Claro Caluya

Location: Don Claro Caluya Green Garden, Estella Street, Piddig, Ilocos Norte

Category: Personages

Type: Biographical marker

Status: Level II - Historical marker

Marker date: 1958

Installed by: Philippines Historical Committee (PHC)

Marker text:

CLARO CALUYA

FOREMOST VERNACULAR POET AND DRAMATIST IN ILOCOS NORTE. BORN 22 JUNE 1868. SON OF RAFAEL CALUYA AND NORBERTA PASION. STUDIED N HIS HOMETOWN; LATER WENT TO A HIGHER SCHOOL IN LAOAG 1882; BECAME CABEZA DE BARANGAY, 1890 AND CAPITAN MUNICIPAL, 1893–1896; JOINED THE REVOLUTIONARY FORCES, 1896–1897; DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF IN THE FILIPINO–AMERICAN WAR; SERVED AS MUNICIPAL PRESIDENT OF HIS TOWN, 1903–1905. UNDER HIS ADMINISTRATION, THE FIRST PUBLIC MARKET WAS BUILT AND SEVERAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS WERE OPENED. FOUNDED CIVIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. WROTE MANY PLAYS AND POEMS IN ILOCANO, INCLUDING A TRANSLATION OF RIZAL’S ULTIMO ADIOS, WHICH IS CONSIDERED AS THE MOST LYRICAL ILOCANO VERSION OF THE POEM. MARRIED TO SABINA AQUINO. DIED 14 DECEMBER 1914.