Historical marker installed in 1990 at the Lazaro Francisco Integrated School in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija
Lazaro Francisco was born on February 22, 1898, to Eulogio Francisco and Clara Angeles, in Orani, Bataan. He spent his childhood years in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. He took his college education at the Central Luzon Agricultural College (now Central Luzon State University), but was not able to finish due to poverty.[2] He became a messenger of the Provincial Treasurer's Office of Nueva Ecija.[3] Later on, he took third degree civil service examination where he qualified to become an assessor of the provincial government of Nueva Ecija.[2][4]
He started writing in 1925, with five of his novels took him to fame. Being an assessor in an agricultural province, most of his writings were focused on small farmers and their current conditions with foreign businessmen. This lead him to win separate awards from Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1940 and 1946, for his masterpieces, Singsing na Pangkasal and Tatsulok, respectively.[5][4]
In 1958, he established the Kapatiran ng mga Alagad ng Wikang Pilipino, roughly translated as "Brotherhood of the Disciples of the Filipino Language", a society that campaigned the use of Tagalog as the national language of the Philippines.
He received other distinguished awards and accolades in literature in his lifetime, including the Balagtas Award (1969), the Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1970) and the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award from the government of Manila.[6][7]
In 2009, former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo awarded the National Artist of the Philippines for Literature to Francisco, posthumously, for his significant contribution to Philippine literature.[1]
Order of National Artists of the Philippines
