Early Career
In 1887, at the age of 23, de los Reyes won a silver medal at the Exposición Filipina in Madrid for his Spanish-language book entitled El folk-lore filipino (Filipino Folklore). It was the same year that the Filipino writer Jose Rizal published his first novel, Noli Me Tangere in Berlin. As a teenager, de los Reyes had been intrigued by the growing interest in the "new science" of el saber popular (folklore). Manila's Spanish newspaper La Oceania Española asked readers to contribute articles on el folk-lore and offered directions on how to collect material.
Two months later, de los Reyes set to work on the folklore of Ilocos, Malabon, and Zambales,what he called el folk-lore filipino. It became one of the greatest passions of his life. By 1886, as the French were starting serious study of folklore in relation to their own native traditions, de los Reyes at the age of 22 was completing a manuscript for publication.
After his father died when Isabelo was 18, the young man had to earn money to supplement an allowance from his mother. He pursued his passion for writing, contributing articles to most of Manila's newspapers. In 1889 he founded El Ilocano, said to be the first newspaper written solely in a Philippine vernacular. It was short-lived but influential. He continued to write and research extensively on Philippine history and culture, and was nicknamed Don Belong.
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