Luningning Bonifacio-Ira. (Photo by Gretchen Ira-Banaticla)
AUTHOR Luningning Bonifacio-Ira, whose short story “Tell Me Who Cleft the Devil’s Foot” was named by highly regarded writer and critic Isagani R. Cruz as among the Philippines’ best in the last century, died on July 5. She was 90.
She succumbed to “complications stemming from long-term immobility due to a hip fracture,” daughter Vanessa Ira told The Manila Times.
Fictionist Ian Rosales Casocot and the Silliman University National Writers Workshop announced Bonifacio-Ira’s passing on Facebook on July 9, prompting tributes from fellow writers.
Susan S. Lara described the late writer’s works as “luminous,” and Marianne Villanueva called her a “kindred spirit” in a February 2012 blog post that she reposted.
Journalist Alya B. Honasan described Bonifacio-Ira’s writing as “always elegant, creating clear images in the reader’s head,” and her as a “technician of impeccable grammar, who launched from that robust platform to dance with her chosen words.”
Bonifacio-Ira is the latest Filipino creative writer who died in the last two months, after National Artist for Literature Cirilo F. Bautista on May 6, Palanca Hall of Fame inductee Edgardo B. Maranan on May 8, essayist Ligaya Tiamson-Rubin on May 18, and poet Rogelio G. Mangahas on July 4.
Bonifacio-Ira was born to Francisco and Paciencia Bonifacio in Santa Cruz town, Laguna province in 1928. She finished AB Literature at Philippine Women’s University (PWU) in Manila in 1950. While there, she wrote a column, “Under the Quonset Hut,” for the school paper and was a varsity swimmer, and became friends with painter Araceli Dans and opera singer Fides Cuyugan-Asencio.
After graduation, she worked at the employee relations department of Standard Vacuum Oil, later renamed Esso Standard Eastern and Esso Philippines. There, she edited Esso-Mobil Philippines’ arts-and-culture magazine Esso Silangan, which featured the works of future National Artists for Visual Arts Vicente Manansala and Ang Kiukok, Malang, and other artists on its covers.
Bonifacio-Ira left the company after the government took it over and renamed it Petron, and became a full-time writer. Three of her short stories won at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature: “Tell Me Who Cleft the Devil’s Foot,” third prize (1974); “Once Upon a Cruise: Generations and Other Languages,” second prize (1975); and “The Party Hopper,” second prize (1981).
Cruz included “Tell Me Who Cleft the Devil’s Foot” in The Best Philippines Short Stories of the Twentieth Century: An Anthology of Fiction in English, published by Tahanan Books in 2000. In his introduction to the story, the author and critic wrote that “Bonifacio-Ira paints a portrait of a mature female adult, a woman who has had her share of successes and failures in the corporate world, a woman who could be the person next door or next cubicle.”
“The author draws the portrait with well-chosen details, allowing readers to experience from the inside the ennui, alientation, or boredom of everyday corporate life,” he added.
“There are not too many stories told of ordinary events in ordinary lives, but this story tells it all: there is nothing ordinary about the ordinary, if you are a good writer.”
Another writer-critic, poet Gemino H. Abad, included “The Party Hopper” in the first volume of Underground Spirit: Philippine Short Stories in English, 1973 to 1989, published by the University of the Philippines (UP) Press in 2010.
Cover of “Streets of Manila.” (Photo by Tony Donato)
With her friend Gilda Cordero-Fernando as publisher, Bonifacio-Ira wrote the coffee table book Streets of Manila (1977) with Isagani R. Medina and Guidebook to the Filipino Wedding (1990). She also wrote Philippine Beer: Its Life and Times (1981) and Manila Polo Club (1984), commissioned by San Miguel Corp. and the Manila Polo Club, respectively.
She took turns with the late National Artist for Literature NVM Gonzalez, author Sylvia Mendez-Ventura, and Abad in writing a column for the defunct Manila Chronicle. Her other short stories, essays, and book reviews had seen print in Orientations, Sunburst, Mr. & Ms., Philippines Free Press, and Philippines Graphic.
Bonifacio-Ira outlived her husband Renato Ira Sr., whom she married in 1955, by almost three months. She is survived by their children Mario Carlos, Felix, Renato Jr., Vanessa, and Gretchen, and 11 grandchildren.
The date of her inurnment is not disclosed.
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