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National Artist for Literature Jose Garcia Villa, born on August 5, 1908 in Singalong, Manila, was a cultural attaché in the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 1954 to 1963 at the height of the Cold War. His first book of poems, “Have Come, Am Here” drew critical recognition when it appeared in New York in 1942 and was praised by authors such as E.E. Cummings. On February 7, 1997, Villa, who was named National Artist in Literature in 1973, died in New York at the age of 88. Schatzi Quodala, Inquirer Research