Rolando Tinio

Rolando S. Tinio
National Artist of the Philippines
Born	March 5, 1937 Philippines
Died	July 7, 1997 Manila, Philippines
Education	University of Santo Tomas State University of Iowa
Occupation	Filipino writer and actor
Children	Antonio and Victoria

Rolando Santos Tinio (March 5, 1937 – July 7, 1997) was a Filipino poet, dramatist, director, actor, critic, essayist and educator.

Rolando Tinio is a Philippine National Artist for Theater and Literature. He was born in Gagalangin, Tondo, Manila on March 5, 1937. As a child, Tinio was fond of organizing and directing his playmates for costumed celebrations. He was an active participant in the Filipino movie industry and enjoyed working with Philippine celebrities who he himself had admired in his childhood. Tinio himself became a film actor and scriptwriter. He is often described as a religious, well-behaved and gifted person. Tinio graduated with honors (a "magna cum laude" achiever) with a degree in Philosophy from the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas at age 18 in 1955 and an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing:Poetry from the State University of Iowa.

In Iowa, Tinio was known as a great writer that used English as the medium of the Filipino writer. He wrote his poetic collection: Rage and Ritual which won an award from the University of the Philippines. Bienvenido Lumbera, also an alumnus of the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, describes this collection as elegant and with a truly contemporary tone if taken from the European literary critical view. At this point in time, Tinio believed that only English can hone the themes that he wanted to communicate in his works. Once, in a conference, an author delivered his belief in the value of the Tagalog dialect in Creative Writing. In response to this, Tinio published an article in the scholarly journal Philippine Studies, which contained parts of English poems translated into Tagalog. The article’s purpose was to prove the inadequacy of Tagalog as the writer’s medium. (Lumbera)

In the mid-1960s, however, Tinio decided to try writing in Tagalog and the product of this trial was the collection of poems now called Bagay. Rolando Tinio was the sole inventor of “Taglish” in Philippine poetry. Through this, he gave an authentic tone to the poetry of the native middle-class Filipino. In 1972, Tinio wrote another poetry collection: Sitsit sa Kuliglig and this showed the great contrast between his old and new advocacy. If in Rage and Ritual, portrayals of art and the artist that are not closely associated with the Filipino lifestyle are communicated, Sitsit sa Kuliglig clearly portrays the everyday experiences of a Tondo-grown individual now living in Loyola heights. Heaven and earth; the gap between Tinio’s works in English and those in Tagalog.(Lumbera)