author
Mariano Sequera
A little-known Filipino writer and journalist from the late Spanish colonial period, remembered for a sharp Tagalog work that challenged clerical abuse and injustice. His surviving work offers a vivid glimpse of the political energy and moral anger surrounding the Philippines in 1899.
1 Audiobook
Justicia Nang Dios
by Mariano Sequera
About the author
Mariano Sequera is a scarce figure in the historical record, but the sources available show him as a Filipino writer and journalist active around 1899. The title page of Justicia Nang Dios identifies him as a contributor to Manila newspapers including Ang Kapatid ng Bayan and El Grito del Pueblo.
He is best known today for Justicia Nang Dios, a Tagalog work published in 1899. Modern catalog and ebook records describe it as a critique of abuses in the Philippines under Spanish rule, especially the conduct of some friars, which places Sequera among the writers using literature and print to voice political and social protest.
Sequera also appears in discussions of early patriotic drama in the Philippines. A reference on Filipino playwright Juan Abad names Mariano Sequera alongside Abad and Honorio López in efforts to promote nationalist drama, suggesting that he was part of the wider reformist and patriotic literary culture of his time, even if many details of his life have not survived clearly.