This portrait of the Tagalog poet laureate also known as Balagtas was drawn from a bust done by Mariano G. Guzman in 1912 for Aklatang Bayan, an association of Tagalog writers. This greatest of Tagalog poets was born in the barrio of Panginay, Bigaa, Bulacan, on April 2, 1788, and died on February 29, 1862. He wrote "Florante at Laura" and a score of other comedia and poems. Photo taken from Mabini''s version of Florante at Laura, Manila, National Heroes Commission, 1964. Francisco Balagtas or Baltazar as the Spanish called him, was the greatest Tagalog poet in the history of our country. Although born in Bigaa, Bulacan on April 2, 1788, he spent his youth in the city and studied in Intramuros where he graduated from the Colegio de San Jose of Jesuits in 1812. While residing in the suburb of Pandacan he wrote his masterpiece, Florante at Laura, some time in 1836-37. It seems that he had fallen in love with a beauteous young damsel named Maria Asuncion Rivera, the Celia to whom he dedicated his most famous work, and had for a rival a local petty boss who filed some charge or another that led to his temporary imprisonment. It is said that while incarcerated he wrote Florante to pass the time. On his release from jail, Balagtas moved nearer Intramuros where he published the Florante. The Celia of his dreams, alas, had married another man named Mariano Capuli, leading one literary critic to believe that the publication of the poem assauaged the pains of our poet''s heart. He moved to Bataan in 1840 and two years later married Juana Tiambeng of Orion, by whom he had 11 children. He held minor posts in the Bataan judiciary, and during his last two years of life publishes a series of comedia or plays, scores of poems and corridos to eke out a living. He died on February 20, 1862. The Florante underwent two editions during his lifetime, and several more after his death. As the years passed, Tagalog grew to appreciate the beauty of the language he used in Florante, a copy of which the immortal national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, brought with him in his travels to Europe; and which the philosopher of the revolution, Apolinario Mabini, made a holograph copy for an American friend while exiled in Guam in 1901.

Bust of Francisco Baltazar (1788-1862) Author of Florante at LauraCaption Note)