A brief survey of Iloko literature from the beginnings to its present development, with a bibliography of works pertaining to the Iloko people and their language, by Leopoldo Y. Yabes.

CHAPTER IX
ILOKO JOURNALISM AND PERIODICAL LITERATURE
"'...Journalism is the universalization of literature. The original oral
poetry... was addressed to the public as a whole; the passage from oral
to written limits literature to a reading class, with a correspondent narrowing interest, since literature must reflect the interest of the audience to
which it appeals. With periodical literature, the appeal and the breadth
of interest are again made universal. And this universalization of literature
is not potential, but actual; periodical literature is bound up with every
detail of commercial activity and public life."-Richard G. Moulton. 1
This sketch is a concise outline of the history of Iloko
journalism and a brief discussion of Iloko periodical literature,
not a detailed discussion thereof. Since the inception of Iloko
journalism about the end of the last century, there have been
pubi isned in Iloko or partly in Iloko some eighty newspapers
and periodicals. Naturally such a short sketch as the present
can discuss in some detail only a few of the more important
periodicals, and leave out the rest altogether. A fairly complete
enumeration of the Iloko and partly Iloko papers is available
in the bibliography published with this work.
A. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Although some newspapers such as El Eco de Vigan (1884),
"the first paper which saw light outside Manila",2 were published
in the Ilokos before 1890, journalism in Iloko began less than
half a century ago, in 1889, when El Ilocano was founded by
Isabelo de los Reyes. This Iloko-Spanish fortnightly was twentyseven years younger than El Pasig (1862),3 first paper to use
material in Tagalog and seven years younger than Diariong
Tagalog4 (1882), first daily published partly in Tagalog; but,
in the words of Wenceslao E. Retana, it was "el primer periodico genuinamente indio que ha visto la luz en Filipinas".5
Unlike the Diariong Tagalog and El Pasig, its ideals and personnel were all native. Isabelo de los Reyes, therefore, is the
father of Iloko journalism and El Ilocano is its genesis. El
locano expressed its policy as follows:6
"We have no other object in El Ilocano than to serve our be'oved people
'the Ilocanos by contributing to the enlightenment of the Filipinos as a
whole, defending their interests, but never entering into a commercial venture. That is why we do our mission without expecting monetary reward.
1-The Modern Stvdy of Literature, p. 34.
2-Retana, W. E., El Periodismo Filipino, Madrid, 1894, p. 266.
3-Retana says it was first published in 1862, but Diaz Puertas says
it was established in 1864. See Retana's El Periodismo Filipino, pp. 116
and 644.
4-Ibid., p. 248.
5-Ibid., p. 366.
6-This translation is from J. Z. Valenzuela's History of Journalism
in the Philippine Islands, Manila, 1933, p. 86.