The Lost Novel: Los pájaros de fuego de Jesús Balmori.

¡Hola a todos! As part of the Clásicos Hispanofilipinos, Instituto Cervantes de Manila presents the book launching of Los pájaros de fuego by Jesús Balmori. 7pm, Monday, June 28th, 2010. Join us in this momentous occasion as the collection brings recognition to the last batch of Spanish works written in the Philippines.

Majority of the classical Philippine literature was written in Spanish. Unknown to many, a great portion of Filipino nationalists were masters of the Spanish language and their works now bear testament to the nation’s Hispanic roots.

Clásicos Hispanofilipinos, a project by Instituto Cervantes de Manila aiming to preserve the works of Fil-hispanic authors from the beginning of the 20th century, is publishing the Spanish novel of Filipino journalist, playwright and poet, Jesús BalmoriLos pájaros de fuego (Birds of fire) on June 28, 7pm at Instituto Cervantes’ Salón de Actos.

Funded by Instituto Cervantes and the Embassy of Spain, Biblioteca Clásicos Hispanofilipinos seeks to bring recognition to the last batch of Spanish works written in the Philippines. It was launched last January with Adelina Gurrea Monasterio’s bookCuentos de Juana (Juana’s Stories).

A novel with remarkable historic and literary value, Balmori’s Los Pájaros de fuego is considered to be as the “lost novel.” All pages of the book, except the final chapter, were written by Balmori during the Japanese occupation. It miraculously escaped the repeated raids of the Japanese henchmen as Balmori stored each chapter in glass bottles and buried them under the garden of his house.

After the war, the manuscript was recovered from the ruins of Balmori’s house, finished and sold by the author to the Government, who committed to publish it. However, the manuscript of Los pájaros de fuego remained unnoticed for decades until three years ago in the National Archives.

Clásicos Hispanofilipinos is planning to publish two titles every year. Among the scheduled writers are Claro Mayo Recto, Antonio Abad, T. M. Kalaw and Evangelina Guerrero.

Biblioteca Clásicos Hispanofilipinos is organized by Instituto Cervantes de Manila in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in the Philippines, the Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development (AECID) and the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation from Ministerio de Cultura de España. Among the supporting universities are the University of the Philippines (Department of European Languages, UP Diliman) and the University of Alicante (Spain).

Entrance to this book launch is free. For more information, please call 5261482 or visit http://manila.cervantes.es Instituto Cervantes de Manila is at 855 T.M. Kalaw St., Ermita, Manila. Subscribe here at Cultura en Manila.

Y tú, ¿qué opinas? ¡Hasta pronto!