Rizal S Abandonment of Assimilation PDF

Education for the Future 213
clines them to idealize the mother country to excess, was very

CHAPTER 11 u part of Spanish communities in the Philippines. This trait was
lecidedly pronounced among the religious orders, sharing as they
The Filipino Past and Education for i the quasi-religious patriotism of traditionalist Spain.' Moreover,
the Future, 1887-189] im an age when an anticlericalism was rife in Spain and respect for
the religious mission of the orders low, they were under considerable
pressure to prove themselves indispensable as the upholders of Spain’s
mission and sovereignty in the Philippines.” They often, therefore,
impressed on their Filipino parishioners the debt of gratitude and
loyalty owed to the Mother Country for the great benefits Spain had
bestowed on the Filipinos. Imbued with this religious nostalgia, itself
The wounded sensibilities and national pride among the Filipinos further heightened by the influence of the typical nineteenth-century
in Europe that reacted fiercely in spirited rejoinders to the aspersions indifference of Western imperialists to indigenous culture, their exhorta-
of the Quioquiaps was more than a mere response to offensive Span- tion to gratitude often led to a wholesale writing off, or even execration,
ish attitudes. It was part of a growing consciousness of national iden- of pre-Hispanic Filipino culture. Even the most devoted to the wel-
tity which soon manifested itself in a concern for the roots of the fare of their people often showed a remarkable insensitivity in this.
Filipino national personality in the pre-Hispanic past. Filipino nation- A typical example is the first pastoral letter of a bishop noted for
his zeal and devotion to his people, Francisco Gainza, O.P., conse-
alism in this sense belongs in the mainstream of romantic national-
ism that prevailed in one form or another in every European country crated bishop of the diocese of Nueva Caceres in 1863.” His pastoral
in the nineteenth century, a patriotic sentiment that was mediated to letter could not be a reaction to nationalist propaganda since it was
their countrymen by the Filipino students who had gone to Europe. issued during a period when there was no organized Filipino nation-
alist movement to speak of. After addressing his clergy and the Span-
iards, he turned to the naturales, relating the fine reports he had
Spanish Views of Pre-Hispanic Philippines
The growth of nationalist feeling among the educated Filipinos 1. A striking example is a letter of Bishop Francisco Gainza, O.P., to the “Excmo.
should be seen in the light of ways of thinking prevalent among Span- Presidente de Ministros, Ministro de Guerra y de Ultramar [sic]” accompanying a
iards in the Philippines. The general atmosphere of romantic nation- copy of his pastoral letter cited below. In this letter he says that perhaps the minister
alism thrived in Spain as in the rest of nineteenth-century Europe, will find the language of the pastoral somewhat lacking in religious unction and al-
though with differences that might be expected from Spain’s relative most secular in tone, but this is only apparent. For one who knows the Philippines
well understands “that here Religion and Spain are so intimately identified that the
isolation from the main currents of European thought. Among Span-
former would perish if the paternal rule of the latter should be lacking, and the tree of
ish conservatives and reactionaries, which included almost the entire the Cross would lose its vitality and luxuriance the moment that the beneficent shade of
clergy, tradicionalismo had identified Catholicism and Spanish patriot- the banner of Castile should disappear” (AHN, Ultramar, leg. 2246, exp. 5, no. Ds
ism almost inextricably, and looked with nostalgic pride to Spain’s 2. On these grounds the confidential memorials in AHN and MBB of all the
golden century when she brought the Catholic faith to the New World. governors-general from Izquierdo to Weyler, no matter what their political affiliation
or religious sentiments, insist on the need of preserving the prestige of the friars in
The chauvinism common to members of governing races in all colo-
the Philippines.
nies, particularly among those whose long absence from the home-
3. Carta pastoral que el Imo. y Rmo. Sr. Dr. D. Fr. Francisco Gainza del Sagrado Orden de
Predicadores, Obispo de Nueva Caceres dirige a sus muy amados diocesanos con motivo de su
212 consagracion (Manila: Estab. tip. de Santo Tomas, 1863).
214 Education for the Future Education for the Future 215
received about the people of the Bicol region from those who knew able, he says, that this could come from Nature, but such a thing
them. They owed these fine qualities, this culture and civilization, to would be extraordinary, “since more intelligent and active races . . .
their holy religion, to the nation that at great sacrifice brought it to preserve nothing like this, in spite of having a better organized gov-
their shores, and to the indefatigable toils of the missionaries who ernment.” Rather the explanation must be sought in the climate, which
had labored to lift them from the degradation of their ancestors. is conducive to laziness and inaction and therefore makes submissive-
He goes on to portray the pre-Hispanic Filipinos, who ness a necessity rather than a virtue.
lived in the midst of eternal hatred and vengeance, hunting one an- Discussing the special penal code that governed the indios, Captain
other down in the thick forests without other law than that of oppres- Juan notes that it takes into consideration “our limited understanding in
sion, without other right than force, ignorant or contemptuous of the abstract questions,” “our weakness of will to maintain a sworn declara-
eternal principles of justice, and bowing their heads . . . before ridicu- tion” and the fact that “moral sanctions were not real punishments, be-
lous figures, symbols of a repugnant cynicism! cause of our imperfect acquaintance with honor, with morality, and with
justice.” For this reason Spanish law has deemed it necessary e adopt
He recoils at the thought of
the custom of flogging with the bejuco as a common punishment.
their character, as deceitful as it was savage, the depravity of their cus- After taking up other similar considerations, the book ends with a
toms, the degeneration of their intellectual faculties, their savage sacri- “Catecismo racional y social para utilidad de los indios,” which con-
fices, and even their feasts and pleasures, so often bespattered with tains such passages as the following:
human blood, the infernal harmony of their accursed dances, of their
impure bacchanals. What was their religion [the ancestors of the Filipinos]?
A mass of ridiculous superstitions, which deprived them of liberty
Similarly flavored with denigration is another work of a somewhat and filled them with terror. . .
different kind, written by a man later to be bishop, Father Casimiro Why should this society not be called peculiarly Filipino, since it is
Herrero, O.S.A.* Published under a pseudonym, the book purports to located in our land and we are the majority ?
be a Spanish translation of a Tagalog work by the simple and loyal Because we have contributed nothing of what constitutes civilized
society; it is the Spaniards who have done itall.’
Captain Juan, and is intended to counteract ideas of liberty, equality,
fraternity, which he looks on as being nothing but execrable “legiti- If intelligent bishops adopted such an approach, individual parish
mate fruits of Protestantism” stirred up during the discussions and priests in the provinces were likely to take a similar or even cruder
agitation of 1869-72.” one. Though such an approach may often have been effective among
After refuting Protestantism, liberalism, etc., through Captain Juan, simple peasants, it aroused deep resentment even among educated
the book goes on to sum up the condition of the Filipinos when the young men of the middle and upper classes who never left the Philip-
Spaniards landed, then seeks to establish the legitimacy of Spanish pines. Among those educated abroad fiercer fires were kindled.
sovereignty in the Philippines and to demonstrate the progress made
by the Filipinos under Spanish rule. Captain Juan finds it curious that
the ancient Filipinos were submissive and respectful in spite of the Filipino Disillusionment in Spain
fact that they were almost completely guided by instinct. It is conceiv-
The religious in the Philippines never ceased wringing their hands
4, Herrero was comisario of the Spanish Augustinians at over the evil effects on the Filipino youth of going to Spain or other
the time he published the
book discussed below. He became bishop of Nueva Caceres from 1880 to 1886.
5. Filipinas ante la razén del indio, obra compuesta por el indigena Capitén Juan para 6. Ibid., 109-11; 137-38. The bejuco was a rattan whip, commonly used for flogging
utilidad de sus paisanos y publicada en castellano por el espanol P. Caro (Madrid: A. Gomez at this time in the Philippines.
Fuentenebro, 1874).
7. Ibid., 274, 277.
parts of Europe. Such repinings were generally based on the assump- 2's disenchantment was shared by other Filipinos abroad. Rizal,
tion that in Spanish universities the young Filipinos would be exposed «mting to his brother Paciano shortly after his arrival in Madrid, dep-
to the heterodox teachings current there, lose their faith, and pick ted the decadent moral atmosphere, the scandals in high places
up liberal ideas dangerous to Spanish rule in the Philippines.” There » government and society, the prevalence of prostitution, etc. More
was indeed greater freedom to absorb “liberal” ideas in Spain. But moteworthy are the reactions of the mature Del Pilar on his arrival in
the Spanish religious missed another vital point that, among other Sarcelona. Not only does Nature there seem to him dismal and mis-
things, led to the disruption of Spanish domination in the Philip- erable, but above all, he misses “the graciousness, the sincerity, and
pines: the disenchantment of many Filipinos with Spain and all that rdiality of our oriental customs.” In a letter to Serrano, he exclaims
was Spanish, once the illusion so assiduously sustained in the Philip- he almost feels grateful to the friars for having isolated the Fili-
pines was swept away by bumping into the reality in Spain. from the rest of the Spaniards:
The disillusionment experienced by Taga-Ilog (Antonio Luna) on
At least, we must recognize the hand of Providence, which perhaps
seeing what the famed Puerta del Sol really amounted to was not
reserves great destinies for our race. Due to this isolation their customs
merely propaganda. In spite of Mir Deas’ attacks and the unpleasant could not substitute themselves for ours, in spite of the spirit of imita-
consequences they brought, Luna continued to publish his tion which predominates in many; and we should bless, yes, bless God
“Impresiones Madrilenas” in La Solidaridad over the next year and a eternally, for having saved our race from the penetration of the cus-
half, satirizing various types of people and aspects of life in Madrid. toms of the colonizer. Thus our virtues have been preserved: our love
for order, our hospitality, that spirit of eminent charity, which there
On publishing the collection he begs his reader, it is true, not to see
you can scarcely notice for its being so common and ordinary a thing,
in his realistic pictures the hand of a native of the Philippines, but but which here the native of our country finds lacking in the midst of
rather “the Spanish citizen with his freedom to criticize scenes of his these souls, as selfish as they are frivolous, without ideals, with no other
own soil which, by common consent, ought to disappear.” Though conviction than their own personal and momentary convenience. Be-
the plea is valid in itself, Luna’s purpose became obvious when he lieve me, chico, I came here with very flattering predispositions, but each
wrote to Rizal that he expected violent attacks on his book “because day I go on acquiring the very sad conviction of the incompatibility of
this race with sentiments of honor. It is sad to acknowledge it, but we
it has the wicked PrARpmMEneE to overthrow the idol, smashing
will learn nothing from this accursed race, and accursed must be that
its pedestal to pieces.”!” Behind these often devastating pictures of race which treated with great cruelty its fathers (Arabs and Jews).
the morals and customs of Madrid, so handy as propaganda for cut-
ting the kastila down to size among the mass of Filipinos at home, A few weeks later, writing to his wife, he expressed similar senti-
there is genuine disillusionment on the part of the author himself. ments, saying that Filipinos showed far greater compassion for the
poor. Though the Tagalog is often lazy and spends the day with his
fighting-cock, the Spaniards are no better, idling their days away in
cafes watching lewd dances and low comedies. In a letter to Basilio
8. See for example, the remarks of the Jesuit Father Pastells on how much better
Rizal would have done to have followed the advice given him to dedicate himself to Teodoro a few months later he related with approval how young José
agriculture and return to his hometown, where he would undoubtedly have become a Alejandrino, recently arrived in Barcelona, had shown his fine up-
gobernadorcillo, working for the uplift of his fellow townsmen (Rizal y su obra, 7-8). bringing by his indignation at the suggestive dances that were part of
9. Impresiones, por Taga-Ilog (Madrid: Imprenta de “El Progreso Tipografico, 1891), a play they had attended together recently."
“Al lector.”
No doubt there was a certain amount of exaggeration in all this,
10. Ep. Rizal., 3:180. That Luna was not mistaken in his expectations may be seen
but such reactions would make the Filipinos less willing to accept Span-
in the attack in Antonio Chapuli Navarro, Siluetas y matices (Galeria filipina) (Madrid:
Minuesa de Ios Rios, 1894), 166, n. 2, 169-70; and more significantly, that of Javier
Gomez de la Serna, a Filipino Spaniard, formerly part of the Madrid colony, who
writes the prologue to Chapuli Navarro’s book (xii). 11. Rizal, One Hundred, 76-81, Ep. Pilar, 1:32, 63, 119; 2:7.
Education for the Future Education for the Future 219
ho
pa
wo
ish criticisms of Filipino customs meekly, and would deepen their pride moral code. It had become ashamed of its past, adopting the new
in their own people.”” s of the conquerors, ways which it did not understand, but before
which it bowed as it substituted new masters for the old rulers, who
had been unloved because of their despotic rule. Almost totally de-
Filipino Views of Pre-Hispanic Philippines
moralized, the Filipino people remained submissive until at last it was
Sancianco was one of the earliest defenders of the indio against aroused by those who tried to abase it still further, denying it a fully
the charge of indolence so often made by Spaniards. When Spanish human nature and the capacity for either vice or virtue. Smarting
racism rose to strident heights in the type of malevolent slurs of under the indignities heaped upon it, the Filipino spirit awoke to
Quioquiap in 1887, the Filipino colony as a whole had reacted fiercely. new life and selfawareness. With its new educated class, the Philip-
But it was above all Rizal who possessed both the passion and the pines could no longer adhere to Spain without radical reforms, par-
competence to meet this denigration of his people. ticularly freedom of the press and representation in the Cortes. Spain
On his return to Europe from the Philippines in 1888, Rizal estab- must wholly assimilate the Philippines; otherwise, an independence
lished himself in London so that he might devote his time to the movement could not be stopped. But independence, precipitate and
study of his country’s history in the library of the British Museum. He ill-prepared for, was likely to end in domination by some other for-
eign power, probably the rising United States.
was convinced that only by such efforts could he hope to do anything
solid and enduring for the Philippines. The fruits of his study were This lengthy essay has since excited widespread interest for its re-
not long in coming. Beginning in May 1889 he began to write articles markable prediction of American sovereignty succeeding the Spanish
when Spain was overthrown for failing to institute reforms. But the
for La Solidaridad answering various publications reviling the Filipinos
or denying their capacity for civilization, etc. importance of “Filipinas dentro de cien amos” lies in the program
Rizal clearly outlines here. To understand the present situation of the
Notable among these is his answer to Vicente Barrantes’ book, El
teatro tagalo, in which his study of the old chronicles, like those of
Philippines, he says, one must look back to see what it once was. Then,
Chirino and Colin, is evident. A foreshadowing of the direction of his in the light of the past and of the present, one can chart possible
investigations appears in his “Verdades nuevas,” where he points to a courses for the future. This program he had begun with his picture
certain decline in Philippine civilization: at the coming of the Span- of the present in the Noli me téngere, and was now about to complete
iards all Filipinos had been literate; today after three hundred years its second step by his newest book, an annotated edition of the early
of the “civilizing influence” of the friars, Filipino literacy stands at seventeenth-century history of the Philippines by Antonio de Morga.
only seventy percent. In his dedication of the book “To the Filipinos,” he traces those steps,
This theme appears again in the series of articles that began ap- and describes his own evolution as a nationalist:
pearing soon afterwards under the title “Filipinas dentro de cien In the Noli me téngere 1 began the sketch of the present state of our
anos.””” To visualize the future of his country, he examines its past, fatherland; the effect which my attempt produced made me understand
describing how it lost its traditions, its way of writing, its literature, its that before continuing to unveil to your eyes other succeeding pictures,
I must first make known the past, so that it may be possible to judge
better the present and measure the path which has been traversed dur-
12. No doubt the other side of the story is also true; namely, that the Filipinos ing three centuries.
found their eyes opened to a modern world they had never known when they arrived Born and brought up, as almost all of you, in the ignorance of our
in Spain (see F. M. Roxas-Rizal, Ep. Rizal., 1:294. But this did not prevent them from Yesterday, without an authoritative voice to speak of what we neither
seeing the defects and being more impressed by them, especially when they could feel saw nor studied, I considered it necessary to invoke the testimony of an
that the progress and enlightenment they found in Spain ought to have been theirs in illustrious Spaniard who directed the destinies of the Filipinos in the
the Philippines too. beginnings of the new era and witnessed the last moments of our an-
13, La Solidaridad, 15 June, 31 Jul, 30 Sep, 31Oct, 15 Dec 1889; 1 Feb 1890. cient nationality.
220 Education for the Future
If this book succeeds in awakening in you the consciousness of our On the other hand, the conquistadores are justly criticized. When
speaks of a Moro raid on the island of Panay in 1599, Rizal
past, which has been blotted out from our memories, and in rectifying Morga
what has been falsified by calumny, then I will not have labored in comments:
vain, and with this foundation, tiny as it may be, we can all dedicate
ourselves to studying the future." In the records of the history of the Philippines, this is the first act of
piracy committed by the inhabitants of the South. We say, by the in-
habitants of the South, because the first acts of piracy had been com-
Rizal began work on this book in 1888, considering Morga the only
mitted by the expedition of Magellan, when they seized ships from
one among the early chroniclers who showed sufficient impartiality to demanding
friendly islands, and even from ones which were unknown,
warrant serving as a basis for the history of the Filipino past he pro- heavy ransoms from them.
jected. This rare chronicle he had laboriously copied by hand in the
British Museum, and over the space of a year had annotated it from And apropos of the unjust killing of peaceful Filipinos narrated by
his studies of the other early chronicles. Though it bore the publica- Morga, he takes to task biased Spanish historians for fostering
tion date 1890, the first copies of his book were already in the hands anti-Filipino prejudices:
of his friends in Spain by December 1889. He knew that the book,
merely because it bore his name, to say nothing of the conclusions it The historians of the Philippines, who neglect no suspicion nor acci-
to interpret them in a sense unfavorable to the indios,
led to, would be banned in the Philippines. As usual, he arranged to dent, in order
forget that on almost all occasions the reason for the quarrels has come
have it smuggled in through José Maria Basa from Hong Kong and and
from those who claimed to civilize them, by means of arquebuses
through the Spanish Mason, Manuel Arias Rodriguez, owner of the at the cost of the territories of the weak inhabitant s. What would they
Agencia Editorial in Manila." not say if the crimes committed by Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch, etc.,
The book is at once a glorification of the Filipino past and an in the colonies, had been committed by the islanders?
indictment of the Spanish conquest and the work of the missionaries.
Apropos of Morga’s remarks on the failure of Governor Pérez He emphasizes at great length the superiority of the Filipino sense
Dasmarinas’ cannon foundry for lack of master workmen, he notes: of values with regard to the family: honor to parents, independence
and dignity of the woman in marriage, rarity of divorce if there were
etc. Even vices are extenuated, as when he considers the
This shows that, with the death of Pandapira [a Filipino who had children,
forged cannon before the coming of Spaniards], there were no Span- custom of the husband’s condoning adultery upon collecting dam-
ages from the guilty party more sensible than the European custom
iards who were able to do what he had done, nor were his sons as
of challenging the adulterer to a duel, which exposes the husband to

skilled as their father.
When Morga mentions the early Filipinos sending silk to Japan, Rizal public ridicule as a cuckold and also to the danger of being killed. Morga’s
remarks: “In those times the Philippines exported silk to Japan; today remarks about the low esteem of chastity among the Filipinas, and their
the best silk comes from there.” He makes similar remarks regarding susceptibility to being bought, draw this double-edged rejoinder:
Morga’s observations on the skill of the Filipinos in shipbuilding, in
This ready compliance of the indias which the historians report seems
agriculture, and in mining, and notes the decline in population and Na-
to be attributable not only to the sincerity with which they obeyed
industry that took place in various provinces during the seventeenth ture and their own instincts, but also to a religious belief
of which
century. : the religious historians, speaking
Father Chirino speaks. . . . Moreover,
of the missions in the first years of Christianization, relate numerous
examples of chastity in young women who resisted and preferred death
14. Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, por el Dr. Antonio de Morga, obra publicada en Méjico el
rather than yield to the violence and threats of the soldiers and
ano de 1609, nuevamente sacada a luz y anotada por José Rizal y precedida de un prélogo del
encomenderos. This weakness for pay we believe not to be a defect mo-
Prof. Fernando Blumentritt (Paris: Garnier, 1890), v. in the world,
nopolized by Filipinos and Filipinas; we find it everywhere
15. Ep. Rizal., 5:288, 291, 305-7; 2:264, 279-80, 309; 3:88.
even in Europe, so satisfied with its own morality, and that during its The prologue to the book was written by Blumentritt, who, while
entire history, often accompanied by crimes, scandals, etc. The cults of praising Rizal’s erudition and the contribution he had made to knowl-
Venus, Priapus, Bacchus, etc., the orgies and bacchanals, the history of
edge of the early Filipinos, expressed disagreement on two points.
prostitution in Christian Europe and especially in Papal Rome, prove
The first was Rizal’s attacks on Catholicism, which Blumenwitt de-
that in this matter there is no nation which can hurl the first stone at
another. In any case, today the Filipinas have no reason to blush be- clared ought not to be confused with the abuses of some of its minis-
fore the women of the most chaste nation in the world. ters. The second was a tendency to judge the sixteenth century by the
standards of the nineteenth, a practice that could only result in an.
On the remarks of Morga on usury, debt-slavery, and illicit con- unfair evaluation of much of what had been done by the Spaniar ds.!
tracts among the early Filipinos, he draws similar parallels. Retana in his biography of Rizal, though expressing admiration for
The indictment of Spanish rule in the Philippines is more than Rizal’s diligent research and his contributions, concludes that Rizal
once made explicit, exposing as unjustified the current insistence by “proves too much.” In spite of the prejudices from which Retana him-
Spanish writers on the gratitude owed by the Filipinos to Spain, who self was by no means exempt, it seems clear that from a scientific
had allegedly given all to the Filipinos without benefit to herself. Enu- point of view, despite the new perspectives that he gave to the whole
merating the various classes of Spaniards who drew their salaries from question of pre-Hispanic Philippine civilization, in his total picture
the Philippine treasury Rizal concludes sarcastically: Rizal had gone to the other extreme, as he tacitly adnate ged by
printing Blumentritt’s criticism as the prologue to his book.’® But as
Doubtless all this is nothing in comparison with so many captives, sol- nationalist propaganda, however, the book was an eminent success,
diers killed in expeditions, islands depopulated, inhabitants sold as slaves and its influence would be felt on many levels in the future.
by the Spaniards themselves, the death of industry, the demoralization
of the inhabitants, etc., etc—enormous benefits which were brought to
A complement to Rizal’s edition of Morga, and a further develop-
the islands by that holy civilization. ment of a point he had already raised there, was the series of articles
in La Solidaridad in July-September 1890 entitled “Sobre la indolencia
And completely turning the tables on the Spaniards, he declares that de los filipinos.” This theme, an unfailing source of witticisms for twit-
though the Spanish King had spent 250,000 pesos annually for the ting Spanish detractors, had already been dwelt on by Sancianco in
maintenance of the Philippines, for his own prestige and wealth, and his El progreso de Filipinas, and Rizal acknowledged his debt to him.
“to fulfill a duty of conscience which he had imposed on himself” the But he went on to probe the question further in the light of his his-
Filipinos, for their part, torical studies. Acknowledging the existence of a tendency to indo-
lence due in part to the tropical climate, he notes that it is the
had given their independence, their liberty; they were giving him their European, surrounded by servants, who is a prime example of indo-
gold, their blood, their sons, to carry on his wars and to maintain the lence in the tropics, the peninsular official surpassing his indio clerk
honor of his flag, and thus to enrich, if not himself, his subjects, giving in this respect, the friar his indio coadjutor.
him from the first years more than 500,000 pesos annually in tributes,
Acknowledging its existence, one must look for the causes. The
a sum which rose to millions. And all this in order not even to have the
right to the name of Spaniards, to lose at the end of three centuries of testimony of the early chroniclers, Morga, San Agustin, Colin, and
fidelity and sacrifices even the rare deputies and envoys who defended others, shows that the pre-Hispanic Filipinos overcame this tendency
them, to have no voice in the councils of the nation; to exchange their
national religion, their history, their usages and customs, for other bor-
rowed and ill-understood usages. 17. Ibid., xii.
18. Retana’s critique (Vida, 173-76), though basically correct, is not without over-
tones of indignation rare in this biography. Retana himself later published a new
16. Morga-Rizal, Sucesos, 27, 191, 267, 284, 142-43, 71, 301-3, 263, 304, 305, 143, edition of Morga, based on his researches in the Archivo de Indias in Seville, which
362. Rizal never visited. This is the standard edition used today.
mining, and commerce a controversy or attacking Rizal, and his own book was being attacked
to indolence, so that industry, manufactures, reply in La
in Manila as filibustero. But in October 1890 Rizal wrote a
flourished among them. But when the Spaniards set foot on Philip- for De los Reyes
to decline through the Spanish wars in the Solidaridad which for all its protestations of esteem
pine soil, all these began ar points raised,
and his work, and its scholarly answer to the particul
Moluccas and elsewhere in the Orient carried on with Filipino troops, s raised against his
betrayed a Rizal deeply resentful of the question
the forced labor in shipbuilding, the piracy of the Muslims, and their
scholarship.”
enslavement of Christian Filipinos. Demoralized by terror, by the on- cus-
De los Reyes had preceded Rizal in studies of early Filipino
erous demands of the government on him, by a sense of futility at Islas Visayas en la época
toms and history with El Folk-Lore Filipino; Las
seeing his work unprofitable, the indio ceased to work. de Filipinas; and
de la conquista; Historia de Filipinas (vol. 1): Prehistoria
This falling off of Filipino industriousness is thus directly attribut- fully de-
Historia de Uocos.”’ De los Reyes was an indefatigable worker
able to the Spaniards, as the early Spanish chroniclers themselves agree. ist and reformis t aspira-
voted to journalism, who shared the national
Today this indolence is perpetuated by policies of the government frequent ly under attack
tions of his compatriots in Madrid. Though
that hamper agriculture and commerce; that entangle all enterprise ed to write articles
by Spaniards in Manila for his writings, he continu
in red tape and choke it with the exactions of corrupt officials; that would
on history, folklore, and such political matters as the censor
tolerate the banditry preying on the peasants. The Spaniard, disdain- not get by the: naniGe,
permit him in Manila. The articles that could
ing manual work, sets a bad example, and the friar not only discour-
he sent to La Solidaridad to be published under a pseudonym.”
ages in his people the desire for wealth, but wastes their time with the vari-
to depend more on miracles De los Reyes’ books were all first published as articles in
fiestas, novenas, etc., and teaches them or which he him-
ous Manila newspapers with which he collaborated
and blessings than on their own hard work. Were this not enough, ” They likewise show
self edited, and all bear the stamp of their origin.
the indio must endure the lack of personal security, the discrimina- without any aca-
the unscientific background of their author, who was
tion against Filipinos in favor of peninsulars, the miserable state of time, had not been
demic training in the field and who, up to this
education. Is it any wonder, then, that the indio is unwilling to exert
himself to promote progress in his country?
Undoubtedly the same exaggeration that occurs in Rizal’s edition
of Morga on the flourishing state of Philippine society before the ar- 20. Juan Luna wrote Rizal a friendly letter on seeing his
article answering De los
had
Rizal
rival of the Spaniards and the decadence consequent on their arrival oversensitivity to this criticism, and hinting that
Reyes, lamenting Rizal’s
of his “excessive patriotism” (Ep. Rizal., 3:122; also
much that was valid both perhaps exaggerated because
is present here. Yet, the analysis contained
Blumentritt, ibid., 127-28).
in its historical aspect and especially in its description of the current 21. El Folk-Lore Filipino (2 volumes), which was printed
in 1889 (Manila: Imprenta
situation. Though Rizal certainly intended his writings to infuse his de Santa Cruz), won a prize at the Exposition of 1887 in Madrid. The section on the
fellow Filipinos with pride in their own race and to destroy any sense province of Bulacan was done by Ponce; that on Pampanga
by Serrano.
of servility towards the Spaniards, he just as certainly believed in the l memoria, 102-5. Several articles which appear under the pseu-
22. Reyes, Sensaciona
los Reyes. A number of them
scholarly value of his writing, and was ready to defend it. Kasalo, beginning in 1890, seem to be from De
donym
friars and the Filipino secular
deal with canonical questions and the relations of the
Thus when Isabelo de los Reyes in his Historia de Ilocos, disagreed Gregorio Aglipay of the schis-
clergy. De los Reyes was to be cofounder with Father
with Rizal on the level of civilization he had attributed to the early matic Iglesia Filipina Independiente in the beginning of
the twentieth century.
Filipinos in his Morga, attributing his overly bright picture to his pa- 93. He was a collabora tor in several newspape rs at one time or another, and editor
triotism, Rizal was furious.’ De los Reyes had no intention of starting of the Tagalog-Spanish La Lectura Popular. In 1889 he founded, and edited almost
educational in tendency,
single-handed, El Ilocano, a Spanish-Ilocano fortnightly, largely
Luzon, was published in Ma-
which though written for his fellow-locanos in northern
which are listed as “segunda edicion” had their first edition
nila. Those of his books
19. For de los Reyes’s comments, see his Historia de locos (2d ed.; 2 vols., Manila:
as series of newspaper articles.
“La Opinion,” 1890), I, 104, n. 1.
Education for the Future
no
no
sI
outside the Philippines. His historical and ethnographical studies were Similar in nature and equally worthless was his book, Los itas, on
a combination of the author’s observations on contemporary folklore, the customs of the Negritos. Published in 1890, it purported to show
especially of his native Ilocos, and his gleanings from the old chroni- the earlier civilization out of which had evolved those of the Tagalogs
clers available to him in Manila, often extracted at great length. and the Visayans.
Though they cannot be compared in depth and accuracy to those of Even more fantastic was his El Cristianismo en la antigua civilizacién
Rizal, they have the virtue of presenting the data of the past in some- tagdlog.”° Here, in answer to the articles written by the Dominican
what more dispassionate fashion. Their propaganda value was there- Bishop Ram6n Martinez Vigil, in which the latter had alluded to the
fore nothing like that of Rizal’s writings, but they too contributed to tendency among certain Filipino writers to exaggerate the ancient Fili-
the climate of thought created among Filipinos more impressively by pino civilization, Paterno tries to show that Christianity had existed in
Rizal’s Morga and his articles in La Solidaridad. They manifest the the Philippines before the coming of the Spaniards in the form of
bathalismo—the worship of the supreme being, Bathala—and dwells
same nationalistic desire to return to his people’s past that impelled
Rizal to undertake his own historical studies. on the body of doctrine he tries to associate with it.’ This was the
Another Filipino who turned his attention to the early Filipinos, reason, he asserts, why it had been so easy for the Spaniards to con-
though in a most exaggerated fashion, was Pedro Paterno. In 1887 he vert the lowland peoples to Catholicism in the sixteenth century. He
published in Madrid his La antigua civilizacién tagalog, which may per- goes on to try to show that such Christian doctrines as the Incarna-
haps be called a precursor of Rizal’s edition of Morga in the same tion and the Redemption, most of the sacraments, and even elements of
sense that Paterno’s Ninay was a precursor of Rizal’s Noli me téngere.* the mystery of the Trinity were all contained in bathalismo. The explana-
The book sets out to portray the early stages of development of “the tion of these most remarkable coincidences Paterno finds in an imag-
Luzonic Islands,” attempting to show the parallel between this civiliza- ined contact with the Indian civilization, which supposedly had received
tion and the early cultures of European nations. It is an undigested the preaching of the Apostles St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas.
mass of quotations—often several pages long—gathered from various Equally ingenious are La familia tagalog en la historia universal, pub-
sources and often irrelevant to its subject. This extravagant work is of lished the same year, dedicated to showing the superiority of ancient
no importance as a product of scholarship, but it does indicate a trend Filipino marriage customs and morality, and El Barangay, which out-
among thoughtful Filipinos to go back to the sources of their society, lines the organization of government under the barangay system of
to try to show the value of what was properly indigenous, and to as- pre-Hispanic times, concluding that the “Tagalog kingdom” was demo-
sert their own national personality on a level with the Spaniards.” cratic in organization, but with monarchic elements, all based on the
ancient principles of bathalismo.”®
24. La anligua civilizacién tagalog (Apuntes) (Madrid: Manuel Hernandez, 1887) ap-
26. [Pedro] Paterno, El cristianismo en la antigua civilizacién tagalog. Contestacion al
peared with the author’s name written thus: “Pedro Alexandro Molo Agustin Paterno
y de Vera Ignacio (Maguinoo Paterno).” The title “Maguinoo” was a title of the an- M.R.P. Fr. R. Martinez Vigil (Madrid: Imprenta Moderna, 1892). This book was pub-
cient Tagalog nobility, affected by Paterno, much to the amusement and scorn of his lished in installments in La Solidaridad, with a brief note that though Paterno was not
a member of the newspaper, the subject was of great interest, and therefore the edi-
fellow-Filipinos (see Cauit [Aguirre]-Rizal, Ep. Rizal., 1:280).
25, Rizal in a letter to Blumenwrtt discussing the Tagalog word Bathala (the an- tors had obtained his consent to print it here.
cient name for the Creator God) makes a remark about Paterno’s treatment of the 27. Martinez Vigil who had been, for many years, professor at the University of
question which might well be applied to the whole book: “As to the work of my coun- Santo Tomas but was at this time bishop of Oviedo in the Peninsula had written “La
tryman P. A. Paterno, on Bathala, pay no attention to it, I advise you. P. A. Paterno is antigua civilizacion de las islas Filipinas” in La Espana Moderna, Apr 1891; May 1891;
a kind of . . . I cannot find any word to express it except this drawing [there follows a June 1891.
spiral-like scrawl)” (Ep. Rizal., 5:105). 28. [Pedro] Paterno, El Barangay, con la relacién de Fr. Juan de Plasencia escrita en
In his Morga, however, Rizal merely says: “P. A. Paterno gives a very ingenious 1589 de cémo se gobernaban los tagalos en la antigiiedad (Madrid: Cuesta, 1892). Pardo de
interpretation ... [of Bathala]” (p. 311, n. 4). Tavera points out the falsity of Paterno’s assertion that he possessed the MS of Plasencia
Rizal, De los Reyes, and other intelligent Filipinos, of course, real- this noble and illustrious nation sealed with the pacto de sangre, have
ized the absurdity of Paterno’s specious displays of miscellaneous eru- given a special character to Spanish colonization. Therefore to counsel
the rejection of Filipino asimilismo is simply to desire the perjury of
dition, but from the opposition he aroused, many Spaniards seemed
Spain.”
to take him somewhat seriously.”’ Moreover, however slight might be
the scholarly value of such books as Paterno’s, they were symptomatic Rizal is more explicit in his assertion that Spain has violated her
of the growing conviction among Filipinos, nurtured more substan-
contract with the sovereign Filipino people. Commenting on Morga’s
tially and more effectively by Rizal: that the Filipinos had been a peo-
judgment that Filipino contracts and business dealings were generally
ple with a national identity of their own; that the Filipinos were as
illicit since the indios sought only their own advantage and interest,
good as, if not better than, the Spaniards; that the conquest by Spain Rizal says:
had perhaps been a mixed blessing for the Philippines.
One of the principal points emphasized in all these historical writ- Such also are the contracts of all nations and of all peoples, and
ings, and one that was to receive considerable practical development, such too, conceived in the same spirit, were the contracts which the
is the pacto de sangre. This custom among the ancient Filipinos of seal- first Spaniards made with the Filipino chiefs. Would that they had al-
ing a treaty of alliance and friendship by mixing the blood taken from ways abided by the letter of those contracts.
an incision in the arms of the two leaders entering into alliance had
been adopted by both Magellan and Legazpi with the native rulers Paterno too expanded on the doctrine of the pacto de sangre en-
with whom they first concluded a friendly alliance. The compact be- tered into between the early Spaniards and the maguinoos of the Fili-
tween Legazpi and Sikatuna had been celebrated by Juan Luna in his pino people not only in his books, but in speeches in Manila, and
El pacto de sangre, painted for the Ayuntamiento of Manila, and Span- spoke of the Filipinos as “ever-free allies” of Spain. All these state-
ments could, of course, be interpreted in a nonseditious sense, and
iards and Filipinos alike regarded it as a symbol of the union of the
Philippines and Spain. But the pacto de sangre had deeper implica- Paterno was always careful to add qualifications and explanations. But
tions, on which the Filipinos soon began to enlarge. they could also signify the right of Filipinos to withdraw from the
Paterno, Rizal, Del Pilar, presented the pact as a contractual agree- pact their ancestors had entered into, inasmuch as the Spaniards had
ment between equals, by which the Filipinos had sworn loyalty to the violated their side of the contract. This, in fact, Andrés Bonifacio would
king of Spain and simultaneously had become Spaniards in the full do in 1896 to start the Revolution through the Katipunan.
In a clandestine newspaper, Kalayaan [Freedom], printed in early
sense of the word. Del Pilar expresses this concept in an early article
in La Solidaridad: 1896, Bonifacio declared that by the pact between King Sikatuna and
Legazpi the Filipinos had accepted the Spanish offer to guide them
The annexation of the Philippines to Spain was effected under the ob- in both wisdom and prosperity in return for material aid to the Span-
ligation in honor on the part of the latter to assimilate the islanders to iards. Before the coming of the Spaniards, the Filipinos possessed
the conditions of Spain. The different oaths which representatives of of morality, and had commercial rela-
wealth, culture, a high code
tions with the rest of the Orient. Later, however, despite loyal
in his personal library. Pardo also asserts that a number of the books which Paterno fulfillment of the compact on the part of the Filipinos, giving their
was accustomed to list as further works of his, existed only in the imagination of their wealth and their blood in behalf of the Spaniards, the latter have
author, and qualifies him “un vulgar impostor” (Biblioteca, 302, nos. 1941 and 1944).
29, See the article “Pedro A. Paterno,” El Globo, 22 Jan 1894, defending him against
the attacks which had come from other newspapers in Madrid (especially La Politica de
Espana en Filipinas) on the occasion of his receiving the Gran Cruz de Isabel la Catélica, 30. “Asimilacién de Filipinas,” 30 Sept 1889; also his “Seamos justos,” 30 Apr 1891;
and being named director of the Museo-Biblioteca of Manila (a largely honorific post) and Filipinas en las Cortes, 9.
by Maura, then overseas minister. 31. Rizal-Morga, Sucesos, 304, n. 4; see also xxxiii, n. 1.
him than a mere step in the political program of nationalist propa-

failed to respond; they have destroyed Filipino customs by their im- he had lamented the hard
ganda. In an early letter to Blumentritt,
morality and false religion, and have impoverished them, persecuting
necessity that prevented the Filipino youth from devoting themselves
them if they complained. Hence the Filipinos are no longer bound
to scholarship “like the youth of happy nations. We must all offer
by the pacto de sangre, and not subject to Spanish sovereignty.”
Tagalog revolutionary and antifriar pamphlet, written for something to politics, even if we have no pleasure in it.” He spoke
Another by
with admiration of the knowledge of the Philippines possessed
mass consumption, has a dialogue between a katipunero and the peo- scholars, from which the Filipinos must
Blumentritt and other German
ple, telling the latter how originally the Philippines belonged to the
learn, and deplored that he would never be permitted to open a school
Filipinos, who knew the true God, who had kings, principales, and
in his own country. Could he only do that, he would “awaken these
great wealth. Then the friars came, and the kings and principales, out creates a true
studies of our homeland, this nosci te ipsum which
of the goodness of their hearts, gave them a place to live. Since then,
self-esteem, and spurs nations on to great deeds.”™*
the friars have been robbing the Filipinos by means of false miracu- the
Convinced of the importance of more profound knowledge of
lous images, fiestas, scapulars, fees for weddings, baptisms, etc. The idea early in 1889 of an Associati on
Philippines, Rizal conceive d the
pamphlet concludes with an inflammatory appeal to all to join in de- g scholars from all coun-
Internationale des Philippin istes, embracin
fending their homeland and driving out their oppressors, even with of the
tries who might be interested in the Philippines. The purpose
only a sharpened bamboo lance to put out the eyes of the bandit periodic internati onal congresse s,
Association would be to convoke
friars, etc.”’ This is a far cry from the scholarly researches of Rizal at the Paris Expositio n of that year; to
beginning with one to be held
amid the old chronicles of the British Museum or the ingenious subjects concerne d with the Philippin es;
hold public competit ions on
pseudo-erudition of Paterno, but the lineage is not difficult to trace. es. He
to work for a museum and a library devoted to the Philippin
to accept the presidenc y of the associati on, as the
asked Blumentritt
Rizal, Scholar and Nationalist Frenchman Edmond Plauchut had accepted the vice-pres idency,
Antonio Regidor and Doctor Reinhold Rost the posts of counsellors,
program
Rizal was by temperament and desire a scholar. Such scholarly work with Rizal himself as secretary.” He also sent to Blumentritt the
as his preparation of the edition of Morga meant something more to for the proposed International Congress to be held in August
1889, com-
prising historical, ethnological, philological, and other sections.”

Doc-
tagalog
In the succeeding months Rizal corresponded with Blumentritt,
32. Agapito Bagumbayan [Andrés Bonifacio], “Ang dapat mabatid ng mga and others, trying to get noted scientists from
Retana, tor Adolf B. Meyer,
[What the Tagalogs Should Know],” reproduced in a Spanish translation in
of the
Archivo, 3:144-48. For the identity of Agapito Bagumbayan and the background
that the
newspaper Kalayaan, see Agoncillo, 79-80, 91-93, 333. Majul (p. 77) notes
in his
Filipino representative Felipe Agoncillo also made use of this “compact theory”
in his message of 34, Ep. Rizal., 5:110-11, 13 Apr 1887.
official protest against the Treaty of Paris, as did General Aguinaldo had been in the Philippines some years
35. Plauchut was a French writer who
1900 to the Filipino people.
la earlier. See p. 8, note 6 above.
33. The pamphlet is preserved in a MS Spanish translation entitled: “Respuesta a birth, was an expert in Asian languages, and li-
tes de Rost, an Englishman of German
‘Medicina que da la vida,’ compuesta por Frailes fementidos representan of publications on India
brarian of the India Office in London. He had a number
Jesucristo, a fin de que se eviten sus lazos.” The pamphlet being combated, by an been surpassed by very few as a universal linguist
manga and on Sanskrit, and is said to have
Augustinian Friar, is entitled: Ang cagamutang macabubuhay 0 casaysayan nang Rost [1822-96], ” Dictionary of National Biography,
t sila sa manga basagulo, (Arthur Naylor Wollaston, “Reinhold
catutuhanang dapat maalaman nang manga lauo nang macapag-inga
which 17:290-91).
quinatha nang isang Padre [The life-giving remedy, or an account of the truths letter were the pro-
to be on their guard against disturbances , written by a 36. Rizal-Blumentritt, Ep. Rizal., 5:375-79. Enclosed in this
men should know in order for the projected congress (ibid.,
are posed statutes of the association, and the program
Padre] (Malabon: Asilo de Huérfanos de Ntra. Sra. de Consolacién, 1896). (Both
383-89).
in ADN, leg. 219-A.)
each of the major countries of Europe for the Junta Directiva.”’ Be- enable him to get the Association underway." He would never receive
sides Blumentritt from Austria-Hungary, there was Meyer from Ger- that money, however, for by this time the Rizal family were deeply
many, Rost from England, Plauchut from France, and apparently Dr. involved in their lawsuit against the Dominican hacienda, which would
Johan G. F. Riedel from Holland.”* At the beginning of April, Rizal finally result in their eviction. For the remainder of his stay in Europe
answered Del Pilar’s inquiry as to conditions of membership, stating Rizal would have difficulties enough in supporting himself, and the
that anyone who wished to do so might become a member of the Association remained but a dream.
Association, provided that he was engaged in studies on the history, Rizal, however, kept in constant touch with the scholarly world of
languages, customs, politics, etc. of the Philippines. Anyone who had Europe all through his career. Already in 1887, during his stay in
published a book on the Islands would be admitted as an honorary Berlin, he had become acquainted through Blumentritt with the noted
member.” scholars Rudolf Virchow, Feodor Jagor, and Wilhelm Joest, all of whom
On his arrival in Paris, however, he found that the French Govern- had written on the Philippines.” Through Virchow, who was its presi-
became a member of the Berliner Gesellschaft fur
ment had limited the number of congresses that might be held and dent, he
that, his could not obtain the required permission. Nonetheless, he Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, and in April 1887 read
conferred with Rost and Meyer during their visits to the Exposition, a paper before this society on the art of versification in Tagalog. Later,
and tried to persuade Blumentritt to come at Rizal’s expense.” The in London, he became an intimate friend of the distinguished Orien-
Association, however, never really came into being. Answering talist Reinhold Rost, also through Blumentritt.” Through Rost he pub-
Blumentritt’s inquiry in October, Rizal said that it would have to re-
main dormant until he finished his Morga. But in April 1890 he was
still waiting anxiously for the money to come from the Philippines to 41. Ibid., 552. In a letter of 10 Feb 1890, Del Pilar announced to Rizal that Arellano
had designated sev-
(presumably on behalf of the Comité de Propaganda in Manila)
enty pesetas as a contributi on for the association (Ep. Pilar, 1:208).
of cellular pathology and a leader of the Liberal opposi-
42. Virchow, the founder
an anthropolo-
37. Meyer was director of the Royal Ethnographical Museum of Dresden. Earlier tion to Bismarck in Germany as well as of the Kulturkampf, was also
mountain tribes
he had spent a number of years travelling in the Philippines in anthropological stud- gist, who had published a number of studies on the skulls of certain
Erwin Heinz
ies and in assembling an outstanding collection of Philippine objects for the museum. in the Philippines (see Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca, 431-32 and
Statesman, Anthropologist [Madison: University of
He was a close friend and collaborator of Blumentritt, through whom he had struck Ackerknecht, Rudolph Virchow: Doctor,
with Virchow at the
up a friendship with Rizal on the latter’s visit to Dresden in 1887. Rizal and Meyer Wisconsin Press, 1953], 217). For Rizal’s account of his meeting
meeting of the Gesellschaf t fir Erdkunde of Berlin, see his letter to
were to continue their friendship by correspondence right up to the former’s death. monthly
proposed for membershi p in the society by
Pardo de Tavera (Biblioteca, 265-66) lists some of Meyer’s more important scholarly Blumentritt, Ep. Rizal., 5:57-58. He was
publications on the Philippines. See also “Meyer, Adolf Bernhard,” Der Grosse Brockhaus, either Virchow or Jagor.
author of Reisen in
15th ed., 12:493. Jagor, who had travelled in the Philippines in 1859-60, was the
1873). The book is a principal source for life in mid-nineteenth
38. Having first thought of asking Kern (see note 44) as the Dutch representative, den Philippinen (Berlin,
because of its sci-
Rizal then requested Meyer to propose one. The latter first named Dr. G.K. Niemann century Philippines, and ranks far above the usual travel literature
It was used liberally by both the Filipinos and their
[the editors of Ep. Rizal have Niumann, but this is an error in transcription]. When entific point of view and accuracy.
for liberal reforms.
Niemann declined with the plea of excessive occupations, Meyer suggested Riedel. opponents in the polemics on the readiness of the Philippines
expeditions he had
Though Rizal wrote to him, there is no further letter to show whether or not he Joest was a world traveller and ethnographer. On one of his
the Philippines and had published articles on it in ethnograph ical journals
accepted. There is, however, an announcement of the Association, with its prospectus visited
Deutsche Biographie 50:680-83) .
and list of officers, by Rost in “Oriental Notes,” Triibner’s Record, 3rd series, March (Victor Hantzsch, “Joest, Wilhelm J.,” Aligemeine
Rizal., 5:66, 249-52. According to Regidor, Rizal was a
1889, in which Riedel is listed among the conseillewrs. 43. Rizal-Blumentritt, Lp.
Vida, 171).
39, Ep. Pilar, 1:73, 81. regular Sunday guest at the Rost home during his stay in London (Retana,
a friendly and scientific correspond ence, like Meyer’s, until
40. Rizal-Blumentritt, 23 Apr 1889, Ep. Rizal., 5:425-27. It does not appear that Rizal and Rost continued
Blumentritt took advantage of the invitation. Rizal’s death in 1896.
234 Education for the Future Education for the Future 259)
lished articles on Tagalog folklore in Triibner’s Record, one of which education without reference to the government, he himself saw the
was later the subject of a paper at an international congress of Orien- matter as providing his people with an escritura nacional, and wrote to
talists in Stockholm by another acquaintance of Rizal’s, Doctor Hendrik Ponce, on receiving the first copies of pamphlets printed in the new
Kern, professor of Sanskrit at the University of Leiden in Holland system, that now it could be said the Filipinos had their own orthog-
and a specialist in Malay languages. raphy.’ An indication of the nationalist character of the innovation
During his studies too he had become interested in a reform of may be found in the fact that of all the Tagalog books or pamphlets
spelling for the Tagalog language, basing it on the actual phonetic printed between 1890 and 1900 listed in the Biblioteca filipina of Pardo
system of the language rather than on Spanish orthography. Already de Tavera, none of those written by Spaniards adopted the new or-
in 1886 when translating Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell into Tagalog, he had thography, while all those written by Filipino nationalists did so.”
begun to adopt the orthographic changes he felt were needed, and
urged his friends to do likewise.” Meanwhile Doctor Trinidad H. Pardo
de Tavera, trained as he was in Malay languages, had published a
Rizal and the Education of His People
more complete and perfect system of orthography based on the na- Filipinos, Rizal
In his essay introducing the new orthography to the
ture of Tagalog. On becoming aware of Pardo de Tavera’s work, Rizal about the old
mentions that he had been stimulated to do something
adopted his improvement and published an article in La Solidaridad methods used
orthography while making studies of the pedagogical
in April 1890, explaining the new system and its advantages. Through 1886-87. Edu-
in the schools of Saxony during his stay in Germany in
his advocacy the new orthography eventually displaced the older one career, for his
cation is the key to understanding much of Rizal’s
entirely in spite of, or perhaps because of, the ridiculous charges of
whole career was bound up with education: his own education and
such Spanish Manila journalists as Quioquiap that the “k” introduced
the education of his people. Fired by the resolve to improve himself
by the reform was of German origin and that the whole project was a
clear case of filibusterismo. at every opportunity, learning one new language after another, Be
urged Del Pilar to learn French or English on his arrival in Spain
More than a mere spelling reform was at stake. Besides the broader that
because the language “opens to you the treasures of a eee
implications involved in Rizal’s taking measures to reform Philippine Each coun-
is, the knowledge , the science stored up in the language.”
try he visited, he felt, had something to offer from which he might
44, Rizal’s articles in Triibner’s Record (3rd series, May 1889 and July 1889) were learn to help bring progress to the Filipinos.
“Specimens of Tagal Folklore,” and “Two Eastern Fables.” Rost was the editor of this
journal. The second article is a comparative study of the fable of the tortoise and the
monkey in its Japanese and its Tagalog versions. Rizal., 3:32. The pamphlet was the Arancel referred to in chap-
46. Rizal-Ponce, Ep.
On Kern, see Herman van Looy, “Kern (Johan) Hendrik (Caspar),” Winkler Prins ter 8.
Encyclopaedie, ed. E. De Bruyne, G.B,J. Hiltermann, H.R. Hoetbink; 6th ed., 12:70. A 47. Curiously enough, one of Pardo de Tavera’s own medical pamphlets, translated
number of Kern’s articles on the Philippines are listed by Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca, into Tagalog in 1895 still uses the old system. This is an indication of the difference
222-23. between the latter’s advocacy of the changes, based on purely philological grounds,
on the
45. In a letter to Paciano from Leipzig, 12 Oct 1886, he sends the translation, and Rizal’s, based more on nationalist grounds. Pardo had published an article
put
asking Paciano and his brothers-in-law to check the Tagalog for him (One Hundred, subject in a Manila newspaper in 1888, without apparent effect, but when Rizal’
300). The translation was not published at that time, nor was Rizal able to carry through the reform in its nationalist context and put his own prestige behind it, it was quickly
de
his plan, also announced to Paciano in this letter, of devoting himself on his return to adopted (see De los Reyes, Historia de Ilocos, 1:162, n. 2). It may well be that Pardo
the Philippines to the translation of French, English, German, Italian, and Spanish refrained from using his own orthographic system (though he is
Tavera deliberately
taken
classics into Tagalog. The only other translation seems to have been some of the tales not the translator of his pamphlet [ Biblioteca, 300, nos. 1928-29]) because it had
of Hans Christian Andersen. The translation of the Wilhelm Tell was later published by on a nationalist connotation, and Pardo was very careful not to be publicly associated
Ponce: Friedrich von Schiller, Wilhelm Tell, tr. José Rizal, ed. Mariano Ponce (“Biblioteca with the Filipino nationalists up to 1896, though privately on friendly terms.
Popular Filipina,” 1; Manila: Libreria Manila Filatélica, 1907). 48. Rizal-Del Pilar [January 1889], Ep. Pilar, 1:16.
Education for the Future ZaT
Education for the Future
re greater self-dedication
Even as a young student in 1883, he lamented to his family that so One notable attempt of Rizal to inspi
furth er the education of those
few Filipinos were studying various crafts and industries, such as the among the Filipinos in Europe and to
Indio s Bravos during the Paris
manufacture of paper, of glass, of porcelain, of textiles, etc. Rather at home was the organization of Los
exhibit at the Ex-
than concentrate on law and medicine, as almost all do, they should Exposition in 1889. The occasion was a Wild West back.
showed their skills on horse
imitate the Japanese and turn to industry, engineering, and agricul- position, in which American Indians
tion and applause
ture. In 1890 he sought information from Blumentritt on the cur- Impressed by these “Wild Indians” and the atten
suggested to his comp anio ns that instead of re-
ricula of the university-level technical and engineering schools in they received, Rizal
senting the derogatory name of indio applied to them by the Span-
Germany and Austria, so that the Filipinos who would go there could
race and call themselves Indios
determine what best suited their purposes. Rizal appears to have per- iards, they ought to take pride in their
as to make Spaniards re-
suaded José Abreu, José Alejandrino, and Edilberto Evangelista, three Bravos, while they so conducted themselves
frequ ently appeal to this con-
of the Filipino students in Madrid, to leave for Ghent to study engi- vise their idea of the indio. He would
s.
neering. Pedro Serrano too appears to have been influenced by Rizal cept of the Indios Bravos in succeeding month
group , for precisely at the ume
to come to Europe and continue his pedagogical studies in Spain so Yet there was something more to the
Hong Kong, telling him that
as to obtain the title of Maestro Superior.” it was founded, Rizal wrote to Basa in
Always combined with this insistence on the Filipinos perfecting we have just founded a society which has as its only purpose the
propa-
themselves intellectually was an equal insistence on the intense moral ), be they scientific, artistic, liter-
gation of all useful skills (conocimientos
involve any further obligations
seriousness demanded of those who were working for national regen- ary, etc., in the Philippines. It does not
to each other when it is a question of propagat-
eration. After various reports had reached him in Brussels, where he than that of giving aid
was working on his second novel, of the gambling going on among ing some skill or knowledge.”
the Filipinos in Madrid, he wrote to Del Pilar: ge with the initial Rd. L.M., he
For instance, if Basa received a packa
arrived in the Philip-
Is there nothing there to remind them that the Filipino does not come was to take special care to see that the package
initials LB. Rd. L.M. (arra nged in a special fashion
to Europe to gamble and enjoy himself, but to work for his liberty and pines; if it had the
to be taken.” Basa was to be the
for the dignity of his race? To gamble there is no need to leave the Rizal indicated), even more care was
nue as before, making sure
Philippines, there is too much gambling there already. If we, who are correspondent of the society and to conti
(on ships), etc. at his dispo-
that there were Chinese, sailors, servants
called to do something, if we, in whom the poor people places its mod-
est hopes, pass our time in these things, precisely when the years of such as the propagation of
our youth ought to be used in something more noble and grand by the sition “to foster the ends of our society,
on nor politics have any part
very fact that youth is noble and generous, I have great fears that we instruction in our country. Neither religi
initials in his letters to
may be struggling for a useless illusion, and that instead of being wor- in these matters.” Basa too should use these
the “principal men in each de-
thy of liberty, we may only be worthy of slavery. Barcelona and Madrid, but only with
I appeal to the patriotism of all the Filipinos to give to the Spanish one can have confidence,” such
partment, and the persons in whom
people a proof that we are superior to our misfortune, and that we Roxas, etc.
as Del Pilar, Ponce, Llorente, Aguilera,
cannot be degraded nor our noble sentiments be lulled to slumber by
the corruption of morals.”
e’s reply to Rizal's invitation that he join:
51. Ep. Rizal., 2:222-23. See also Liorent tion”
ion, the primary purpose of that associa
Such exhortations, often repeated by Rizal, worked on certain indi- “fT will do all I can in favor of educat
viduals, but often they merely alienated the Filipinos addressed. (Ibid., p. 229). to be
the meaning of these initials. If it is
52, | have been unable to determine
c, in accord ance with what is said below,
supposed that the organization was Masoni in Masonic
could well stand Masénica,” as is not uncommon
for “Logia
49. One Hundred, 166-67; Ep. Rizal., 3:103,108-9; Ponce-De Veyra, Efemérides, 170-71. the “L.M.”
50. Ep. Pilar, 1:220-21. documents.

The association showed little activity once the Indios Bravos had The bearer of the letter was evidently a Filipino priest, most likely
returned to Madrid. Rizal, who signed his letters G.[ran] Indio Bravo, Father José Chanco, who was to be active at the end of the Spanish
kept writing to encourage and inspire, but without getting much re- regime in pleading the case of the Filipino priests against friars in
sponse, as he complained to Del Pilar. On hearing again of the dissi- Rome and who actually received a canonry in Puerto Rico in Becerra’s
pation of the Filipinos in Madrid, who squandered their time because subsequent term as overseas minister, in 1894.°
they had more money than was good for them, he wrote to Baldomero It may be asked in connection with this letter what the not-so-obvi-
Roxas and to the other Indios Bravos, urging them to try to raise the ous nature of the organization of Indios Bravos was. The appeal to
moral level of the Colony. the positions held by Del Pilar and Llorente in “your Society” undoubt-
edly had to do with Masonry, an inference that makes sense in the
Let us see if you can preach to them with your example: precisely at light of the reference to Morayta and Becerra. The need for strict
the present when we are engaged in battle, we must redouble all our secrecy with regard to Chanco’s membership, the appellation “brother,”
efforts, we must sacrifice all to the good of our fatherland. Without
and the mention of the “second degree,” give further grounds for
virtue there is no liberty. I am trying to address myself to all the Filipi-
presuming that a Masonic organization was involved. Moreover, the
nos, to arouse their interest in reforming the spirit of the Colony, to
create a Colony which is serious, hard-working, and studious. . . . Only description of the society given by Rizal to Basa in the letter cited
virtues can redeem the slave; it is the only way to make the tyrants above as alien to religion and politics, devoted to the propagation of
respect us and to get foreigners to make common cause with us.” useful knowledge, and offering mutual help for these ends dovetails
with the professed aims of Masonry. Nonetheless, since several, if not
If this appeal had any sobering effect, it did not last long since Rizal all, of the known Indios Bravos were already affiliated with Masonry,
would soon be writing again, but he no longer addressed his appeals it is hard to see what purpose would have been served in founding
to the Indios Bravos, which had presumably faded from the scene. another Masonic group.” What seems more likely is that the Indios
One letter suggests, however, that there may have been something Bravos was an organization partially modeled on Masonry like the Liga
more to the organization than appears on the surface. In writing to Del Filipina, which Rizal would found in 1892 in Manila, with very similar
Pilar on 4 November 1889, Rizal makes the following communication: ends of education in its broadest sense and mutual help.
The bearer of this letter is a secret brother of ours in the Rd. L.M.
holding the second degree. No one ought to come to know that he is a
brother except the two of us.
He is making the trip there to Madrid in connection with an affront 55. Chanco was certainly in Madrid in 1890 and 1891, and in close and regular
he has suffered in Manila. So that in the future he may not again be contact with the Filipino colony there (Ep. Rizal., 3:1, 213). Presumably he stayed
humiliated, he desires to obtain a high dignity in the cathedral, such as there until 1894 when he received his canonry from Becerra, as La Solidaridad implies
a canonry. Therefore, according to his promise to me that he will help in announcing the post, speaking of him as one of the “familia filipina de Madrid,”
us secretly to the utmost of his ability, I am offering him our help in and a friend since student days at the University of Santo Tomas (“El P. Chanco,” 31
return. I believe that you and Llorente, in accordance with the posi- May 1894). For Chanco’s activity in Rome later, see the pamphlet by José M. Chanco
tions you hold in your Society, can help him. He has money to spend, Reyes and Salustiano Araullo y Nonato, Memoria para plan de representacion y procuracion
but if it is possible that he not be “milked,” it would be better. What is del pueblo y clero filipinos en Roma, con las gestiones hechas desde el 20 de Junio de 1900 ante
saved can be given to the Sol... In my opinion you can play on the la Suprema Corte Vaticana en defensa de los legitimos intereses, por los sacerdotes J.C.R. y S.A.N.
determination [kalooban] of Morayta and Becerra; the others, who may (Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca, 126, no. 785.) The pope refused to see them, as appears
act deaf, may be made to hear the jingling [of money] in their ears." from the pamphlet. I have seen a MS copy with slight variations in title in the Coleccién
Pastells, vol. 110, doc. 46, fols. 203-15, in AT.
56. All the “Indios Bravos” in Madrid were certainly Masons in the lodge
53. Rizal-Roxas, 28 Dec 1889, One Hundred, 539-40. “Solidaridad” the following year, and at least Del Pilar, Llorente, Bautista were already
54. Ep. Pilar, 1:202. Masons at this time with high degrees.
Even more important in Rizal’s judgment than learning from other over, they should buy books written by Filipinos, mention the authors’
nations was the need to cultivate and propagate among Filipinos the names and quote from the writings of such talented Filipinos as Fathers
“heimatliche Studien”—studies of his native land—he had spoken of Peldez, Garcia, and Burgos, and of contemporaries like Lopez Jaena.
to Blumentritt. For this reason he had felt the need to devote himself “We have to bring out into the light our plana mayor, which as a matter
to prolonged study in the British Museum of the history, administra- of fact is of high quality, but they do not make it known as such.”
tion, etc., of the Philippines, not only for the preparation of his Morga, In a letter to Father Vicente Garcia, written in gratitude for the
but for all his patriotic efforts. He outlined his ideas at some length in a latter’s defense of the Noli me téngere, Rizal enlarged on the need to
letter to his friends in the Barcelona colony at the beginning of 1889: tum to the outstanding Filipinos of the past and of the present for
guidance, for in carrying on
I recommend that you try to buy and read, though with a critical
sense, all the books you see published there on the Philippines; you the titanic work of the common regeneration, without failing to march
our elders to
must study all matters related to our country. The knowledge of a thing forward, we turn our vision from time to time towards
prepares its mastery; to know is to master. We are the only ones who read in their countenances the verdict on our actions.
can come to that perfect knowledge of our country, because we know
both languages, and besides we are informed of the secrets of the peo- Urging the need to have the elders record the lessons of their experi-
generations to come, so that the work of national bet-
ple in whose midst we are educating ourselves. The Spaniards will never ences for the
come to know us well, because they have many prejudices, they do not terment may not always have to begin anew, he argues:
mix with the people, they do not understand the language well, and
they stay there only a short time. The most they can know is what goes The whole reason for the little progress that the Filipinos have made
on in the offices, and that is not the country. Learn, so that when the in these three centuries of espariolismo is, to my mind, the fact that our
hour arrives, it may not find you unprepared. great talents have died without bequeathing us anything more than the
a
fame of their name. We have had very great intellects, we have had
a Dr.
Shortly thereafter he wrote to Del Pilar, urging that one of the Pimpin, a Dr. Pilapil, Father Peldez, a Father Mariano Garcia,
and
Joson, etc.; we still have a Benedicto Luna, a Lorenzo Francisco,
Barcelona Filipinos learn Italian (“Italian is easy; it can be learned in men have studied, learned, and dis-
others besides.” Yet, all that these
a month by the Ahn Method.”), because
I have here Italian manuscripts treating of the first coming of the Span-
iards to the Philippines. They are written by a companion of Magellan, 58. Ibid., 149. Pinawa is unpolished rice.
Filipino printer,
and since I have no time to translate them because of my many occu- 59. Tomas Pimpin (Pinpin) was one of the first, if not the first
y the first
pations, it would be good that one of our countrymen translate them and author of a Spanish grammar in Tagalog published in 1610, undoubtedl
to Tagalog or Spanish, so that people may know in what state we were with a Filipino author, Lébrong pagaaralan nang manga Tagalog nang uicang
printed book
in 1520. Castilla (1610) (Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca, 309, no. 1983).
For many years
Dr. Mariano Pilapil was a Filipino priest, born in Bulacan in 1756.
José, and was a
Rizal had always regarded La Solidaridad as an educational organ, he was professor of Latin and of rhetoric in the Colegio de San
directed primarily towards the Philippines. Therefore, he wrote to distinguished poet, preacher, and writer in Tagalog (“Pilapil, Mariano Bernabé,” Espasa,
44:868-69).
Ponce, it would be a good idea that part of the income from La archdeacon of
Father Mariano Garcia (1778-1871) was a Filipino priest, canon and
Solidaridad should be spent on books treating of the Philippines. These the Manila Cathedral, rector of the Colegio de San José for twenty-seve n years (Manuel,
the editors should study, “but carefully and critically, since most of Dictionary, 1:182-84).
these works have much pinawa, and they are written by them.” More- I have been unable to find any information on Joson, or on Francisco.
a private sec-
Benedicto Luna (1838-99) was known as a philosopher. He opened
Manila, which was most noted among private schools of
ondary school in Sta. Cruz,
57, Ep. Rizal., 2:55-56, 99,118. the time (Encyclopedia of the Philippines, 3:491-92).
covered, will die in them, and will come to an end in them, and we will The following month, though in less effusive fashion, he repeated
once more recommence the study of life. There is then, a progress or his intention to Del Pilar, urging the latter always to sign his articles
perfecting on the individual level in the Philippines, but not one which so that his name would become better known and would eclipse Rizal’s,
is national, general. This is why only the individual perfects himself, and for it was Del Pilar who should take the position of deputy of the
not the species. Philippines when the time came, while Rizal retired to devote himself
to teaching. °
This compelling idea invested Rizal with the sense of vocation he
Once, probably when he saw little hope of returning to the Philip-
so frequently showed in speaking of his books. He, like other Filipi- pines, Rizal thought of opening a school in Paris. Later when he de-
to the ways of thought, to the teach-
nos, must look to the customs, cided to leave Europe, but could not return to the Philippines, he
ings of their forbears. But he must also pass on the knowledge he decided on a school in Hong Kong modeled on the Jesuit colleges, to
had gained for himself through his laborious studies, through his ac- which young Filipinos might come. Having obtained the promise of
quaintance with other countries, through his experiences. That knowl- Mariano Cunanan, one of his Filipino companions from Madrid, to
put up the necessary capital for the school, Rizal drew up the plan of
edge must not be lost, but handed on to generations to come.
This compulsion to teach, to communicate his learning to his fel- studies, disciplinary regulations, etc.” Though circumstances did not
low countrymen, found expression in manifold ways. It was but natu- favor his proceeding with the Hong Kong project, he never aban-
ral that in his university days Rizal had hoped and planned to engage doned the urge to teach. During his exile in Dapitan, he first worked
in formal teaching. He seems never to have lost sight of this ideal. In with his old Jesuit professor, Father Francisco Sanchez, to supplement
early 1890 when the negotiations with Calvo Munoz brightened pros- the education of the local children with special classes on Sundays,
pects of parliamentary representation for the Philippines, he wrote to
and later opened a school of his own. Success attended his efforts in
Blumentritt of his dreams in an outpouring of youthful idealism. He this small provincial town in Mindanao, but later events forced him
believes, he says, that the time is near when he will be able to return
to give it all up."
to the Philippines to found a school with a great library.” Then
Though Rizal did not reject political means in the struggle for his
Blumentritt can come to be director of the school, and both will dedi- people’s freedom, he assented to such measures with a certain reluc-
tance, as if he were putting up with a necessary evil. Del Pilar, on the
cate themselves to science and be like Goethe and Schiller, with all
the youth of the Philippines coming to sit at their feet. Once Filipino other hand, while applauding all that could lead to the proper recog-
there will be voices there to speak
nition of Filipino capacity and interested in raising the level of the
representatives sit in the Cortes,
out against abuses, so that there will then be personal security for people’s education, generally had a pragmatic eye on the political use
Rizal in the Philippines. “Then we will rest, and devote all our powers to be made of this knowledge and firmly believed in political propa-
to the education of the people, for this is my highest aim.” ganda and political negotiations as the means of winning liberty for
62. Ep. Rizal., 5:546-48; 3:7-8.

60. Ep. Rizal., 3:136-37.
63. Retana, Vida, 193; Ep. Rizal., 3:143.
61. On Rizal’s library, which contained over a thousand titles, see Esteban A. de and
64. The MS “Diario de la Casa de Dapitan” in AT gives details of Rizal’s school
Ocampo, Rizal as a Bibliophile (Manila, 1960). The memoirs of the Madrid bookseller of the parish priest, Father Antonio Obach,
the success it had in spite of the opposition
Pedro Vindel contain some interesting details on Rizal’s urging him in 1884 to collect of Father Sanchez, and
SJ., who had had differences with Rizal after the departure
everything available on the Philippines. Rizal bought as many of these books as his Rizal became conscious of the
considered him a bad influence on the children. When
finances allowed at the time, and recommended Paterno to buy the rest. He renewed Santos, “Mas
he voluntarily closed the school. See also Epifanio de los
opposition,
his urgings in 1890, promising that if he should get the money, he would buy heavily
sobre Rizal,” Philippine Review 1 (December 1916): 24-25; 37-44; and my article, “Some
from Vindel. (See Paul Cid Noé [Francisco Vindel, Pedro Vindel: Historia de una libreria
Notes on Rizal in Dapitan,” Philippine Studies 11 (1963): 301-13.
[1865-1921] (Madrid, 1945], 176-77.)
the Filipinos.” Since both men recognized the need of the course of CHAPTER 12
action the other pursued, they could work together for a time to at-
tain their common goals, but a clash between two such disparate per- Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar
sonalities and such different concepts of what was primary to the
national struggle was bound to come, as it did not long after Rizal
joined the Madrid colony in 1890.
Mid-1890 saw the high point of the Propaganda Movement.

Del Pilar, as sole editor, had set up La Solidaridad in Madrid. The
65. E.g., Filipinas en las Cortes, 11, where Del Pilar summarizes many of the points paper was doing itself proud with regular articles by Del Pilar, Rizal,
made by Rizal to enforce his proposition that parliamentary representation should not
Blumentritt, Antonio Luna, Dominador Gémez, and Mariano Ponce.
be denied on the grounds that the Filipinos are incapable of civilization.
The Del Pilar and Rizal pamphlets of 1888-89 were circulating rela-
tively widely in the Philippines, and financial support sent to Madrid
was apparently adequate and regular.
Most of the Filipinos in Spain had been organized into a Masonic
lodge of their own in which Del Pilar had a leading role. Together
with the Asociacién Hispano-Filipina, it was providing means of influ-
encing Spanish politicians to endorse Filipino aims. The contact with
Becerra in particular seemed to augur well for the future, and his
proposed educational and other reforms in the Philippines threat-
ened to erode the influence of the friars and the church. The issue
of parliamentary representation had been raised and supported in
the Cortes, and seemed to have the backing of the overseas minister
and the incumbent Liberal government.
Rizal had published his edition of Morga’s history, which was al-
ready circulating in the Philippines, and was now working on the se-
quel to the Noli, a novel that would enlarge on the message of the
Noli and further stir up the hearts of his countrymen. The essential
objects gained, Rizal could return to the Philippines to devote him-
self to the continuing education of his people while Del Pilar could
assume the post of deputy in the Cortes to continue to watch out for
Filipino interests from a stronger position.
245
the Filipinos.” Since both men recognized the need of the course of CHAPTER 12
action the other pursued, they could work together for a time to at-
tain their common goals, but a clash between two such disparate per- Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar
sonalities and such different concepts of what was primary to the
national struggle was bound to come, as it did not long after Rizal
joined the Madrid colony in 1890.
Mid-1890 saw the high point of the Propaganda Movement.

Del Pilar, as sole editor, had set up La Solidaridad in Madrid. The
65. E.g., Filipinas en las Cortes, 11, where Del Pilar summarizes many of the points paper was doing itself proud with regular articles by Del Pilar, Rizal,
made by Rizal to enforce his proposition that parliamentary representation should not
Blumentritt, Antonio Luna, Dominador Gémez, and Mariano Ponce.
be denied on the grounds that the Filipinos are incapable of civilization.
The Del Pilar and Rizal pamphlets of 1888-89 were circulating rela-
tively widely in the Philippines, and financial support sent to Madrid
was apparently adequate and regular.
Most of the Filipinos in Spain had been organized into a Masonic
lodge of their own in which Del Pilar had a leading role. Together
with the Asociacién Hispano-Filipina, it was providing means of influ-
encing Spanish politicians to endorse Filipino aims. The contact with
Becerra in particular seemed to augur well for the future, and his
proposed educational and other reforms in the Philippines threat-
ened to erode the influence of the friars and the church. The issue
of parliamentary representation had been raised and supported in
the Cortes, and seemed to have the backing of the overseas minister
and the incumbent Liberal government.
Rizal had published his edition of Morga’s history, which was al-
ready circulating in the Philippines, and was now working on the se-
quel to the Noli, a novel that would enlarge on the message of the
Noli and further stir up the hearts of his countrymen. The essential
objects gained, Rizal could return to the Philippines to devote him-
self to the continuing education of his people while Del Pilar could
assume the post of deputy in the Cortes to continue to watch out for
Filipino interests from a stronger position.
245
246 Rizal's Break with Del Pilar Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar 247
These high hopes received their first damaging blow with the fall when efforts were made to turn over the lands of the dispossessed to
of the Sagasta ministry, the promises of Becerra and Sagasta still a others, no one would take them, and they were left uncultivated.”
thing of the future. In Del Pilar’s view, however, the blow was by no Given the complicated system of land tenure in operation at the
means mortal. Without wasting a moment on futile breast-beating, he time, the absence of an adequate system of land-title registration, the
set about deploying his forces once more to renew the battle. The fact that the hacienda normally passed on leases from father to chil-
following six months were to see great activity on the part of the dren, it is difficult, if not impossible in the present state of evidence
Filipinos in Madrid. Rizal’s arrival appeared to give the Filipino colony to say just where legal right in the matter lay? As the Rizal family
the shot in the arm it needed, making it more cohesive. Appearances lawyer, Felipe Buencamino, wrote to José early in 1891, “The friars
were deceiving, however, and the train of events was already underway, cannot prove their ownership of the lands of Calamba, but your towns-
gathering momentum, that would eventually wreck the whole organi- men cannot do so either.” The only thing certain, he went on to say,
zation in spite of the achievements still to come. was the historical fact of rent having been paid, which created a legal
presumption in favor of the Dominicans.
The Calamba Hacienda Troubles In May 1890 Paciano wrote to his brother on hearing that Nozaleda,
the new Dominican Archbishop of Manila, had indirectly proposed to
Events set in motion three years earlier, when Rizal was in his home Del Pilar a formula of accommodation to resolve the struggle of the
town of Calamba, were now coming to a head. In answer to an offi- Filipino group in Europe against the friars. If the Calamba question en-
cial inquiry on land holdings and rents, the principalia of Calamba, tered into the proposal, Paciano declared, the majority of the Calambenos
apparently inspired, or at least aided by Rizal, had taken occasion to were in favor of some kind of compromise, since they recognized that
present their long-standing grievances against the hacienda adminis- the larger part of the hacienda lands belonged to the Dominicans from
tration. Alleging that the boundaries of the hacienda had been ex- their original purchase in the early nineteenth century. However, after
tended beyond its original limits to include lands cleared by individuals, manifesting the opinion of the people, Paciano went on to make clear
that hacienda rents were excessive and raised arbitrarily in such a way that there was more involved than the land dispute:
as to discourage agricultural progress, they demanded either an equita-
ble formal contract between tenants and hacienda, or the sale of the If the accommodation in the above sense cannot injure the cause which
you are upholding, you can propose it, so as to put a halt to the unbear-
lands to those who had cleared them. A subsequent petition to the gov-
able situation in which the people find themselves. If it would be harm-
ernment, also having Rizal as its principal author, called into question
ful, I will always believe that interests of secondary order should be
the legitimacy of the title to at least part of the hacienda lands.' subordinated.”
Even after Rizal’s departure from the Philippines, the larger pro-
portion of the tenants refused to pay further rent to the hacienda,
demanding to see the titles. When the hacienda began to take the 2. Ep. Rizal., 2:104-5; 3:34; 4:166; One Hundred, 372. (Internal evidence shows that
the first and third of these letters should be dated in 1890.)
cases to court and procure eviction orders against those who had re-
3. José S. Arcilla, SJ., “Documents concerning the Calamba Deportations of 1891”
fused to pay, Rizal encouraged them in their resistance, so that the (Philippine Studies 18 (1970): 577-633) has reproduced an account from the Domini-
case might be raised to the Supreme Court in Spain, as indeed it can archives, written in 1909 by the former administrator of the hacienda, Fray Felipe
eventually was. In Calamba meanwhile, the resistance was coordinated Dominguez. Though it contains some clear inaccuracies, such as referring to Paciano
by Rizal’s brother and brothers-in-law, particularly Manuel Timoteo as Ponciano, it provides some insight into the complexity of the original dispute, and
how both sides could honestly consider their positions justified. Nonetheless, it still
Hidalgo. Tenants evicted by court order returned to their lands, and
leaves many questions unanswered. See also Guerrero, First Filipino, 181-86.
4. Ep. Rizal., 3:151.
1. José Rizal, “La verdad para todos,” La Solidaridad, 31 May 1889. The documents 5. Ibid., 3:35-36. Italics supplied. In his memoirs, Felipe Buencamino was later to
are reproduced in Del Pilar’s La soberania monacal, 72-76. See also Ep. Rizal., 1:146. claim that the compromise proposed by Nozaleda was one worked out by himself
248 Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar 249
Paciano’s letter makes clear that the Rizals believed in the justice the Calambefos as something concerning only private interests. As he
of their claim and did not press it merely as a weapon against the wrote to the overseas minister, if today they could resist paying the
friars. However, the passage quoted also makes it clear that he at least rent for their lands, tomorrow the same united purpose might be put
was not unwilling to use the claim as a weapon. behind a movement to refuse payment of taxes, and the efforts to
In July, Rizal wrote to Del Pilar that he was waiting for the power detract from the prestige of the Dominicans would be only the first
of attorney to have his family’s case presented before the Supreme steps towards a true independence movement.® Conceiving the strug-
Court, and added: “My brother tells me, since what brought you here gle in those terms, any colonial governor would have to act to put
to Europe was the fight against the friar, if we defeat the friars [in down the challenge. Given the firm conviction inspired by Rizal in
this case], they will be very much weakened.”° the Calambenos and the stern determination on Weyler’s part, it was
The effort to bring the whole matter before the courts in Spain inevitable that the consequences would be severe—and far-reaching.
and to secure a judicial verdict which could not be challenged by In January 1890, Rizal’s brothers-in-law, anticipating deportation,
Philippine authorities was part of the strategy of assimilationism. If took the precaution of sending him power-of-attorney. In August the
the official theory of the Philippines being an integral part of Spain Spanish provincial governor, Juan Mompe6n, on whom Paciano had
were to be carried to its logical consequences, then it should be possi- relied as protector because of his known antifriar sentiments, called
ble to appeal the Calamba dispute to the supreme judiciary body in the leaders of the movement together and warned that unless they
the Peninsula and defeat the colonial establishment there. The ap- came to an agreement with the hacienda, there would be regrettable
proach was different from the appeal for Philippine representation in consequences. Rejecting their plea to wait for the decision of the Su-
the Cortes, but the basis was the same. Its failure was to complete the preme Court on the appeal already filed by Francisco Rizal and Nicasio
destruction of Rizal’s already weak faith in the efficacy of a campaign Eigasani, he ordered Paciano Rizal, his two brothers-in-law, Silvestre
for Filipino rights carried on in Spain. Ubaldo and Antonino Lépez, and two other relatives, Mateo Elejorde
But if the Filipinos saw the judicial battle in a larger context than and Leandro Lépez, to report to the provincial capital, whence they
the immediate case of the Calamba land dispute, so did their formi- were deported to the island of Mindoro.”
dable adversary in the Philippines, Governor-General Valeriano Weyler.
He too saw it as a struggle for power, and was in no mood to wait for
Rizal in Madrid
the results of any appeal to the Supreme Court. In November 1889
he visited Calamba personally to size up the situation, and urged the
Rizal, in the meantime, had half a mind to return to the Philip-
Calambenos not to listen to the “vain promises of ungrateful sons.”
pines, regardless of the consequences, for as he told Del Pilar in April
He returned the following month, throwing the full weight of his pres-
1890, speaking of his plans to return and devote himself to teaching
tige behind the Dominicans.’ once parliamentary representation was obtained, “I believe that noth-
Evidently Weyler considered the situation a serious one from a po-
ing else can redeem us except our heads, materialiter vel idealiter
litical point of view, and refused to look on the passive resistance of
sumptum.”" If he could not redeem his country by putting his head at
its service, he felt that only the willingness to sacrifice his head as a
martyr to the cause of freedom would suffice. He soon ceased writing
through intermediaries. He likewise asserted that when consulted by the Rizal family,
José disapproved the arrangement by cablegram. To Buencamino this indicated that
Rizal’s purpose was political rather than private, and he withdrew from the case (“Sixty
Years of Philippine History,” trans. by Alfonso Lecaros and ed. by Mauro Garcia, His- 8. Letter of 30 Aug 1890, accompanying the papers on the deportations of various
torical Bulletin 13 [1969]: 14-15). relatives of Rizal, AHN, Ultramar, leg. 2308, exp. 10.
6. Ep. Pilar, 1:226-27. 9. Ibid.; also Ep. Rizal., 2:271-72; 3:89-91.

7. Ep. Rizal., 2:250-51, 266. 10. Ep. Pilar, 1:216-17.
nw
regularly for La Solidaridad in order to complete the sequel to his Noli the whole idea of Del Pilar and his delegacién. Rizal had long since
before returning to the Philippines. opted for the eventual independence of the Philippines. In an ex-
Though his intention to go home was hardening into a resolve, change of letters with Blumentritt in 1887 he had said somewhat cau-
Rizal began to have second thoughts when his friends vehemently uously, speaking of the eventual peaceful evolution of the Philippines
opposed the idea. He sought to find out through Basa if the Comité towards an independent status apparently proposed by Blumentritt:
de Propaganda in Manila would pension him with a hundred pesos
It will never come. The peaceful struggle must remain a dream, for
monthly to enable him to work in Madrid, as Ponce had urged him Spain will never learn from her earlier colonies in South Ameri a.
to do.'! Serrano’s arrival in early August with a new power-of-attorney does not see what England has learned in North America. But in the
from Paciano and a letter urging him to exert his utmost in prosecut- present circumstances we want no separation from Spain; all we de-
ing the Calamba case before the Supreme Court brought him to Ma- mand is more care, better instruction, better officials, one or two repre-
drid, still somewhat up in the air. sentatives, and more security for ourselves and our property. Spain ‘can
still win the Philippines for herself forever, if only Spain were more
Soon, however, he threw himself into the task at hand, and at the
reasonable.
end of September the Filipino colony, represented by Del Pilar, Rizal,
and Dominador Gomez, personally presented a protest to the over- A month later he is more definite. Speaking of the attacks of
seas minister, the Conservative Antonio Fabié, against the deportations Quioquiap, he says bitterly:
from Calamba. Various Madrid newspapers of Liberal or Republican
affiliation supported the Filipino protests, and gave increased atten- Quioquiap is a little more crude than Canamaque, Mas, S. Agustin,
tion to Philippine affairs, publicizing the resolutions of the Asociacion etc., but more honest; he wants separation, political separation, and he
is right. The Filipinos have long desired Hispanization, and have been
Hispano-Filipina in favor of parliamentary representation and other
wrong. Spain should desire this Hispanization, not the Filipinos; now
reforms.” Since a trip home at this time was anything but advisable,
ve receive this lesson from the Spaniards, and we express our thanks to
he settled down to making the Filipino colony in Madrid a more them.
close-knit organization for furthering Filipino interests.
The conduct of many of the Filipino students in Madrid had always In his articles in La Solidaridad, he treated the question of future
been a sore point with Rizal. They were more serious about gambling independence for the Philippines as something dependent on how
and women than about their studies or about joining in the national- Spain would respond to the Philippine situation—whether she would
ist campaign of La Solidaridad. Thus he sent a steady stream of admo- listen to or ignore the reasonable demands of the Filipinos. His cor-
nitions and exhortations to Madrid and Barcelona by letter, and did respondence shows he was convinced that Spain would not listen. Writ-
his best to provide moral leadership for the Colony through such ing to Basa and mentioning Regidor’s articles in early 1889, he says
means as organizing the Indios Bravos. Though generally acknowl- sarcastically, “It seems to me that in Spain, on reading those articles,
edged as the moral leader of the Filipinos, he had never been able— many say: ‘As long as you do no more than complain, everything will
away from the scene—to make his leadership as effective as he felt it be all right” Ventura, writing about his misgivings to Rizal concerning
should be. Now, living in Madrid, in daily contact with the Colony, he the Asociacién Hispano-Filipina about this same time, recalls their mu-
felt called upon to do so. tual concurrence in the conviction that “all that can be done here is a
Closely bound up in the crisis that was about to break was Rizal's waste of time, since it is proven that they are unwilling to listen.”*
basic disagreement with the methods used by Del Pilar; indeed, with
11. Ep. Rizal., 3:60-61, 79, 80, 82, 88. 13. Ep. Rizal., 5:64, 75.
12. La Solidaridad, 30 Sept 1890, 218-19; Retana, Avisos, 89-91; La Epoca, 31 Oct 14. Ibid., 100, 109. Compare, e.g., “Inconsecuencias,” La Solidaridad, 30 Nov 1889;
“Filipinas dentro de cien anos,” ibid., 15 Dec 1889.
1890.
Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar 253
Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar
it, because | these sufferings, he continued, are like a cauterization; the sickly
Once La Solidaridad was founded, Rizal cooperated with
the Philip- rt of the Filipino may be burned away, but the basically sound part
it was a Filipino enterprise and devoted to the welfare of
effort. But wall return the following day with renewed life and vigor.'°
pines, for he was always ready to aid any united Filipino
the Philip- His belief that suffering is part of the price to be paid for national
his frequent insistence that the paper must be directed to
redemption underscores his firm confidence in the ultimate victory
pines, that it was only there that it could achieve its ends, shows how
of courage and virtue over injustice. Writing to Lopez Jaena after La
poorly he regarded any political activity in Spain.” His own articles,
Solidaridad had put out a few issues, Rizal counseled:
for the most part, were addressed not to Spaniards, but to Filipinos.
His readiness to take up the cudgels for his people against the insults
Take care not to insert exaggerations, nor lies, and not to imitate
of Spaniards was intended more to raise Filipino selfesteem than to others who make use of dishonorable means and low and ignoble
change the attitude of Spaniards. language to obtain their ends. . . . We must show our enemies that we
When he learned that arrests had been made in Manila in April are superior to them, morally and humanly speaking. Provided that we
1889 on the heels of the discovery that Basa’s brother was an outlet speak the truth, we will have won our cause, for reason and justice are
for clandestine antifriar propaganda, Rizal declared himself unwilling on our side.
to resort to influence or recommendations to obtain the freedom of
the prisoners. “Let those whose rights have been violated appeal to The Filipinos in Europe must set an example of courage, signing
the courts if they can, and if not, let them appeal to God.” He took a their own names to their articles in La Solidaridad.
certain relish in such occurrences, for he felt that abuses are inevita-
Our countrymen, on seeing our courage, on seeing not the courage of
ble evils in a corrupt society, calling attention to themselves and serv-
one, but of many, on seeing that Rizal is not an exception, but the
ing to open the eyes of the people. A few weeks later he returned to general rule, will also take courage and will lose their fear; there is
this idea, declaring that: nothing like example. Our enemies will be frightened on finding them-
selves face to face with youth who fear nothing, . . . who are not fright-
though we must regret this [the arrests] as a private misfortune, we ened by the vengeance employed. What I spoke of will be fulfilled,
must applaud it as a general good. Without 1872, there would not now namely, that the more abuses they commit, the more liberal Filipinos
gen-
be any Plaridel, or Jaena, or Sancianco, nor would the valiant and will come forward. Moreover, whoever wishes to take part in this cru-
in Europe exist; without 1872, Rizal would now sade, must have first renounced all, both his life and his fortune... . In
erous Filipino colonies
be a Jesuit, and instead of writing the Noli me tangere, would have writ- any case, they will take vengeance on us; at least let our death or our
ten the contrary. At the sight of those injustices and cruelties, though misfortune be a brilliant example for the others. . . . Be convinced that
still a child, my imagination awoke, and I swore I would dedicate my- for each good example of a Filipino, thousands and thousands are won
self to avenge one day so many victims, and with this idea I have gone over, that the progression is geometric, that God or Destiny are on our
on studying, and this can be read in all my works and writings. God will side, because we have justice and reason with us, and because we strug-
one day grant me the opportunity to fulfill my promise. Good! Let gle, not for selfish motives, but for the sacred love for our country and
them commit abuses, let there be arrests, exiles, executions, good! Let for our countrymen.””
Destiny be fulfilled! The day on which they lay their hand on us, the
day on which they inflict martyrdom on our innocent families for our Del Pilar too had more than a spark of idealism in him, though
fault, farewell, pro-friar government, and perhaps, farewell, Spanish often obscured by the restless drive of his pragmatism. He wrote to
government!
Basa on the occasion mentioned above:
is 16. Ep. Rizal., 2:157-58; 166-68.

15. That Rizal would have wanted La Solidaridad to be directed to the Philippines
17. lbid., 2:152; 200-201; see also 222.
seen, for instance, in Ep. Pilar, 1:184, 196, etc.
The misfortunes which not only your brother, but also you, I, and Filipinos by his unwillingness to accept a proposal that he pay for the
others are suffering . . . all these evils are phenomena which produce champagne and by his remarks on the Filipino students’ lack of ap-
painful impressions, but, for myself, I consider that they are the storm
plication to their studies. This resentment still fresh, the following
which is destined to tranquilize our heavily-charged atmosphere.
Let us then, bless Providence; let us show ourselves worthy instru- day some Filipinos called on Del Pilar with a proposal, supported by
ments of its unsearchable designs.'® Rizal, to unite the Colony by electing a leader. Despite the protests of
Del Pilar that there was no need of forming a new organization for a
Yet, since activism colored his view of nationalism, Del Pilar was Colony already united, all agreed on the proposal, and a committee
not one to neglect any political means to achieve his ends. For in this was named to draw up the constitution, a task delegated to Rizal.
same letter he disclosed what he had done and would try to do. Not When Del Pilar found that the proposed constitution subordinated
wishing to alienate Rizal, he avoided informing him of whatever he La Solidaridad to the leader of the Colony, who was to determine policy,
did that he felt Rizal would frown on. Many of Rizal’s articles in La he protested that though the paper was at the service of the Colony
Solidaridad differed sharply from those of Del Pilar, for Rizal made no and its leader, it could not abdicate its independence, since it be-
effort to spare the feelings of Spaniards, be they friars or politicians longed “to another highly respectable entity, whose instructions are
of whatever stripe. , quite definite” referring, of course, to the Comité de Propaganda.
Since Del Pilar valued Rizal’s cooperation and realized the extent Rizal announced that he would seek authorization from that entity to
of his prestige among Filipinos at home and abroad, he took every bind the paper to the Colony.
means to please him, and his letters never showed the slightest re- The voting that then took place between Rizal and Del Pilar re-
sentment at certain, perhaps unconscious, marks of condescension in sulted in three inconclusive ballots, with two more the following day,
some of Rizal’s letters. But once together in Madrid, the two, so un- after which Rizal in a pique walked out. Under instructions from Del
like in temperament, would eventually clash. As Rizal sought to bring Pilar, Ponce pulled strings to have the Pilaristas vote for Rizal, who
the Colony around to his way of thinking, his compulsive exhorta- was then elected. Further rivalries took place in the election of the
tions to diligence and virtue hardly endeared him to many of the counsellors, in which Rizal intervened to prevent the election of Sal-
Filipino students. vador Vivencio del Rosario, declaring that otherwise he would resign
Things were building up to a crisis, which occurred at the annual his own post. Again the Pilaristas yielded so as not to divide the Colony.
New Year’s Eve banquet of the Filipino colony on 31 December 1890. On taking office a few days later, Rizal, according to Del Pilar, re-
A few weeks earlier, when the Asociacién Hispano-Filipina gave a ban- proved the Colony for turning the election into a divisive contest when
quet in honor of Becerra, Rizal refused to attend. Becerra’s failure to he was regarded in Manila as the indisputable leader of the Colony,
fulfill his promise to grant the Philippines parliamentary representa- inasmuch as “every movement of opinion there at the present mo-
tion and his inaction on his brother-in-law Hidalgo’s deportation ran- ment is due to his work.” He went on to level certain charges at Lete
kled. The deportation of Rizal’s family and their eviction from their and to remark that it would have been more proper if Del Pilar had
home and lands added to his general depression. withdrawn his candidacy from the beginning.”
At the New Year’s Eve banquet of the Colony three weeks later, No other versions of the affair are available to qualify or confirm
according to Del Pilar, Rizal provoked the resentment of many of the Del Pilar’s account, which was sent to Manila a few months later in
reply to inquiries about the dissensions between himself and Rizal.
The latter, writing to Basa a few weeks after the event, sent him an
18. Ep. Pilar, 1:86-88, 192. But see ibid., 1:122; 2:88.
19. See, for example, the contrast between Rizal, “Una esperanza,” and Del Pilar,
account (which has not survived) to inform him “of the conspiracy
“Revista politica,” in La Solidaridad, 15 July 1890. Both of them are commenting on
the failure of Becerra to fulfill his promises on Philippine representation in the Cortes
before the fall of the Sagasta ministry. 20. Marcelo-Ka Dato [Arellano], Ep. Pilar, 1:239-46.
Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar 257
which they wanted to contrive against me, making use of our friend the Philippines, promising to send him a monthly pension. This pen-
Del Pilar, who lent himself to it unknowingly.” Some months later, at ion, however, arrived with great irregularity, to Rizal’s extreme an-
a meeting of the Comité de Propaganda in Manila, when Del Pilar’s noyance. He later notified the Comité about his intention of leaving
account of the affair was read, Moisés Salvador rose to defend Rizal for the Philippines, Hong Kong, or Japan, where he could earn his own
with some heat.” livelihood, and characteristically urged them to spend the money they
However Del Pilar’s account may be appraised, it seems clear that proposed to send him on educating some young man in Europe.”
the idea of organizing the Colony under a single leader came from To the exhortations from Manila that he and Del Pilar should be
Rizal, or was at least immediately seized upon by him as an opportu- reconciled, he replied, denying that he harbored any resentment
nity to set the direction he believed Filipino policy ought to take. against Del Pilar. In August 1891 Del Pilar sought to persuade Rizal
What Rizal overlooked was that there was already a de facto leader of to contribute again to La Solidaridad in the interests of the common
the Filipino colony in Madrid and that Del Pilar had already estab- cause. Again Rizal denied nursing any resentment, but declared that
lished himself as that leader. While Rizal had indeed furnished the he had ceased writing because of his book and his desire that other
main inspiration of the campaign and was the major ideologist of Filipinos take part, and also because he believed that a single policy
Filipino nationalism, many Filipinos were not ready to accept the type should be followed. Since Del Pilar was in control, it was better for
of leadership he wished to impose upon them. Del Pilar, a skillful Rizal to avoid interfering with his different ideas. Nonetheless he would
politician, supplied a more flexible type of leadership, content to di- continue working for the common end from Manila or Hong Kong.
rect the campaign through his position in Masonry, the Asociacion When Del Pilar attempted again to persuade him to reconsider his
Hispano-Filipina, and La Solidaridad, without raising issues of unity in stand shortly before he left Europe, he repeated his plea of inability
organization or thrusting himself into the personal conduct of indi- to work for an “empresa particular,” and reiterated his intention to
vidual Filipinos. retire from politics in words that left no doubt as to what he felt:
Even though Rizal had won the election, his hollow triumph was
I have marked out my norm of conduct, which is to leave to the Filipi-
ashes in his mouth. A few weeks later he abandoned Madrid for good.
nos of Madrid the conduct of our politics, they who understand and
Del Pilar was elected leader of the Colony in his place, but since he
know it so well. What can I do with my impatience and my despotic
was the de facto leader of the Colony, Del Pilar presumably dismissed pretensions? I understand the desire of every Filipino to do what he
all reference to his official designation. pleases, and I renounce my idea of forming with my countrymen the
Rizal stopped for a short time in Biarritz and in Paris, then re- close-ranked phalanx I dreamed of. Perhaps the iron of compressed
turned to Brussels with the intention of finishing his novel. A short molecules is inferior to the aircurrent of free-moving molecules; I was
mistaken, and I present my resignation.
time later he moved to Ghent, having heard that printing costs were
Continue there, now that you are on top; make use of your power to
cheaper there.” He was determined to leave Europe as soon as his put into practice your ideas, so that there may remain nothing untried.
book was printed, though the Comité de Propaganda, or Hermandad
de San Patricio, as it was now called, had urged him not to return to
21. Ep. Rizal., 3:143.

24. Rizal-Basa, Ep. Rizal., 3:143; A. Teuluz [Juan Zulueta]-Dimas Alang [Rizal], ibid.,
22. Lépez Jaena-Rizal, Ep. Rizal., 3:216. Lopez Jaena had been present in Manila at 178-79; Rizal-A. L. Lorena [Deodato Arellano], ibid., 191. At the beginning of 1890,
the meeting, but knew nothing of the causes of the conflict, since he had been living Serrano had been succeeded as president of the Comité de Propaganda by Doroteo
in Barcelona all this time, and not connected with La Solidaridad. Salvador had been Cortés under the pseudonym of M. Montilla, with “Candido Conrado” as secretary
present at the banquet and subsequent elections, etc., and had returned to Manila (Ep. Pilar, 1:209). By the beginning of 1891, the secretary was Zulueta and the presi-
shortly afterward. dent was Conrado, who apparently was Deodato Arellano. At this time the Committee
23, Ep. Pilar, 2:207-8; Ip. Rizal., 3:184; 5:583, 592; Alejandrino, 222-23. began calling itself Hermandad de San Patricio.
Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar
no
or
258 Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar
o
I believe that the Solidaridad is no longer our battlefield; we now have
Other letters confirm that Rizal was deeply hurt by the Madrid Colo-
to deal with a new struggle. I would like to give in to your wish [to
ny’s thinly veiled repudiation of his presumptive right to leadership write in La Solidaridad], but I believe it is useless. The struggle is no
and by what he considered Del Pilar’s effort to supplant him. He longer in Madrid. All of it is lost time.”
resisted all efforts by Blumentritt, Del Pilar, and others to get him to
contribute once more to La Solidaridad. In Paris just before setting out Though Rizal and Del Pilar differed on policy, they fixed their sights
for Marseilles and the ship to Asia, Rizal wrote a final letter to Del Pilar, on the same ends. In his speech to the Colony after Rizal had taken
assuring him that he still preserved his former esteem for him: the office of leader, Del Pilar insisted:
In me all my feelings, all my affections, my hatreds, and my grudges In the Filipino Colony there should be no division, nor is there: one
are lasting, not to say eternal! I have this defect: I pardon, but I forget are the sentiments which move us, one the ideals we pursue: the aboli-
with difficulty, and thus, as I do not forget that you were my best de- tion in the Philippines of every obstacle to our liberties, and in due
fender and my best champion, so too I recall that you were the first time and by the proper method, the abolition of the flag of Spain as
mass with which they have wished to overthrow me!” ’ well.”
Nevertheless, Rizal’s resentment was no petty licking of personal Del Pilar did not believe the course Rizal advocated effective and
wounds. At odds were deeply-held convictions as to the policy to be was unwilling to let him assume sole leadership, but he had not the
followed.” Rizal could not have successfully carried out any policy remotest intention of overthrowing or discrediting him, as the latter
had he remained as the leader of the Colony in Madrid, for he set no believed and continued to assert even in his letters of conciliation. It
store by newspapers, politics, or anything else done in Madrid. Before was Rizal who in effect had tried to overthrow Del Pilar, though he
La Solidaridad was founded, he had felt that the struggle should be would never have admitted this even to himself. His own leadership
carried on in the Philippines. Now he was convinced more than ever: was real, but it was of a different order. As an intellectual, as a man
of ideas, as one capable of touching the wellspring of patriotic feeling
If our countrymen hope in us here in Europe, they are certainly
in his countrymen, Rizal had no equal, and Del Pilar knew it. Unwill-
mistaken. . . . The help we can give them is our lives in our country. The
error all make in thinking we can help here, far away, is a great mis- ing as the latter was to yield to Rizal his political leadership in the
take indeed. The medicine must be brought near to the sick man. Had Madrid Colony, there was nothing he desired more than Rizal’s con-
I not been unwilling to shorten the lives of my parents, I would tinued intellectual and moral leadership. Thus in the account he sent
not have left the Philippines, no matter what happened. Those five to Arellano of the conflict that had taken place, he urged him to
months I stayed there were a model life, a book even better than the make prudent use of the information. For, he continued:
Noli me tangere. The field of battle is the Philippines; there is where we
should be.
I am of the opinion that we must avoid at any cost a judgment
unfavorable to our Rizal; I want to preserve intact the great name he
To Blumentritt he wrote: enjoys there. You will remember that when he was insisting on return-
ing there, I recommended to you specially to be on the watch for any-
25. Ep. Rizal., 3:210-11, 206-7, 208-9, 230-31, 242-43; 5:609-10; 3:246-49.
26. There is not the slightest evidence for the assertion of Lieutenant Olegario
Diaz, head of the secret police in Manila, in his official report in 1896, that the dissi- 27. Ep. Rizal., 3:250, 5:626.
28. “la abolicién en Filipinas de toda traba a nuestras libertades, y a su tiempo y
dence between the two men was due to “la falta de moralidad en la administracion de
conveniente razén la del pabellén de Espana también” (Marcelo-Ka Dato, Ep. Pilar,
los fondos que de Manila remitia el comité de la propaganda” (Retana, Archivo, 3:
420). There were to be later disputes and accusations concerning the propaganda 1:246). It is interesting to see that this was the acknowledged purpose not only of Del
Pilar and Rizal, but also, at least in the mind of Del Pilar, of the Colony as a whole.
funds, but not between Rizal and Del Pilar.
thing which could diminish his stature; well, it was precisely that I al- nist of the novel is Simoun, a sinister figure of unknown origin who
ready foresaw in him acts such as I have now seen in actuality. The fact had come to the Philippines with the governor-general, over whom
is that my man has been formed in libraries, and in libraries no ac- he wielded almost unlimited influence. A jeweler by profession—
count is taken of the atmosphere in which one must work. thought by some to be a British Indian, by others an American mu-
latto—he constantly wore large dark glasses that hid much of the upper
That Del Pilar was earnest in his desire to have Rizal’s collabora- part of his face. Secure in the governor-general’s patronage, he was
tion, despite his somewhat patronizing judgment of Rizal, is clear from cultivated by all who sought profit for themselves. and used his power
the series of letters he wrote Rizal during the latter’s last months in to amass an ever greater fortune for himself.
Europe. He was correct in realizing his need of Rizal’s collaboration,
Shortly after the opening of the novel, the young medical student,
as events were soon to show, in a way he did not perhaps anticipate. Basilio, returns to his native town of San Diego. He is the boy sacris-
But Rizal’s course was already charted, and over a different route, for
tan whose brother had been beaten to death by the head sacristan of
his new novel was now to disclose the directions his thoughts and Fray Salvi in the earlier novel and whose mother had been driven to
aspirations had taken since the publication of the Noli me tangere. madness and death. He now returns to the lonely spot in the forest
where many years ago he had met a haggard figure who had helped
The New Novel him bury his mother there and had built a funeral pyre for another
man shot to death in the lake. Since then Basilio had lived as a serv-
Rizal began work on the sequel to the Noli, entitled El Filibusterismo, ant boy, had managed by dint of hard work to get an education, and
when he started residing in London in 1889. By the summer of 1891 now would soon be graduated a doctor.
it was being printed in Ghent sections at a time, as funds to defray As Basilio arrives at the grave, he finds Simoun digging there, whom,
printing costs were raised through desperate means. By July he had without the glasses disguising the jeweler’s features, he recognizes as
pawned all that he had, and since neither the pension promised him the man he had met there thirteen years earlier. It is Ibarra, whom
by the Comité de Propaganda nor funds from home arrived, he was all believed to have died from his pursuers’ fusillade. Recognized by
reduced to near-starvation at times, as he had been when trying to Basilio, Simoun debates whether he should kill the man who can en-
get his Noli printed in 1886-87. Finally he had to suspend the print- danger all his plans: “for what is the life of one man compared with
ing completely, until, just as his friend Viola had come to his rescue the end I pursue?” But recognizing in him another who has accounts
in 1886, his friend Valentin Ventura sent him from Paris the money to settle with society—to avenge his mother and his brother—he tells
he needed to finish the book. In September the book was at last com- him his story. He had wandered over the world, amassing a fortune
pleted. Rizal shipped the entire edition off to Hong Kong to be smug- to enable him to destroy the vicious system that had destroyed him.
gled into the Philippines, with the exception of a few copies sent to Unable to resuscitate the corpse of a dead social system, on which the
his friends in Spain.” vulture of greed everywhere fed, he resolved to hasten the process of
The plot of the novel is loose in the extreme, and as Retana noted, complete disintegration.
hardly serves as more than a connecting link for a series of
philosophico-political discourses on Philippine problems. The protago- I have stimulated greed, I have favored it; injustices and abuses multi-
plied; I have encouraged crime and acts of cruelty, so that the people
might grow accustomed to the idea of death; I have fostered insecurity,
29, Rizal-Del Pilar, Hp. Pilar, 1:249; Retana, Vida, 200-201; id., Aparato, 3:1206, no.
so that fleeing from it, there be a readiness to embrace any solution; I
have placed obstacles to trade, so that with the country impoverished
3069. The only notice it appears to have received in Spain was through friends to
whom Rizal had sent copies; Graciano L6pez Jaena, “La literatura filipina,” La Publicidad,
15 Oct 1891; [Francisco Pi y Margall], “J. Rizal,” EJ Nuevo Régimen, 17 Oct 1891; Taga-Ilog
[Antonio Luna], “Noli me tangere y El Filibusterismo,” La Solidaridad, 31 Oct 1891. 30. El Filibusterismo, Novela filipina (Gent: F. Meyer-Van Loo. 1891), 45.
262 Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar Rizal’s Break wi h Del Pilar 263
and in misery, no one might be afraid; I have stimulated ambitions, so Through the novel passes the figure of Simoun, ever ready to turn
the Treasury might be exhausted. When all this did not suffice to stir the minds of honest and virtuous men, victimized by the tyranny of
up a rising of the people, I wounded them in the most painful way, I state, society, or church, to the possibility of revenge, of society’s re-
made the vulture insult and pollute the very corpse it lived on.
newal under his aegis.
Cabesang Tales sees the land he has cleared by t is sweat and at
But just at the moment when all this was to reach its culmination,
the cost of his wife and daughter, who died of fever, taken over by
naive young students like Basilio and his friends have come along
the false claims of a religious order; he finds no justice n the courts,
with their enthusiasm for assimilation, for the spread of the Spanish
where the judges cannot endanger the interests of the friars; he is
language, with their appeals for loyalty and confidence in the govern-
deprived of his arms and falls into the hands of robbers, so that his
ment. This Hispanization is the death of the people, the destruction
daughter is forced into domestic service to ransom him. At the subtle
of their national character, and will only serve to fix the tyranny of
instigation of Simoun, he takes the latter’s revolver, kills those who
the government more firmly on them for the future. Worst of all is
have caused his misfortune, and joins the bandits in the hills, hence-
their aspiration to extend the learning of Spanish.
forth to be at Simoun’s service.
The schoolmaster, deported as filibustero for having tried to teach
Spanish will never be a general language in the country; the people
will never speak it, because the ideas of its brain and the sentiments of the children Spanish against the priest’s wishes, is pardoned through
its heart find no phrases to express themselves in it; every people has Simoun’s influence, and becomes the latter’s gunpowder expert.
its own language as it has its own way of feeling. . . . As long as a Placido Penitente, the university student who finds himself out of the
people keeps its language, it keeps the pledge of its liberty, just as the university because he has refused to submit any longer to the insults
man preserves his independence as long as he preserves his own way of daily heaped on the students by their friar professor, becomes a trusted
thinking. Language is the thought of peoples.
assistant.
Where Simoun finds no abuses, he creates them, encouraging the
Simoun urges Basilio to join him, to work among the youth against
governor to order the demolition of all nipa houses for a substantial
these yearnings for assimilation, for equality of rights, for brother-
bribe from a dealer in galvanized iron roofing. Paying the debts of
hood. So much the better that Spain denies them representation in
army officers, he puts them under obligation to him, ready to start a
the Cortes, where their presence would only serve to sanction abuses
mutiny at his word, some under the illusion that it is backed by the
without accomplishing anything. “The less rights they recognize in
friars so as to make secure their position, others that it is a scheme of
you, the more right you will have afterwards to throw off their yoke
the governor-general’s to prolong his term of office.
and return them evil for evil.”
Finally, all is ready for the uprising. Once more he approaches
Basilio replies that he has no interest in politics; his only hope is to
Basilio, offering him a last chance to join the revolution due to begin
use his studies to alleviate the physical sufferings of his countrymen.
within the hour. Not only the oppressors, but all who have failed to
His devotion to science will help to redeem his country, for science is
help will be slaughtered. All Basilio has to do is to take a body of
destined to outlast politics and even patriotism. Even Simoun’s taunt-
men to batter down the gates of the convent of Santa Clara at the
ing him with forgetting the wrongs done to his mother and his brother
height of the revolution, and rescue Ibarra’s long-lost betrothed, Maria
fails to shake his conviction that the one thing needed by his people
Clara. When Basilio confronts him with the news of Maria Clara’s
at the present time is education. Disgusted, Simoun mocks this acqui-
death that very day, Simoun goes out in despair, and the revolution
escence in tyranny, but leaves the door open should Basilio change
does not take place.
his mind later.”
Meanwhile, the project of the young students to open an academy
for the teaching of Spanish had met with the opposition of the uni-
31. Ibid., 46-54. versity and in spite of all the support given the students by friendly
264 Rizal’s Break with Del Pilar Rizal’s Brea nth Del Pilar 265
Father Fernandez and a complacent Canon Irene, won over by a gift, hour, he wanders to the scene of the wedding feast. Seeing the
the best that can be done is to entrust the study of the project to the death-dealing lamp already in place, he turns to eave when suddenly
pseudo-liberal official counsellor. Torn by conflicting desires to please he meets his friend Isagani, the disappointed lover the girl about
the friars, to abide by his “liberal principles,” and to satisfy the wishes to be married. Unable to draw Isagani away, Basilio liged to reveal
of his favorite dancer Pepay, whose support the students had enlisted, the plot to him, and Isagani dashes into the pavilion ar nurls the lamp
Don Custodio, in an inspired stroke, finally recommended that the into the nearby river. The gunpowder is discovered, and the revolt aborts
academy project be approved, but under the direction of the friars of in a bandit raid, whose captured perpetrators implicate Simoun.
the university. Defeated, the students console themselves at a Chinese A wounded fugitive, he takes refuge with the Kindly retired Filipino
restaurant. The next morning the doors of the university are found priest, Father Florentino, in his home by the sea. When word arrives
plastered with antifriar posters, and the members of the student asso- that the civil guard is coming to arrest him, dead or alive, Simoun
ciation are arrested, including Basilio, who had not even been present takes poison before Father Florentino can stop him and then, before
at the dinner. All are eventually released, except Basilio, who, having he dies, pours out his secret to the astounded priest.
no protector, remains in prison as a scapegoat to uphold the “pres- In the dialogue between Simoun-Ibarra and Father Florentino, Rizal
tige of authority.” not only delivers his judgment on the methods of Simoun, but also
When Basilio finally emerges from prison after months of suffer- sets forth his program for the nation. To Simoun’s despairing ques-
ing, he presents himself to Simoun, ready for orders. That night a tion if it be God’s will that the Philippines should continue in their
wedding feast is to take place to which all of Manila society, headed present condition, Father Florentino replies:
by the departing governor-general, are invited. Simoun has prepared
a magnificent lamp as the governor’s wedding gift, but it is filled with I do not know, I cannot read the mind of the Inscrutable. But I know
nitroglycerin, and the entire pavilion is mined with gunpowder. At a that He has not forsaken those people that in times of decision have
placed themselves in His hands and made Him the Judge of their op-
given moment, the whole place will explode, destroying all those high
pression; I know that His arm has never been wanting when, with jus-
in state and church, while Simoun’s troops and the bandits loyal to tice trampled under foot and all other resources exhausted, the
him will burst into the city, and the people, convinced that they are oppressed have taken up the sword and fought for their homes, wives,
all to suffer the consequences, will rise to defend their lives. Basilio is children, and . . . inalienable rights. . . . God is justice and He cannot
to lead them to the warehouse where Simoun has stored arms, and at abandon His own cause, the cause of freedom without which no justice
the head of the crowd, will put to death all who refuse to follow. is possible.
All! indios, mestizos, Chinese, Spaniards, all who are found without cour- Because Simoun has used methods of which God cannot approve, He
age, without energy. . .. We must renew the race! Cowardly fathers will has abandoned him in his struggle, for
only beget sons who are slaves, and it is not worth-while to destroy only
to build again with rotten materials . . . [It is] the inexorable law of
if our country is some day to be free, it will not be through vice and
Nature, the law of struggle in which the unfit must perish so that the
crime, it will not be through the corruption of its sons. . . . Redemp-
defective species may not survive and the process of creation go into
tion presupposes virtue; virtue, sacrifice, and sacrifice, love!
reverse. . . . Let the eternal laws be fulfilled and let us assist in the
process.”
If the Filipino people now has to suffer, it is because it tolerates vice,
Persuaded by Simoun under the influence of his thirst for revenge, and acquiesces in the deprivation of its freedom.
Basilio agrees and goes out into the night. Waiting for the appointed
He is the God of liberty . . . who makes us love it by making the yoke
heavy upon us; a God of mercy and justice, who betters us as he chas-
32. Ibid, 249. tises us, and only grants happiness to him who has merited it by his
efforts. The school of suffering tempers the soul; the arena of combat opposition, crime, and subversion. The government is arbitrary, cruel,
gives it strength. I do not mean that our freedom is to be won at the
completely lacking in a sense of justice or of responsibility, and with-
point of the sword; the sword counts for little in the destinies of mod-
ern times. But it is true that we must win it by deserving it, exalting out interest or trust in the people it is to govern. The friars are painted
reason and the dignity of the individual, loving what is just, what is in even harsher colors than in the Noli: they abr use their power to
good, what is great, even to the point of dying for it. When the people sausfy vile lusts; to rob men of their lands; to preserve their monopoly
rises to this height, God provides the weapon, and the idols fall, the of education, which is the enemy of knowledge: alwa eking their
tyrants fall like a house of cards. .. . We owe our misfortunes to our- own interests rather than those of the country, or even of Spain.
selves; let us not blame anyone else. If Spain were to see us less com-
Yet in this harsh picture there are bright spots: the high official
placent with tyranny and more disposed to struggle and to suffer for
our rights, Spain would be the first to give us liberty. who remonstrates with the governor-general over his arbitrary pro-
ceedings, and who sympathizes with and defends the Filipino people;
As long as the Filipino people does not have the courage and vigor to and the open-minded Dominican, Father Fernandez, who favors the
protest, to proclaim its rights, even at the cost of suffering; as long as petition of the students for a Spanish academy, and is willing to dis-
it keeps silent in the face of tyranny so as to save its own skin, there is cuss with the student Isagani on equal terms what the students expect
no use giving it freedom. from the friars. But both these bright spots are clouded by dark forces.
The high official cannot prevail on the governor-general to do what
With Spain or without Spain, they would always be the same, and per- is just, and finally, out of his love for Spain, denounces the policy her
haps, perhaps even worse! Why independence, if the slaves of today representatives are pursuing and submits his resignation rather than
will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And they will be, without doubt, for he be a party to it. As he leaves the governor-general, he tells the Fili-
loves tyranny who submits to it!
pino who opens the door for him, “When you declare yourselves in-
dependent some day, remember that there were not lacking in Spain
And as Simoun dies, Father Florentino whispers:
hearts that beat for you and fought for your rights.””*
After Father Fernandez and Isagani have carried on a frank discus-
Where are the youths who are to consecrate their budding years,
their idealism and enthusiasm to the good of their country? Where are
sion and the friar promises to speak to his brethren about the subject
they who are to pour out their blood generously to wash away so much of their conversation, he adds: “I hope that something can be done.
shame, so many crimes, and abominations? Pure and immaculate must I only fear that they may not believe you exist.” And Isagani replies in
the victim be so that the holocaust may be acceptable! Where are you, turn, “I fear the same thing; I am afraid that my friends will not be-
oh youth who are to embody in yourselves the vigor of life which has lieve that you exist, such as you have shown yourself to be.”
been drained from our veins, the purity of ideas which has been stained
Rizal sees little hope that Spain will rule on the basis of justice
in our minds, the fire of enthusiasm which has been quenched in our
hearts? We await you, oh youth; come, for we await you.” rather than prestige, and though he must record the rays of hope
that still remain, he is essentially pessimistic.
The message of the novel is clear: the present system of governing Parallel to the message of warning to Spain in the novel, and be-
the Philippines through corrupt and self-seeking officials, dominated coming ever more dominant, is the message to his countrymen on
by the friars and subservient to their interests in one fashion or an- the course to be taken if Spain does not heed his warning. If Rizal is
other, can only lead to disaster for Spain. By its nature and operation harsh in denouncing Spanish corruption, greed, exploitation, and in-
the system inevitably drives all intelligent, generous, hard-working, cou- justice, he is no less hard in condemning Filipino corruption, greed,
rageous, and loyal citizens, even those most devoted to Spain, into
34, Ibid., 240.

33. Ibid., 281-85. 35. Ibid., 15.
complacency, hypocrisy, and cowardice, which share in, or permit, lead down the path he had pointed out. Close behind his novel, he
Spanish abuses. The Filipina, Dona Victorina, ashamed of her race; booked passage for Hong Kong, where he would chart the next step.”
the cowardly, time-serving Filipino lawyer, Senor Pasta; the brutalized
civil guard, cruelest of all to their own countrymen; the corrupt mu-
nicipal officials—all are bitterly taken to task.
Hong Kong and Manila
Scarcely less bitter is the castigation of spineless students who lack
As Rizal was returning towards his native land, the drama of Calamba
self-respect and courage to fight a stultifying system of education; the
was reaching its denouement. In the last few weeks before his term
frivolity of a Paulita, who chooses the cowardly but wealthy braggart
ended, Weyler had all court decisions of eviction mi ily enforced,
Peldez over an Isagani whose bravery and patriotism have gotten him
and took stringent measures to wipe out all sources of unrest in
into trouble with the authorities; the superstition and fanaticism of
Calamba. Besides a heavy concentration of civil guards, he sent in
the San Diego women.
regular troops as well.
Rizal all but justifies Simoun’s plan to exterminate the greater part
Some four hundred tenants were evicted from their homes; the
of the race so as to begin afresh to build a nation. He does proclaim
houses were dismantled and their owners given twenty-four hours to
more than once the precarious status of Spanish sovereignty in the
remove the materials from property belonging to the hacienda. When
Philippines, accepted only as fait accompli, a strange fate that sub-
the owners failed to do so, everything was burned. In addition, some
jected a people to a passing traveller and his countrymen for ever
twenty-five persons were ordered deported to Jolo, including the sev-
more, strengthened perhaps by doubtful bonds of history, religion,
enty-eight-year-old father of Rizal, and three of his sisters.” In the
and language, but based on promises of civilization, of enlightenment,
next few weeks, Rizal’s mother and sister were twice arrested in Ma-
peace, prosperity, and justice, all of which now stand violated.”
nila, and after several days’ imprisonment, forced to go back on foot
Yet he never urges revolution. Not only does he condemn an inde-
to the courts of their province, where they were finally released.
pendence won by immoral means, like Simoun’s; he does not even
By this time Weyler had departed for Spain, and had been suc-
want immediate independence, which could only mean a new serf-
ceeded by General Eulogio Despujol y Dusay.”® In his despair, Rizal
dom. The task ahead for the Filipinos is to prepare themselves, to
was determined to come to Manila, but was dissuaded by his family,
make themselves worthy of freedom, and then God will grant the
who in the succeeding months gradually made their way to Hong
means, be it revolution or peaceful separation from Spain.
Kong, as many as had been able to evade deportation or were granted
Education, exemplary lives, willingness to sacrifice for one’s con-
pardons by Despujol.
victions, even to suffer martyrdom—this is the road to freedom that
In Hong Kong Rizal engaged in the practice of medicine, all the
Rizal would have his countrymen travel.
time continuing his work and plans for the Philippines. While trying
That this message to the Filipinos was Rizal’s main aim may be
gathered from his decision to send the whole edition of the novel to
the Philippines. Perhaps when he began to write he still hoped to 387, Rizal sailed from Marseilles, it seems, on 18 Oct 1891 (Ep. Pilar, 1:252).
address himself both to Spaniard and to Filipino, but by mid-1891, 38. Retana, Mando de Weyler, 110-31; P. Pablo Pastells-P. Juan Ricart, 2 Nov 1891,
that hope had all but vanished, and his only preoccupation was to AT; Valeriano Weyler-Excmo. Sor. Ministro de Ultramar, 30 Aug 1890, AHN, Ultramar,
prepare his people, to point out to them the path to be taken. He leg. 2308, exp. 10; expediente for the deportation to Jolo of Patricio Rizal, ibid., exp.
himself now proposed to put his program into action, to take the 20; “Datos devueltos por el Congreso de los Diputados relativos a deportaciones
decretadas por el Gobernador General de Filipinas,” ibid., exp. 23.
39. Despujol took over from Weyler on 17 Nov 1891 (AHN, Ultramar, leg. 5288,
exp. 46). The last of the deportations had been ordered on 15 November, indicating
36. This subjection (ibid., 212-13, 186) is spoken of the Carolines, but obviously is that Weyler was anxious to put his own end to the affair and not leave its settlement
intended to have the same application in the case of the Philippines. to anyone else.
to obtain through friends in Spain the freedom of those deported, he ised him two hundred pesos a month in addition to his travelling
wrote articles in English for the Hong Kong newspapers on the events expenses.”
in Calamba, and with the cooperation of Basa, prepared propaganda In early November the junta directiva of the new Committee made
leaflets and handbills in Spanish and Tagalog for distribution in the a formal offer to Rizal to act as editor of a new fortnightly paper, with
Lépez Jaena as associate editor. Another letter of Moisés Salvador,
Philippines.” Among them were a translation of his Hong Kong arti-
cles on Calamba, and one of the Declaration of the Rights of Man which apparently accompanied the official Committee letter, informed
proclaimed by the French Revolution. He was also at work, with the Rizal that Deodato Arellano and Doroteo Cortés opposed the new
help of his brother Paciano, now in Hong Kong, on a translation of Committee’s attempt to withdraw their funds. To avoid an open clash,
the Noli into Tagalog, and apparently also of the edition of Morga, as the new Committee resolved to collect new funds that would be at
well as a third volume of the Noli. He was likewise making efforts to Rizal’s disposition as soon as they knew where he was staying. A few
organize the shipment of La Solidaridad into Manila, but soon gave it weeks later Salvador amplified the above terms, announcing the set-
up as hopeless for lack of cooperators in Manila.” ting up of the Partido Rizalino. If Rizal was not ready to return to
His efforts on behalf of La Solidaridad show Rizal’s sincerity in tell- Europe immediately, he asked that he entrust the founding of the
ing Del Pilar that though he could not write for the paper he would paper to Lopez Jaena in Barcelona, under the nominal direction of
not attack it, but would work with it for the common goal. Rizal, who would contribute articles to it until he was ready to return
There was growing disenchantment, however, with the methods of there and take over its editorship actively.”
La Solidaridad. Even before Rizal’s return from Europe, a group in In February Rizal received a letter from his former companion in
Manila broke with the Comité de Propaganda, apparently as a reac- Brussels, José Alejandrino, telling of the latter’s father’s part in the
tion to the Rizal-Del Pilar dissension in Madrid, and prepared to set “society, whose object is to counteract the lamentable policy of Del
up their own committee and to work for the support of a different Pilar” and desiring Rizal’s return to Europe to direct Filipino policy
course of action. The leaders of this new group seem to have been there. Meanwhile, although he had assured Blumentritt in February
Basilio Teodoro, Timoteo Paez, and Moisés Salvador. that he had received only rumors of another Filipino newspaper, Rizal
In June 1891 Lopez Jaena by invitation of the Comité de Propa- seemed to be seriously considering the offer. In a letter written in
ganda and at its expense, returned to Manila secretly under the alias January 1892 evidently answering Rizal’s request for advice, Antonio
Diego Laura. Here he spent only four days in constant fear of being Luna declared himself in favor of organizing for revolution without
discovered, and finally escaped, disguised as a sailor, on a boat to abandoning the campaign in Madrid. It was necessary to work, he
Hong Kong, whence he returned to Barcelona. He relayed to Rizal in said, in the Philippines and to raise money for the time when Spain
would be involved with some other nation, so that then the Filipinos
August the proposition entrusted to him by Basilio Teodoro that Rizal
should “remain travelling in Europe and America, to sound out the might be ready to strike and shake off the Spanish yoke.
attitudes of the governments of other nations with regard to the Phil- With regard to the proposed newspaper, Luna offered himself un-
ippines, and to find out what idea of it they have.” For this they prom- conditionally if it were to be a revolutionary paper, such as could be
set up in Hong Kong or elsewhere, even if this paper were to attack
42. Ep. Rizal., 3:216-26. It is not absolutely clear that Teodoro actually belonged to
40. On his efforts for those deported, see Aurelio Linares Rivas-Rizal, Ep. Rizal.,
3:282. Linares Rivas, a member of the Conservative government, was the lawyer Rizal the new committee with Paez and Salvador, since Lopez Jaena merely speaks of the
had retained to handle the case of his relatives’ deportation after Pedro de Govantes, proposition as emanating from Teodoro and some friends of his, acting independ-
the original lawyer, had returned to the Philippines, and Rizal himself left Madrid ently of the old committee. If this were a third group, it would be even more indica-
(Marcelo-Ka Dato, Ep. Pilar, 2:107). tive of the disunion in Manila.
41. Ep. Rizal., 3:298-99; Retana, Vida, 470, nos. 113-16, 120; One Hundred, 650. 43. Ibid., 3:255-56, 256-57, 258-59.
La Solidaridad. Rizal seems to have made some kind of conditional He also wrote to Governor-General Despujol offering to remove him-
reply to Alejandrino, who wrote in April advising that he had trans- self from the scene since his presence in the Philippines tended to
mitted the conditions to Manila and urging Rizal not to refuse. Shortly disturb the country’s peace. With this in mind, he asked permission
thereafter Evangelista likewise wrote from Ghent, urging Rizal to sound to change his nationality and a guarantee of freedom to emigrate for
out others who might be of the same mind as he and to found a his friends and relatives who have been deemed harmful to peace in
revolutionary club in Hong Kong or elsewhere as the Cubans had in the Philippines.
the United States.“* Though Despujol did not reply to the letter directly, some time
By the time these letters arrived, however, Rizal had definitely re- later he had the Spanish consul in Hong Kong inform Rizal that he
nounced any idea he had had of directing another paper in Europe, considered this an unpatriotic project in view of the great need to
whether competing with or simply supplementing La Solidaridad.” develop agriculture in the Philippines.” Rizal’s frequent correspond-
Though these negotiations came to nothing, they reflected the grow- ence during this period with those who advocated separation from
ing cleavage between the Rizalistas and the Pilaristas at home and in Spain raises the question whether Rizal had more than an agricul-
Europe, on the policy to be followed. The spurt of strong separatist tural colony in mind, whether he saw the colony as a possible base of
sentiment cannot be attributed exclusively to the events of Calamba, action for future revolutionary activity in the Philippines.»
but Weyler’s brutal solution undoubtedly helped to crystallize the in- Whatever his precise intentions may have been, just as he had pre-
creasing despair over achieving anything in Spain that had vaguely pared an article for La Solidaridad on the proposed colony in Borneo,
troubled many Filipinos. And while Rizal renounced the idea of found- a Solidaridad article appeared which was to thrust Rizal back into ac-
ing a revolutionary newspaper, he had not given up the idea of pre-. tion, and cause him to return to the Philippines, abandoning all plans
paring for an eventual revolution. for Borneo.
Perhaps even his projected colony in Borneo fitted into this plan. In the 15 April 1892 issue, an article by Lete entitled “Redentores
By the time of his arrival in Hong Kong, Rizal had become interested de perro chico” appeared, a crude satire on “Iluso I,” the great pa-
in the possibility of founding a Filipino agricultural colony in Borneo triot of Villailusa, who urges the people to rise against the tyrants and
where his relatives and friends who had lost their lands in Calamba to procure liberty. To the objection that they lack arms, money, or-
might start anew. After his friends had urged him not to return to
the Philippines, he devoted more thought to the plan, and in late
March 1892 made a trip to British North Borneo to survey the possi- 47. Ep. Rizal., 3:305-7.
bilities. He then drew up a plan for the projected colony, having writ- 48. In a letter to Retana in 1897 Blumentritt declared that Rizal had asked him “to
ten to some of his friends in Europe to interest them in the idea.” go with my family to his proposed Tagalog Colony, to found there a station for eth-
nography, linguistics, and natural history, where he and I would live far removed from
anything savoring of politics” (Retana, Vida, 230). In a letter to Juan Zulueta on the
other hand, Rizal speaks of dedicating himself to “preparing for our countrymen a
44. Ibid., 5:279-80; 3:291-93, 320, 327. It is not, however, absolutely clear that the safe refuge in case of persecution, and to writing some works of propaganda, which
Alejandrino proposal emanated from the Partido Rizalino of Pdez, since he does not will soon appear” (cited ibid., 367). The “safe refuge” might have included the idea of
mention a newspaper but only that Rizal direct a Filipino policy counter to that of Del a base for armed revolutionary activity, but there is no proof that it did in Rizal’s
Pilar. The purpose was, however, clearly the same, to abandon Spanish politics in mind. Antonio Luna, however, did speak of its becoming for the Filipinos what Key
favor of direct action on the Philippines. West was for the Cubans (Ep. Rizal., 3:294), but Rizal’s reaction to this idea is not
45. Rizal-Baldomero Roxas, 17 May 1892, One Hundred, 550. recorded. It seems probable that his own ideas had not fully crystallized, at least as to
46. Ep. Rizal., 3:267, 268, 286, 288, 294, 342; 5:635, 639. An account of the Borneo the immediate future. Coates’ assertion (553) that he planned the Borneo colony as
negotiation, may be found in Austin Coates, “Rizal in Sandakan,” Sarawak Museum part of a scheme to unite all of the Malay peoples is unsupported by evidence, as is
Journal 10 (1962): 537-53. The letters on the subject are in Escritos de José Rizal, tomo his somewhat different version in Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr (Hong Kong,
3, libro 4, 168-99. 1968), 175.
on him the indignation of Spaniards anxious to maintain the

ganization, he replies with disdain that none of these are necessary to down
the true patriot, but as for himself, “I ought not to fight! My life is “prestige of the superior race,” it drew a hearty response from the
sacred and my mission of a higher nature!” If they do not go forth, Filipinos as a whole. He further spurred popular enthusiasm by ap-
he proclaims, “I will curse your love for the soil which gave you birth; pearing in public with the footmen of his carriage dressed in native
I will call you voluntary slaves; I will spit in your faces and retire to a garb, and delivered discourses to the cheering crowds at every oppor-
solitary wilderness to bewail in deeply-felt elegies the misfortunes of tunity. He appointed a commission to study municipal organization
my enslaved country.” When a few deluded wretches take him at his so as to propose government reforms in this direction, and encouraged
word, they end up on the gallows or in exile, while he, who has shown a relaxation of censorship of the press. Known as an outstanding and
his patriotism by orating, sits in solitary grandeur, proclaiming: “I am fervent Catholic, he nonetheless made it clear that he was 7 no way
reserved for greater enterprises! I am the only prophet, the only one subservient to the religious orders as he was not to anyone else.”
who loves his country as it should be loved!” If Despujol was the idol of the Filipinos, his name was anathema to
To anyone who has read the letters and exhortations of Rizal to his most Spaniards in the Philippines, and not a few of high position in
compatriots, the subject of the caricature is evident, even if it is an Madrid. Though the appointee of a Conservative government, he was
unfair caricature. Rizal was stung deeply by the article in which he bitterly attacked by the Conservative La Epoca, and defended atid
saw himself attacked, and poured out his indignation and bewilder- lauded by La Solidaridad and not a few republican papers of Madrid.”
ment in rambling and almost incoherent letters to Del Pilar and Ponce, Before his ordinary term was up, after having refused the resignation
vainly trying to probe the rationale behind such an attack. He con- asked of him by the Conservatives, he would eventually be removed
cluded in a letter to Del Pilar: from office by the succeeding Liberal government.”
Who knows, however, if after all it may not be a good thing; it wakes
me from slumber, and after a long silence I enter once more on the 50. P. Pablo Pastells-P. Jaime 1892, AT; P. Pio Pi-P. Hermenegildo
Vigo, 25 Jan
campaign. And here I assure you once more: I enter into the cam- Jacas, 4 Apr 1892, AT; Pastells, Misién,ilipinas,” La Epoca, 28 Apr
2:464; [Retana],“
paign, but without taking up arms against you or any Filipino. I am 1892; Marcelo [Del Pilar]-Tsanay, 14 Apr 1892, Ep. Pilar, 2:131. For Despujol’s own
going to activate the propaganda again, and strengthen the Liga.” exposition of his theory of government and the methods he employed, see his letter
to the overseas minister, cited in note 53 below and the interview he granted on his
Less than a month later Rizal left Hong Kong for the Philippines. arrival in Barcelona in April 1893, after having been removed summarily from office
It was a somewhat different Philippines than that of seven months by the Liberal overseas minister, Antonio Maura (“El General Despujol,” El Noticiero
Universal, 10 Apr 1893).
earlier under Weyler. Despujol had in many ways pursued a policy
51. Besides the attacks in La Epoca, mostly anonymous articles of Retana, who did
diametrically opposed to Weyler’s, one called for so earnestly by Rizal not dare attack openly in La Politica de Esparia en Filipinas, because of the previously
in El Filibusterismo, a policy based on justice, not on prestige. Despujol laudatory articles he had published there on Despujol’s appointment, there was also
took pains to impress the difference upon the populace at large, both the satirical fortnightly El Diablillo Suelto, published in Madrid by M. Walls y Merino
Spanish and Filipino. Friends and enemies alike agreed that he was a with almost the sole object of attacking Despujol. The same man also published the
man of absolute moral integrity. pamphlet El general Despujol en Filipinas (Madrid: L. Minon, 1892). On the other side,
Despujol was just as bitterly attacked by the democratic and republican papers El
Despujol had moved quickly to suspend corrupt officials from of- being defended by Morayta in La
Demécrata, El Globo, El Liberal, all of Madrid, while
fice and to pack them off to the Peninsula by the next ship, publish- Publicidad, and by La Solidaridad. Ironically enough, a week after Despujol’s deporta-
ing in the Gaceta de Manila the full reasons for the action. If this drew tion of Rizal, but before it was known in the Peninsula, La Publicidad published a
“Protesta de la Asociacién Hispano-Filipina,” signed by Del Pilar and Lete, defending

Despujol against El Demécrata’s accusations.
49, Ep. Rizal., 3:338; and to Ponce, ibid., 333. Lete’s explanation, written in 1929 to 52. The expediente personal of Despujol (AHN, Ultramar, leg. 5288, exp. 46) contains
deny any intention of attacking Rizal, may be found ibid., 339-41. an exchange of telegrams between the overseas minister and Despujol, extending over
hiding under sen-

Meanwhile, the enthusiasm of the Filipinos for Despujol was at its not pardon the other Calambenos who were in
tence of deportation until they surrendered themse lves
height. Rizal had first written to him shortly after his arrival in Hong the new rail-
Kong in December 1891. Encouraged by Despujol’s invitation to all Rizal journeyed through the nearby provinces
active pporting the
Filipinos to cooperate for the good of the country and his promise to road, making numerous contacts with those
o. On 3 July he met
base his policy on justice, Rizal offered his own services to Despujol movement, largely in the company of Serran
house of a Chines e mestizo
for these ends. Just at this moment, however, the first copies of El with a large number of these men in the
formall y organi zed the Liga
Filibusterismo arrived in the Philippines. The book caused Despujol to named Ong junco in Manila. Here was
Rizal had set forth in El
have serious reservations about Rizal’s offer. He refused to reply. Rizal’s Filipina, a society that embodied the ideals
years. He had already had
second letter in March, asking that since he was considered a threat Filibusterismo and his letters of the last few
and seems to have drawn up
to the country’s peace, he be allowed to go with his family and friends the society in mind at the end of 1891,
to friends in Manila, apparently with the
to settle in Borneo, was answered indirectly. Now Rizal wrote a third the statutes and sent them
themselves.” It ap-
letter on 21 June 1892, announcing his return to Manila against the intention of having them set up the organization
organi zation before Rizal ar-
advice of his friends and relatives. He was relying on Despujol’s re- pears, however that there was no real
were as follows :
puted sense of justice, and wished to take upon himself the conse- rived. The purposes laid down for the Liga
quences of the charge for which his family and friends had been t, vigor-
persecuted in the past, and thus restore peace to the innocent.” 1. The unification of the whole Archipelago into a compac
ous, and homogeneous body.
On 26 June, he arrived in Manila, registered in a hotel, and sought
an interview with the governor-general. Despujol received him briefly, 2. Mutual protection in every want and necessity.
granting him the pardon of his father and of his sister Lucia, who 3. Defense against all violence and injustice.
4. Promotion of instruction, agriculture, and business.
had accompanied him from Hong Kong. The following day Rizal was
granted another interview and later a further one, but Despujol would 5. The study and application of reforms.
obedience of its
Organized as a secret society, it demanded blind
ence to fellow-mem-
members, who obliged themselves to give prefer
aid of any member in
some weeks, in which the former tried to get Despujol to resign, and he refused to do
bers in buying and selling, to come to the
so, attributing the charges against him to calumny by those whom he had removed
from office for malfeasance, as they probably were. He was finally summarily dismissed
in late Febuary 1893. Such was the fate of one of the few governors of the last three
decades of the Spanish regime who was indisputably honest as well as appreciative of 14 Nov 1892, and “Expediente
54. Letter of Despujol to the overseas minister,
Filipino aspirations within the framework of continued Spanish rule. His term of of propagandas anti-patridticas y
de
fice and his ideals of government deserve more attention than they have received, due reservada instruido en Manila a consecuencia
por el Dr. Rizal y sus adeptos. 1892,” both in AHN, Ultramar,
to his responsibility for the deportation of Rizal. anti-religiosas realizadas
pardoned by Despujol after their
53. Ep. Rizal., 3:270-71, 305-7, 348-49. AHN, Ultramar, leg. 2308, exp. 11. Of the leg. 2308, exp. 11. The other deportees were later
surrender and Rizal’s deportation (Ep. Rizal., 4:24, 41).
same time are two letters which he left behind to be published after his death, the the declarations made by Moisés
one to his parents, family, and friends, the other addressed “A los Filipinos.” In both 55. The principal basis for accounts of the Liga are
and others in 1896, and reproduced among
of them he makes clear that he knows he is risking his life in returning to the Philip- Salvador, Domingo Franco, José Reyes,
ntos politicos de la actualid ad” in Retana, Archivo, vol. 3. However, as has
pines, but feels that it is his duty to do so when so many have had to suffer for his the “Docume
were extracte d generally under pressure
sake. Though he would be ready to take again the same course he has taken, consid- been remarked previously, these declarations
of barbaric tortures, and must be used with care.
ering that he has only done his duty, even though he should know it would bring so 4:407. Timoteo Paez later
3: 290-93,
much suffering on his relatives and friends, yet he feels obliged to do what he can to 56. Ep, Rizal., 3:286, 296, 332. Retana, Archivo,
by the Liga (Felipe Buencamino,
take that persecution on himself, happy if by his death others may be freed. (A mis asserted that Rizal had replaced the Partido Rizalino
queridos padres, hermanos y amigos, Ep. Rizal., 3:305-7; A los Filipinos, ibid., 348-49.) “Sixty Years of Philippine History,” 16).
under a basically hostile government would have been successful is

need, not to submit to any humiliation, nor to treat any other so as to
open to question. For it is not clear whether Rizal inte ded to stay in
humiliate him. To each meeting of the local council, each was to ae. 59 ‘ : ;
the Philippines.” But without him the Liga would
: ther away. Its
bring “some work, some observation, a study, or a new member”; and
success depended on keeping alive strong nation ist sentiments. Rizal
each was assessed a small sum as monthly dues. The members were to
could perhaps have sustained such sentiments amor rge sections
be organized into popular councils which elected their own officers.
of his countrymen, but he could not have done s nder the
The heads of these local councils formed a provincial council and the
already suspicious eye of a colonial government, however benevolent
heads of these in turn formed the Supreme Council. The funds col-
the governor-general.
lected by the organization were to be used for such ends as the sup-
In fact, Rizal’s plans were not to be put to the test. For all his sense
port of a member or his son who showed great aptitudes, but lacked
of justice and sympathy with Filipino aspirations, Despujol had allowed
the means to educate himself; to give aid to those who had suffered
Rizal into the Philippines with great suspicion, though determined
misfortune, or to defend their rights against the powerful; to grant
not to take hostile measures unless provoked.” This provocation ap-
loans to members who needed capital for industry or agriculture; to
peared upon the discovery of some handbills entitled “Pobres Frailes.”
favor the introduction of machines, and of new or necessary indus-
emphasizing the wealth of the Philippine Dominicans and satirizing
tries into the country; to open stores where the members could buy
the readiness of the Filipinos to contribute to the increase of the
more cheaply.”
wealth of the friars. More serious in Despujol’s view were the satiric
Rizal has here provided a concrete articulation of the course pointed
remarks about the wealth of the papacy and its use by Leo XIII, which
out by Father Florentino to the dying Simoun in EI Filibusterismo. There
he considered an attack on Catholicism and thus on the Spanish re-
is no thought of a violent overthrow of the Spanish regime; rather
gime itself.°’ These handbills had been discovered in the baggage of
Rizal proposes a means to achieve the national community that he
Rizal’s sister by the customs officials, but Despujol had said nothing
deemed a prerequisite to any attempt at independence. Since the Span-
to Rizal to see if he would further compromise himself and, through
ish regime of church and state seemed incapable of providing the
education, the economic progress, the personal security and safeguard-
ing of rights that a nation owes its citizens, he proposed the forma-
tion of a competitive and substitutive community to fulfill those
functions, which would aid the necessary growth to enable a Filipino 59. There is no certainty that Rizal had renounced the Borneo plan; rather, some
EG) -raeeerneaeany to come to maturity and supplant the existing of those with whom Rizal was in contact during his first week in the Philippines, later
declared on questioning that he had been collecting funds for the colony to be founded
regime.
in Borneo. See the expediente cited in note 54.
This attempt to give his lofty national ideals concrete organizational 60. See his lengthy detailing of his reactions to Rizal’s plan of coming to the Phil-
form is perhaps Rizal’s best answer to Del Pilar’s scoffing remark on ippines, and the plans he made on finding that Rizal was actually on his way, in the
the man “formed in libraries.” Its attention to the economic aspect is letter cited in note 54 above. Among these precautions was directing the consul to
notable, considering the milieu in which it was conceived, and em- ascertain whether it was true or not that Rizal had already changed his nationality.
61. Both in his letter to the overseas minister and in the decree of deportation, as
bodies many of the principles of modern cooperatives. However,
it appeared in the official Gaceta de Manila, 7 July 1892, Despujol emphasized this
whether applying cooperative economic and social principles within
point as the principal one, not the attacks on the friars. The handbill spoke of the
the structure of a rather highly authoritarian secret society operating pope as having lost fourteen million through bad administration of the cardinals, and
alluded sarcastically to his having given a niece a palace and 300,000 francs for her
marriage. To the comandante of Dapitan, Ricardo Carnicero, Rizal later claimed that
he had not composed this handbill, but when its author had brought him the rough
57. Statutes are reproduced in Retana, Vida, 236-41.
draft, “la corregié6, aumentando algunas palabras” (Carnicero-Despujol, 30 Aug 1892,
58. See the development of these ideas in Cesar Adib Majul, A Critique of Rizal’s
Ep. Rizal., 4:34).
Concept of a Filipino Nation ({Quezon City], 1959).
his contacts, to find out the extent and nature of reformist and/or
subversive activities in the country.” CHAPTER 13
A close watch was kept on Rizal’s movements. After leaving him at
liberty for some days, Despujol confronted him with the evidence in a Decline and Death of “La Solidaridad”
third interview on 6 July. He was placed under arrest, and simultane-
ously, as pre-arranged, the homes of dozens of men in the surround-
ing provinces, known to be in contact with Rizal or active propagandists
of the reform movement, were searched. The following day Rizal was
deported to Dapitan in Mindanao. After the evidence obtained in the
searches was collated and sifted, several active nationalists from the
various provinces surrounding Manila were deported to other parts of
the Islands, including Doroteo Cortés, Mariano Alejandrino, and
Rizal’s break with La Solidaridad in January 1891 marked a
Ambrosio Salvador. Others who held government posts, such as
turning point in the fortunes of the Filipino newspaper. Though al-
Serrano, were deprived of them.” Rizal would remain in Dapitan un- most five years of life still remained to it, these years were to be a
til 1896, cut off from almost all contact with those still active in the
period of steady decline from the high point of 1889-90, culminating
nationalist movement and devoting himself to agriculture, teaching,
in a long drawn-out death agony. However, it was not immediately
and philological studies. The field was now left entirely to Del Pilar.
apparent that such was the situation. Indeed, the staff of the paper
appeared to have been in some ways strengthened, even though it no
longer possessed a writer of the stature of Rizal. In September 1890
62. Rizal denied any knowledge of the handbills, and later told Carnicero that he Antonio Luna had received an official place on the staff at a small
did not believe his sister had been so foolish as to bring them either, but that they salary. , Shortly afterward Mariano Ponce had finally left Barcelona for
Madrid, where he not only took over the business iahapecoene of the
must have been placed there in Manila, since numbers of them had been sent there
from Hong Kong a few days previously (ibid., 28-29). A note in Palma (246) says that
paper, but began to write with greater regularity.” Once Rizal had
“la opinién filipina” attributed this to the friars, for a nephew of Archbishop Nozaleda
had been the customs officer who inspected the baggage. Since there is no further
departed, Eduardo de Lete joined the Filipino journalists for the first
proof of this assertion, it must be classed with the rumors of that type which were so time since he had been excluded as the editor of La Solidaridad in
common at the time. 1888.° Dominador Gémez too continued to contribute articles from
63. See the expediente cited in note 54 above. time to time, and others wrote occasional pieces, including José
Alejandrino and Gregorio Aguilera. All of these articles, however,
1. Luna had already been writing with some regularity, but received a regular sala-
ried position only at this time (Ep. Rizal., 3:36, 227).
2. Ep. Pilar, 1:230, 241. Ponce’s articles began to appear with some frequency from
early 1891, under the pseudonyms “Naning,” “Kalipulako,” and “Tigbalang.”
3. Lete’s first article appeared in the number of 31 Jan 1891, though he did not
write regularly till May. He was living with Del Pilar and Ponce at this time.
281

Rizal S Abandonment of Assimilation PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Rizal S Abandonment of Assimilation PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Rizal S Abandonment of Assimilation PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Education for the Future 213

clines them to idealize the mother country to excess, was very

of challenging the adulterer to a duel, which exposes the husband to

him than a mere step in the political program of nationalist propa-

prising historical, ethnological, philological, and other sections.”

50. Ep. Pilar, 1:220-21. documents.

62. Ep. Rizal., 5:546-48; 3:7-8.

Mid-1890 saw the high point of the Propaganda Movement.

Mid-1890 saw the high point of the Propaganda Movement.

6. Ep. Pilar, 1:226-27. 9. Ibid.; also Ep. Rizal., 2:271-72; 3:89-91.

is 16. Ep. Rizal., 2:157-58; 166-68.

21. Ep. Rizal., 3:143.

34, Ibid., 240.

on him the indignation of Spaniards anxious to maintain the

“Protesta de la Asociacién Hispano-Filipina,” signed by Del Pilar and Lete, defending

hiding under sen-

under a basically hostile government would have been successful is

You might also like