the Filipino-American genre of literature, but Gonzalez often pointed out with an all-familiar twinkle in his eye, "I never left home." True to his word, the home that shaped Gonzalez's days is present in his writings, from the blossoming of a love story to the culture reflected in an immigrant experience. 

N.V.M. started his career at the age of 19; 65 years later, he was still creating affairs with letters. He passed away on November 28, 1999, due to kidney complications. He was 84. N.V.M. Gonzalez is remembered as an innovative writer, a dedicated and humble worker and an honest witty friend. He will be dearly missed.

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