Background
Angela Marie Legaspi Manalang was born on August 23, 1907 in Guagua, Pampanga to parents, Felipe Dizon Manalang (born in Mexico, Pampanga) and Tomasa Legaspi (whom she hardly mentions).
Angela Marie Legaspi Manalang was born on August 23, 1907 in Guagua, Pampanga to parents, Felipe Dizon Manalang (born in Mexico, Pampanga) and Tomasa Legaspi (whom she hardly mentions).
Caring—as she is fondly called—studied at Saint Agnes Academy in Legaspi, where she graduated valedictorian in elementary.
However, their family later settled in the Bicol region, particularly in Albay. In her senior year, she moved to Saint Scholastica"s College in Malate, Manila, where her writing started to get noticed. Angela Manalang was among the first generation female students at the University of the Philippines.
Angela initially enrolled in law, as suggested by her father.
However, with the advice of her professor Curriculum Vitae Wickers, who also became her mentor, she eventually transferred to literature.
She was the author of Revolt from Hymen, a poem protesting against marital rape, which caused her denial by an all-male jury from winning the Philippine"s Commonwealth Literary Awards in 1940. She was also the author of the poetry collection, Poems, first published in 1940 (and revised in 1950). The collection contained the best of her early work as well as unpublished poems written between 1934-1938. Her last poem, Old Maid Walking on a City Street can also be found in the collection. This book was her entry to the Commonwealth Literary Awards, losing to Rafael Zulueta y da Costa’s verse Like the Molave.
