Leona Josefa Florentino (19 April 1849 – 4 October 1884) was a Filipina foundational poet,[1] dramatist, satirist, and playwright who wrote and poetically spoke in Ilocano, her mother tongue, and Spanish, the lingua franca of her era.

Because of this, her mother Isabel, who was also disallowed to have a university education when she was young, made it her personal mission to tutor Leona and teach her everything she knew to expand her daughter's natural talent.

A series of private teachers were also persuaded and brought by her mother to teach Leona, and later, included an educated Ilocano Catholic priest, Evaristo Abaya, the curate of Vigan.

Some of her works narrated her lived experience of loving a woman during the patriarchal colonial era, becoming one of the most important historical lesbian writing in Philippine literature.

Due to the protofeminist nature of her writings and her progressive ideals for women and minorities, in around 1869 to 1870, Florentino was shunned by her pro-patriarchy husband, as well as her children who were convinced by their father.

[2][6] After her death, her son Isabelo made it his mission to exponentially introduce her mother's literary prowess to the world by way of international promulgation, publications, and exchanges with his peers, leading to the expansion of people who became familiar with Leona's progressive feminist poetic creations, which were published and preserved in France, Spain, and the United States.

Many revolutionaries and intellectuals became members of the IFI and were influenced by the new institution's progressive teachings, leading to liberal reforms in Philippine society in the 1900's, including women's right to education, which was one of the many things that Leona was disallowed to have in her youth.

A sculpture was also made, and now stands at the plaza fronting her family's ancestral house in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Calle Crisologo, Vigan.

[2][10][6] Although more known for her poems, Leona also wrote manifestos on Filipina strength and critiques on colonial rule through satirical writings in a gentle progression.

She was known to be peak caliber not just in the creative writing arts, but also in spoken word poetry, where she would vocally deliver her poems during occasions such as celebrations, anniversaries, and other events.

[1] Some of the preserved works of Leona Florentino which mirror some aspects of her life are Felicitación satírica, which tells of a spinster in her 28th birthday who was tragically only pursued by older men, Coronación de una soltera en sus días, which celebrates the birthday of a maiden, Declaración simbólica, which is poetic narrative of one's private erotic reflections disallowed among women but allowed for men during the colonial era, and Nalpay A Namnama, which depicts Leona's doomed love for a woman she cannot be with due to the patriarchal constraints of her era.