Jose Palma was born on 3 June 1876, in Manila, Philippines. He was the youngest among four children of Hermogenes Palma with his first wife, Hilaria V. Velasquez. At five he lost his mother whose death affected him lingeringly throughout the years.
Jose Palma finished primary education in Manila. Then he continued in the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila University) where he showed an unusual interest in literature.
As a boy, Jose was reserved and generally uncommunicative. He kept away from children of his age. It appears that he had injured his right eye in early youth so that he was blind of one eye. And this injury remained a blemish. His aloneness became pronounced in later life and accentuated his temperamental nature. But he was never dull and found soland companionship in literature. At Ateneo de Manila University after reaching the third year of secondary education he stopped schooling. He absented himself from classes without giving reasons. Then he became acquainted with a girl who encouraged him to finish his studies. So he resumed schooling in 1893 until he reached the fifth year which, however, he was unable to finish due to the outbreak of the Revolution.
If any inference could be made from his poem "Ilusiones Marchitas" (1893), which apparently is autobiographical, he found in this girl a person to love. It appears also that she reciprocated his feeling. But this pleasant relationship did not last long.
Jose Palma joined the Katipunan in 1894 and during the first stage of the Revolution, he disappeared from home for three months without informing anyone of his whereabouts. During the second stage of the Revolution, he joined the force of Colonel Rosendo Simon, and later that of Colonel Serviliano Aquino up north in Angeles and Bambang. Then he worked in the staff of La Independencia and edited the Tagalog section later. Upon the outbreak of Filipino-American hostilities, the printing press of this newspaper was moved to San Fernando, Pampanga, and the Tagalog discontinued. Then Palma went back to the ranks. The Americans dislodged the Filipino forces from one position to another, driving them from province to province. It was this moving scene of reverses and gallant retreats that provided the background for his writing the lyric of the National Hymn. He had rejoined meanwhile the staff of Independencia, now in Bautista, exhausted due to the campaign.
Heretofore the Hymn was merely played as a paso doble or march by bands and had no lyric. Now Palma put a soul into the music. The words were written sometime in the latter part of August or during the first days of September 1899, at Bautista, Pangasinan, where the press thus far had pushed from the fighting lines. The original Spanish was published in La Independencia in its issue for September 3, 1899. Julian Felipe's music had martial spirit, but it was Palma's lyric which breathed life and meaning into it and thus raised the paso doble into a hymn. From that time on both tune and words have moved the hearts of the people. The lyric was first sung by the members of the staff of La Independencia who were also responsible for popularizing it.
After the capture of the press of La Independencia, the staff members were dispersed and Jose and Rafael Palma managed to reach home in December 1899. Once back in Manila, about the end of the year, together with Juan Abad, Jose Palma put out a paper, Laong-Laan, which caused his immediate arrest as soon as the first numbers were out, for it "contained subversive ideas." He contributed to papers of nationalistic aims in the following year and became a member of the staff of La Union and La Patria. Upon the foundation of the newspaper El Renacimiento on September 3, 1901, Rafael Palma, its editor and his brother, took him into its staff. He wrote the column "Vida Manileña" under the assumed name Esteban Estébanez, and literary pieces in the column "Cuartillas Literarias" under the penname Juventino. Some poems appeared under the pseudonym Ana-Haw, and short stories under Gan Hantik.
Palma's early literary productions found their way into Revista Catolica, El Comercio, La llustracion Filipina, and La Moda Filipina. A religious feeling or there was a dominant note in these early poetical sallies which breathed the atmosphere of the time. Soon he pulled away from this influence and wrote articles and poems of secular interest, although a great deal of all these have not been collected.
Manuel and Rafael Palma, brothers, and C. Apostol, friend, collected thirty-three representative poems covering a short period from 1893 to 1901 in Melancolicas in 1912. There were "La Purificacion de Maria" (1895), "Kundiman" (1898), "La Cruz de Sampaguitas" (1893), "De Mi Jardin" (1900) and others.
The poet attained certain mysticism but rarely.
Jose Palma was a gifted Filipino poet who left the poetic legacy of distinctive quality. He was known and recognized for his brilliancy in description and delicacy of sentiment. Palma is considered to be a man of feverish inspiration, who had tenderness, nobility, and correctness in his lines.
