page_title: Sa Aking Mga Kabata
section_title: Prominence
hierarchical_section_title: Sa Aking Mga Kabata / Prominence
caption_attribution_description: English: The oldest known publication of the poem Sa Aking Mga Kabata appears in Kun sino ang kumathâ ng̃ "Florante" (1906) by Hermenigildo Cruz. Purportedly written by Jose Rizal, it's more likely to be a hoax by Cruz
context_page_description: "Sa Aking Mga Kabatà" is a poem about the love of one's native language written in Tagalog. It is widely attributed to the Filipino national hero José Rizal, who supposedly wrote it in 1868 at the age of seven. There is no evidence, however, to support authorship by Rizal and several historians now believe it to be a hoax. The actual author of the poem is suspected to have been the poets Gabriel Beato Francisco or Herminigildo Cruz.
context_section_description: The poem was widely taught in Philippine schools to point out Rizal's precociousness and early development of his nationalistic ideals.
  A passage of the poem often paraphrased as Ang Hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika, masahol pa sa hayop at malansang isda (English: 'He that knows not to love his own language, is worse than beasts and putrid fish') is widely quoted to promote the use of Tagalog among Filipinos. It is encountered most frequently during the Buwan ng Wika ('Language Month'), a commemoration of the establishment of the Filipino language as the national language of the Philippines.
caption: The oldest known copy of the poem appears in Kun sino ang kumathâ ng̃ "Florante": kasaysayan sa buhay ni Francisco Baltazar at pag-uulat nang kanyang karunung̃a't kadakilaan (1906) by Hermenigildo Cruz. Note that the poem uses the Philippine Commonwealth-era Tagalog spelling with a 'K'. If Rizal had indeed written it, it should have used the phonetically equivalent Spanish 'C'.
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