Epifanio de los Santos
Encyclopedia
Epifanio de los Santos y Cristóbal, sometimes known as Don Pañong or Don Panyong (April 7, 1871—April 18, 1928) was a noted Filipino
historian
, literary critic
, art critic
, jurist
, prosecutor
, antiquarian
, archivist
, scholar, painter, poet, musician, musicologist
, philosopher
, philologist
, bibliographer
, translator, journalist
, editor, publisher, paleographer
, ethnographer
, biographer
, researcher
, civil servant
, patriot and hero. He was appointed Director of the Philippine Library
and Museum
by Governor General Leonard Wood
in 1925.
, Rizal
(now an independent city) to Escolastico de los Santos of Nueva Ecija
and musician Antonina Cristóbal of Malabon. He studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila
where he obtained a summa cum laude of Bachelor of Arts degree. He devoted some time for painting but music became part of his daily life and was even awarded a professorship in music. He finished his law studies in University of Santo Tomas
and topped the bar exams in 1898. Rafael Palma
(1930) noticed that during his college years his collecting instinct was early manifested when he curiously dedicated himself gathering plants and flowers in the Nueva Ecija wherein he also sought the company and even communed with the rural communities. According to Agoncillo, "nobody suspected that he would someday become a literary man". As a young law student, his fascination in the study of Spanish literature was through readings of Juan Valera's novel entitled "Pepita Jimenez" and most of all his available works. Eventually, he formed a delightful and lasting friendship with this author which he met in Spain. His home in Intramuros
became the meeting place of literary cliques composed of Cecilio Apóstol
(Catulo), Fernando Ma. Guerrero (Fulvio Gil), José Palma, Rafael Palma
, Jaime C. De Veyra
, Macario Pineda, Mariano V. del Rosario, Salvador V. del Rosario, Ysidro Paredes, Macario Adriatico, Jose Clemente Zulueta
and Jose G. Abreu. He made a beautiful oil portrait of Rosa Sevilla and composed a melody dedicated for her.
Epifanio's first wife was Doña Ursula Paez of Malabon; his second was Margarita Torralba of Malolos. Jose, his son to his first wife, became a historian, biographer, and collector. His brother, Escolastico, became a pianist for silent film
s and has made artistic contributions as a poet and a realist
story teller in Philippine magazines and newspapers. Socrates, his son from second wife, became a leading Pentagon
aeronautics
engineer in his time.
He got two lines of descendants with four children on his first wife Ursula Paez namely Jose, Escolastico, Antonio and Teresita S. Pangan, and eight children on his second wife Margarita Torralba namely Leticia, Fernando, Socrates, Federico, Patty, Baby, Neny and Gertie Paez.
. When he was young, he was the first Filipino to become a member of the Spanish Royal Academy
of Language, Spanish Royal Academy
of Literature and Spanish Royal Academy
of History in Madrid
. It was the admiration of his writings that Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo
asked the Real Academia Española
to open its door to the benevolent young native scholar.
Epifanio was a young associate editor of the revolutionary paper "La Independencia"(1898), writing in prose under the pen name G. Solon and also a member of the Malolos Congress
. He also co-founded other newspapers like La Libertad, El Renaciemento, La Democracia, La Patria and Malaysia. He also made valuable publications namely; Algo de Prosa (1909), Literatura Tagala (1911), El Teatro Tagala (1911) Nuestra Literatura (1913), El Proceso del Dr. José Rizal (1914), Folklore Musical de Filipinas (1920). He also authored Filipinos y filipinistas (Filipinos and Filipinists), Filipinas para los Filipinos, Cuentos y paisajes Filipinos (Philippine Stories and Scenes) and Criminality in the Philippines (1903–1908).
He was a member of "Samahan ng mga Mananagalog" which was initiated by Felipe Calderon in 1904, and it includes active members with the likes of Lope K. Santos
, Rosa Sevilla, Hermenigildo Cruz, Jaime C. De Veyra
and Patricio Mariano. He was a polyglot, being fluent in Spanish
, English
, French
, German
, Ita, Tingian, and Ibalao. He notably translated Florante and Laura classically into sonorous Castilian. As one of the brilliant writers in the Golden Age of Fil-Hispanic literature who had published numerous titles and books, he was an honorary member of the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española
.
As a versatile researcher, he also contributed to early Philippine studies on anthropology
, ethnology
, archaeology
, linguistics
and demographics
.
, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo
, Fabian de la Rosa
, Arellano, Pablo Amorsolo
and Fernando Amorsolo
, Nepomuceno, and Guillermo Tolentino, musical literatures, opera records, valuable printed materials, documents and manuscripts on the revolution and historical pictures. According to Zaide, his famous Filipiniana
collection was rated by foreign scholars as the best in the world. In Europe
, he was recognized as the philologist and writer of biographical matters about the Philippines
.
According to Zaide, there are documents and printed matter in his collection that cannot be found elsewhere, not even in the Filipiniana Division of The National Library nor in any library the world over, the Library of Congress
of the United States
included. The best years of his life were spent in looking for them only to find them after an almost "wild goose chase" of a lifetime. His Rizaliana collections were greatly acknowledged by W. E. Retana, James A. Le-Roy, and Austin Craig
.
In all, there are 115 printed matter and 213 documents in the collection dealing with Philippine revolution
After de los Santos's death, the Philippine legislature, by virtue of the Philippine Clarin Act, negotiated with the widow and heirs of the great collector for the purchase of the collection and library. The Philippine government bought the priceless collections for P 19,250.00.
. He was later elected as governor of Nueva Ecija
in 1902 and 1904. His election victory made him the first democratically elected provincial governor
and head of the Federal Party in Nueva Ecija. Being a member of the Philippine Commission
, he was immediately considered as one of those Filipino intellectuals to represent the Saint Louis World's Fair
in 1904. After his term as the governor, he was appointed provincial fiscal of Bulacan
and Bataan
provinces. He wrote a treatise on electoral fraud "Electoral Fraud
and its Remedies" (Fraudes Electorales y Sus Remedios) in 1907 for the Philippine Assembly
. On the side, he devoted his spare time to researches in Philippine history and literature. Portions of his collections where destroyed when fires hit his house in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija
. According Agoncillo and Palma, his interest lies not in politics. In 1918, he was appointed by Gov. Gen. Francis Burton Harrison
as Assistant Technical Director of the Philippine Census
.
The last and most significant position De los Santos held was Director of the Philippine Library
and Museum
, to which was appointed by Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood
in 1925. He was also elected as third President of the Philippine Library Association ( now Philippine Librarians Association, Inc.) becoming the first Filipino of native parentage to assume such position professionally for Philippine library science
.
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue
(commonly known as EDSA), the main road through Metro Manila
, was named after him. Several schools, streets, a college, a hospital, a printing press and an auditorium in National Library of the Philippines
was also named in his honor.
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, art critic
Art criticism
Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art.Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty...
, jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
, prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
, antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
, archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
, scholar, painter, poet, musician, musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
, philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, philologist
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
, bibliographer
Bibliography
Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
, translator, journalist
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, editor, publisher, paleographer
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
, ethnographer
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, biographer
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
, researcher
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...
, civil servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
, patriot and hero. He was appointed Director of the Philippine Library
National Library of the Philippines
The National Library of the Philippines is the official national library of the Philippines. The complex is located in Ermita on a portion of Rizal Park facing T.M. Kalaw Avenue, neighboring culturally significant buildings such as the Museum of Philippine Political History and the National...
and Museum
National Museum of the Philippines
The Museum of the Filipino People is a department of the National Museum of the Philippines that houses the Anthropology and Archaeology Divisions of the National Museum. It is located in the Agrifina Circle, Rizal Park, Manila adjacent to the main National Museum building...
by Governor General Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood was a physician who served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba and Governor General of the Philippines. Early in his military career, he received the Medal of Honor. Wood also holds officer service #2 in the Regular Army...
in 1925.
Early life and marriage
Epifanio de lo Santos was born in 1871 in MalabonMalabon City
The City of Malabon is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila in the Philippines. Located just north of Manila, the city has a population of 363,681 as of 2007. It is primarily a residential and industrial town and is one of the most densely populated cities in the metropolis...
, Rizal
Rizal
Rizal is a province located in the CALABARZON , just 16 kilometers east of Manila. The province was named after the country's national hero, José Rizal. Rizal Governor Casimiro A. Ynares III on June 17, 2008 announced the transfer of the Capitol from Pasig. Its P 270-million capitol building,...
(now an independent city) to Escolastico de los Santos of Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Palayan City...
and musician Antonina Cristóbal of Malabon. He studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila
Ateneo de Manila University
The Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...
where he obtained a summa cum laude of Bachelor of Arts degree. He devoted some time for painting but music became part of his daily life and was even awarded a professorship in music. He finished his law studies in University of Santo Tomas
University of Santo Tomas
The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines , is a private Roman Catholic university run by the Order of Preachers in Manila. Founded on April 28, 1611 by archbishop of Manila Miguel de Benavides, it has the oldest extant university charter in the...
and topped the bar exams in 1898. Rafael Palma
Rafael Palma
Rafael Palma was a Filipino politician, Rizalian, reporter, writer, educator and a famous mason in Philippines. He also became the fourth President of the University of the Philippines.- Honors :...
(1930) noticed that during his college years his collecting instinct was early manifested when he curiously dedicated himself gathering plants and flowers in the Nueva Ecija wherein he also sought the company and even communed with the rural communities. According to Agoncillo, "nobody suspected that he would someday become a literary man". As a young law student, his fascination in the study of Spanish literature was through readings of Juan Valera's novel entitled "Pepita Jimenez" and most of all his available works. Eventually, he formed a delightful and lasting friendship with this author which he met in Spain. His home in Intramuros
Intramuros
Intramuros is the oldest district in the present day city of Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines. Nicknamed the "Walled City", Intramuros is the historic fortified city of Manila, the seat ot the government during the Spanish Colonial Period. Its name in Latin, intramuros,...
became the meeting place of literary cliques composed of Cecilio Apóstol
Cecilio Apostol
Cecilio Apóstol was a Filipino poet. His poems were once used to teach the Spanish language under the Republic Act No. 1881....
(Catulo), Fernando Ma. Guerrero (Fulvio Gil), José Palma, Rafael Palma
Rafael Palma
Rafael Palma was a Filipino politician, Rizalian, reporter, writer, educator and a famous mason in Philippines. He also became the fourth President of the University of the Philippines.- Honors :...
, Jaime C. De Veyra
Jaime C. de Veyra
Jaime Carlos de Veyra, a Resident Commissioner from the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands; born in Tanauan, Province of Leyte, Philippine Islands, born November 4, 1873; attended public and private schools; was graduated from the College of San Juan de Letran in Manila in 1893; studied law,...
, Macario Pineda, Mariano V. del Rosario, Salvador V. del Rosario, Ysidro Paredes, Macario Adriatico, Jose Clemente Zulueta
Jose Zulueta
Jose Zulueta was a Philippine senator who was elected as Senate President. He is also a renowned scholar, bibliographer, lawyer, librarian, and journalist who documented the military activities during the Philippine revolution.- Early life :...
and Jose G. Abreu. He made a beautiful oil portrait of Rosa Sevilla and composed a melody dedicated for her.
Epifanio's first wife was Doña Ursula Paez of Malabon; his second was Margarita Torralba of Malolos. Jose, his son to his first wife, became a historian, biographer, and collector. His brother, Escolastico, became a pianist for silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s and has made artistic contributions as a poet and a realist
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
story teller in Philippine magazines and newspapers. Socrates, his son from second wife, became a leading Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
aeronautics
Aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of airflight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft and rocketry within the atmosphere...
engineer in his time.
He got two lines of descendants with four children on his first wife Ursula Paez namely Jose, Escolastico, Antonio and Teresita S. Pangan, and eight children on his second wife Margarita Torralba namely Leticia, Fernando, Socrates, Federico, Patty, Baby, Neny and Gertie Paez.
Literary and Scholarly works
Epifanio was considered one of the best Filipino writers in Spanish of his time and regarded as a literary geniusGenius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
. When he was young, he was the first Filipino to become a member of the Spanish Royal Academy
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
of Language, Spanish Royal Academy
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
of Literature and Spanish Royal Academy
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
of History in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. It was the admiration of his writings that Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo
Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo
Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo was a Spanish scholar, historian and literary critic. Even though his main interest was the History of ideas, and Hispanic philology in general, he also cultivated poetry, translation and philosophy.He was born at Santander where he showed that he was an infant prodigy...
asked the Real Academia Española
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
to open its door to the benevolent young native scholar.
Epifanio was a young associate editor of the revolutionary paper "La Independencia"(1898), writing in prose under the pen name G. Solon and also a member of the Malolos Congress
Malolos Congress
-Further reading:*Philippine House of Representatives Congressional Library...
. He also co-founded other newspapers like La Libertad, El Renaciemento, La Democracia, La Patria and Malaysia. He also made valuable publications namely; Algo de Prosa (1909), Literatura Tagala (1911), El Teatro Tagala (1911) Nuestra Literatura (1913), El Proceso del Dr. José Rizal (1914), Folklore Musical de Filipinas (1920). He also authored Filipinos y filipinistas (Filipinos and Filipinists), Filipinas para los Filipinos, Cuentos y paisajes Filipinos (Philippine Stories and Scenes) and Criminality in the Philippines (1903–1908).
He was a member of "Samahan ng mga Mananagalog" which was initiated by Felipe Calderon in 1904, and it includes active members with the likes of Lope K. Santos
Lope K. Santos
Lope K. Santos was a Tagalog language writer from the Philippines. Aside from being a writer, he was also a lawyer, politician, critic, labor leader and considered as "Father of the Filipino Grammar". He was a freemason....
, Rosa Sevilla, Hermenigildo Cruz, Jaime C. De Veyra
Jaime C. de Veyra
Jaime Carlos de Veyra, a Resident Commissioner from the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands; born in Tanauan, Province of Leyte, Philippine Islands, born November 4, 1873; attended public and private schools; was graduated from the College of San Juan de Letran in Manila in 1893; studied law,...
and Patricio Mariano. He was a polyglot, being fluent in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Ita, Tingian, and Ibalao. He notably translated Florante and Laura classically into sonorous Castilian. As one of the brilliant writers in the Golden Age of Fil-Hispanic literature who had published numerous titles and books, he was an honorary member of the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española
Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language
The Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language is the main Spanish-language regulating body in the Philippines. Its headquarters are located in Makati City. It was established in Manila on July 25, 1924....
.
As a versatile researcher, he also contributed to early Philippine studies on anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
and demographics
Demography
Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
.
Collections
Epifanio de los Santos traveled to many places in Europe, Asia, and Americas searching for rare Philippine documents in museums, archives, and libraries. He collected almost 200 paintings and sculpted pieces done by Juan LunaJuan Luna
Juan Luna y Novicio was an Ilocano Filipino painter, sculptor and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19th century...
, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo
Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo
Félix Resurrección Hidalgo y Padilla was a Filipino artist. He is acknowledged as one of the great Filipino painters of the late 19th century, and is significant in Philippine history for having been an acquaintance and inspiration for members of the Philippine reform movement which included José...
, Fabian de la Rosa
Fabian de la Rosa
Fabián Cueto de la Rosa was a Filipino painter. He was uncle and mentor to the Philippines' national artist in painting, Fernando Amorsolo, and to his brother Pablo. He is regarded as a “master of genre” in Philippine art....
, Arellano, Pablo Amorsolo
Pablo Amorsolo
Pablo Cueto Amorsolo is a Filipino painter. He is the younger brother of the Philippine National Artist Fernando Amorsolo.-Biography:...
and Fernando Amorsolo
Fernando Amorsolo
Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto is one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines. Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light...
, Nepomuceno, and Guillermo Tolentino, musical literatures, opera records, valuable printed materials, documents and manuscripts on the revolution and historical pictures. According to Zaide, his famous Filipiniana
Filipiniana
Filipiniana, based on the definition by Isagani Medina from “Collection Building: Filipiniana,” in his In Developing Special Library Collections, Filipiniana: Proceedings , refers to Philippine-related books and non-book materials...
collection was rated by foreign scholars as the best in the world. In Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, he was recognized as the philologist and writer of biographical matters about the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
According to Zaide, there are documents and printed matter in his collection that cannot be found elsewhere, not even in the Filipiniana Division of The National Library nor in any library the world over, the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
included. The best years of his life were spent in looking for them only to find them after an almost "wild goose chase" of a lifetime. His Rizaliana collections were greatly acknowledged by W. E. Retana, James A. Le-Roy, and Austin Craig
Austin Craig
Austin C. Craig was an American historian born in Eddyton, New York. Being one of the first biographers of the Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, he has a street named after him in Sampaloc, Manila....
.
In all, there are 115 printed matter and 213 documents in the collection dealing with Philippine revolution
Philippine Revolution
The Philippine Revolution , called the "Tagalog War" by the Spanish, was an armed military conflict between the people of the Philippines and the Spanish colonial authorities which resulted in the secession of the Philippine Islands from the Spanish Empire.The Philippine Revolution began in August...
After de los Santos's death, the Philippine legislature, by virtue of the Philippine Clarin Act, negotiated with the widow and heirs of the great collector for the purchase of the collection and library. The Philippine government bought the priceless collections for P 19,250.00.
Public Service
He was appointed district attorney of San Isidro, Nueva EcijaSan Isidro, Nueva Ecija
San Isidro is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines. According to the latest Philippine census, it has a population of 44,687 people in 8,340 households....
. He was later elected as governor of Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Palayan City...
in 1902 and 1904. His election victory made him the first democratically elected provincial governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
and head of the Federal Party in Nueva Ecija. Being a member of the Philippine Commission
Philippine Commission
The Philippine Commission was a body appointed by the President of the United States to exercise legislative and limited executive powers in the Philippines. It was first appointed by President William McKinley in 1901. Beginning in 1907, it acted as the upper house of a bicameral Philippine...
, he was immediately considered as one of those Filipino intellectuals to represent the Saint Louis World's Fair
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
in 1904. After his term as the governor, he was appointed provincial fiscal of Bulacan
Bulacan
Bulacan , officially called the Province of Bulacan or simply Bulacan Province, is a first class province of the Republic of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Region in the island of Luzon, north of Manila , and part of the Metro...
and Bataan
Bataan
Bataan is a province of the Philippines occupying the whole of the Bataan Peninsula on Luzon. The province is part of the Central Luzon region. The capital of Bataan is Balanga City and it is bordered by the provinces of Zambales and Pampanga to the north...
provinces. He wrote a treatise on electoral fraud "Electoral Fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
and its Remedies" (Fraudes Electorales y Sus Remedios) in 1907 for the Philippine Assembly
Philippine Assembly
The Philippine Assembly was the lower house of the legislative body of the Philippines during the early part of American colonial period. It was created by the Philippine Organic Act, passed in 1902, which also established the Philippine Commission as the upper house of the Philippine Legislature,...
. On the side, he devoted his spare time to researches in Philippine history and literature. Portions of his collections where destroyed when fires hit his house in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija
San Isidro, Nueva Ecija
San Isidro is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines. According to the latest Philippine census, it has a population of 44,687 people in 8,340 households....
. According Agoncillo and Palma, his interest lies not in politics. In 1918, he was appointed by Gov. Gen. Francis Burton Harrison
Francis Burton Harrison
Francis Burton Harrison was an American statesman who served in the United States House of Representatives and appointed Governor-General of the Philippines by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson...
as Assistant Technical Director of the Philippine Census
Philippines census
The Philippines census is a regularly occurring and official count of the human population of a certain local administrative unit in the Philippines...
.
The last and most significant position De los Santos held was Director of the Philippine Library
National Library of the Philippines
The National Library of the Philippines is the official national library of the Philippines. The complex is located in Ermita on a portion of Rizal Park facing T.M. Kalaw Avenue, neighboring culturally significant buildings such as the Museum of Philippine Political History and the National...
and Museum
National Museum of the Philippines
The Museum of the Filipino People is a department of the National Museum of the Philippines that houses the Anthropology and Archaeology Divisions of the National Museum. It is located in the Agrifina Circle, Rizal Park, Manila adjacent to the main National Museum building...
, to which was appointed by Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood was a physician who served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba and Governor General of the Philippines. Early in his military career, he received the Medal of Honor. Wood also holds officer service #2 in the Regular Army...
in 1925. He was also elected as third President of the Philippine Library Association ( now Philippine Librarians Association, Inc.) becoming the first Filipino of native parentage to assume such position professionally for Philippine library science
Library science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
.
Death and legacy
He died in office on April 18, 1928. The Philippine government paid him a tribute to a stately funeral. Local and foreign scholars lamented to a loss to what has been described by them as "Great among the Great Filipino Scholars."Epifanio de los Santos Avenue
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue , formerly known as Highway 54, is the main circumferential road and highway of Metro Manila in the Philippines. It is an important commuting artery between the northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area...
(commonly known as EDSA), the main road through Metro Manila
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila , the National Capital Region , or simply Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the City of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines...
, was named after him. Several schools, streets, a college, a hospital, a printing press and an auditorium in National Library of the Philippines
National Library of the Philippines
The National Library of the Philippines is the official national library of the Philippines. The complex is located in Ermita on a portion of Rizal Park facing T.M. Kalaw Avenue, neighboring culturally significant buildings such as the Museum of Philippine Political History and the National...
was also named in his honor.
External links
- Who is EDSA?
- TOMAS L at www.geocities.com
- The North American Filipino Star - great composers and the success of the Kundiman at www.filipinostar.org
- Strangers to Us All - The World's Lawyer Poets at www.myweb.wvnet.edu
- Viva La Independencia! --> at www.pia.gov.ph
- Virtual Law Library: Epifanio de los Santos Avenue
- Epifanio Delos Santos: The historian who became part of history at http://news.google.com/newspapers
- Roles of Rizal, Bonifacio and other Heroes in the Development of the Republic of the Philippines from articles of Epifanio De Los Santos at http://www.malaya.com.ph