Biography Of Francisco Baltazar
Posted by Fahad Majidi on
February 2, 2010
Francisco Baltazar (April 2, 1788 – February 20, 1862) was Filipino highly appreciated orator and poet. He is known also as Francisco Balagtas and is considered as “Filipinos William Shakespeare”.
Balagtas learned to write poetry from José de la Cruz (Huseng Sisiw), one of the most famous poets of Tondo.
In 1835, Balagtas moved to Pandacan, where he met Maria Asuncion Rivera, and fell in love with her. One of her suitors, wealthy Mariano Capule ordered Francisco jailed. While Francisco was in jail Capule and Asuncion got married.
Maria Asuncion was the muse for his work. While in prison, Francisco wrote his greatest masterpiece, Florante at Laura.
He wrote his poems in Tagalog, during an age when Filipino writing was predominantly written in Spanish.
He was released from prison in 1838 and found himself in Bataan. He met Juana Tiambeng, courted and married her in July 22,1842. They had 11 offspring.