The revaluation of Villa

A reader wrote that “after one hundred years of Jose Garcia Villa, maybe it’s time to say goodbye and move on.” This sentiment of course is not shared by the literary “heirs” and admirers of Villa. In fact, what Villa had achieved—world recognition as a literary artist—has been compared to what Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo in the art salons of Europe with their prize-winning paintings (e.g. Spoliarium and Las Viergenese Christianas Expuestas al Populacho) in the late 19th century.

Jonathan Chua’s book The Critical Villa (Ateneo Press) has put in context and perspective the achievement of the poet. Chua’s assiduous research and insightful introduction to critical essays of Villa provide the reader a better appreciation of the poet’s struggles to “elevate the English language to the highest pedestal,” the avowed purpose of Villa and a few others in founding the UP Writers Club in 1927. This passion to raise Philippine standards of writing in English drove him to America where he made his mark, first as a “minor American poet” (at a time when Filipinos were American nationals), and recently as a Penguin Classic.