Pura Santillan-Castrence

Pura Santillan-Castrence (March 24, 1905 – January 15, 2007) was a Filipino writer and diplomat. Of Filipino women writers, she was among the first to gain prominence writing in the English language. She was named a Chevalier de Légion d'honneur by the French government.

Early life She was born in Manila in March 1905. She studied pharmacy and chemistry at the University of the Philippines, where she taught after her graduation in 1927. She pursued further studies in the University of Michigan on a Barbour scholarship. She later became a professor of literature and linguistics at the Graduate School of the University of the East in Manila.

Literary career Santillan-Castrence's literary career began in the 1920s, and she soon was recognized as among the leading Filipino essayists of the 20th century. Many of her essays were featured in Philippine Prose and Poetry a widely studied high-school textbook which she had authored. She became a columnist with the Manila Daily Bulletin,

Diplomat Santillan-Castrence first joined the foreign service as the Chief of the Translation Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. After the war, she held various positions within the Department of Foreign Affairs. In 1959, she was designated to the Philippine embassy at Bonn, then the capital of West Germany. She wrote critically against the Iraq War and on the ties between the United States and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. At age 100, she published a compilation of these articles in a book entitled As I See It: Filipinos and the Philippines.

Santillan-Castrence died aged 101 in January 2007, just one month before she was slated to receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.