Lope K. Santos
Lope Santos y Canseco
He is best known for his 1906 socialist novel, Banaag at Sikat and to his contributions for the development of Filipino grammar
Santos was sent to Escuela Normal Superior de Maestros (Higher Normal School for Teachers) for education and later finished schooling at Colegio Filipino.
He pursued law at the Academia de la Jurisprudencia then at Escuela de Derecho de Manila (now Manila Law College Foundation) where he received Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912. In late 1900, Santos started writing his own newspaper Ang Kaliwanagan.
In 1903, Santos started publishing fragments of his first novel, Banaag at Sikat (From Early Dawn to Full Light) on his weekly labor magazine Muling Pagsilang (The Rebirth) and was completed in 1906.
Banaag at Sikat
Published in 1906, it became the fountain head of social realism in the Tagalog novel and hailed as Asia’s first proletariat novel.
Lope K Santos' novel, Banaag at Sikat, is a love story framed in the context of a political tale.
A tale of love and loss set against the rising tide of socialism in the early years of the American occupation of the Philippines
It revolves around Delfin, a poor man in love with Meni, a capitalist’s daughter.
Banaag at Sikat mirrors the clash of forces during the early days of the American empire