LMG: The Leon Ma. Guerrero Anthology

by David Guerrero (Editor)

It's not easy for sons to write about their fathers. Especially one whose legacy includes the most acclaimed biography of the national hero and the most widely read translations of his novels. Add to that a glittering diplomatic career (which concluded with the award of the country's highest honour for foreign service) and you can see why the task was harder than most. There is also the problem of objectivity. How could others trust my story? How could I even trust myself? It became clear I would have to delegate the job. Not to one person but to a large number of them. The authors of this book are the people most of them journalists and authors who wrote about my father during his life. There are also some lively contributions from the subject himself. The pictures come mainly from published newspapers and journals of the period, as well as from personal portraits from our family collection. They have never been collected in book form before. Leon Ma. Guerrero was driven by an intense nationalism that led him to push for a proud assertion of Asian and Filipino identity. His break with the pro-US establishment in the 1950 s and his subsequent exile to a series of prominent Ambassadorships meant he pursued his passion overseas. As he put There is no nationalist more fervent than the expatriate, who sees his nation with all the enchantment lent by distance and absence; and there is no expatriate more nationalist than an ambassador of whom it might be said that he is almost a nationalist by occupation, a professional nationalist. While posted in London he was commissioned by publisher Longman to write the leading translations of Rizal s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. They are still considered the most readable according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. And they have indeed been read in one form or another by millions of Rizal students ever since. Perhaps his most enduring legacy however is The First Filipino, which won first prize in the Rizal Centennial Commission s biography competition and remains a standard text. Amusingly, one of his later critics tried to pass off the title as his own, using it as a chapter heading in one of his books. At the start of a diplomatic career, which spanned almost three decades, he was the first Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was then posted to Spain, India and Mexico. He ended it by opening the country s first mission to what was then Yugoslavia. He also served at the country s mission to the United Nations in New York at the International Sugar Council and represented the country in high-profile negotiations over Sabah. Now, almost three decades after his death, the time seems right to restore him to his rightful place in our national consciousness. This is a man who walked tall. He promoted our country with wit and style. And yet, to use his words he was not perfect, he was not always right, but I trust that those who read his story of his life will perceive that his humanity is precisely the secret of his greatness. Certainly I believe this is someone every Filipino not just a son can rightly look upon with pride.

452 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published June 19, 2010

About the author

David is a Filipino-English National Book Award winning author based in Manila. He is passionate about promoting a greater understanding of the Philippines. After presenting a BBC World Service Documentary "When the Beatles Didn't Meet Imelda" he began work on a book that went deeper into the subject. The result is "You Won't See Me. When the Beatles ghosted Imelda" published by Penguin SEA and launching in Singapore on 13 December 2025, and in Manila on 2 March 2026 with other territories to follow. He is a reluctant participant in social media but you should soon be able to find him posting on Substack under @manilaenvelope He loves his wife, children and his day job as Creative Chair of BBDO Guerrero, an advertising agency.