Virgilio S. Almario, also as Rio
Alma, is a poet, literary historian, critic, translator, editor,
teacher, and cultural manager. His works ranged from the lyrical to the
satirical to the epic, from the dramatic to the incantatory, in his often
severe examination of the self and the society. He was born on March 9, 1944, to Ricardo Almario and Feliciana Senadren. He is married to Emelina B. Soriano and
has three kids .
He
finished elementary at Camias Elementary School in 1955, finished secondary at
San Miguel High School in 1959 and graduated from the University of the Philippines with a bachelor’s degree in political
science in 1963. He later became a social studies teacher in his alma mater,
San Miguel High School, during the early years of his career. In 1963, he gave
up on poetry while he was taking up units at the University of the East.
Together with Rogelio G. Mangahas and Lamberto E. Antonio, they lead the second
successful modernist movement in Filipino poetry. He later shed off his
modernist and formalist interests in favor of a nationalistic and political
approach and joined activist movements during the martial law. During this
time, he worked on research projects on literary history and the search for
native traditions in Philippine literature.
He was
also a translator and editor of a wide array of literatures. He has translated
the best contemporary poetry written by Nick Joaquin, Bertolt Brecht,
Euripides, and Maxim Gorki. He has also translated novels written by Jose
Rizal, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Lope K. Santos, Alfredo Navarro Salanga, and
Pedro Dandan.
In 1968
and 1970, Almario wrote two books, Makinasyon and Peregrinasyon, wherein he
first showcased his use of unorthodox techniques and use of language. His
latter work then won a national award. He subsequently organized, in his
apartment, the first of his weekend workshops for young poets, the Galian sa
Arte at Tula.
In 1969,
he was invited to teach in the Department of Philippine Studies of Ateneo de
Manila University. Since 1973, he dedicated his weekends for young writers by
conducting workshops and consultations in his apartment to help develop and
create younger generations of poets. He enrolled as a graduate student at UP,
and went into editing and writing work. He has also been with the teaching
staff of UP Writers Workshop, the director of the UP Sentro ng Wikang Filipino,
conceptualizer and editor-in-chief of the watershed UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino
and presently director of the UP Likhaan: Institute of Creative Writing, which
used to be known as Creative Writing Center.
He has
been executive director and editor of the Adarna Books series published by
Children’s Communication Center, which is the country’s most successful
publishing house for children’s literature. He is also the founding
secretary general of the Philippine Board of Books on Young People (PBBY),
publisher-editor of the defunct Diyaryo Filipino , the first broadsheet written
in Filipino, and Filipino Magazin, the founding member of the Manila Critics
Circle, and former executive director of the National Commission for Culture
and the Arts.
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