Some Important Annotations of Rizal

Some Important
Annotations
Prepared by: Abella, Langi,
Figueroa, Gumahin, Lingcodo
Austin Craig
(1872-1949)
An early biographer of Rizal, translated into
English some of the important of Rizal’s
annotations in the Sucesos.
Some pointers of Rizal Annotations
01
Filipino had a culture before pre-
Hispanic period.
02
Filipino were advanced already,
have high literacy rate, are self-
sufficient and have foreign
relations.
Cont..,
03
Filipino were decimated, demoralized,
exploited and ruined by Spaniards.
04
The present state of the Philippines was
not necessarily superior to its past.
Cont..,
05
In his annotation, he included the colonial
history of the Philippines, being in prolonged
periods of suffering that many people have
been subjected to.
The people
01
had a culture on their own, before the coming of
the Spaniards
The Cebuanos drew a pattern on the
skin before starting in to tattoo. The
Bisayan usage then was the same
procedure that the Japanese today
follow.
they prefer to eat salt fish which begin to decompose and smell.
In Rizal’s footnotes, he said “This is another preoccupation of the

Spaniards who, like any other nation in that matter of food, loathe that
to which they are not accustomed or is unknown to them… The fish
that Morga mentions does not taste better when it is beginning to rot:
all on the contrary ‘it is bagoong’, and all those who have eaten it and
tasted it know it is not or ought not to be rotten.”
Colin says the ancient Filipinos had minstrels who had memorized songs telling their
genealogies and of the deeds ascribed to their deities. These were chanted on
voyages in cadence with the rowing, or at festivals, or funerals, or wherever there
happened to be any considerable gatherings. It is regrettable that these chants have
not been preserved as from them it would have been possible to learn much of the
Filipino’s past and possibly of the history of neighboring islands.
02
The people
of the pre-Hispanic Philippines are advanced,
have a high literacy rate, are self-sufficient and
have foreign relations
Early government, our forefathers in the pre-colonial Philippines already possessed a
working judicial and legislative system.
High literacy rate, one of the best examples is how the pre-Hispanic Filipino
people has already a writing system which is baybayin which the Spanish
missionaries studied just to deliver to the pre-Hispanic Filipino people their
goals. (the Spanish missionaries exploited the baybayin for their own ends,
learning and using it to their goals.)
Early artillery, because they were very proficient in the art of war. Aside
from wielding swords and spears, they also knew how to make and fire
guns and cannons.
Smooth foreign relations, because the pre-colonial Filipinos had already
established trading and diplomatic relations with countries as far away as
the middle east.
Self-sufficient, in terms of food, they did not suffer from any lack thereof.
Blessed with such a resource- rich country, they had enough for themselves
and their families.
Advance civilization, because they possessed a complex or composite
working society and a abounding culture with works of arts and literature.
03
Filipinos
were decimated, demoralized exploited and
ruined by the Spanish colonization.
“The Philippines was depopulated,
impoverished and retarded,
astounded by metaphormosis,
with no confidence in her past,
still without faith in her present
and without faltering hope in the
future.
Rizal say:
"... little by little, they (Filipinos) lost their old traditions, the
mementoes of their past; they gave up their writing, their songs,
their poems, their laws, in order to learn other doctrines which
they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics,
different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of
thinking. They declined, degrading themselves in their own eyes.
They become ashamed of what was their own; they began to
admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible;
their spirit was damaged and it surrendered."
04
The present
state of the Philippines was not necessarily
superior to its past.
The current state of the Philippines is not superior from the past
because there are things in the past that is still present in the current
state of the Philippines.
In his annotation,
05
He included the colonial history of the Philippines, being in
prolonged periods of suffering that many people have been
subjected to.
The Japanese were not in error when they suspected the Spanish and Portuguese
religious propaganda to have political motives back of the missionary activities.
Witness the Moluccas where Spanish missionaries served as spies; Cambodia, which
it was sought to conquer under cloak of converting; and many other nations, among
them the Filipinos, where the sacrament of baptism made of the inhabitants not only
subjects of the King of Spain but also slaves of the encomenderos, and as well slaves
of the churches and convents.
The Philippines was depopulated, impoverished and retarded, astounded by
metaphormosis, with no confidence in her past, still without faith in her present and
without faltering hope in the future.
The value of
Rizal’s
Annotations
What do you think?
Is Rizal being straightforward
with his historical annotations in
correcting the original and at the
same time being strong with his
anticlerical bias?
Blumentritt said…
“My great esteem for your notes does not impede me from confessing
that, more than once, I have observed that you participate in the error of
many historians who censure the events of past centuries according to the
concepts that correspond to contemporary ideas. This should not be so.
The historian should not impute to the men of the sixteenth century the
broad horizon of ideas that moves the nineteenth century. The second
point with which I do not agree is against Catholicism. I believe that you
cannot find the origin of numerous events regrettable for Spain and for
the good name of the European race in religion, but in the hard behavior
and abuses of many priests.”
Rizal replied…
“You wish that the Spaniards embrace us as brothers, but we do not ask
for this by always imploring and repeating this because the rest is
humiliating for us. If the Spaniards do not want us as brothers, neither are
we eager for this affection. We will not ask for fraternal love as if it we
like alms. I am convinced that you wish too much and also wish the good
of Spain. But we do not solicit the compassion of Spain. We do not want
compassion, but justice… Fraternity like alms from the proud Spaniard
we do not seek. I repeat, you only have the best intentions, you want to
see the whole world embraced by means of love and reason but I doubt if
the Spaniards wish the same.”
Significance of Rizal’s annotations have made us…
- To awaken the Filipinos consciousness of our past.
- To devote ourselves to studying the future.
- To prove Filipinos had a culture of their own since they came and
we’re not inferior in any way.
- To embrace the generic term “indio”, or in today’s case. Filipino, with

all its negative connotations, and turn it into one of dignity and
nobility.
If the book succeeds in awakening in you the
consciousness of our past which has been obliterated
from memory and in rectifying what has been
falsified and calumniated, I shall not have labored in
vain, and on such basis, little though it may be, we
can all devote ourselves to studying the future.
- Dr. Jose Rizal

Thank you…
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Some Important

In Rizal’s footnotes, he said “This is another preoccupation of the

- To awaken the Filipinos consciousness of our past.

- To devote ourselves to studying the future.

- To embrace the generic term “indio”, or in today’s case. Filipino, with

- Dr. Jose Rizal

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