F. Sionil José

F. Sionil José
Francisco Sionil José in 2005.
Born	Francisco Sionil José (1924-12-03) December 3, 1924 (age 92) Rosales, Pangasinan, Philippine Islands
Pen name	F. Sionil José
Occupation	Filipino novelist, writer, journalist
Nationality	Filipino
Ethnicity	Ilocano
Alma mater	University of Santo Tomas (dropped out)
Period	1962 – present
Genre	Fiction
Literary movement	Philippine literature in English
Notable works	The "Rosales Saga" Novels (1962–1984)
Notable awards	Pablo Neruda Centennial Award (2004) Philippine National Artist for Literature (2001) Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres (2000) Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts (1980) City of Manila Award for Literature (1979 Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature (1959, 1979, 1980, 1981)

Francisco Sionil José (born 3 December 1924) is one of the most widely read Filipino writers in the English language. His novels and short stories depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism in Filipino society. José's works—written in English—have been translated into 22 languages, including Korean, Indonesian, Czech, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian and Dutch.

José was born in Rosales, Pangasinan, the setting of many of his stories. He spent his childhood in Barrio Cabugawan, Rosales, where he first began to write. José is of Ilocano descent whose family had migrated to Pangasinan prior to his birth. Fleeing poverty, his forefathers traveled from Ilocos towards Cagayan Valley through the Santa Fe Trail. Like many migrant families, they brought their lifetime possessions with them, including uprooted molave posts of their old houses and their alsong, a stone mortar for pounding rice.

One of the greatest influences to José was his industrious mother who went out of her way to get him the books he loved to read, while making sure her family did not go hungry despite poverty and landlessness. José started writing in grade school, at the time he started reading. In the fifth grade, one of José’s teachers opened the school library to her students, which is how José managed to read the novels of José Rizal, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Faulkner and Steinbeck. Reading about Basilio and Crispin in Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere made the young José cry, because injustice was not an alien thing to him. When José was five years old, his grandfather who was a soldier during the Philippine revolution, had once tearfully showed him the land their family had once tilled but was taken away by rich mestizo landlords who knew how to work the system against illiterates like his grandfather.