Fidel Go, National Artist

He comes from a family of artist and businessmen. His father who married a Filipinafrom Vigan City started the pottery business in 1922 which Go inherited in 1970 after his father’s death.  One of his brothers is into the china-ware business in China.

To him, the burnay carries with a family history that traces its root in the hinterlands of mainland China.

Go’s Ruby Pottery is one of the two pottery factories producing burnay in Pagburnayan, Vigan City.  His works find themselves displayed in several of the country’s plush hotels reaching as far as Palawan and Davao in the south.

In 1998, he was one of the 100 Filipino artist given the Centennial Award, a once-in-a-lifetime recognition for local arists.  The National Commission for Culture and Arts declared him as a National Folk Artist.