Where is Francisco Balagtas buried? His grave, it seems to me, is a pilgrimage-worthy site especially given his stature in Philippine literature, but I've never heard it mentioned before, and Google offers almost no clues.
By all indications, Balagtas died on 20 February 1862, at Udyong (now Orion), Bataan, where he had settled down and raised his family sometime in the 1840s. Presumably, he remains buried there. He apparently was involved in local town politics, so he was of sufficient prominence that they would have buried him in a grave of his own. There is a cemetery in Orion, but it is named "Evergreen", so its provenance back to the time of Balagtas is quite doubtful.
Assuming he was buried in the town's public cemetery, there is little chance that his grave survives, owing to that habit of public cemeteries digging up the dead after 50 or so years and cremating the remains or reburying them in mass graves. (For that reason, you do not see any graves of Filipinos who died before the 1860s or so) There perhaps would be a better chance if he were interred inside a church, but considering his anti-clerical bent, chances are Balagtas would not have consented to be buried in one.
This would make a great documentary subject.
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1 comments:
in alabang, manny villar bought an old cemetery there perhaps dating back atthe trun of the 20th century, and built his Star Mall there. native alabangers shun its movie houses and swear they heard one fellow reciting eternal yetr familiar verses from "florante at laura."
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