author
Fausta Cortes
A little-known early Tagalog novelist, this writer is remembered for Agawan ng Dangal, a work that survives through major digital archives and still offers a glimpse of Filipino popular fiction from the early 20th century. Though biographical details are scarce, her name remains part of the record of women writing in Tagalog.
1 Audiobook
Agawan ng Dangal
by Fausta Cortes
About the author
Very little confirmed biographical information about Fausta Cortes appears to be available in the sources consulted. What can be said with confidence is that she is credited as the author of Agawan ng Dangal, a Tagalog novel that has been preserved by Project Gutenberg and by the University of Michigan's Philippine and American history collections.
The surviving text itself points to her place in an important literary moment. A catalog snippet associated with the book describes her as one of the women connected with "Kami Naman" and as the fourth Filipina woman to write a Tagalog novel. Even with so much of her life still undocumented online, that detail suggests a writer working at a time when women were claiming a stronger place in Philippine literature.
For listeners today, Fausta Cortes is interesting not because her life story is fully known, but because her work endured. Agawan ng Dangal offers a window into older Tagalog storytelling, social values, and the reading culture that shaped early Filipino fiction.