Bienvenido N. Santos (1911–1996) was a Filipino-American fiction, poetry and nonfiction writer. He was born and raised in Tondo, Manila. His family roots are originally from Lubao, Pampanga, Philippines. He lived in the United States for many years where he is widely credited as a pioneering Asian-American writer.

Santos received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of the Philippines where he first studied creative writing under Paz Marquez Benitez. In 1941, Santos was a government pensionado (scholar) to the United States at the University of Illinois, Columbia University, and Harvard University. During World War II, he served with the Philippine government in exile under President Manuel L. Quezon in Washington, D.C., together with the playwright Severino Montano and Philippine National Artist Jose Garcia Villa.

In 1967, he returned to the United States to become a teacher and university administrator. He received a Rockefeller fellowship at the Writers Workshop of the University of Iowa where he later taught as a Fulbright exchange professor. Santos has also received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a Republic Cultural Heritage Award in Literature as well as several Palanca Awards for his short stories. Scent of Apples won a 1980 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

Santos received an honorary doctorate degrees in humanities and letters from the University of the Philippines, and Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay) in 1981. He was also a Professor of Creative Writing and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Wichita State University from 1973 to 1982, at which time the university awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in humane letters. After his retirement, Santos became Visiting Writer and Artist at De La Salle University in Manila; the university honored Santos by renaming its creative writing center after him.

Novels The Volcano (1965) Villa Magdalena (1965) The Praying Man (1982) The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor (1983) What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco? (1987)

Short story collections You Lovely People (1955) Brother, My Brother (1960) The Day the Dancers Came (1967, 1991) Scent of Apples (1979) Dwell in the Wilderness (1985) Poetry The Wounded Stag (1956,1992) Distances: In Time (1983)

Nonfiction Memory's Fictions: A Personal History (1993) Postscript to a Saintly Life (1994) Selected Letters: Book 1 (1995) Selected Letters: Book 2 (1996)

Awards, honors and prizes Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the University of Iowa Guggenheim Fellowship Republic Cultural Heritage Award Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for short fiction (1956, 1961 and 1965) Fulbright Program Exchange Professorship American Book Award from Before Columbus Foundation Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters, University of the Philippines Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters, Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines) Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, Wichita State University (Kansas, U.S.A.)

Bienvenido Nuqui de los Santos (1911-1994) is a fictionist and poet known for articulating the loneliness and alienation of the Filipino in exile. He served the Philippine government-in-exile in the United States when World War II broke out. In the following poem, we see how the rich people (gods) oppress the poor people (persona). The poor people are portrayed as inferior to the rich people, as can be inferred from the lines, “Fear grips us when they frown as they walk past our grim deformities…” It is ironic, however, that the gods are living next door when they are supposedly in heaven. This just shows that the gods are not really gods—they are sickly, brown, and mortal. They are metaphors for people who are well-off.

This poem reminds us of the Spanish colonization in the Philippines This poem reminds us of the Spanish colonization in the Philippines. Social classes were formed to separate the wealthy from the poor, and the Spaniards from the Filipinos. The discrimination was evident in the way the Spaniards treated us—with disgust and an air of superiority. They had the power and money to do anything they wanted. On the other hand, we should try not to be like them. We know that we posses more than what others have; but the more we have, the more is expected from us. We should use what we have to help others; not to dominate. They are humans too, like us.