TONDO'S PRIZED SON

Tondo has been the cradle of heroes from the early days of Philippine history. It has produced the likes of Lakan Dula, Rajah Soliman, Emilio Jacinto, and Andres Bonifacio. It was also where Dr. Rafael Palma, a very good writer in Spanish, lawyer, high public official and one-time president of the University of th Philippines, first saw the light of day.

Palma who was born in 1874, started literary writing early. He worked for La Indepencia, the Propaganda newspaper of General Antonio Luna. Later on, he joined other Filipino nationalist, notably Sergio Osmeña, Sr. and Jaime C. de Veyra, in Publishing and editing El Nuevo Dia in Cebu. He used the pen names, "Hapon", Dapit Hapon", and "Robert Paul".

Palma, as a literary man, was one of the editors of La Indepencia, El Nuevo Dia and El Renaciemiento. He was author of Voces de Aliento, Nuestra Campaña por Indepencia Desde Taft Hasta Harrison, Alma mater and Apolinario Mabini (Estudio Biografico). He was wrote also several biographies of contemporary men.

His Biografia de Rizal, the best work yet written on the subject, earned for him a Commonwealth Literary Awards a few years before his death 1939. Because of its literary and factual merits, this biography was translated ito English by former Justice Roman Ozaeta under the title, Pride of the Malay Race, and published by Prentice Hall, Inc. in the United States in 1949. Palma's biography of Apolinario Mabini, likewise, is the most complete andauthoritative life story to date of the "Sublime Paralytic".

Among Palmaa's separately published works are "New Mentality", "Our Age", "Our Country", "Our History", "The Revolt of Youth", "Tghe University and the People", "Hero-Hero Workship", "Rizal: The Man", and "The Woman and the Right to Vote".

Credits should also be given to Palma for having upgraded instruction in the University of the Philippines. It was during his tenure that he prestige of the institution began to flourish.