Vicente Ranudo

Vicente Ranudo (April 29, 1882 – March 6, 1930) was a Filipino Visayan writer, poet laureate, and Cebu provincial civil servant. He wrote for various pre-war periodicals, including the first Cebuano newspaper Ang Suga, and was considered the father of Cebuano poetry.

Early life Ranudo was born in San Roque district in Cebu, Philippines on April 29, 1882. He studied at Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos (now University of San Carlos). In his time, San Carlos started offering courses in Spanish grammar, Latin prose, and poetry. In 1906, he married Francisca Rodis and the couple bore two children.

He founded the quasi-Masonic Cebu Lodge of the Theosophical Society in 1925 and served as president of the Legionarios de Obreros Libres, the Cebu chapter of Manila's Legionarios del Trabajo, from 1924 to 1926. Proficient in Cebuano, Spanish, and English, he was known to be a private person amidst his involvement in public service, print media, and civic organizations.

Civil service On July 1, 1901, he worked as a clerk in the provincial government and as chief clerk for the Cebu Governor's office in 1914. He later served as assistant secretary of the local committee of one of the first Cebu-based political parties, the Partido Independista, which was organized by siblings Filemon Sotto and Vicente Sotto. Ranudo served briefly as acting Secretary of the Cebu Provincial Board under Dionisio Abella Jakosalem eventually becoming one of its staff. such as Ang Dila sa Babaye (The Lady's Tongue) in 1905. and a poet laureate. His influence on Cebuano poetry lies in the classical speech of which his poems were constructed, "highly elevated, formal, romantic tending towards the sentimental and the mystical." Resil Mojares described him as an "enigma in Philippine literature" because his reputation lies in only two extant poems, and his works signified a departure from folk poetry in the way in which poems employed Spanish and later American artistic and literary influences as learned in the academe while stirring nationalistic pride.

His poem Hikalimtan? (Forgotten?) was believed to be published first in Ang Suga in 1906 bearing a dedication to his wife, and then it was reprinted in various periodicals. Another extant poem, Yutang Natawhan (Native Land), was written as song lyrics and explored a nationalistic theme.

Pag-usara (Solitude), a 60-line poem printed in La Epoca in September 1922 and considered to be his masterpiece, was described by Mojares, "Such qualities—purity of diction, expert metrics, and effective deployment of tropes—have made Pag-usara an outstanding piece in the Cebuano poetry of its time."

Later years He died on May 6, 1930, at the age of 47.

Historical commemoration The V. Ranudo Street, which starts at the corner of F. Ramos St. along Velez College, was named after him.