Paz Márquez-Benítez

Paz Márquez-Benítez (March 3, 1894 – November 10, 1983) was a Filipino short-story writer, educator and editor. Her career as a woman educator as well as her contributions as a writer are seen as an important step within the advancement of women in professional careers as well as in the development of Philippine literature. Her only other known published work is A Night in the Hills. Even though she had only two published works her writings would be regarded as the first steps of Philippine literature moving into the mainstream. and thus graced the cover of the Renacimiento Filipino.

As a professor, Márquez-Benítez used her writing course as an opportunity to write her first major short story in 1925 titled Dead Stars which was published in the Philippine Herald.

Education Márquez-Benítez being part of the elite class of the Philippines and having two educated parents was born into a family in which education was highly expected. She began her educational career at the age of six where she attended in Lucena West 1 Elementary School, first learned English. At the age of thirteen, Márquez-Benítez continued to progress and attend high school at the Tayabas High School now, Quezon National High School where she later graduated in the year 1912. During her early years in education she was deemed a studious and excellent student which would lead her onto post secondary education. After graduating from high school, Márquez-Benítez began her post secondary education at the Normal School in Manila in which she lived for two years and learned about American culture and found her interest in writing. After spending two years at the Normal School in Manila, In 1914, Márquez-Benítez finished her education as part of the first class to go through the newly established University of the Philippines, a school in which she later became a professor, in which she graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Arts.

Works Dead Stars (1925) A Night in the Hills (1925)