DAVAO CITY – Davao comics artist Ren Galeno was among the finalists of this year's prestigious Pulitzer Prize under Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category for her works published in the Washington Post last year.
ARTIST Ren Galeno at work in her home in Davao City on Tuesday, May 7. (Keith Bacongco)
Galeno, 27, worked alongside Filipino-American reporter Nicole Dungca and Claire Healy for the story "Searching for Maura" which followed the life and death story of an 18-year old Igorot woman who was recruited to Saint Louis, Missouri for the 1904 World's Fair.
"I'm grateful for the honor of working with such a talented and passionate team of reporters," said Galeno after learning she was among the finalists.
Galeno, who finished Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines-Diliman in Quezon City, recalled that Searching for Maura was her first biggest project.
"But for me, the biggest project is the things that I really love to do like her ongoing first full graphic novel ‘Full of Grace,’" she said. Full of Grace is expected to be released next year.
According to the Washington Post: "Smithsonian anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka took part of her brain. Over decades, he collected more than 250 brains, and other human body parts, to research his now-debunked, racist theories about anatomical differences between races."
"Every panel in Searching for Maura is an artist’s approximation of history, but each is based on painstaking research into archival photos, newspaper articles, and records from the time," the Washington Post said.
Searching for Maura was published in the Washington Post website and YouTube as an animated video on August 16 last year.
It was also printed in a 44-page tabloid insert of Searching for Maura in graphic novel form for the Post's print subscribers.
Searching for Maura was the first-ever story of the Washington Post translated into Filipino.
Galeno is the first Filipino illustrator who have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Among the recent finalists were Ezra Acayan (Feature Photography, 2021), Manny Mogato (International Reporting, 2018), and the late Romeo Gacad (Photojournalism, 2003).
In 2018, seasoned journalist Manny Mogato shared the Pulitzer Prize with his colleagues in Reuters for their reporting on the war on drugs in the country during the Duterte administration.
Prior to her collaboration with the Washington Post, Galeno’s biggest project was for the comic anthology “Ten Years to Save the World,” a project supported by the British Council as part of a number of creative commissions in response to climate change and COP26.
She contributed the “I pray you're born with gills,” a sobering reflection on the anxiety of bringing children into a climate change world.
Galeno has produced eight mini-comic books: II (2019), Santa Monica Falls (2020), Egg (2020), Romaragit (2020), Aiyeee (2020), Sa Wala (2021), Mga Palaka ng San Antonio (2022), and Sa Wala (2023).
She was surprised by the nomination. "I did not expect any award for this work. I just want to tell the story and for the others to recognize that these things happened in the past."