Kerima Polotan Tuvera
Kerima Polotan-Tuvera(December 16, 1925 – August 19, 2011) was aFilipinofiction writer, essayist, and journalist.[1]Some of her stories were published under the pseudonym "Patricia S. Torres".
Personal life
[edit]Born inJolo, Sulu,she was christenedPutli Kerima.Her father was an armycolonel,and her mother taughthome economics.Due to her father's frequent transfers in assignment, she lived in various places and studied in the public schools ofPangasinan,Tarlac,Laguna,Nueva EcijaandRizal.
She graduated from the Far Eastern University Girls' High School. In 1944, she enrolled in theUniversity of the PhilippinesSchool of Nursing, but theBattle of Manilaput a halt to her studies.[2]In 1945, she transferred schools toArellano University,where she attended the writing classes of Teodoro M. Locsin and edited the first issue of theArellano Literary Review.[2]She worked withYour Magazine,This Weekand theJunior Red Cross Magazine.
In 1949, she married newsman Juan Capiendo Tuvera, a childhood friend and fellow writer,[3]with whom she had 10 children, among them the fictionistKatrina Tuvera.[3]
Writings during the Martial Law years
[edit]Between the years 1966 and 1986, her husband served as the executive assistant[3]and speechwriter[1]of then-PresidentFerdinand Marcos.Her husband's work drew her into the charmed circle of the Marcoses. It was during this time (1969) that Polotan-Tuvera penned the only officially approved biography of the First LadyImelda Marcos,Imelda Romualdez Marcos: a biography of the First Lady of the Philippines.[4]
During the years ofmartial law in the Philippines,she founded and edited the officially approvedFOCUS Magazine,[3]as well as theEvening Postnewspaper.
Works and awards
[edit]Her 1952 short story, (the widely anthologized)The Virgin,won two first prizes: of thePhilippines Free PressLiterary Awards and of thePalanca Awards.[2]In 1957, she edited an anthology for the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, with English and Tagalog prize-winning short stories from 1951 to 1952.[5]Her short stories “The Trap” (1956), “The Giants” (1959), “The Tourists” (1960), “The Sounds of Sunday” (1961) and “A Various Season” (1966) all won the first prize of the Palanca Awards.[2]
In 1966, she publishedStories,a collection of eleven stories. In 1970, alongside writing the biography ofImelda Marcos,Polotan-Tuvera collected forty-two of her hard-hitting essays during her years as a staff writer of thePhilippines Free Pressand published them under the titleAuthor's Circle.[2]In 1976, she edited the four-volumeAnthology of Don Palanca Memorial Award Winners.In 1977, she published another collection of thirty-five essays,Adventures in a Forgotten Country.In the late 1990s, the University of the Philippines Press republished all of her major works.[6]
The 1961 Stonehill Award was bestowed on Polotan-Tuvera,[2]for her novelThe Hand of the Enemy.In 1963, she received the Republic Cultural Heritage Award, an award discontinued in 2003[7]but was then considered the government’s highest form of recognition for artists at the time. The city ofManilaconferred on Polotan-Tuvera itsPatnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award,in recognition of her contributions to its intellectual and cultural life.[1]
Death
[edit]Polotan-Tuvera died at 85, after a lingering illness.[2]She suffered a stroke and used a wheelchair for the last months of her life.[1]The wake was held at Funeraria Paz Sucat, withinManila Memorial Park.[1]
National Artist for LiteratureEdith L. Tiempo,a close friend of Polotan-Tuvera died two days after, prompting a grieving among the nation's writers.[3]TheMalacañan Palacethrough Presidential SpokespersonEdwin Lacierdaissued a statement: "The Aquino administration is united in grief with a country that mourns their passing."[8]The official statement recognized Polotan-Tuvera's body of work as "crucial to the development of Philippine Literary Fiction written from English" and cited Polotan-Tuvera's influence on "generations of writers."[8]
Rina Jimenez-David of thePhilippine Daily Inquirerdescribed her short stories and novels as "unsentimental and clear-eyed depictions of heartbreak and disillusion. But her writing was dazzling and unflinching in its honesty."[9]
In the eulogy for Polotan-Tuvera, fellow Palanca-winning writer and friend Rony Diaz said, "The number of books that she has written doesn’t really matter because all of them contain stories and essays of compelling beauty and profound wisdom."[3]
Polotan-Tuvera is survived by her ten children and nineteen grandchildren.[3]
References
[edit]- ^abcdeArcellana, Juaniyo."Writer and journalist Kerima Polotan Tuvera, 85".Philippine Star.
- ^abcdefg"Kerima Polotan writes '30'".Philippine Daily Inquirer. 21 August 2011.
- ^abcdefgMacaraig, Ayee (26 August 2011)."The intensity of Kerima Polotan-Tuvera".Rappler.
- ^Polotan-Tuvera, Kerima (1969).Imelda Romualdez Marcos, a biography of the first lady of the Philippines.World Pub. Co. p. 213.ASINB0006CUAQQ.
- ^Aguilar, Celedonio G. (1994).Readings in Philippine literature.Rex Bookstore, Inc. p. 448.ISBN978-971-23-1564-0.Retrieved22 October2010.
- ^"University of the Philippines Press - Kerima Polotan-Tuvera".Retrieved27 March2012.
- ^"Executive Order No. 236:" ESTABLISHING THE HONORS CODE OF THE PHILIPPINES TO CREATE AN ORDER OF PRECEDENCE OF HONORS CONFERRED AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES "".Supreme Court of the Philippines e-Library. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-10-06.
- ^ab"Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda: On the deaths of National Artist Edith Tiempo and Kerima Polotan Tuvera".Official Gazette.
- ^Jimenez-David, Rina (23 August 2011)."Ninoy and two women writers".Philippine Daily Inquirer.Retrieved27 March2012.
