The most important literary award in Filipino-Spanish literature was posthumously given on Dec 30, 2020 to Fr. Gilbert Luis R. Centina III, OSA for his body of poetic work in Spanish which over the years “has become an anthroponymic treasure, memory of parishioners, companions and friends who give title to a fresco of earthly life, with its glories and miseries…”
The concession of the Premio Rizal de las Letras Filipinas was announced today in Madrid, Spain by Instituto Juan Andrés de Comparatística y Globalización in collaboration with the Grupo de Investigación Humanismo-Europa of the University of Alicante and Revista Filipina to coincide with the 124th death anniversary of José Rizal, the Philippine national hero after whom the award is named.
Since its inception in 2015, this is the first time that the Premio José Rizal was given posthumously. Among its previous winners were Virgilio Almario, National Artist of the Philippines for Literature, Guillermo Gómez Rivera, a widely recognized Filipino writer in Spanish throughout the Hispanic world, and Spanish actor and musician Luis Eduardo Aute Gutiérrez.
Father Gilbert’s final poetry collection, Recovecos/Crevices, which was posthumously published this past August, was singled out by the award-giving body as the author’s best work.
“The current pandemic has made Recovecos appear posthumously and…concludes the cycle that gives everyone an insight into the endearing human [qualities] of the good reverend.” Recovecos, it added, is “undoubtedly the best poetry collection by the author.”
The 409-page Recovecos/Crevices was completed by the Augustinian poet just barely two weeks before his death on May 1, 2020 due to complications from Covid-19.
Shortly after his death, ABC, the Spanish national daily, paid tribute to Father Gilbert in its May 12, 2020 (p. 54) edition: “As an advocate for the preservation of the Spanish language in the Philippines, Father Centina supported the work of Hispanists to ‘spread, defend and exalt’ the Spanish language in that country. It is from this noble cause that he obtained his inspiration to write bilingual poetry books in Spanish and English. His large body of work assures him a solid place in Philippine literature in English and Spanish, as well as in Catholic poetry.”
He wrote nine poetry books, two novels, a book of literary criticism and hundreds of newspaper columns and won numerous recognitions and awards for his literary work. Respected for his poetry, his poems have been included in various textbooks and anthologies on Philippine literature in English and published in the Philippines, Spain, Canada and the United States. Besides English, he also wrote in Spanish and in two Philippine languages, Hiligaynon and Tagalog.
His book, Glass of Liquid Truths, won the Palanca award in English poetry in 1974. He was awarded the Focus Literary Prize in 1982 and the Catholic Authors Award in 1996.
As a testament to his importance as a writer, he was included among the most notable Augustinian men and women since the founding of the Augustinian Order in 1244 in a seminal encyclopedia compiled and edited by Spanish author and academic Rafael Lazcano, arguably the foremost expert on the Augustinian Order in the world today. The encyclopedia, Tesauro Agustiniano, also includes members of the Augustinian Recollects since their founding in 1588 as well as those of the women branches of the Augustinian religious family.
