Evangelista, Crisanto

Born 1888 in Bulacan Province; died February 1942. Figure in the Philippine communist, working class, and national liberation movements. Founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

A typesetter by profession, Evangelista became secretary of the Printers’ Union in 1906 and chairman of the union in 1918. In 1920 he led the first political strike of printers. He helped establish the Labor Party in 1924 and became one of its leaders; the activities of the party paved the way for the creation of the CPP in 1930. In 1927, Evangelista became vice-president of the Philippine Labor Congress—the country’s largest trade union association, founded in 1913. In 1928 he headed the Philippine delegation to the Fourth Congress of the Red International of Trade Unions, which was held in Moscow. In 1929 he became general secretary of the Proletarian Union, a trade union that formed as a splinter group of the Labor Congress; from 1930 to 1933 he served as general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPP.

After spending the period from 1933 to 1936 in prison and exile for his revolutionary activities, Evangelista moved abroad. In 1938 he became chairman of the Central Committee of the CPP. Arrested by the Japanese police in January 1942, Evangelista died in prison.