Gilda Cordero-Fernando

Gawad CCP para sa Sining 1994 awardee for Publishing and Literature, Writer, Visual Artist, Editor, Publisher, and Philippine pop culture maven

June 4, 1930 – August 27, 2020

(This citation issued during the Gawad CCP Para Sa Sining in 1994 recognised the contribution of Ms. Cordero-Fernando.)

Gilda Cordero-Fernando, writer, publisher, and editor

For giving dignity and recognition to Philippine Cultural forms by publishing Filipiniana books distinguished for painstaking research, insight, and artistry.

For conceptualizing, doing research work in the field and in the libraries, editing, as well as managing the production of every book she publishes.

For emphasizing an important dimension to the concept and business of publishing and editing— integrity.

For establishing GCF books which aimed to publish illustrated books that are visually appealing as well as intellectually engaging and for publishing several titles on various topics on Philippine culture—from social history to the arts.

For editing The Culinary Culture of the Philippines, which was cited as one of the best culinary books in the International Bookfair of Frankfurt in 1976; Streets of Manila; Turn of the Century Being Filipino, which won National Book Award in 1981; and Jeepney. Pioneering GCF books are Philippine Antiques and Heirlooms, Philippine Ancestral Houses and Folk Architecture, which are used by architecture schools in the Philippines; the bestselling The History of Burgis; Philippine Food and Life; The Soul Book and The Body Book, which are first two of a series called The Philippines Reader. She was associate editor of the 10-volume Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation.

For writing stories which won major prizes in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and the Philippine Free Press Literary Contest in the 1950s and 1960s, and for writing superb children’s stories that were published locally and abroad.

For upgrading the quality of Filipiniana publishing, and her significant contribution to creative writing, the GAWAD CCP PARA SA SINING (PUBLISHING AND LITERATURE) is given on this 24th day of February 1994 to GILDA CORDERO-FERNANDO.