Republic of the Philippines

SORSOGON STATE COLLEGE

Sorsogon State Campus

A module on Life and Works of Rizal

Rationale:

Since the course on Rizal has been mandated by Republic Act No. 1425 since 1956, new modes
in teaching and studying the course is being adopted as time passes. For instance, the currents in the
country have been quite exponential consequently the need for distance programs, modular strategies,
and other approaches that constitute blended teaching-learning experiences is underscored. In addition,
the stark digital divide in our midst most specifically in our academic setting requires modular and novel
approaches as a big percentage of learners even mentors are not online.

With varied mentors crafting the different chapters in this module we are more than assured of
the colorful lenses being used by the writers and being shared with the learners. Interesting points are
therefore shown with contemporary expression and exposition thrown in.

Our mentors wish that you can maximize your learning through ways that we have
conceptualized as you can go back to the previous chapters from time to time for mastery or perhaps to
relish the learning and insights you had and would like to relearn.

Enjoy learning, unlearning, and relearning Rizal. Debate the continuing controversies if need be,
and relish the exhilarating and bumpy academic ride that goes with the experience.

INTRODUCTION

As mandated by the Republic Act 1425, this course covers the Life and Works of the country’s
national hero, Jose Rizal. Among the topics covered are Rizal’s biography and his writings, particularly his
novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Felibusterismo, some of his essays and various correspondences.

It is essential to know our history and study the life of our national hero, Jose Rizal because of
his contributions towards the independence of Philippines. He chose to fight for his country through
knowledge and ink. In this subject, we will learn the events that attributes to the character and
principles of Rizal. He noticed the continued suffering of his countrymen at the hands of the Spaniards
and sought to put an end to this situation in the best way he can. His famous novels the  "Noli Me
Tangere" and "El Filibusterismo" pointed out the issues that the true citizens of Philippines faced under
Spanish rule and even applicable up to this day and age. He described the real situations of the country
through his writings and sacrificed his life to liberate the Filipinos from oppression and be awakened. His
works resonated well with that of his countrymen and eventually the people decided to rise up and
defend their rights and freedom.

Objectives in teaching Rizal:

1. Explain and discuss Jose Rizal’s life in the context of 19 th Century Philippines
2. Analyze Rizal’s various works, particularly the Noli Me Tangere and El Felibusterismo;
3. Organize Rizal’s ideas into various themes;
4. Demonstrate critical reading on primary sources;
5. Remind the students to value and appreciate the rich Filipino culture, history, sacrifices of
Filipino heroes and the big contributions of Jose Rizal in the country.
6. Pay tribute to our national hero for devoting his life and works in shaping the Filipino character.
7. Inspire and be the source of patriotism.
 CHAPTER I

THE TRIALS OF RIZAL BILL

Before Rizal course became mandated in all the colleges and universities to be included in the curricula.
This bill went a lot of heated debates and arguments in the congress. In April 17, 1956 the tension
started when Sen. Jose P. Laurel sponsored the Bill and was supported by a brilliant and
nationalist Sen. Claro M. Recto who authored the bill.

OBJECTIVES:

 Disseminate the ideas and ideals of Jose Rizal through the reading of his works
 Noli and El Fili will remind us of our defects, strength, virtues and vices.
 Be conscious with the painful sacrifices which lead to self-reliance, self-respect and freedom.
 Foster the better appreciation of Rizal’s times and of the role he played in combatting Spanish
Tyranny

DEBATES:

Debates began in Senate on April 23, 1956, Senator Laurel who sponsored the bill was supported by a
brilliant and nationalist Sen. Claro M. Recto who authored the bill. Opposition Sen. Mariano Cuenco,
Sen.
Francisco Rodrigo and Sen. Decoroso Rosales are all identified as Catholics. Supported by the Catholic
elements in and outside Congress.

ARGUMENTS:

PROPONENT SEN. RECTO:

 Rizal did not pretend to teach religion and theology rather he just wrote and describe the real
situations of the country. He was just inculcating civic consciousness in the Filipinos, national
dignity, personal pride and patriotism. (Politics, Social, Equality and Religion)
 Rizal ridiculed and criticized the unworthy behavior of the minister but praises and favor the
worthy ones such as Padre Fernandez and Padre Florentino and the Jesuits missionaries.

OPPOSITION:

 The Rizal Bill is an attempt to discredit the catholic religion. It is violative of religions freedom.
 Synonymous to compelling a religion to salute the flag which is against in their faith.
 Majority of the Filipinos are catholic and Filipino citizens, therefore, must not create conflicts
between religion and nationalism

WARNINGS:

 Catholic priest warned the politicians who will support the Bill that they are not going to support
them in their political career.
 The Catholic schools threatened to close down if the Bill was passed
 Recto did not believe these threats stating that schools were too profitable to be closed and
insisted that the threat is not a fight against him but a fight against Rizal by attempting to
suppress his memory and his teachings.

IDENTICAL BILL IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE

 On April 19, 1956 – Cong. Jacobo Z. Gonzales introduce an identical copy of the Bill 438, the
House Bill 5561.
  Debates started on May 9, 1956. the discussions were livelier and more impassioned that there
was even an abortive fist fight on the floor between Cong. Emilio Cortez and Cong. Ramon
Durano.

FINAL RESOLUTION

 On May 9, 1956 Sen. Laurel propose an amendment by substitution. An act to include Life,
Works and writings of Rizal in the curricula in all public and private schools, colleges and
universities.
 The substitute bill included not just the Noli and El Fili but all the works and writings of Rizal.
 Sen. Laurel eliminated the word “compulsory” Senator Lim proposed the exemptions of
students from the requirements of the bill for reasons of religious belief.
 May 12, 1956, the substitute bill was approved on second reading in the Senate
 On May 14, Cong. Tolentino sponsored an amendment by substitution identical to Sen. Laurel’s
bill was also approved on second reading at the lower house.

The bill was eventually passed, but with a clause that would allow exemptions to students who think
that reading the Noli and Fili would ruin their faith. In other words, one can apply to the Department of
Education for exemption from reading Rizal’s novels—though not from taking the Rizal subject. The bill
was enacted on June 12, 1956. On May 17, 1956, the Senate Bill 438 and House Bill No. 5561 was
approved on the third reading. On June 12, 1956, the Bill was signed into law by Pres. Ramon Magsaysay
and became Republic Act No. 1425.

ACTIVITY

THOUGHT PAPER.

Compare and contrast the views of those in favor and against RA 1425. Would similar arguments still
relevant to this day and age?

Prepared by:

BRENDA LOU D. DELLOSA

Instructor I
 CHAPTER II

RIZAL’S FAMILY BACKGROUND

OBJECTIVES:
1. Learn the simple yet challenging childhood of Rizal.
2. Appreciate Rizal’s sacrifices to become successful in his career.
3. Give importance to the contributions of Rizal in the country.
4. Know the educational settings in 18th century

DISCUSSIONS

WHO IS JOSE RIZAL?

On June 19, 1861, José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born in Calamba in the
Philippines' Laguna Province. A brilliant student who became proficient in multiple languages. Jose Rizal
is the 7th child of his father Francisco Mercado II, his mother Teodora Alonso Realonda. He has ten
siblings, nine sisters and one brother. Jose Rizal came from a wealthy family in Calamba, Laguna,
Considered one of the largest families in those times. The only brother of Jose Rizal was Paciano Rizal
and was the second child. Rizal’s nickname is PEPE.

RIZAL’S FAMILY BACKGROUND

FRANCISCO MERCADO RIZAL – Rizal’s Father. Industrious farmer whom Rizal called as A MODEL OF
FARMERS, came from Binan, Laguna.

TEODORA ALONZO Y QUINTOZ – Rizal’s mother. A highly cultured and accomplished woman whom
Rizal called “loving and prudent” mother was born in Meisic, St. Cruz, Manila.

SATURNINA RIZAL - Eldest child of the Rizal-Alonzo marriage. Married Manuel Timoteo Hidalgo of
Tanauan, Batangas.

PACIANO RIZAL (1851-1930)- Only brother of Jose Rizal and the second child. Studied at San Jose
College in Manila; became a farmer and later a general of the Philippine Revolution.

NARCISA RIZAL (1852-1939)- The third child. Married Antonio Lopez at Morong, Rizal; a teacher and
musician.

OLYMPIA RIZAL (1855-1887) - The fourth child. Married Silvestre Ubaldo; died in 1887 from childbirth.

LUCIA RIZAL (1857-1919) - The fifth child. Married Matriano Herbosa.

MARIA RIZAL (1859-1945)- The sixth child. Married Daniel Faustino Cruz of Binan, Laguna.

CONCEPCION RIZAL (1862-1865)- The eigth child. She was the closest sister of Rizal but died at the age
of three. It was considered as rizal’s first sorrow.

JOSEFA RIZAL (1865-1945) - The ninth child. An epileptic, died a spinster.

TRINIDAD RIZAL (1868-1951) - The tenth child. Died a spinster and the last of the family to die.

SOLEDAD RIZAL (1870-1929)- The youngest child married Pantaleon Quintero.

MEANING OF JOSE RIZAL’S NAME.

José - was chosen by his mother who was a devotee of the Christian saint San Jose (St.
Joseph)
Protacio – suggested by a family friend which come from a Christian Calendar
Mercado – adopted in 1731 by Domingo Lamco, a businessman (the parternal great great
grandfather of Rizal) which means “Market”
Rizal – from the word racial which means a field where wheat, cut while still green, sprouts
again
Alonso – an old surname of his mother
Y – and
Realonda – used by his mother from the surname of Rizal’s godmother

TRIVIA. Ever wondered why national hero Jose Rizal was called Pepe? 
Saint Joseph was the putative (commonly accepted) father of Jesus Christ. In Latin, San Jose’s
name is always followed by the letters ‘P.P’ for pater putativus. In Spanish, the letter ‘P’ is
pronounced as ‘peh’ giving rise to the nickname Pepe for Jose.

Activity:

Each student will make a Family Tree in a long coupon bond. Collect photos of the
people you want to include in your family tree. Explain the history of your family. Write the
meaning or history of your nickname.

REFERENCE:

Gregorio F. Zaide, Sonia M. Zaide, José Rizal: Life, Works, and Writings of a Genius, Writer, Scientist, and
National Hero, Second Edition, 2014

Prepared by:

Jaydee Gaton
 CHAPTER III

RIZAL’S EARLY EDUCATION

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Learn the educational background and influence of Rizal’s family in his career;
2. Compare the educational system of Ateneo and Sto. Tomas according to the views of Rizal;
3. Know the discrimination that Rizal experienced despite of his social status; and
4. Understand that Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere was inspired by his childhood memories.

DISCUSSION

HERO’S 1ST TEACHER

The first teacher of Rizal was his mother. He learned alphabets and prayers at the age of 3.
Rizal’s mother was his first tutor. She was so patient and understanding. Doña Teodara was the first to
discover that Rizal had a talent on poetry. She encouraged him to write poems and stimulate his
imaginations.

RIZAL IN BIÑAN LAGUNA

 June, 1869 Rizal left for Binan,

 Was accompanied by Paciano his older brother
 He was taught by Maestro Justiniano
 In academic studies, Rizal beat all Binan boys
 He surpassed them all in Spanish, Latin, and other subjects

In Biñan, Rizal experienced discriminations because he is the only Filipino Student and he was the
object of jealousy because of his disciplined life and intellectual superiority-the best in class in all the
subjects. He was also bullied by his classmate, named, PEDRO, a son of his Spanish Teacher. He was
always challenged for a fight. Rizal was never a quarrelsome or trouble maker but he never ran away
from a fight.

Rizal did not enjoy his schooling under Maestro Justiniano Cruz because of his barbarous
punishment in making the pupils learn his lessons. He even highlighted this in his novel Noli Me Tangere.

RIZAL IN ATENEO

 Ateneo De Municipal established by the Jesuits

 Rizal entered in 1872
 He belonged to the class composed of Spaniards, mestizos and Filipinos
 His teacher was Fr. Jose Bech
 He was considered as an inferior and was placed at the bottom of the class
 By the end of the month he became the emperor and received a prize, a religious picture
 To improve his Spanish Rizal took private lessons in Santa Isabel College
 During his 4th year in Ateneo he received 5 medals and graduated as sobresaliente
 He graduated on March 23, 1877(16 years old)
 Received the degree of bachelor of arts, with highest honors not a valedictorian

In Ateneo, Rizal was late for registration and undersized for his age at 11 years old. Rizal loved the
Jesuits educational system in Ateneo because of how they trained the students by rigid discipline,
humanities and religious instruction.

Despite of being members of various organizations, he earned excellent marks in all subjects like
philosophy, physics, chemistry, and natural history. At this school, he read novels; wrote prize-winning
poetry (and even a melodrama—“Junto al Pasig”); and practiced drawing, painting, and clay modeling,
all of which remained lifelong interests for him.

During this time also that Rizal experienced his first romance, a love at first with Segunda Katigbak,
14 years old from Lipa, Batangas. He even drew Segunda’s portrait. He visits Segunda weekly on her
boarding house, but, eventually, Rizal learned that Segunda was already engaged to be married with
Manuel Luz, a Spanish Engineer. This was considered as Rizal’s tragic first romance.

RIZAL IN STO. TOMAS

 After graduating, he continued his education at UST

 He finished a year in Philosophy and Letters
 He decided to shift to a medical course
 UST was under the Dominicans, rival of the Jesuits in education
 Remained loyal to Ateneo participated in extracurricular activities in Ateneo and completed a
course in surveying
 As a Thomasian he won more literary laurels
 During his first term in 1877-1878 in UST, he studied Cosmology, Metaphysics, Theodicy and
History of Philosophy.
 It was during the school term 1878-1879 that Rizal pursued his studies in medicine
 Curso de Ampiacion or Advanced course in Physics, Chemistry and Natural History.
 Out of the 28 young men taking Ampliacion only four including Rizal were granted the privilege
of taking simultaneously the preparatory course and the first year of medicine
 Rizal also received his four-year practical training in medicine at the Hospital de San Juan de Dios
in Intramuros
 On May 3, 1882 he boarded on Salvadora bound for Singapore where he was the only Filipino
passenger
 On November 3, 1882, he enrolled in Universidad Central de Madrid taking up two courses:
Philosophy, Letters and Medicine
 On June 21, 1884, he conferred the degree of Licentiate in Medicine
 The Following academic year, he studied and passed all subjects leading to the degree of doctor
of medicine
 Unfortunately, he was not able to submit the thesis required for graduation nor paid the
corresponding fees
 With that, he was not awarded his Doctor’s Diploma

Rizal entered in Sto. Tomas at the age of 16 years old. Rizal studied medicine because he wanted to
be a physician, to cure his mother’s failing eyesight. Also, he followed the advice of Ateneo’s Rector, Fr.
Pablo Ramon. Rizal continued his studies in Europe became eminent for being intellectual and endowed.

REFERENCE:

Gregorio F. Zaide, Sonia M. Zaide, José Rizal: Life, Works, and Writings of a Genius, Writer, Scientist, and
National Hero, Second Edition, 2014

Prepared by:

BRENDA LOU D. DELLOSA

INSTRUCTOR I
 CHAPTER IV

RIZAL AND THE THEORY OF NATIONALISM

INTRODUCTION

Jose Rizal’s literary works led to the awakening of the Filipinos’ sense of nationalism thus, the
Philippines’ achievement of its independence was greatly attributed to him, and therefore, he was
acclaimed as the Father of Nationalism.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. Understand the idea of nationalism, familiarize, internalize how nationalism came into being in
the Philippines
2. Explain the concept of imagined communities
3. Learn Chinese mestizos role in Philippine society
4. Comprehend the vital role of Awit in revolution(s)
5. Know and comprehend the extent of Rizal’s contribution
6. Develop critical thinking

A. IMAGINED COMMUNITIES: REFLECTIONS ON THE ORIGINS AND SPREAD OF NATIONALISM

SUMMARY OF LESSON

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism is a book written
by Benedict Anderson and published in 1991.

In the book, Anderson stated that “to understand nationalism one must look at the manner in
which national identities have formed over time which can account for why they are so meaningful
today”.

The author depicts a nation as a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who
perceive themselves as part of that group. That formation of nations or the imagined communities are
encouraged by the development of printing press. Books, newspapers and pamphlets were printed in a
commonly spoken language giving rise to the people’s (who read said materials) perception that they
have something in common.

In part, the book gives testimonial to Rizal’s role in manifesting aspects of a nation identity. It
acknowledges that Rizal, through his literary works, became an instrument in facilitating a person’s
internal allegiance to the nation, in awakening awareness of citizenship, the creation of a sense of
national kinship and conceptualization of Filipino as a “people” or “the people” – an element of the
‘imagined community’ that constitutes nationalism.

Specifically, Anderson cited, as an example, the opening passage of the novel Noli Me Tangere
(José Rizal, 1887, written in Spanish (the colonial language), in which anonymous people around the
capital Manila (an imagined community) share gossip and the narrator directly addresses future
Filipinos.

The anonymous collective of Manila residents in Rizal’s novel represents a miniature copy of the
Philippine nation—despite never having met one another, they clearly have common interests and are
even imagined as creating a new generation that will share those interests.
 By highlighting these aspects of the novel form, Anderson shows that the novel contains the
ingredients of the imagined community, which is likely what makes it such a powerful vehicle for the
formation of nationalist movements.

READINGS

Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Introduction: Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread
of Nationalism, 1-7. Revised Ed. London and New York: Verso. Pasig City: Anvil 2003 PH Edition.

Research Day: No class meeting

GROUP CLASS ACTIVITY:

To submit a group thought paper that:

1. Assesses what characterizes a nation
2. Defines nationalism
3. Elaborates on how Rizal and his works contributed to Philippine Nationalism

B. ASCENDANCE OF CHINESE MESTIZO

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. Discriminate the historical conditions that led to the emergence of Chinese mestizos as an
important element of Philippine society
2. Consider the economic, cultural and political implications of their ascendance

LESSON PROPER

Chinese Mestizos (Sangley mestizo, mestisong Sangley, mestizo de Sangley; plural: Sangleys or

Sangleyes) is an archaic term used in the Philippines beginning in the Spanish colonial period to describe
and classify a person of mixed Chinese and Filipino ancestry (referred to as Indio). 
Historical Background
 Chinese predates Magellan’s exploration of the islands (Philippines)
 Some had settled and intermarried with native women but the emergence of Chinese mestizo as
a legally distinct class began only with the Spanish colonial regime
 Known for their entrepreneurial acumen they ply their wares through barter, some became
skilled artisans, carpenters and others; tailors, locksmiths, mason, etc., and were quite
flourishing which threatened the Spaniards
 Equally threatened, the Chinese staged a revolt (Battle of Manila, 1574) led by Limahong (Lim
Hong or Lin Feng) which, unfortunately, was foiled by the Spanish army and their native allies.
 Perceived as politically untrustworthy but economically necessary, the Spanish authority
decided to convert the Chinese into Catholicism.
 Chinese who embraced the faith settled into what is known today as Binondo, married native
women and over time the mestizo de sangley caste developed.
 Those who refused were allowed to stay in a settlement just outside or near the vicinity of
Intramuros which became known as the Parian community

Economy

The Spanish gave the  mestizos de sangley  special rights and privileges as colonial subjects of the
Spanish Crown and as baptized converts to the Catholic Church.
 preference to handle the domestic trade of the islands
 allowed to lease land from the friar estates through the  inquilino  or lessee system which
allowed them to sublet those lands
o came to acquire many native lands, chiefly through a legal instrument called  pacto
de retro  or contract of retrocession.
o through this instrument, a  moneylender  extended loans to farmers, who in
exchange for cash pawned their land with the option of buying it back. In the event
of default, the moneylender recovered the loan by foreclosing on the land from the
farmer
  paid taxes double the amount paid by that of an Indio.
o under the Spanish colonial rule, populations were categorized into four categories:
those who did not pay tribute (Spaniards and Spanish mestizos), indios (Malayan
inhabitants of the archipelago now called Filipinos), Chinese, and Chinese
mestizos. The last three of these groups were considered tribute-paying classes,
but the amount of their tribute payments and the services demanded of them
varied. The indio paid the lowest tribute. Chinese mestizos paid taxes double the
amount paid by that of an Indio given the fact that they earn more than a typical
indio. The Chinese, in turn, paid a much larger tribute than that paid by the
Chinese mestizo because his earning capacity was way larger than a mestizo.
 development of Chinese mestizo as entrepreneur from 1750s to 1850s paved the way for
the emergence of the Philippine middle class
o with wealth, they were able to stay in dwellings larger and much better than the
rest with delicately curved set of furniture, were able to garb themselves with
clothes of finer quality, gayer in color and richer in ornament. They gained the
ability to give their children elite education at the best schools in the islands and
later in Europe.
 The wealth they acquired and the manner they spent it enabled the Chinese mestizos,
finally, to rise from middle class to social prestige.

POLITICS

Following the promulgation of the Cádiz Constitution of 1812, the Philippines was granted the
status of a Spanish Province, with representation in the  Spanish Cortes.
 granted Spanish citizenship, thus acquiring legal equality in the Philippines with Spanish-
born Spaniards.
 toward the end of Spanish rule in the 19th century, the  mestizos de sangley have been
identified as  Filipinos.
 identifying as the "True Sons of Spain", the  mestizos de sangley  tended to side with the
white Spanish colonists during the numerous  Indio  revolts against Spanish rule.
 in the late 19th century,  José Rizal, a fifth-generation  mestizo de sangley, arose as an
intellectual from the relatively wealthy, middle-class, Spanish-educated Filipinos known
as  Ilustrados.
o He was among those who called for reforms in the administration of the colony,
integration as a province of Spain, and political representation for the Philippines
in the Spanish  Cortes.

CULTURE

The  mestizos de sangley  synthesized a hybrid culture incorporating Hispanic and European
influences with both indigenous and Asian elements.
 In fashion, cuisine, design and architecture, a distinctive style emerged, especially
among the wealthier segment.
 As the Sangley prospered from trading, they built the first and in many cases the only
stone-and-wood houses in the countryside.
 Like other rising elites, they created forms of  conspicuous consumption  to signify their
status.
 They have become deeply, if not more, religious compared to others.
 The  mestizos de sangley  held feasts to commemorate baptisms, weddings, funerals and
processions.

Activity:

Reflection Paper: Describe and analyze the social, political, economic and cultural changes that occurred
in nineteenth-century in the Philippines?
THE ASCENDANCE OF THE CHINESE MESTIZOS IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Arrival of the early Chinese to the Philippines (Sung Dynasty Era in China 960-1279) through
Barter System and Socio-Cultural Exchange. During The Ming Dynasty Era 1368-1644, Chinese intensified
its relations to the Filipinos through “Junk Trading System”. In 1560’s new Opportunities for the Chinese
came through the Manila Galleon trade from Manila to Mexico.
Three (3) Economic Development in the early of 17 th Century

• Western Economy
• Native Economy
• Chinese Economy
The Spaniards controlled and divided the status into four categories:
 Spaniards and Spanish mestizos
 Indios (Malayan inhabitants of the archipelago who are now called us Filipinos)
 Chinese
 Chinese mestizos

TRIBUTE OR TAX

The last three (Indios, Chinese and Chinese Mestizos) were considered tribute paying classes,
but the amount of their tribute payments and the services demanded of them varied.

 The Chinese Mestizos paid double the tribute paid by the Indio- reason is that they have
assumed to have approximately double capacity of the Indio. They Engage in agriculture,
Commerce Or both.
 The Chinese – paid a much larger tribute than that paid by the Chinese Mestizos- on the ground
that his earning capacity was larger than that of the mestizo. The CHINESE was first and last – A
commercially-oriented money maker. What he could be best supply is MONEY.
 The INDIO Concerns were chiefly agricultural, Supply labor.

Rights of Indios, Chinese Mestizos and Chinese

 Rights to move around the land
 Own property
 Participate in town government

In General
 The mestizos had most of the same rights as the INDIOS while the CHINESE usually did not (the
case of property ownership is not clear)
 In matter of geographic mobility, the CHINESE were usually restricted
  The MESTIZOS and the INDIOS were relatively free to change residence.
 The CHINESE could never participate in local government
 The CHINESE MESTIZOS individually and corporately could and did participate with the INDIOS.

READINGS

Tan, Antonio S. The Chinese Mestizos and the Formation of the Filipino Nationality. In: Archipel, volume
32, 1986. pp. 141-162. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/arch.1986.2316
www.persee.fr/doc/arch_0044-8613_1986_num_32_1_2316
Wickberg, Edgar. 1964. The Chinese mestizo in Philippine history. Journal of Southeast Asian History
5(1): 62-100.
Wickberg, Edgar. 2000. The Philippine Chinese before 1850. In The Chinese in Philippine life, 1850-1898,
25-36. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.

GROUP CLASS ACTIVITY:

According to Wickberg (1964) what were the ethnic racial categories used during the Spanish
colonial period? Elaborate the economic, cultural and political implications of the Chinese mestizos’
presence/ascendance.
 Fill up a graphic organizer to illustrate the answers. Present in class.

C. AWIT AND REVOLUTION

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. Understand how the concept of nationalism was impressed on the minds of the “masses” that
led to their participation in Philippine uprisings
2. Know the importance of awit and learn why it was an integral part in the revolution(s)

LESSON PROPER

At the onset, the Spanish viewed the Philippines as a stepping-stone to the riches of the East
Indies (Spice Islands). Spanish colonial motives, however, proved to be more than commercial that even
after the Portuguese and Dutch had foreclosed that possibility, the Spanish still maintained their
presence in the archipelago. Thus, started the saga of the Philippines languishing under the Spanish
colonialism that lasted for 333 years and eventually ignited a series of revolts by the Filipino people.
 The Philippine revolution, according to Scalice (2009), “has been explained as having been
inspired by the ideas acquired by the ilustrados, the mestizo elite, during their education
abroad”.
 It has always been the lower-middle class, the millenarian peasants, though, that were
in the forefront of the uprisings.

How did the “masses” perceived in terms of their own experience the idea of nationalism and
revolution brought from the west by the illustrados?
 Through awit, Tagalog verse and the sung version of pasyon (the passion and death of Christ)
 Tagalog has been used in written language as far back as 900 CE
 In 1879 , Tagalog was the official language of the Philippine islands
 In 1935, Spanish was established as the national language, halting the use of Tagalog

PURPOSES OF AWIT

The Philippine revolution was accompanied by music: hymns and marches that express love for
the motherland.
1. The Pasyon
 composed with the intention of inculcating submission and passivity into the colonized
populace (Tiongson, 1985), but also contained passages that allowed members of the
populace to identify their suffering with that of Christ (Ileto, 1979).
 It provided the masses an idiom in expressing their understanding of the world.
 Part of the Pasyon told of Christ leaving his mother in response to a call from “high
above”
o highlighting limitations on prevailing values and relationships
o correlating to people leaving their families to join rebel movements
 it showed how Jesus chose his followers from the lowly, common people and was
persecuted by the wealthy and the powerful

MGA AWIT NG HIMAGSIKAN: SONGS OF THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION, 1896-1898

1. “Alerta, Katipunan!” was one of the songs of the revolution. It was the march used by
the Kataas-taasang Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK). The piece was
originally a Spanish march, then was adopted by the Katipunan.
2. “Halina” composed in 1898 at Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, is a march that was played during the final
days of the revolution. It encourages visitors to come to the Philippines, the land of love and
freedom.
3. “Kundiman ni Rizal” was written and composed by the Philippine National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.
According to Rizal’s grandniece, Asuncion Bantug, “His [Rizal’s] first love among the arts was
actually music.” This song, in Rizal’s words and music, expresses inspiring patriotic fervor.
 4. “Jocelynang Baliwag,” officially known as “Musica de Legitimo Kundiman Proceddente del
Campo Insurecto” (Music of the Legitimate Kundiman that Proceeds from the Insurgents’ Camp)
was composed in 1898 at Baliwag, Bulacan. A patriotic song in the guise of a hymn of courtship,
its lyrics are dedicated to one Josefa “Pepita” Tiongson y Lara, a beautiful lady from Baliwag. It
earned the title, “Kundiman of the Revolution,” as it was the most popular among the
revolutionaries during the late 1890s.
5. “Sa Magandang Silangan,” or “Sa Dakong Sikatan,” was written by Dr. Jose Rizal and was
arranged into music by Pedro Gatmaitan Santos in 1898 in Bulacan. Said to be a favorite of Gen.
Gregorio del Pilar, the song became part of the celebration following the triumph of the “boy
general” after freeing the town of Bulacan in the province of Bulacan.
6. “Mula nang Mauso ang Damit na Kundiman,” composed in 1872, and originating from General
Trias, Cavite, describes the red clothes worn by the revolutionaries. Sung around the time of the
1872 Cavite Mutiny, the song also relates the fear felt by the common people because of the
sound of gunfire.
7. “Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan”, composed by Julio Nakpil in 1896, was the first National
Anthem of the Philippines. Julio Nakpil was a revolutionary, composer, and musician. It was
eventually replaced by the Marcha Nacional Filipina.
8. “Canto Patriotico De Maria Clara,” was written by Dr. Jose Rizal. It originated from the song of
one of the characters in his novel “Noli Me Tangere.” Rizal instructed Ladislao Bonus, his favorite
composer, to create an arrangement based on Maria Clara’s hymn from the novel.
In 1893, Julio Nakpil composed another version to the song of Maria Clara, giving it the title
“Amor Patria.”

READINGS

Scalice, Joseph. (2018). Reynaldo Ileto’s Pasyon and revolution revisited, a critique. Sojourn Journal of
Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 33. 29-58. 10.1355/sj33-1b.

Ileto, R. (1998). Quezon City : Ateneo de Manila University Press

Songs of the Revolution. Accessed on 5/15/2020

@ http://malacanang.gov.ph/75729-songs-of-the-revolution/

CLASS GROUP ACTIVITY

To choose 1 song and perform it in the class (with choreography and costume)

CONCLUSION:

Think–Pair–Share

Students shall consider a question (pertaining to the chapter) on their own and then will be
provided an opportunity to discuss it in pairs, and finally together with the whole class. They shall then
be re-grouped as a whole class and solicit responses from some or all of the pairs.

This activity will encourage deeper thinking, problem-solving, and/or critical analysis. The group
discussions are critical as they allow students to articulate their thought processes.
Prepared by:

Gina Jestre Mendones

Chapter V
INTER-CLERGY CONFLICTS AND THE CAVITE MUTINY

Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to

1. Describe the context of Filipino Nationalism;
2. Understand the struggles of Filipino Clergy and their fight for equality;
3. Know the history of the GOMBURZA and understand how they got involved in the cavite
mutiny that led to their executions;
4. Identify the role of each lawyers, business men, soldiers, priests and ordinary citizen in the
planning of cavite mutiny;
5. Understand why the mutiny failed and how this history affects the mindset of Rizal regarding
mutinies.
6. Relate the issues depicted in the history to the present times.

DISCUSSIONS:

INTER-CLERGY CONFLICTS

The execution of Fathers Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora in 1872 marks a turning
point in the history of Filipino Nationalism, a catalyst which brought together the liberal reformist
elements in the Philippine society with the growing self-awareness of a people into a movement that
before long would be directed at independent nationhood.

Without 1872 there would not now be a Plaridel, a Jaena, a Sanciano, nor would the brave and
generous Filipino colonies exist in Europe. Rizal would now be a Jesuit and instead of writing the Noli me
Tangere, would have written the contrary. The reader familiar with the writings of Rizal and Mercado del
Pilar will notice in some of the writings of Burgos reproduced in this volume the nationalist intellectual
heritage on which they drew.

The struggle for the rights of the Filipino clergy suffered eclipse with the death of the 3 priests
in1872, and the efforts of the propaganda movement of the 1880s and 1890s would be directed to a
much wider field of civil and political rights, the concern of Burgos for the equality of Filipino with
Spaniard and for justice to all remained at the core of the nationalist aspirations and representations.
These ideals and aspirations had taken root in the course of the dispute over the rights of the Filipino
secular priests to the parishes, an intra-church dispute which only gradually took on racial and later
nationalist, overtunes.

The roots of the controversy go far back in the history of the church in the Philippines, even to its
foundation and fundamental structure. They are to be found particularly in three elements in that
history- the structure of the patronato real, the visitation controversy, and the late and erratic
development of a clergy. In the early days of the evangelization of the Philippines, as in America, the
religious had worked without bishops, governing the infant church by authority of the so called
“omnimoda” faculties given them by the bull Exponi nobis of Pope Adrian VI in 1522. The long failure of
the bishops to enforce their rights to visitation was closely linked up with the third factorat the root of
the secularization controversy- the failure of the spanish missionaries encourage the development of a
native Filipino clergy. The available evidence indicates that no native Filipino or Indio priest was
ordained before 1698. Though it is understandable that the first generations of Filipno Christians were
still too new in the faith to be ordained to the priesthood, the system by which the patronato real had
divided up the country into regions assigned to different religious orders, the limitation of the existing
educational institutions for a long time to “hijos de españoles,” the precedent of unfortunate
experiences due to hasty ordinations in Spanish America, and simple prejudice all contributed to the fact
that the first serious efforts in the direction of a Filipino clergy were taken only at the end of the 17 th
century. The indio who seeks holy orders does so not because of the great and infinite advantages which
accrue to him along with the new state of life he chooses. A major reason for the failure of the bishops
to prevail over the resistance of the religious orders to episcopal visitation was the lack of a secular
clergy to fill the parishes vacated by the religious when attempts were made to enforce visitation.

The Resistance of the Filipino Clergy in 1849-1851 –

• Painful as these measures were to the Filipino clergy, and indicative of the Spanish
government’s mistrust of them, they had at least a semblance of justice, an as much as they
were considered to be the restoration to the religious of parishes which had originally belonged
to them in accordance with the regime of the patronato real.
• In the first phases, the leadership was to be in the hands of Fr. Pedro Pelaez, seconded by Fr.
Mariano Gomez. With the tragic death of the former in 1863, the leadership passed on to Fr.
Jose Burgos until his execution in 1872 signaled the failure of the Filipino priests to obtain their
rights.
• The ecclesiastical dispute was to become an overtly nationalist question, as the Filipino clergy
replied to racial discrimination with a firm and ringing assertion of their equality as priests in the
one catholic church.

The available evidence points to Pelaez having been of Spanish blood on the part of both father and
mother. Nonetheless,it seems clear that his sympathies were with the Filipino clergy and it would
appear from the list of contributors in our document here that he alone in the chapter had fully allied
himself with the cause of the Filipino clergy.

THE BURGOS MANIFESTO

Burgos Replaces Peláez, 26 years old at the time of Peláez’s death, Burgos had already obtained
the degrees of bachelor and licentiate , both in philosophy and in theology. Not yet a priest, he and Fr.
Jacinto Zamora would obtain in competitive ex-animations in the following year the appointments as the
alternate sectors of the sagrario, or cathedral parish of Manila.

Burgos has been regarded as the protégé and disciple of Pelaez’s work, both published and
unpublished. Both had sat together as memebers of the claustro of the University of Santo Tomás, and
sharing as they did the passion for establishing the rights of the clergy to which they belonged. Be that
as it may, it was the defense of the memory of Father Peláez that seems first to have brought Burgos
into the arena of the struggle in 1864 with the anonymous publication of his work, the Manifiesto que a
la noble nacion Española dirigen los leales Filipinos. Through the Manifiesto is anonymous, there seems
to be considerable evidence to support, and no reason to doubt, the authorship of Burgos. Though it is
not true the most, if not all, copies in existence come from a new printing made in Hong Kong (very
likely by José Ma. Basa) in 1888, there is no doubt that it was first published in 1864. The archbishop
himself mentions it in a letter to the nuncio of that year, attributing it merely to the “secular clergy”. The
only other one known to have written in the campaign besides Burgos is Fr. Manuel Peralta, who
published in that same year of 1864 his Jucio sobre el folleto “Importantisima cuestion,” in answer to
father Mayordomo and Agudo. Brebes apuntes – set of notes belonging to Peláez, now found in the
Vatican archives, makes clear the dependence of Burgos’s Manifiesto on his predecessor’s work.

In 1869, events in Spain and the Philippines brought their sentiments out into the open and
Burgos emerged as their leader. The September Revolution of 1868 - drove Queen Isabel II from her
throne. A period of uncertainty. The uncertainty lasted until a new monarch could be found. The
uncertainty lasted until the end of 1870 when Duke Amadeo of Savoy, an Italian prince, was finally
chosen king of Spain.

Amadeo ruled for only two years as the situation in Spain became more and more chaotic. The
revolution as a whole was both liberal and anticlerical in character, and the constitution of 1869
provided for separation of church and state, and liberty of press, speech, assembly, and worship. June
1869 – Carlos Maria de la Torre arrived in Manila who was the new governor-general because of the
result of the revolution in the Philippines. It was in this atmosphere that the Filipino clergy under the
leadership of Burgos united their cause to that of others born in the country, lawyers and
businessmen, who hoped for the greater freedom. If the revolution had brought about only a limited
liberalization in Manila, there where no such limits in Spain. In the Madrid newspaper La Discusion
Burgos wrote the first articles known to have been published under his own name. When copies
attacks reached Manila, Burgos leaped to the defense of the Filipino clergy, as he done earlier. It seems
likely that this was the occasion which temporarily ruptured Burgos’s friendship with the Jesuits.

ASSESSMENT:

ESSAY:
1. Why there were conflicts between the secular and regular clergy?
2. Who led the secularization and what were the effects to the priests and followers?
3. What is the challenge of modern days to the priests of today?

CAVITE MUTINY

It is a local mutiny of Filipino soldiers and workers in the arsenal, reacting to a decree of Gov. Rafael
de Izquierdo suppressing the privilege of the arsenal workers to be exempt from the tribute and the
compulsory labor obligation.

There can as yet be no complete closure on the Cavite Mutiny that occurred in January 1872, since
the records of the trials have not yet been found. Although the Spanish government has declared them
lost, and researchers have not located any copy in the Philippine National Archives (PNA), rumors of
their existence in Spain continue to surface from time to time, but nothing has been found.

Rafael Gerónimo Cayetano Izquierdo y Gutiérrez (September 30, 1820– November 9, 1883) was a
Spanish Military Officer, politician, and statesman. He served as Governor-General of the Philippines
from April 4, 1871 to January 8, 1873. He was famous for his use of "Iron Fist" type of government,
contradicting the liberal government of his predecessor, Carlos María de la Torre y Navacerrada. He was
the Governor-General during the 1872 Cavite mutiny which led to execution of 41 of the mutineers,
including the Gomburza martyrs. Izquierdo also acted as Governor-General of Puerto Rico from March
1862 to April 1862. Izquierdo’s account is supplemented with much detail by the later interrogation of
Bonifacio Octavo, a sergeant pledged to the revolt, who repented his role and deserted before it
happened only being captured the following September.

Bonifacio S. Octavo, A Suspected Cavite Mutiny Leader. Bonifacio Octavo Y Samson was a Chinese
mestizo. He was implicated by the Spanish colonial authorities as one of the leaders of the Cavite Mutiny
in 1872. He was a second sergeant of the First Infantry Regiment in the fort of Cavite when he was tried
for complicity in the rebellion. The record of Octavo’s trial gives interesting details about the mutiny in
January 1872. His statement, although it sounds unbelievable, is important because he was a participant
observer of the event. It provides direct knowledge of the conspiracy angle of the revolt and how it was
hatched.

The revolt was to begin in the early hours after midnight in Manila, with the signal to the rebels in
Cavite being given by skyrockets. It has been said that the rebels in Cavite mistook the fireworks from
the Sampaloc fiesta for they agreed upon signal but in any case, they went to arms between 8:00 and
9:00 in the evening, instead of waiting for the signal from Manila. The plan was to set fires in Tondo so
that, while the authorities were occupied with extinguishing them, the artillery regiment and part of the
infantry stationed in Manila would take possession of Fort Santiago and signal to those of Cavite by
means of cannon shots (contrary to what he said above about the signal being given by skyrockets). All
Spaniards were to be killed including the friars, except the women, and they would proclaim the
independence of the country. (Octavo would later announce the death of all Spaniards, but in a
clarification that this was “without failing to except to those who would be defenseless or would not
resist.) The artillery and marines in Cavite would rise, to be supported by 500 men under the pardoned
bandit chief, Casimiro Camerino, who were waiting in Bacoor.

The end of mutiny and the assault began at 6am and an hour later the fort was taken. They found
the commander of the fort dead, as well as the maid, and his wife wounded. In the same room was a
friar of San Juan de Dios, who had been visiting the commander and whom ‘those evil men respected,
no doubt because of the consideration for the habit he wore. The revolt has been planned at least as
early as November or December 1871, when Octavo says he was first approached by the marine
corporal, Pedro Manonson, who urged him to give his name to a list on a document urging the Filipino
soldiers to rebel against Spain. The first arrest had already taken place before the revolt was over, and
hence were not based on interrogations of captured rebels. The Jesuit diary of the Ateneo Municipal for
21 January reported that Father Burgos, Zamora and Guevarra as well as Pardo de Tavera Regidor “and
others” had already been arrested. Izquierdo himself, in his first letter to the Overseas Minister, a few
hours after the revolt was put down, added to these Frs. Agustin Mendoza and Mariano and Feliciano
Lopez and the brothers Jose and Pio Basa and Enrique Paraiso, but omitted Zamora. Fr. Mariano Gomez
had in fact been arrested on the night of 21January together with his nephew, Fr. Feliciano Gomez, and
was not included in the Jesuit report because the soldiers had still to get to Bacoor to arrest him. The
source and the value of denunciations from captured rebels may be seen in the later interrogation of
Bonifacio Octavo. Repeatedly he names Burgos (whom he had never met) as the principal figure in the
planned revolt and includes Gomez, Zamora, and Guevara, as well as Regidor, Pardo, and Serra. But
when his testimonies are examined more closely, it becomes clear that all this he had only heard from
Zaldua, sometimes in conjunction with Lamadrid.

Revolt in Cavite: majority generally see it as: Often instigated by the friars with the intention of
eliminating the priests and lawyers agitating for reforms.

Three Parties in Manila and Cavite among those attacked by Izquierdo:

1. a. Reformers (Lawyers and Businessmen) – desirous of having their liberties of the Peninsula
extended to the Philippines.
b. Filipino Clergy - agitating for the restoration of the parishes back to them.
2. Federico Lerena in Madrid & Jose Ma. Basa in Manila – agitating or liberal reforms but much more
aggressively thru newspapers (El Correo de Ultramar and El Eco Filipino).
3. Maximo Inocencio, Crisanto de los Reyes and Enrique Paraiso –Planners of the revolt, together
with those that they recruited to carry it out.

Facts:
1. The revolt in Cavite was not a mere mutiny, but part of a planned separatist revolution.
2. The revolution as a whole failed because of the defection of the committed Filipino troops.
3. The planners of the revolution were Inocencio, de los Reyes, and Paraiso.
4. Although sentenced to death, they were secretly committed by Izquierdo for being fellow Masons.
5. The immediate instigators in Cavite were Zaldua and Sergeant Lamadrid.
6. The three priests executed had nothing to do with the revolt.
7. Nor did the priests, lawyers, and businessmen banished to the Marianas have anything to do with it.
8. The accounts stemming from Antonio Regidor, although containing many factual names and events,
are not reliable narratives of the revolt and its causes.
9. The removal of the exemption of arsenal workers from the tribute and compulsory labor was not the
cause of revolt even though it may contribute to it.
10. Neither arsenal workers nor any naval personnel took part in the revolt.

Factors that doomed the revolt:

a. The regiments were never really committed to the revolt.
b. The rallying of the regiments by Col. Sawa in Cavite, and by Izquierdo himself in Manila.
c. The fact that Izquierdo had been alerted to the coming revolt by very explicitly anonymous letters;
d. The alert action of Carballo by blocking by sea the men from Bacoor.
e. It is clear that there was a little support for a national revolution at that time.

ASSESSMENT:
 Each student will make a graphic organizer in understanding the events occurred and key
persons that connects each story and relevance to the cavity mutiny.

REFERENCES:

Schumacher, John, The Cavite Mutiny: Toward a Definitive History, 2011

Blanco, Roberto, Pedro Pelaez, Leader of Filipino Clergy, 2010

Web-Books.Com

Prepared by:

BRENDA LOU D. DELLOSA

Instructor I

CHAPTER VI

RIZAL IN EUROPE:
THE PROPAGANDA MOVEMENT AND LA SOLIDARIDAD

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter it aims to discuss Rizal in Europe: The propaganda movement and La
Solidaraidad with its three (3) sub-topics regarding as to what are the Early Filipino Student Activities in
Spain their involvement in Journalism and Politics and what is The New Filipino Newspaper in
Barcelona. This chapter will discuss the connection among the three (3) sub-topics so that the students
will realize the importance of the propaganda movement in reshaping our country as to the laws and
the rights of the Filipinos. The instrument of the propaganda movement which is the La Solidaridad or
The Solidarity in English served as the voice of the Filipino students in Spain as they cry saying “We are
persuaded that no sacrifices are too little to win the rights and the liberty of a nation that is oppressed
by slavery.” – Del Pilar’s farewell editorial.

PRE-ASSESSMENT:

Multiple-Choice Questions
1. The Propaganda Movement was formed in ______________.
a. 1872
b. 1874
c. 1875
2. It is a cultural organization formed by Filipino expatriates in Europe.
a. The Propaganda Movement
b. La Solidaridad
c. El Filibusterismo
3. The English translation of La Solidaridad is ____________.
a. The Solidarity
b. The Solitude
c. The Solicited
4. It is the pen name of Jose Rizal.
a. Laong Laan
b. Taga-ilog
c. Jomapa
5. He is the first editor and publisher of La Solidaridad with a pen name of “Diego Laura”.
a. Jose Marie Panganiban
 b. Mariano Ponce
c. Graciano Lopez Jaena
6. On April 25, 1889, La Solidaridad published the letter entitled _____________.
a. The Aspiration of the Filipinos
b. Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas
c. The Last Farewell
7. What year did Marcelo H. del Pilar replaced Graciano Lopez Jaena as the editor of La Solidaridad.
a. 1889
b. 1880
c. 1888
8. The Propaganda Movement is composed of the Filipino elite called ______________.
a. Illustrados
b. Principalia
c. Indio
9. Who is Jose Rizal’s cousin who headed the La Solidaridad.
a. Galicano Apacible
b. Felix R. Hidalgo
c. Juan Luna
10. The first pursued desire of the La Solidaridad is _______________.
a. Representation in the Cortes
b. Abolition of censure
c. That the Philippines be a province of Spain
11. What is the 2nd pursued desire of the La Solidaridad?
a. Representation in the Cortes
b. Abolition of censure
c. That the Philippines be a province of Spain
12. What is the 4th pursued desire of the La Solidaridad?
a. Representation in the Cortes
b. Abolition of censure
c. That the Philippines be a province of Spain
13. The first issue of La Solidaridad came out on _______________.
a. February 15, 1889
b. December 15, 1889
c. February 14, 1889
14. In the Philippines, it founded the publication of La Solidaridad.
a. Comite de Propaganda
b. Comite de Filipinas
c. Comite de Manila
15. What is the 6th pursued desire of the La Solidaridad?
a. Freedom of assembly and speech
b. Freedom of assembly and relationship
c. Freedom of assembly

CHAPTER III. Rizal in Europe: The Propaganda Movement and La Solidaridad

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Appreciate the importance and relevance of the Propaganda Movement and La
Solidaridad.
2. Enumerate the names of the Propagandist.
3. Create a reflection paper regarding the three (3) sub-topics:
a. Early Filipino student activities in Spain
b. Journalism and Politics
c. The New Filipino Newspaper in Barcelona.

READ
 EARLY FILIPINO STUDENTS ACTIVITIES IN SPAIN
José Rizal and the Propaganda Movement

Between 1872 and 1892, a national consciousness was growing among the Filipino émigrés who
had settled in Europe. In the freer atmosphere of Europe, these émigrés--liberals exiled in 1872 and
students attending European universities--formed the Propaganda Movement. Organized for literary
and cultural purposes more than for political ends, the Propagandists, who included upper-class Filipinos
from all the lowland Christian areas, strove to "awaken the sleeping intellect of the Spaniard to the
needs of our country" and to create a closer, more equal association of the islands and the motherland.
Among their specific goals were representation of the Philippines in the Cortes, or Spanish parliament;
secularization of the clergy; legalization of Spanish and Filipino equality; creation of a public school
system independent of the friars; abolition of the polo (labor service) and vandala (forced sale of local
products to the government); guarantee of basic freedoms of speech and association; and equal
opportunity for Filipinos and Spanish to enter government service.

The most outstanding Propagandist was José Rizal, a physician, scholar, scientist, and writer.
Born in 1861 into a prosperous Chinese mestizo family in Laguna Province, he displayed great
intelligence at an early age. After several years of medical study at the University of Santo Tomás, he
went to Spain in 1882 to finish his studies at the University of Madrid. During the decade that followed,
Rizal's career spanned two worlds: Among small communities of Filipino students in Madrid and other
European cities, he became a leader and eloquent spokesman, and in the wider world of European
science and scholarship--particularly in Germany--he formed close relationships with prominent natural
and social scientists. The new discipline of anthropology was of special interest to him; he was
committed to refuting the friars' stereotypes of Filipino racial inferiority with scientific arguments. His
greatest impact on the development of a Filipino national consciousness, however, was his publication
of two novels--Noli Me Tangere (Touch me not) in 1886 and El Filibusterismo (The reign of greed) in
1891. Rizal drew on his personal experiences and depicted the conditions of Spanish rule in the islands,
particularly the abuses of the friars. Although the friars had Rizal's books banned, they were smuggled
into the Philippines and rapidly gained a wide readership.

Other important Propagandists included Graciano Lopez Jaena, a noted orator and pamphleteer
who had left the islands for Spain in 1880 after the publication of his satirical short novel, Fray
Botod (Brother Fatso), an unflattering portrait of a provincial friar. In 1889 he established a biweekly
newspaper in Barcelona, La Solidaridad (Solidarity), which became the principal organ of the
Propaganda Movement, having audiences both in Spain and in the islands. Its contributors included
Rizal; Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, an Austrian geographer and ethnologist whom Rizal had met in
Germany; and Marcelo del Pilar, a reformminded lawyer. Del Pilar was active in the antifriar movement
in the islands until obliged to flee to Spain in 1888, where he became editor of  La Solidaridad and
assumed leadership of the Filipino community in Spain.

In 1887 Rizal returned briefly to the islands, but because of the furor surrounding the
appearance of Noli Me Tangere the previous year, he was advised by the governor to leave. He returned
to Europe by way of Japan and North America to complete his second novel and an edition of Antonio
de Morga's seventeenth-century work, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (History of the Philippine Islands).
The latter project stemmed from an ethnological interest in the cultural connections between the
peoples of the pre-Spanish Philippines and those of the larger Malay region (including modern Malaysia
and Indonesia) and the closely related political objective of encouraging national pride. De Morga
provided positive information about the islands' early inhabitants, and reliable accounts of pre-Christian
religion and social customs.

After a stay in Europe and Hong Kong, Rizal returned to the Philippines in June 1892, partly
because the Dominicans had evicted his father and sisters from the land they leased from the friars'
estate at Calamba, in Laguna Province. He also was convinced that the struggle for reform could no
longer be conducted effectively from overseas. In July he established the Liga Filipina (Philippine
League), designed to be a truly national, nonviolent organization. It was dissolved, however, following
his arrest and exile to the remote town of Dapitan in northwestern Mindanao.
The Propaganda Movement languished after Rizal's arrest and the collapse of the Liga Filipina.  La
Solidaridad went out of business in November 1895, and in 1896 both del Pilar and Lopez Jaena died in
Barcelona, worn down by poverty and disappointment. An attempt was made to reestablish the Liga
Filipina, but the national movement had become split between ilustrado advocates of reform and
peaceful evolution (the compromisarios, or compromisers) and a plebeian constituency that wanted
revolution and national independence. Because the Spanish refused to allow genuine reform, the
initiative quickly passed from the former group to the latter.

JOURNALISM AND POLITICS

The Propaganda Movement was a cultural organization formed in 1872 by Filipino expatriates in
Europe. Composed of the Filipino elite called “illustrados”, exiled liberals and students attending
Europe’s universities gravitated to the movement.

La Solidaridad (The Solidarity) was an organization created in Spain on December 13, 1888.
Composed of Filipino liberals exciled in 1872 and students attending the Europe’s universities, the
organization aimed to increase Spanish awareness of the needs of its colony, the Philippines, and to
propagate a closer relationship between the colony and Spain.
Headed by Jose Rizal’s cousin, Galicano Apacible, the organization also issued a newspaper of the same
name which was published in Barcelona, Spain. The first issue of the La Solidaridad came out on
February 15, 1889. It was first edited by Graciano Lopez Jaena (starting Feb. 1889) and later on by
Marcelo H. del Pilar (starting Dec. 1889). It became a fornightly and bi-weekly newspaper. It published
the social, cultural, political and economic conditions of the colonial Philippines. It also featured the
speeches of the Spanish liberals about the Philippines. La Solidaridad served as the principal organ of
the propaganda movement to express the goal of achieving assimilation with Spain.

Comite de Propaganda in the Philippines funded the publication of the La Solidaridad. The
editorship for the newspaper was first offered to Rizal. However, he refused because during that time he
was annotating Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in London. After Rizal refused the post,
Graciano Lopez Jaena was offered the editorship of La Solidaridad and he accepted.

On April 25, 1889, La Solidaridad published the letter entitled “The aspiration of the Filipinos”
which was written by the Association Hispano-Filipina de Madrid (English: Hispanic Filipino Association
of Madrid). It pursued desires for:

1. Representation in the Cortes

2. Abolition of censure
3. An expressed and definite prohibition of the existing practices of exiling residents by purely
administrative order, and without a writ of execution from the court of justice.
On December 15, 1889, Marcelo H. del Pilar replaced Graciano Lopez Jaena as the editor of La
Solidaridad. Under his editorship, the aims of the newspaper expanded. His articles caught the
attention of Spanish leaders and ministers. Using propaganda, it pursued desires for:
4. That the Philippines be a province of Spain
5. Representation Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars –Augustinians, Dominicans, and
Franciscans –in parishes and remote sitios
6. Freedom of assembly and speech
7. Equal rights before the law

After the years of publication from 1889-1895, funding of the La Solidaridad became scarce.
Comite de Propaganda’s contribution to the newspaper stopped and del Pilar funded the newspaper
almost on his own. Penniless in Spain, del Pilar stopped the publication of La Solidaridad on
November 15, 1895, after 7 volumes and 160 issues. In del Pilar’s farewell editorial, he said:

“We are persuaded that no sacrifies are too little to win the rights and the liberty of a nation
that is oppressed by slavery.”

THE NEW FILIPINO NEWSPAPER IN BARCELONA

LA SOLIDARIDAD (organization)
 A purely Filipino organization established in Barcelona on December 31, 1888
 Galiciano Apacible was the President and Graciano Lopez Jaena was the Vice-President

LA SOLIDARIDAD (newspaper)
 Graciano Lopez Jaena founded this fortnightly newspaper in Barcelona on February 15, 1889.
M.H. del Pilar helped prepare the issues.
 It was printed in Barcelona from February 15 to October 31, 1889, then in Madrid from
November 15, 1889 to November 15, 1895.

CONTRIBUTORS OF LA SOLIDARIDAD

Dr. Jose Rizal (Laong Laan) Dr. Pedro Paterno

Graciano Lopez Jaena (Diego Laura) Pedro Serrano Laktaw
Marcelo H. del Pilar (Plaridel) Felix R. Hidalgo
Jose Ma. Panganiban (Jomapa) Isabelo delos Reyes (Don Belong)
Mariano Ponce (Tigbalang) Jose Alejandrino
Antonio Luna (Taga-Ilog) Eduardo de Lete
Dominador Gomez (Ramiro Franco) Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor
Juan Luna Anastacio Carpio
FRIENDS OF THE MOVEMENT Miguel Moran
Professor Ferdinand Blumentrit
Dr. Miguel Sagrario Morayta

LA SOLIDARIDAD aims to:

To portray vividly the deplorable condition of the Philippines
To work peacefully for the political and social reforms
To combat the evil forces of medievalism and reaction
To advocate liberal ideas and progress
To champion the legitimate aspirations of the Filipino people for democracy and happiness

CIRCULO HISPANO FILIPINO

Established in 1882 by a group of Filipino students in Madrid led by Juan Atayde, retired army
officer and Philippine born Spaniard
An organization composed of Filipino and Spaniards.
The aim of the association is reform the Philippines during Spaniards colonization.
The organization was able to publish the Revista del Circulo Hispano-Filipino, a newspaper
aimed at expressing thoughts about the abusive Spanish government.
The publication was short-lived due to lack of funds and conflicting issues, thus leading to the
dissolution of the organization.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

According to Schumacher, (professor and author of history books), the youth from the Spanish
Philippines stepped into a world very different from the which they had known in their homeland. In
what ways did the youth’s encounter with the realities of Spain affect them? They had first-hand
experiences of freedom of possible to debate on church and monarchy not possible on Las Filipinas.

LOS DOS MUNDO Started publication in January 1883 to demand equality of rights for CUBA,
PUERTO RICO AND PHILIPPINES as those enjoyed by other Spanish provinces and to contribute to the
promotion of Spain’s general interest. Disillusioned with Mother Country and indifference of officials:
began to think of what Philippines could be its own. In 883, while in Spain, Rizal’s resentment against the
friars was inflamed by the unjust imprisonment of his mother, causing him to give up the practice of
Catholism and influencing other youth from the Philippines to focus their ire on the friars.

BRINDIS- Asserted equality of the “Two-races” argued that union of Spain and the Philippines
was based on equal rights. In the Philippines Rizal began to be labeled a filibusterismo.
Activity 1.1: Complete the table
 Directions: Complete the table below of the names of the propagandist and their pen name.
PROPAGANDIST PEN NAMES
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
4. 4.
5. 5.
6. 6.
7. 7.
8. 8.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Galicia, Reynaldo De Mesa, et.al. The Life and Works of Jose Rizal. Fastbooks
Educational Supply. Inc. 2018
https://www.slideshare.net/LaititiaAycardo/chapte-2early-filipino-students-activites-in-
spain?from_action=save
http://countrystudies.us/philippines/10.htm

ASSESSMENT

Multiple-Choice Questions
1. This is the year that the Propaganda Movement was formed ______________.
a. 1872
b. 1874
c. 1875
2. The Filipino expatriates in Europe formed a cultural organization called?
a. The Propaganda Movement
b. La Solidaridad
c. El Filibusterismo
3. The La Solidaridad is known in English as ____________.
a. The Solidarity
b. The Solitude
c. The Solicited
4. As a propagandist Rizal had a pen name of __________.
a. Laong Laan
b. Taga-ilog
c. Jomapa
5. The first editor and publisher of La Solidaridad with a pen name of “Diego Laura” is?
a. Jose Marie Panganiban
b. Mariano Ponce
c. Graciano Lopez Jaena
6. La Solidaridad published the letter on April 25, 1889 entitled _____________.
a. The Aspiration of the Filipinos
b. Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas
c. The Last Farewell
7. Marcelo H. del Pilar replaced Graciano Lopez Jaena as the editor of La Solidaridad on the year?
a. 1889
b. 1880
c. 1888
8. The Filipino elite called ______________ composed the propaganda movement.
a. Illustrados
b. Principalia
c. Indio
9. He is Jose Rizal’s cousin who headed the La Solidaridad.
a. Galicano Apacible
b. Felix R. Hidalgo
 c. Juan Luna
10. It is the first pursued desire of the La Solidaridad.
a. Representation in the Cortes
b. Abolition of censure
c. That the Philippines be a province of Spain

II. Enumeration

Give at least 10 names of the members of the Propaganda Movement.

Prepared by:

Deo L. Geocada

CHAPTER VII
NOLI ME TANGERE

Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Describe the context during the publication of the novel;
2. Analyze the major themes found in the novel;
3. Appreciate Rizal as a writer;
4. Relate the issues depicted in the novel to contemporary affairs.

LESSON PROPER

Pre Reading Phase

Introduction

This chapter presents the context of Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), tracing its publication in
1887, Rizal’s rationale for writing the novel, and its themes and impact. There have been numerous
translations of Noli Me Tangere. To date, the novel has been translated into Chinese, Russian, English,
French, Japanese, (Ocampo, Ambeth R., 2012) and into several languages in the Philippines such as
Tagalog, Cebuano, Waray, Iloko, and Bicol. (Testa-De Ocampo, Ana Melinda. Philippine Studies)

Creators of Filipino Consciousness

Noli Me Tangere was part of a publication agenda conceived by Rizal in the hope of awakening
his countrymen and the world about the colonial conditions in the Philippines. On the pages of the Noli,
Rizal’s genius shone through as he assembled and harnessed his intellect to paint a picture of nineteenth
century Philippines. The plot provided a story of hope and struggle against the backdrop of an elaborate
setting filled with equally complex characters. Through the novel’s characters, varied points of view
were gleaned from colonial life and through its plot, an allegory of colonial society was created. The
impact of the novel after its publication is to be discussed with students who are expected to gather
data from various sources past and present with particular emphasis on Philippine society as well as on
disciplines such as literature, history, and the social sciences. This way, the relevance of Rizal and his first
novel is underscored. The Noli ultimately, is not just a literary piece; it is a political, historical, and social
scientific treatise about the conditions in the Philippines during the late nineteenth century. As such the
novel continues to stimulate discussions up to the present and its themes remain worthy of debate.
(Wani-Obias, Rhodalyn et al., 2018)
Publication

The idea of publishing a book was not alien to Rizal. In a meeting of the ilustrados in 1884, he
proposed to write a book project to be done collaboratively with his fellow writers. Unfortunately, the
project did not materialize. He eventually decided to write a novel on his own. He started to work on the
project in 1884 and completed it in 1887. Many of his biographers cite several works that influenced
Rizal in the writing of the Noli. One of these is Juan Luna’s painting, Spoliarium, which depicted the
sufferings faced by humanity in the face of inequalities. Another is Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel by Harriet
Beecher Stowe that dealt with slavery in America. Rizal finished the first half of the novel in Spain,
supposedly the other half in France, then completed the draft in 1886. The novel was published the
following year in Germany. Lack of funds delayed the book’s [publication until a fellow ilustrado,
Maximo Viola, insisted on lending him 300 pesos for the printing of the first 2,000 copies. By 1887, Rizal
was already sending out copies of the Noli to his friends and the book began to take flight. (Wani-Obias,
Rhodalyn et al., 2018)

Motivations

The title, Noli Me Tangere, had Biblical reference to the Gospel of John in which Jesus appeared
to May Magdalene and uttered these words: “Touch me not, for I am not ascended to my Father.” The
choice of the title according to Rizal was fitting because he intended to write about themes that were
taboo in the Philippines for centuries; things that people dared not touch. According to his biographers,
Rizal first planned to write his novel in French, considered to be the language of the intellectuals in
Europe at that time. He, however, shifted to Spanish because he intended to reach out to his
countrymen in the Philippines. The project of writing the Noli was geared towards exposing the ills of
Philippine colonial society under Spain. Thus, through the passages within the Noli, readers also get
glimpses of how Rizal saw his country. (Wani-Obias, Rhodalyn et al., 2018)

Reading Phase of the Noli Me Tangere Synopsis and/or Novel

The story begins at a party to welcome Crisóstomo Ibarra back to the Philippines after seven
years of studying in Europe. His father, Don Rafael, passed away shortly before his return, and
Crisóstomo soon learns that he died in prison after accidentally killing a tax collector and being falsely
accused of other crimes by Father Dámaso, the longtime curate of the church in Crisóstomo’s
hometown of San Diego. Crisóstomo returns to San Diego, and his fiancée, María Clara, joins him there.
After the schoolmaster tells him that Father Dámaso and the new curate, Father Salví, interfere with his
teaching, Crisóstomo decides to build a new modern school in San Diego.

On a picnic with María Clara, Crisóstomo goes on a fishing boat and helps the pilot, Elías, kill a
crocodile. Elías later warns Crisóstomo that there is a plot to murder him at the ceremony for the laying
of the school’s cornerstone, and indeed, as Crisóstomo is placing mortar for the cornerstone,
the derrick holding the stone collapses. Although Crisóstomo escapes injury, the derrick operator is
killed. At a dinner later, Father Dámaso insults the new school, Filipinos in general, Crisóstomo, and Don
Rafael. An enraged Crisóstomo attacks him, but María Clara stops him from killing the priest.

Later her father breaks off her engagement to Crisóstomo and arranges for her betrothal to a
young Spanish man, Linares. Father Salví plots with Lucas, the brother of the deceased derrick operator,
to organize a strike on the barracks of the Civil Guard and to convince the attackers that Crisóstomo is
their ringleader. Father Salví then warns the head of the Civil Guard of the impending assault. When the
attack fails, the rebels say that Crisóstomo was their leader, and he is arrested. Elías helps Crisóstomo
escape from prison, and they flee by boat on the Pasig River with members of the Civil Guard in pursuit.
Elías dives into the river to distract the pursuers and is mortally wounded. It is reported that Crisóstomo
was killed, and a distraught María Clara insists on entering a convent. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Post Reading Phase Activities

Activity 1. Personalized Response as Take-off Discussion

 What is your Noli Me Tangere reading experience/s?

Activity 2. Thematic Analysis in Small Group Work

Rubric: Matter (Content, Substance) 35%

Manner (Delivery, Expression) 35%
Logic (Method of Analysis) 30%

(Official Acts)1. What were the discourses of the characters regarding the friars’ acts?

(Crises) 2. How did the characters in the novel make sense of what happens to
them?

(Coping) 3. How did the characters negotiate and challenge friars’ abuses?

WHY WAS THE RIZAL HERO A CREOLE?

The Rizal novels, so morbid of matter but so comic in manner, defy canonization. The Figure of
Maria Clara, for instance, continues to scandalize us. Why did Rizal choose for heroine a mestiza of
shameful conception? The reply of the 1930s was that Maria Clara was no heroine to Rizal but an object
of satire- a theory that wreaks havoc on the meaning of satire, besides being refuted by the text of the
novels, which reveals a Rizal enraptured by his heroine. Today’s iconoclasts have got around the
dilemma by simply rejecting Maria Clara. Whether she was a heroine to him or not, she is no heroine to
us, and all the folk notions of Maria Clara as an ideal or as a symbol of the Mother Country, must be
discarded.

Why did Rizal make this “translated Filipino” his hero? Was Rizal trying to identify with the Creole?
Are the illustrations right who give the tall, hairy, high nosed and red cheeked Ibarra the smaller,
smoother features of Rizal? But was Rizal a prophesying? Might he not have been talking about another
revolution altogether, a revolution he was more sympathetic to? The Novels were, after all, written
about a decade before 1896 and we know that the events that most influenced Rizal, that must have
shaped those novels, were that events with which he grew up, that impelled a change in name, the
translation from Mercado to Rizal and from the Philippines to Europe.

The Creole

For 200 years- through the 17th and 18th centuries in the Philippine Creoles were Filipino in the
sense that their lives were entirely devoted to the service of the country to expanding or
consolidating the national frontiers and to protecting them. Their great labor, their achievement, was
keeping the Philippines intact through two centuries when, it may be said, there were not a single day
that the islands were not under threat of invasion: by the Chinese, the Japanese, the British, the Dutch.

The encomienda system lasted but briefly and the Philippine Creole depended more for subsistence
on the Galleon trade and on mining. He worked the iron mines of Antipolo when the Philippines still had
a cannon foundry industry, and later the gold mines of Paracale. All this time the Creole- and the
Philippines colony in general- lived in isolation from Spain, and the neglect fostered the autonomous
spirit. The Creole was a “Filipino”, not a Spaniard. He controlled the government, Madrid was
represented only by the governor-general.

With the revolt of Spanish America and the opening of the Suez Cana, Madrid came closer to Manila,
and the quicker cheaper voyage now brought to the Philippines, as Rizal’s Teniente Guevarra
observed,“la mas perdido de la peninsula “ These peninsular parasites, however, considered themselves
several cuts above the Filipino. The war b/w the Creole and Peninsular begun. The final century, the
19th, was a period of hispanization and how effective it was displayed by the fact that w/in less than a
century the hispanizaton campaign had produced Rizal and the Illustrados. Meanwhile, the Philippine
Creole was rising, stirred into insurgence by the example of a Mexican Creole of the Manila garrison. The
Novales revolt in 1820s planted the idea of separatism. A decade later, in the 1850s, the Creole
Revolution becomes manifest with Father Pelaez, canon of the Manila Cathedral. Who started the
propaganda for the Filipinization of the clergy. The Rizal Novels probe these two phases of CREOLE
revolution.

Rizal Hero a Creole?

The topic why was Rizal Hero a Creole explained used the character of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra aka
Simoun, a Creole, as his hero in his novels Noli Mi Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Rizal himself was also a
Creole of Spanish, Native and Chinese descent.

What is the meaning of Creole?

Creole- A Creole language or simply, a Creole is a stable natural language that has developed from a
pidgin.
Criollios and Peninsulares

Peninsulares are spanish born spaniards or mainland spaniards that resides on east indies as opposed to
a person of full Spanish descent born in America or Philippines also known as Criollios. According to
Joaquin, the clash between the Criollos and Peninsulares was a repeated theme in the novels of Rizal.

Juan Crisostomo Ibarra

The fourth generation Ibarra, Juan Crisostomo has a proper Victorian's faith in Education,
Science, Propaganda and the excellences of Europe. He has inherited a quarrel with the peninsulars that
he does not care to pursue being a civilized man. He has also, but unknowingly, inherited a quarrel with
the Indios, which provides the Noli Me Tangere with its sardonic humour.

Activity 3. Reflective and Evaluative Writing Tasks

How could the readers’ experience of reading Rizal’s novels be more exciting, interesting, and
relevant?

Do you think Rizal as creole worthy to be a hero?

References:

Latosa, Augustus Ceasar D., “To be poor is to be killed” in the drug war in the Philippines: A
culture-centered view of crisis communication from below, 2020

Ocampo, Ambeth R., Rizal Without the Overcoat, 2012

Testa-De Ocampo, Ana Melinda, The Afterlives of the Noli Me Tangere. Philippine Studies 59(4):
495-527

Wani-Obias, Rhodalyn et al., The Life and Works of Rizal, 2018

Encyclopedia Britannica

Joaquin, Nick, Why was the Rizal hero a Creole? In a question of Heroes, 2005

Prepared by:

FELINO JAZMIN
 CHAPTER VIII

EL FILIBUSTERISMO

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:

1. Identify the racial terms and the political terms that are used in Noli Me Tangere but not in
El Filibusterismo.
2. Define each racial and political terms used in El Filibusterismo.
3. Interpret the message of Rizal’s El Filibusterismo.
4. Compare the events in El Filibusterismo to the present situation of our nation.

DISCUSSIONS:

Before beginning the comparative portion of this study of the quantitative data extractable from
Rizal’s two novels, it is important to mention one intractable problem that is far more marked in the
second than in the first. In El Filibusterismo there are a great many passages in which the Narrator either
reads the minds of the characters or voices over what they are supposed to have said or thought. We
have long been familiar with the technical concept of the “unreliable narrator”.

A. Colonial ‘Racial’ Strata and Ethnic Groups

In its nominal form, peninsular is just as rare as in the Noli. It occurs only five times, twice in the
Narrator’s commentary and once each in the speech of young Basilio, Pecson, and the High Official. The
adjectival form is used four times, twice by the Narrator and twice by anonymous voices.
In the Fili the terms criollo and criolla, already rare in the Noli, have completely disappeared.

In the case of mestizo/mestizo, however, there are some interesting changes. The noun occurs
14 times: The Narrator, 11 (including one voice-over for Juanito Pelaez); Tadeo, 2; and Simoun. Tadeo is
unique in the two novels in specifying what kind of racial mix is involved, referring to one person as a
mestizo español, and another as a mestizo chino. This latter instance is the one and only time that Rizal
makes plainly visible the existence of the powerful, rising stratum of Chinese mestizos, to which he
himself belonged. The adjective mestizo occurs only once, when the Narrator describes Simoun’s visage.
While the Noli mentions the sneering diminutive mesticillo several times, its sequel does not. However,
the Fili introduces another kind of racial mix, the mulato , used by the narrator three times (once
paraphrasing Custodio), and once each by Custodio and P. Sibyla. All the instances appear during the
discussion of the mystery of Simoun’s ‘Caribbean’ origins.

In the Fili the ancient term sangley has disappeared, but chino shows up twice as frequently as
in the Noli. In the case of the noun, the Narrator accounts for more than half (42) of the 71 instances,
followed by a wide range of characters: Simoun, 4; Pecson, Makaraig, Ben Zayb, and anonymous
students, 3 each; Capitan Basilio, P. Salvi, an unnamed clerk, anonymous guests of the Orenda family, 2
each; and Quiroga, Isagani, P. Irene, Momoy and the Author (chapter title), 1 apiece. As an adjective,
chino appears 10 times: The Narrator, 6; Makaraig, 2, Custodio and Tadeo, 1 apiece. The Narrator uses
the adjective as often for things as for people, for example, speaking ironically of Plácido Penitente's
recourse to la táctica china when in trouble with P.Millon. The meanings of chino will be discussed
extensively later on.
Similarly, indio/india crops up far more often in the Fili than in the Noli, though it is a much shorter
novel.

The male form of the noun occurs no less than 75 times. lt is instructive that the Narrator is far
and away the main user-sometimes matter-of-factly, sometimes ironically-with 44 instances, which,
however, include voice-overs for Victorina, 4 for Custodio, 3 for the coachman, and 2 tor Ben Zayb. The
other users are P. Camorra and Ben Zayb, 5 each; Simoun, Custodio and anonymous voices, 4 each:
Pecson, 3; and Isagani, P. Florentino, Momoy, Tadeo, P. Fernandez, and the coachman, 1 each. The
Narrator is the sole user of the female form (3 times, including a malicious description of La Victorina).
The adjectival form occurs 4 times, split between the Narrator, 3, and Simoun, 1. It is instrucive that for
all of Rizal's political investment in the concept indio-we will recall that Elias calls himself such, and the
good Isagani is similarly described-the novelist in him cannot resist a splendidly Sardonic aside. The
Narrator speaks of the students assembled for a night out at the "Pansiteria Macanista de buen gusto as
gusto' as ranging from el indio puro (si es que los hay puros) al español peninsular [from the pure Indio
(if such exists) to the peninsular Spaniard].

Naturales, as a synonym for indios, is no commoner in the Fili than in the Noli. Only the
Narrator uses the word, and no more than six times. All are contained in his satirical fictionalization of
the famously absurd public quarrel of 1886 between Manila's Chinese mestizo and Indio gremios over
ceremonial precedence.

Finally, as in the Noli, Rizal firmly occludes the huge regional variety of peoples in his country.
The Narrator refers casually to two unnamed students as coming, one from Iloilo, and the other from
the Visayas. Plácido Penitente is allowed once to call himself a Batangueño. But, again, no Ilocanos,
Bicolanos, Boholanos, or Muslims. Elias's tribus independientes in the Cordillera have disappeared. No
less striking is the fact that the Tagalogs as such are never mentioned; we find the Tagalog language
referred to just twice, by Cabesang Tales, and by the Narrator, who noted that Simoun deliberately
speaks en mal tagalo to hide his real identity. The adjectival form occurs only once, when the Narrator
applies it sarcastically to a decrepit ship.

There is something very interesting here. Like the Noli, the Fili is, as we shall see, full of Tagalog
words and idioms, but they are never named as such. In Simoun's grand attack on españolismo and
those of his fellow-countrymen who stand behind the Hispanization project, he says that Spanish will
never be the language of the people of the Philippines: mientras un pueblo conserva su idioma,
conserva la prenda de su libertad, como el hombre su independencia, mientras conserva su manera de
pensar. El idioma es el pensamiento de los pueblos [so long as a people preserves its language, it
preserves the security of its liberty, as a man does his independence, so long as he preserves his manner
of thinking. Language is the thinking of peoples]. But Simoun never gives this idioma a name.
Furthermore, in his oratorical fury he has forgotten a criticism he had made moments earlier, when he
asked Basilio: Quereis añadir un idioma más á los cuarenta y tantos que se hablan en las islas para
entenderos cada vez menos (Do you wish to add still another language to the forty-odd languages
spoken in the islands, so as to understand cach other even less?].

Rizal was anything but a fool. By 1891 he had been all over Western Europe, passed through the
United States, and spent some enjoyable weeks in Japan, but in his own country he had never been
more than 100 miles outside Manila. At the same time, he knew from his classmates, and especially
from Blumentritt's encyclopaedic anthropological-linguistic studies, that those he imagined as his
countrymen had in fact no single idiom to express their pensamiento. This is exactly the reason why he
wrote his major nationalist texts in the idioma that Simoun claimed could never be the national
language of Filipinas. Nonetheless, in the vein of nineteenth-century European romantic nationalısm,
and ignorıng the experience of the Americas, he wished for a one-people-one-language cohesion that
his cien años realism could not credit. There is an attractive modesty here. He could not bring himself to
claim Tagalog as the national language because he recognized its (then) narrow geographic ambit.
Tagalog was his first language, and fragments of it are all over the Fili, as we shall see. But these
fragments are never given a name.

In the following table, the data from Table 1 are included in parentheses, so that readers can
make comparisons for themselves. The most conspicuous and important change to underscore is a
sharp racialization that overrides the graded traditional colonial hierarchy.

Mentions of ‘Racial’ and Ethnic terms in El Filibusterismo

No. of Characters using
Total Frequency Narrator’s use of term
term
Peninsular (n./adj.) 9 (4)* 4 (2) 4 (1)
Crillo/a - (2) - (1) - (1)
Mestizo/a (n/adj.) 15 (6) 12 (5) 2 (1)
Mesticillo - (2) - (-) - (1)
Mulato 5 (-) 3 (-) 2 (-)
Sangley (es) - (1) - (1) - (-)
Chino/a (n.) 71 (35) 42 (18) 14 (7)
Chino/a (adj.) 10 (4) 6 (1) 3 (1)
Indio/a (n.) 75 (43) 44 (7) 12 (13)
Indio/a (adj.) 4 (1) 3 (-) 1 (1)
Naturales 6 (5) 6 (3) - (2)
Visaya (n./adj.) - (5) - (5) - (-)
Tribus - (2) - (1) - (1)
Ilocanos - (-) - (-) - (-)
Tagalos (n./adj.) 1 (11) 1 (7) - (3)
*Figures in parenthesis refer to data contained in Table 1.

To a vastly greater extent than in the Noli, the essential categories are chino and indio. (We shall
see below that Spaniards are mentioned less than half as often as either). Furthermore, the two groups
are not vertically juxtaposed, in the traditional manner or, say, peninsulares over criollos; on the
contrary, they gaze at each other on a horizontal axis between natives and chino appears 10 times: the
Narrator, 6, Makaraig, 2. Custodio and Tadeo, 1 apiece. The Narrator uses the adjective as often for
things as for people, for example, speaking ironically of Plácido Penitente's recourse to la tactica china
when in trouble with P. Millon. The meanings of chino will be discussed extensively later on. Similarly,
indio/india crops up far more often in the Fili than in the Noli, though it is a much shorter novel. The
male form of the noun occurs no less than 75 times. It is instructive that the Narrator is far and away the
main user-sometimes matter-of factly, sometimes ironically-with 44 instances, which, however, include
9 voice-overs for Victorina, 4 for Custodio, 3 for the coachman. and 2 for Ben Zayb. The other users are
P. Camorra and Ben Zayb, 5 each; Simoun, Custodio and anonymous voices, 4 each Pecson, 3; and
Isagani, P. Florentino, Momoy. Tadeo, P. Fernandez, and the coachman, 1 each. The Narrator is the sole
user of the female form (3 times, including a malicious description of La Victorina). The adjectival form
occurs 4 times, split between the Narrator, 3, and Simoun, 1. It is instructuve that for all of Rizal's
political investment in the concept indio-we will recall that Elias calls himself such, and the good Isagani
is similarly described-the novelist in him cannot resist a splendidly sardonic aside. The Narrator speaks
of the students assembled tor a night out at the 'Pansiteria Macanista de buen gusto as ranging from el
indio puro (si es que los hay puros) al español peninsular [from the pure indio (if such exists) to the
peninsular Spaniard].
 Exemplary of this pattern is the figure of Quiroga, for whom there is no parallel in the Noli.
Despite his wealth, his Spanish name, the elite social circles within which he moves, and his significant
role in the novel's plot, he is almost invariably referred to as el chino Quiroga, in the style of el
verdadero yankee, Mr. Leeds, whereas, say, the sly young Dominican is never termed español P. Sibyla,
nor Cabesang Tales's daughter la india Juli Quiroga's alienness is marked by his attire and his reputed
ambition to become the Celestial Kingdom's first consul in Maniia, but above all by his speech. His
Spanish is quite understandable, but stereotypically he always mispronounces the letters r and d as (e.g..
pelilo for perdido, and luinalo for (ar)ruinado). It is curious however, that he untruthfully insists to
Simoun that he is hapay, a Tagalog word of which the secondary, popular neaning is close to bankrupt.

At the opposite end of the social ladder is the wretched unnamed Chinese vendor who comes to
the students lodgings to sell snacks. The youngsters beat and kick him, yank his pigtail, and administer
other humiliations-even though they pay him in the end. Here is what Rizal allows the unfortunate to
say: Ah, malo eso-No cosiesia - No quilisti-ano Uste limoño Salamaje!-tusu-tusu [Ese es malo-Sin
conciencia-no cristiano Usted demonio-Salvaje!Astuti-astuto]. Needless to say, the students are not
allowed to bully anyone else in this style. One cannot miss the strong whiff of racism. There is a real
change here, for the Fili contains nothing like Tasio's atfectionate reterence to his Chinese mother.

The other side of the coin is that the Chineseness of the rising Chinese mestizo class is just as
occluded as in the Noli. As mentioned earlier, only one person, and only on one occasion, uses the term
mestizo chino. This suggests an intention to blur any distinction between the two main types of mestizo.
They are all 'mixed', all Catholic, all Spanish-speaking, all privileged: above all, not foreign. But the Fili
hints at something further: that, consciously or unconsciously, the Chinese mestizos, by insisting that
they were above all real locals, were preparing themselves to break out of the traditional racial
hierarchy-upwards too!-by becoming 'national', possibly before any other social group. Yet Rizal was far
too gifted a novelist not to let the cat out of the bag on one riveting occasion: P. Millon's class in Physics.

Most readers will recall that P. Millon makes every effort to intimidate and humiliate his
students, but they may not have noted exactly how he goes about it, and the social implications of his
method. First of all, the professor shows that he commands street Tagalog, in a manner that is in
complete contrast with the wretchedly absurd "Tagalog part of P. Dámaso's sermon in the Noli and he
uses his skill to mock what he supposes to be the real daily jabber of the youngsters among themselves.
Second, he baits them by using the boys’ supposed ‘native’ difficulty in distinguishing ‘ch’ and ‘s’ by
calling Placido Penitente soplado rather than chiflado, and between ‘p’ and ‘f’ by mockingly yelling at his
victim: apuera de la puerta! But thirdly-and I want to emphasize this point-P. Millon calss Penitente ñol
and señolia, the first and corruption of (se) ñor and the second señoria. The only other character who
uses señoria is el chino Quiroga, who addresses it respectfully to Simoun. For reasons to be provided
later, I believe that P. Millon’s tactic makes little sense if the youngsters are assumed to be peninsulares,
criollos, or indios, but only if many of them are mestizos chinos. Such, of course, was the historical
reality.

If we now turn to the use of Indio, something much stranger becomes apparent. The number of
characters who use the word is more or less the same as Noli, and the number of times they use it as
not too far away. One could say that, at the level of the two novels’ dramatis personae, nothing
significant has changed. But the Narrator? In Noli he uses Indio only seven times, while in the Fili the
figure is almost six times as large. There are various ways to interpret this huge change, which do not
necessarily exclude one another. First, as I argued earlier, Rizal was acutely aware of the different
category-systems prevailing in the metropole and in the colony. In the former, people originating from
the Philippines were specified as Filipinos (guys from Las. Filipinas), and in Europe he accepted this
nomenclature and worked hard to valorize it in a nationalist manner. But he was no less aware that in
the colony Filipino was an unstable compound, saturated with the traditional meaning of "Spaniard born
in the Philippines. In the colony the one term with unambiguously non-Spanish and non-Chinese
connotations was Indio. His nationalist reappraisal of Morga was built on the idea of an uncontaminated
‘original people, for whom, in the colony, only Indio was adequate; one could think of it as the
metropolitan Filipino translated into colony-speak. The most telling evidence for this revisionist-
nationalist meaning for Indio, is that, when he signed his consent to the document decreeing his
execution, he crossed out the word chino describing himself and substituted (following Elias, perhaps),
not Filipino, but Indio. He was, after all, by then back in the colony.
 Secondly, Indio was one solution to the obvious problem of what to do with many members of
the local elite (to which he belonged), who were of mixed Chinese-Spanish-'Native origin. If, in the
colony, these people were not to be called Spaniards or Chinese, then they had to be Indios, following
the pattern of his own family, which had changed its legal and tribute status from mestizo chino to Indio.
Indio thus came to his nationalist rescue. It looks as if the Narrator's new obsession with the term
reflects these concerns-the concerns of a man who had lived most of the previous ten years in the
imperial capital or elsewhere in Europe, but who was writing, more than with the Noli, for his
compatriots allá, on the other side of the globe. This line of argument is, 1I hope, furthered if we now
turn to the Fili's use of the words españoles and Filipinos.

B. Political Vocabulary and Concepts

Under this rubric we will consider, first, words that might denote Spain and the Philippines, and
the Spanish and Philippine nations; second, the keywords patria and pueblo, as well as nación and its
derivatives; and third, an array of other political vocabulary. España crops up 33 times, distributed as
follows: The Narrator, 10 (one voice-over for Custodio); the High Official, 6; Sandoval,5; P. Florentino, 4;
P. Fernandez and Ben Zayb, 3 cach; and Simoun and the ship's captain, 1 each. Its meaning shifts back
and forth between Spain proper and the Spanish Empire. It is no surprise that most of the characters
who use the word are peninsulares. The Fili actually refers to español(es) less often than does the Noli.
The noun occurs 32 times, and is widely distributed. The Narrator leads the way with 12 mentions,
including single voice-overs for Ben Zayb and the coachman. He is followed by the High Official, 4; Tadeo
and rumormongers, 3 each; Momoy, 2; and Isagani, Simoun, Ben Zayb, Sensia, Lieutenant Perez, the
ship's captain, a convict, and an anonymous student, 1 each. The adjective español crops up only 16
times, and does not always refer to human beings. The distribution is: the Narrator, 8 including single
voice-overs for Custodio, Timoteo Pelaez, Ben Zayb, and Camaroncocido); followed by Sandoval, Pasta,
Simoun, Tadeo, the High Official, Isagani, Juanito Pelaez, and P.Fernandez, 1 apiece.

Where the Fili differs from its predecessor is in the lack of ambiguity about español. Indeed, at
one point, the Narrator explicitly includes the creoles as Spaniards, i.e., not filipinos in the old sense; and
in only one instance adds the adjective peninsular after the noun. In this fashion, español becomes a
quasi-racial and/or national term, erasing differences between the metropole and the colony. This
change is not too surprising given Rizal's long so journ in Europe and his ample experience with
metropolitan Spaniards. Yet the author is careful also to include the metropolitan youngster Sandoval
among the students involved in the campaign for a Spanish-language Academy. The boy comes across as
an amiably idealistic, i pompous, fellow, who is completely accepted by his putauvely creole, mestizo
and indio companions (he is much nicer than the malicious Tadeo and the scheming Juanito Pelaez). One
likely reason tor the relatively scarce use of español for people and things is that, because the campaign
for the Spanish Academy is the novel's second main plot, the word is partly taken over by castellano,
referring to the Spanish 'national language' I Say partly, because el español crops up only 13 times, while
ecastellano appears 35 times. Distribution of the former is: the Narrator,8 (two voice-overs for Simoun);
Simoun, 2; and Pasta, P.Fernandez and Juli, 1 apiece; of the latter: the Narrator, 14 (with two voice-
overs for P. Millon and one for Isagani); Capitan Basilio and Basilio, 3 each; Simoun, Pasta, P. Camorra
and anonymous students, two apiece; and Ben Zayb, P. Fernandez, F. Millon, Makaraig, Sandoval,
Custodio and the Secretary, 1 each. lt is worth noting that use of el castellano is overwhelmingly casual
or positive. The only character to express 'nationalist' hostility to the language is, of course, Simoun. The
Narrator himself seems quite noncommittal.

The place Filipinas is mentioned 52 times, a shade less often than in the Noli. The distribution is
also quite similar: The Narrator, 38 (including 5 voice-overs for Ben Zayb and one each for Custodio,
Timoteo Pelaez, and Simoun); Simoun, 5; Pecson, Isagani, Makaraig, and "Horatius," 2 each; and
Sandoval, once. What Filipinas covers is no less complex than in the earlier novel. Chapter 37
("Fatalidad") indeed mentions Luzon, Albay, Kagayan, Tayabas, Batangas, Cavite, and Pangasinan, but,
inexplicably, it skips over Ilocos. No Bohol, no Mindoro, no Cebu,no Leyte, no Samar, and no Cordillera
inhabited by Elias's tribus independientes. On the other hand, there is the curious position ot the
Carolines, exemplified by the way the goodhearted but sometimes muddleheaded Isagani refers to
them. In chapter 24 (Sueños), he muses sympathetically about the msulares, who are Spanish colonial
expedition Sent to torestall imperial German intervention in the remote, far-tlung archipelago. But
immediately Isagani turns half around and says: Y el conflicto con los alemanes se le venia á la memoria,
y cast sentia que se hubiese allanado; él hubiera muerto con gusto por el pabellón español-filipina antes
de someterse al estrangero [Then the conflict with the Germans came to his mind, and he almost
regretted that it had been resolved; he would gladly have died for the Spanish-Flipino banner before
submitting to the foreigner]. Having thought of the Caroline islanders suffering a fate parallel to that of
his own countrymen, he is now ready to fight to the death against the German foreigners who threaten
the Spanish-Filipino flag flying over the decimated islanders. It is as if he believes somehow that the
colonized Carolines belong jointly to España and Filipinas. One might expect, since Rizal termed the Fili a
novela Filipina, that the novel would use the words filipino/filipina much more often than the Noli. But
this turns out not to be the case. As a noun the word occurs only 22 times, virtually the same trequency
as in the Noli. But the distribution is wider, and the connotations more varied. The Narrator uses it 12
times (voicing over Custodio twice, and Timoteo Pelaez, Ben Zayb, a student, and a soldier, once; there
follow the High Official and Isagani, 3 each; and Custodio, Basilio, Sandoval, and Cabesang Andang.
apiece. Oddly enough, when speaking about the preconquest peoples or the islands, Custodio refers to
them as los antiguos filipinos, as if 'filipino' were simply a synonym for indio. Cabesang Andang uses the
word in a comparable tashion, to mean a humble, long suffering, indigenous group from which she
appears to exclude herself. The Narrator describes La Victorina as a Filipina Renegada [a renegade
filipina], which would make no sense if filipina here meant a creole woman. Basilio, however, is the one
person to use the word in its traditional (creole) meaning. Simoun never uses the term, unlike his
previous incarnation, Ibarra. The adjective, however, is used far more in the Fili than in the Noli. Of the
30 mentions, more than half are attributed to the Narrator, 18 (including two voice-overs each for P.
Florentino and Timoteo Pelaez, and one apiece for Custodio and Isagani), followed by Isagani, 4; Pecson
and P. Fernandez, 2 each and apiece. Makaraig, Sandoval, the High Official, and "Horatius, Only P.
Fernandez (estudiantes), Isagani (pueblo and juventud), and the Narrator (estudiantes, pueblo, and
artistas [eraftsmen) deploy the adjective for people, and they do so in a quite modern and
ethnonationalist sense. Otherwise, the word is more commonly used in a quasi-geographical rather than
anthropological manner, meaning something like 'of/from the Philippines. The Spaniard Sandoval talks
of the vida filipina, Pecson of edificios filipinos, Isagani of the mundo filipino, and the Narrator ot
costumbres, miseria, vestidos, and hospitalidad. There are two enchantingly unusual usages by the
Narrator. In one place he refers to the peninsular Tiburcio, fleeing his dreadful wife into the remote
countryside, as a Ulises Filipino, and in the other (which we have noted above) to "ninguna Helena
[Helen of Troy] filipina"

However, the uses of españoles and filipinos need to be situated in the larger context of the
novel. Recently I wrote, perhaps too whimsically, that the Fili is in some ways less a novela filipina than a
novela mundial." I did so not merely because, unlike the Noli, the Fili includes some real and imagined
foreigners-the verdadero yankee Mr. Leeds, with his long experience touring in South America; Quiroga;
the French vaudeville players; and Simoun, who is thought to be a Cuban milatto. The novel also
mentions, in nominal and adjectival form: French, 16 times; americanos, 10; Europeans, 9; English, 7;
Egyptians, 6; Jews, 5; Japanese and Caroline insulares, 4 each; Yankees, Germans, and Arabs, 3 each; and
Swiss, Dutch, Portuguese, Italians, and Persians, once each. The moment has now come to turn to the
uses of the key political concepts of nacion and it's derivatives, patria and its affines, as well as pueblo.

In the earlier discussion of the various derivations of the Latin word natio in the Noli, expressed
some surprise at three things: their paucity in the text (12 occurrences); the fact that they are used only
by the Narrator, Tasio, Ibarra, and Elias; and the absence of the powertul abstract noun nacionalismo.
The surprise in the Fili is that very little has changed. The novel contains only 15 examples. Nación in a
general sense appears 6 times (Simoun, 3: the High Official, the Capitan-General and Basilio, 1 each);
referring to the Philippines, it is used twice by Simoun, the High Official uses it twice to refer to Spain,
while the Narrator uses it once to refer to China. Simoun uses the adjective nacional just once. The noun
nacionales occurs once in the Narrator's commentary, but only to refer to foreigners in the Philippines.
Finally, in two places Simoun speaks curiously to Basilio of vuestra not nuestra nacionalidad. In eftect,
only the well-traveled and highly educated High Official and Simoun use the natio derivatives more than
once, forming a circle even smaller than that in the Noli. Even more strikingly, in so highly political a
novel, nacionalismo again tails to make a single appearance.

As one might expect, patria occurs a bit more often in the Fili (33 times) than in the Noli (24).
But the distribution according to points of reference is significantly different. In its general, abstract
form, patria is spoken of only once, by Simoun. Mr. Leeds's mummy speaks three times of ancient Egypt
as his patria. The remaining usages almost all point either to Spain and the Empire or to the Philippines.
The Philippines is referred to in 15 places, distributed between Simoun and the Narrator, each 5
(including one voice-over for Isagani); Isagani, 3; Pasta and P. Florentino, apiece. As in the Noli, the
usage is restricted to self-conscious Philippine patriots of different kinds (except the sly Pasta). Patria
meaning Spain and the Spanish Empire occurs just as often. Of the 14 mentions, 6 come from the
Narrator, all as voice overs to colonialists (4 for the brutish Capitan-General, 1 each for Ben Zayb and
colonialist newspapers); followed by the peninsular student Sandoval, 3; and the Capitan-General,
Pecson (sarcastically), Ben Zayb, an anonymous voice, and Isaganı, 1 apiece. The oddity here occurs in
the episode discussed above where Isagani has conflicting thoughts and emotions about the Carolines.

What is new in the Fili is the appearance of derivatives of patria, 1.e., þatriotismo, patriota (9),
and patriótica. With one well known exception, the connotations are always good, and he small circle of
people who use the words are sympathetically characterized. Patriotismo occurs seven times. The
Narrator employs it thrice (with one voice-over for Sandoval); Simoun, twice; and Makaraig and Basilio,
once each. lt is only Basilio for whom, at a certain point, the term has echoes of fanaticism (sonará á
fanatismo). Patriotas is mentioned once, by the High Official, and the adjectival form comes up once in
the mouth ot Basilio. As for pueblo, we find the same polysemy as in the Noli, but differently
proportioned. One simple reason is that, while the settings of the Noli are rather evenly divided
between Manila and the township of San Diego-Calamba, the Fili is overwhelmingly set in the colonial
capital. Pueblo is used 43 times to refer to townships in the Philippines, including Cabesang Tales's Tianí.
The distribution is as follows: Narrator, 28; Simoun, 6; Isagani and anonymous voices, 2 each; P.
Camorra, Custodio, Juanito Pelaez, Basilio, and the Secretary, 1 apiece. No serious change trom the Noli.
But pueblo meaning San Diego-Calamba occurs only 7 tmes, always stated by the Narrator. The term
also appears just once to denote non-Philippine towns, from the lips of Simoun.

Given that the novel devotes extensive space to politico-philosophical debates, it is natural that
pueblo in the general sense appears fr more often than in the Noli. The 30 references are distributed like
this: Simoun, 11; Isagani, 6; Narrator (including a voice-over tor Isagani), P. Florentino, P. Fernandez, and
the High Official, 2 apiece; Pasta, Sandoval, Basilio, Ben Zayb, and Custodio, 1 each. Pueblo is used to
refer to "peoples of places other than the Philippines Egyptian people); Simoun, 2 (ancient Egyptian and
Spanish); lsagani, 2; and the Narrator, 2 (voice-overs for Ben Zayb and Isaganı).

Finally, pueblo clearly referring to the Filipino people, or the people of the Philippines, occurs 33
times: Simoun, 14 (who on one occasion refers acerbically to his fellow-countrymen as este pueblo
anémico); then lsagani, 5; the Narrator (including a voice over for Basilio), P. Fernandez and the High
Oficial, 3 each, P. Florentino, 2; and Basilio, Camaroncocido, and an anonymous voice, each once. The
most important thing to observe here is that, while pueblo as the people of the Philippines is used only
by four characters in the Noli, in the Fili the number has doubled, with at least two peninsular Spaniards
using it in this sense. One suspects that this may reflect a social reality, i.e., that el pueblo filipino (the
people of the Philippine Islands) was beginning to be used in Manila in place ot the more ambiguous
ethno-racial filipinos. This suspicion may be enhanced if one notes that, of the total number of usages of
pueblo in the Fili, the Philippine' sense reaches 29 percent, compared with only 17 percent in the Noli.
The table below summarizes all this data in comparative form.

We may now turn to consideration or less commonly used political words, which I have
assembled in semantic clusters in descending order of frequency, as far as possible parallel to the
treatment of such clusters in the Noli.

Mentions of Nacion, Patria, and Pueblo with Derivatives and Affines, in El Filibusterismo
No. of Characters using
Total Frequency of use Narrator’s use of term
term
Nacion/es 6 (7)* - (1) 4 (3)
Nacionalidad/es 2 (2) - (1) 1 (1)
Nacional (n.) 1 (1) 1 (-) - (1)
Nacional (adj.) 1 (2) - (-) 1 (2)
Patria (general) 1 (6) - (1) 1 (3)
 Patria (Spain) 14 (5) 6 (-) 6 (3)
Patria (Filipinas) 15 (12) 5 (-) 4 (2)
Patria (Egypt) 3 (n.a) 1 (n.a.) 1 (n.a.)
Patriotismo 7 (-) 3 (-) 3 (-)
Patriotas 1 (-) - (-) 1 (-)
Patriotica 1 (-) - (-) 1 (-)
Pueblo (local towns) 43 (32) 28 (1) 8 (8)
Pueblo (S. Diego towns) 7 (53) 7 (22) - (13)
Pueblo (S. Diego - (4) - (1)
- ( 5)
townsfolk)
Pueblo (general) 30 (10) 2 (-) 10 (5)
Pueblo (people of
33 (21) 3 (1) 8 (4)
Filipinas)
*Figures in parenthesis refer to comparable figures for Noli Me Tangere

TO THE FILIPINO AND THEIR GOVERNMENT

A long dark past of Spanish rule sets until there occurs, in 1872, a turning point, the initial sign of
a shift of consciousness from blind acceptance of Spain presence to an awareness of the causes behind
the peoples suffering. In that year, the public execution of three reformist priest stirred up so much
public sympathy and outrage that the bonds of subservience and gratitude toward Spain and the Frias
were seriously weakened.

 1872-1896 and 1898-national spirit was born and reaches maturity in the struggle in
independence.
 1890-Jose Rizal, the foremost Filipino intellectual and patriot which the 19th century
produced, provided in his annotations to a 17th century Spanish text legitimization for the view
that with Spanish rule the people “forgot their native alphabet, their songs, their poetry, their
laws in other to parrot other doctrines that they did not understand.
 “They lost all the confidence in their past, all faith in their present and all hope for the
future,”
 Rizal had labored for a year in the british museum to document the image of a
flourishing precolonial civilization, the lost eden, which he offspring of an era of enlightened
awakened consciousness and self-assertion, felt burdened to put in writing.
 Rizal construction of a usable past on effect privileged of the status of the illustrado, the
liberal educated elite that viewed itself as among other things, release from thought world of
history-less, superstitious, manipulated masses, the so called “probres y ignorantes”.
 1960-1970- endlessly debating whether Rizal was realist or idealist, whether or not he is
deserving of the veneration he receives.
 They continue to probe the intention behind his actions, speeches and writing and attempt to
clarify his contribution to the process of nation building. Clarify his contribution to the process.
 yet he is an evolutionist premises, particularly the notion of emergence itself, which belongs to
the realm of the family, “common sense”.

The Indio is deemed unable to comprehend her situation rationally, thus she reacts blindly in the
gut, to mounting irritants impinging upon her. Only with the advent of Rizal and the Illustrado is there
supposed to clear understanding of the cause of dissatisfaction. Only with the founding of Andres
Bonifacio Katipunan secret society is there an organization with the clear strategies. When Katipunan
superseded by Emilio Aguinaldo’s republican government, the Filipino people as seen to be finally
released not only from the colonial mother but also to the dark past. 1898-The history of “failure” ends
with the birth of the secular, progressive enlightened republic.

Rizal lamented the fact that Philippine traditions were no longer authentic because their origins
were either forgotten or patently foreign. The forgetting of origins marked the onset of darkness.” these
traditions [of links with Sumatra]” he laments, were completely lost, just like mythology and genealogies
of which the old historians speaks, thanks to the seal of the religious in extirpating every remembrance
of our nationality of paganism or idolatry.”
 Philippine literary histories speak of the lost literature of the lowlands being replaced by religious
poetry written at first by Spanish missionaries and then by select Indios who had serves as translators
for the Spaniards. Entitled “love for the holy family”, god the light of the world”, Mary, star of the sea’,
guiding mean in their voyage through the stormy darkness of sin and ignorance.

Activity no. 1

Based on the discussions above, what could be the meaning of the following racial and political terms?
Peninsular -
Crillo/a-
Mestizo/a -
Mesticillo-
Mulato-
Sangley (es)-
Chino/a -
Indio/a -
Naturales-
Visaya-

Nacion/es-
Nacionalidad/es-
Nacional -
Patria -
Patriotismo-
Patriotas-
Patriotica-
Pueblo -

Things to ponder…
1. What are the racial and political terms that totally disappeared in El Filibusterismo but are used
in Noli Me Tangere?
2. What could possibly be the reason why Chino and Indio are the racial terms that were often
used in the novel?
3. What could be the message does Gat Jose Rizal wants to imply to every Filipino people through
his novel?

Activity No. 2

In a one long sized coupon bond, try to compare the current situation of our country to the
events in the novel El Filibusterismo through a drawing or sketch. At the back of your coupon bond, right
your interpretation of your own work.

Prepared by:

AILYN D. DESENGANO
BELLE RABULAN
 CHAPTER IX

THE MORGA AND RIZAL’S SEARCH FOR ORIGINS

Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to

1. Describe the context of Filipino History and Culture;
2. Know the origin of our beliefs and traditions;
3. Compare the past and present traditions and the impact of each to our society;
4. Understand historical events and trends;
5. Gain valuable perspectives on the problems of our modern society;
6. Relate the issues depicted in the history to the present times.

DISCUSSIONS:

ANNOTATIONS TO DR. ANTONIO MORGA'S SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS (1609)

As a child José Rizal heard from his uncle, José Alberto, about an ancient history of the
Philippines written by a Spaniard named Antonio de Morga. The knowledge of this book came from the
English Governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Browning, who had once paid his uncle a visit.  While in London,
Rizal immediately acquainted himself with the British Museum where he found one of the few
remaining copies of that work.  At his own expense, he had the work republished with annotations that
showed the Philippines was an advanced civilization prior to the Spanish conquest. 

Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas by Antonio de Morga - One of the first books that published the
history of the Philippines, the Successos de las Islas Filipinas written by Antonio de Morga and annotated
by Dr. Jose Rizal. It conveys the history of the past, the events occurred outside and inside of the country
from 1493 to 1603. The book becomes significant since the author is a royal officer of the Spain,
observer and involved himself in the history of the Philippines in some other ways. He tackled about the
culture, politics, social and economics of both the Spain and our country as they colonized it. He also
emphasized the strength and weaknesses of the policies of the government, abuses as well as the
everyday routine works and beliefs of the Filipinos.

ANNOTATION OF DR. JOSE RIZAL

Jose Rizal did something no one ever dares to do. In his attempt to educate Filipinos, it caused it
his own life. But still, He published articles, literatures, books and annotate books to awaken the
consciousness of his own people about their self-worth and their own race. Given the fact that he has
been into many places in Europe and other Asian countries, he has seen a lot, hears a lot and has
learned a lot including languages he became so fluent. He made speeches, articles, books and literature
in many languages. But Rizal was so eager to learn more about the history of the Philippines and study
further about our culture and our own language, the “Wikang Tagalog”. He had given so much
importance and effort to know more about the history and the origin of our native language, since, for
him it is the key for Indios to understand more about our origin and his vision for a brighter future. In his
annotation, he wants to show to the world, to everyone not just the time Spain colonized the Philippines
but also the real situation of Filipinos before the colonizer set foot on our island. He chose to annotate
Morga’s books because of his influence as a royal officer of Spain and his point of views coming from a
“foreigner”, a Spaniard who revealed the real situations and abuses of the friars and someone who
witnessed the last breath of ancient nationality. Rizal felt the needs to show to the world the sufferings,
oppressions and discriminations to his fellow countrymen. Rizal also clarified some of the issues pointed
out by Morga and confirmed or explain further the things Morga is trying to describe.

Rizal’s annotation is so broad that I summarized it into 3 categories. The Spaniards uses 3Gs to colonized
and influence our country.

1. God - Morga’s book spoke about the Christian Religion but very reserved because he wanted to the
preserved purity and holiness of the religion. Rizal stressed that not all provinces, regions and ethnic
groups were invaded by Christianity. There are places that still did not embraced new religion. Rizal said
that it is true, that more civilized tribes and people converted into Catholic beliefs but not all were able
to convinced especially the moros and people living in the mountains.

2. Gold – Morga’s books entails the goodness brought about the Spaniards to the Philippines, in which
the country is in debt and owes a lot to the Spain but Rizal implies that it could be true but tells about
the enormous sum of Gold which was taken from the Filipinos and the tributes collected by
encomienderos to pay the expenses of the government, employees, diplomats as well as to others who
have nothing to do with them. More so, the great numbers of Filipinos soldiers killed in expeditions, died
in the hands of abusive authorities and demoralization to the Filipinos at large.

3. Third is Glory - to honor the king of Spain, Morga said, the Spaniards changes a lot of things in the
Philippines including the name of the country which derived from the name of King Philip of Spain. The
Spaniards changed the names of the places, surnames and even the culture of the people and replace by
their ideologies and take credits from it. They were greedy to the point wherein they looked down to
the natives as if they are entitled and above of everything.

Significance of Rizal’s View:

There are a lot of things to discuss about the books of Morga but Rizal already pointed out the
importance on telling the real stories behind Philippine History. Indeed, Rizal is a gifted man and genius
in his generation. He has this vision that I never saw in any one in his time. A vision not just to educate
his people or be free from oppressions, good in instilling nationalism and patriotism but also to have a
better opportunities and brighter future for all the Filipinos.

Rizal is a great novelist, writer and motivator. His being liberal and realistic showed how great
the potentials of Filipinos in having their own identity. His annotations to Morga’s books only showed his
great love and concern to his motherland. He does not pretend to be a moralist but just stating facts. His
works and lessons are still applicable up to this time, as if we have not yet moved on from abuses of
many kinds, only that the present situations are elevated.

Rizal’s points of views are still relevant and must be given importance in today’s education.
Teach the right history and be open minded to accept all kinds of opinions, take more books for
reference. The saying, “History repeat itself” because we are not mindful of the past failures and
struggles that supposed to be our guide not to go the same path rather consider it as lessons to improve
our nation and must not be taken for granted.

“To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open the books that tell of her past...’ - Dr. Jose
Rizal

In the course of the centuries, the "Morga" earned for itself the reputation of being one of the
best dissertations on the pre-Spanish history of the Philippines with the special advantage that its author
- in contrast to most authors of historical and ethnographic works of the time - was not a man of the
Church, not a priest, but rather a Spanish civil servant.

Rizal explains in his introduction to the "Morga" that he got the inspiration while he was working
on the Noli, that is, by depicting the actual situation of the Philippines. The very influence of the Noli
convinced him that it was necessary to know the past fully in order to understand the present. With the
knowledge and appreciation of yesterday, one can arm one's self for tomorrow.

THE PACTO DE SANGGRE

The Pacto de Sangre (Blood Compact), despite its crucial significance in Filipino conceptions of
history, is seldom interrogated in Philippine historiography. The event that happened in Bohol in 1565,
involving Sikatuna and Legazpi, was narrativized in the late nineteenth century and became integral to
the nationalist emplotment of the past. However, the two principal narrative strands of Marcelo del
Pilar and Andres Bonifacio differed owing to divergent political projects. 
Blood Compact was an ancient ritual in the Philippines intended to seal a friendship or treaty or
to validate an agreement by mixing the blood taken from an incision in the arms of the two leaders
entering into an “alliance” in an alcoholic drink that both leaders drank.

Pacto de Sanggre appears to have become increasingly romanticized as the Spanish colonial past
recedes and as various strands of Filipino nationalism mature. Undoubtedly, the blood compact is
deeply etched in the national consciousness.

The event that happened in Bohol in 1565, involving Sikatuna and Legazpi. The Pacto de Sangre
in Philippine History. “At Limasawa, he [Legazpi] was well received by Bankaw, king of the island. At
Bohol, he made a blood compact with two Filipino kings of the island— Sikatuna and Sigala.” (Gregorio
Zaide in History of the Filipino People). The sandugo (literally, unified blood) ceremony of Legazpi with
Sikatuna and Sigala, as well as that of Kolambu and Magellan, but chose to emphasize the rite that
transpired between Tupas and Legazpi in Cebu, explaining: “Now, in the solemn ritual, native and
foreigner would sanctify the friendship that eluded earlier efforts. But, though blood had blended,
minds remained apart. To the Filipino, the blood compact was an agreement between equals, a pledge
of eternal fraternity and alliance. In the same instant that Tupas and Legazpi now drained their cups, it
was clear on the other hand that to the Spaniard this was a ceremony between victor and vanquished
foe.” Jose Arcilla metioned in his book: Rizal and the emergence of the Philippine Nation describes
sanduguan as “too florid”

“Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived in Cebu, ruled by Rajah Tupas, on 27 April 1565. Earlier, he had
landed in Bohol, where he befriended two native chiefs, Sikatuna and Sigala, with whom he performed
blood compacts, first with Sikatuna on 16 March 1565 and, a few days later, with Sigala.” the frame of
modern diplomacy: It was as a “treaty of peace” needed by both agents. “can be seen not only as the
first bond of friendship between the Philippines and Spain, but also the first international treaty
between the Philippines and a foreign country”. Virgilio Almario gives the blood oath a inspirational
significance that verges on a post-nationalist reading. To many Filipinos there is a sense of Sikatuna
standing tall in the face of the conquistador Legazpi, the latter compelled to abide by the indigenous
custom as a way of “insuring friendly relations.”

THE ANCIENT BLOOD OATHS

Blood Oaths is the forging of an alliance in the context of preventing bloodshed or ending a feud
or warfare involved a ceremony in which drops of blood from the persons entering into this bond were
mixed in an alcoholic drink, which they then drank. “Reconciliation between those who have quarreled,
whether these are individuals or the people of different villages, is brought about by drawing blood from
the arms of both parties, and each tasting the blood of the other, placed in a shell, sometimes mixed
with a little wine; and such friendship is not to be broken.” (translated from Miguel de Loarca’s
Statement) “When they make friends with those whom they are at war or with others, some are
accustomed to take a little blood from the arms or other part of the body and give it to drink to those
who wish to become their friends and the others do likewise and in this way they say peace and
friendship are made perfectly and that it would not break.” 

COCKFIGHTS AND ENGKANTOS

The Spain manage to conquer the Philippines through Religion. Filipinos have their own old
traditions, ceremonies, rituals and other spiritual activities long before the Spaniards conquered the
country. Conquista espritual means spiritual conquest or to conquer in spirit. The art of dominating the
indio spirit. The native believe that importance of asking guidance from the unknown spirits that lives in
the environment to give them protections and provision. In 17 th and 18th century’s popular:
Ensalmadores (caster of spells) Saludadores (healers).

Engkanto are mythical environmental spirits that are said to have the ability to appear in human
form. They are often associated with the spirits of ancestor in the Philippines. They are also
characterized as spirit sorts like sirens, dark beings, elves and more. During Rizal time, Engkantos are
said to be used as a weapon by the Spaniards in conquering the Philippines. Through religion, Spaniards
had been able to convince those uneducated Filipinos to have faith, go to church, for it will make the
bad spirits go away, in which it favors Dominican Friar who dominates and govern the Churches in the
country. This makes the illiterate Filipino easily be under the hand of the Spaniards. Throughout the
years, those beliefs and mythical environmental spirits had been considered as a part of our religions
and traditions, Filipinos had been accustomed to it. Philippine myth still has an active role in the lives of
Filipinos, everyone knows about it and some firmly believe in their existence. Belief in their existence
has likely existed for centuries and continuous to this day.

Thus as times past by, it develops fear and uneasiness to the Filipinos to the point that it
became a hindrance and basis to reach some goals in life. A certain little thing like walking outside
through a big tree at night or stumbling in a mountain of soil would be in need to say “tabi po” in fear to
anger those environmental spirit living in it.

What is “Preternatural”?
3 domains:
1. Supernatural – God’s unmediated actions
2. Natural – what happens always or most of the times
3. Preternatural – what happens rarely but nonetheless by the agency of created
beings and spirits such as angels, demons, ghosts and other terrestrial beings.

These Preternatural entities are:

 Engkanto, engkantu or ingkanto – generic spirit – being

 Dwende – elf
 Multo – ghost
 Muerto – dead
 Maligno – evil spirit
 Kapre – a dark, hairy, otherworldly giant
  Santilmo – spirit or soul in the appearance of fire
 Sirena – sea nymph or mermaid
 Tag – lugar – environmental spirit

But years after the establishment of colonial rule and the atrophy of the preconquest datu’s
charisma in the face of Friar Power, there is a decline of ancient debt peonage. The ties that bound had
loosened such as:
• The “conquista espiritual” had broken the unitary canopy that subsumed economic relations of
production.
• Indio’s release from the debt peonage revitalized the dungan and freed surplus labor from the
elite’s control.
• Indio became subordinated to an external overlord and a peasant.
• The new rules of the social game affected the totality of interpersonal relations, and one
colonial edict was to the issue of debt.
• With the loss of the datu’s magical mystique and with the law on debts, old native elite lost
legitimate grounds for imposition of debt peonage.
• For the first time, indio being subservient to Friar Power, experienced a liberation of sorts from
tradition.

Colonial society and its relative peace made room for the possibility that natives could stake a claim
on a parcel of land to become an independent cultivator. Natives did imbibe the concept of private
proprietorship and of land as inheritable property. Indios’ smallholdings were demarcated from lands
owned by the native elite. The native peasants also engaged in land disputes and the idea old peasant
autonomy had been born.

Natives learned that, as long as they complied with the routine performances of attending mass and
the compulsory rituals at life’s passages, Friar Power could somehow be held at bay. Peasants were left
to their own devices to negotiate with spirits, a process deemed imperative to enhance good fortune in
agricultural production. Native’s strategy of negotiating with the spirit-world was the anting-anting.
Anting-anting was also relied upon in cockpit. Native learned to use anting-anting in cockfighting for the
belief that it will bring fortune. State’s use of the game is to effect native incorporation into the
expanding money economy.
Gambling is sugal, from the Spanish jugar (to play or gamble), while tahur meaning gambling as well
as cheating. Reconfiguration of indigenous society and the indio’s own gambling response gave currency
to the concept of suwerte (suerte) for good luck and malas (de malas) for bad luck. Spanish tahur was
suggestive of routes to success where corruption was endemic. Flouting the law (of Spanish officials)
with impunity became a principal strategy of the native planter class that emerged in Negros.

Cockfight – bulang or sabong or juego de gallos describe as colonial cockpit and cultural
entrapment. Natives loves to have “siesta” in the afternoon after working in the farm. Others play
cockpit which became popular among the farmers. Spaniards became interested and enjoyed to this
activity and allowed this gambling as past time and later on became gambling. But in Rizal’s perspective,
this gambling becomes a way for Filipinos to at least become superior (Llamado) not to be inferior
(Dehado) to them through this game.

Suwerte was believed to emanate from a variety of sources like what had earlier been seen as
misfortune converted to good luck. Indios believe that to be in the employ of Friar Power was to bask in
the magic and protection of the Hispanic shamans, as though the monastic states were a reincarnation
of the barangay under the leadership of men of prowess. To be within the penumbra of Spanish magical
men also meant added protection from colonial state exactions. Attachment to the monastic estates
was also a source of pride and privilege. Landless natives couldn’t endure conditions in the friar estates
so they rebelled by fleeing beyond reach of the colonial state.

WRITER, HERO, MYTH, AND SPIRIT: THE CHANGING IMAGE OF JOSE RIZAL

Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo have fascinated and eluded generations of

scholarly readers since their first publication in Germany in the 1890s.
 Since that time, they have withstood waves of adulation, vilification, and dismissal, followed by
nationalist appropriation and finally canonization, while continuing to reward new readers with pleasure
and abundant interpretive possibilities. Although Rizal is more renowned for his political writings and
role as a public intellectual in the first wave of Philippine nationalism in the 1870s, I found myself far
more interested in the voice of Rizal the novelist.

More than Rizal's explicit polemics, it was the Noli's story of an intellectual-returned to the

Philippines from overseas-pushed to radicalism by the corruption of Spanish rule in the Philippines,
which demonstrated Rizal's keen social intelligence and command over the intellectual currents of his
time. In the Noli and Fili (as the two novels are nicknamed), Rizal overtook his teachers and superiors.
Writing in Spanish, he cast off the intellectual hegemony of Spain in the Philippines with every
appearance of effortlessness.

Ben Anderson drew Smitha’s attention to their subversive irony, evident in how the Noli indicts the
colonial state system or "frailocracy" by ridiculing the self-serving friars and
posturing gobernadorcillos who held power within it. He also pointed out Rizal's subtle yet powerful
idealism in using fiction to give shape to his pluralistic idea of the Philippine nation-as Ben memorably
put it, to "imagine it whole."

Other important insights into Rizal came from Vicente Rafael's Contracting Colonialism (a book that
was based on his Cornell history thesis). According to Rafael, the Noli both depicts how the friars
maintained the colonial hierarchy by withholding access to Latin and Spanish from the vast majority of
Filipinos and illustrates that Filipinos nonetheless managed to produce new and destabilizing meanings
from the language and religion of their colonizers. But even as Smitha absorbed these cele-bratory
interpretations of Rizal as part of her course work, quite a different note was being sounded: my fellow
student Carol Hau was already pointing out that despite the levity on their surfaces, Rizal's novels are a
dark, even despairing meditation on the incompatibility of Enlightenment ideals of modernity with the
Philippines, and a warning of the violence that might ensue from transplanting them there. In addition,
Smitha knew that in the Philippines, Rizal’s novels had been subjected to "normalization" through
reverence-inducing translations. This had the effect of blunting their immediacy and holding the reader
at a distance from the world of the text-all part of the process of enshrining Rizal as a national hero
whose worship was obligatory.
While Smitha had been fully prepared for the eclipse of Rizal the novelist by Rizal the hero, she
simultaneously expected to encounter another aspect of the man: Rizal the myth. From my pre-
fieldwork preparation and reading, she had learned that after Rizal's trial and execution for sedition in
1896 by the Spanish authorities, he came to be viewed in popular imagination as a Filipino Christ. Part of
the doctrine of "Rizalista" societies that mushroomed in the twentieth-century Philippines was that at
the proper moment, Rizal would be resurrected and reemerge from his hiding place deep inside Mt.
Makiling, in his birthplace of Calamba, Laguna, to liberate the Filipino nation. One counter response has
been to attempt to demystify Rizal the hero and return to the man himself, or more precisely to the
writings-on topics as diverse as pre-colonial Philippine history and epidemiology-through which he
aimed to build a national consciousness. But ironically, the posthumous cults and legends about Rizal
(which he would surely never have intended or desired) show that his death did even more to achieve
this objective than his life's work.

But when Smitha arrived in the Philippines in 1997, she learned that for the past couple of
decades Rizalista churches with their charismatic leadership, prayer sessions, songs, and collective
healing sessions invoking the curing power of Rizal have been in decline. While some have been
disbanded, others have lost members due to internecine squabbles or failure to attract younger
followers. This has sent older followers, in the words of one elderly Rizalista, "crawling into the
woodwork."

Smitha stumbled across José Rizal in another guise that was not the novelist, the
urban ilustrado, or the martyred Christ-figure. Instead, as pilgrims and healers recounted their mystical
dream encounters with divinities and spirits, I began to hear more and more about Amang
Doktor (Father-Doctor), a cantankerous spirit who appears to certain people as a wizened old man
hunched over a walking stick. Although in appearance he is nothing like the handsome young man with
the wave of hair over his forehead, according to my informants they are one and the same: this
 is Amang Doktor José Rizal. The spirit of the young patriot who was martyred at thirty-three has
apparently grown old.

More than a year after the event, the author has not yet found any satisfactory answers to these
questions. Although she has found it useful to distinguish the different figures of José
Rizal: ilustrado writer, hero, myth, and spirit, charged social events such as the one described above
show that the lines dividing these figures can easily become blurred and contested. This creates plenty
of confusion for observers and participants and lots of scope for mutual understanding,
misunderstanding, and the iconoclastic generation of new meanings. But what, precisely, is the
significance of such moments in the life of an individual, a community, or a nation, and how does one
learn to "read" them? As Smitha attempt to frame and write a dissertation out of notes that document
many such moments-fleeting, enigmatic, yet somehow powerful. I find this to be one of my greatest
challenges.

ASSESSMENT:

ROLE PLAY as FINAL INTEGRATION.

The class will be divided into five and each group will perform a play regarding the cultures, beliefs and
traditions and will compare that to the present situations.

Rizal Final Integration (Role Playing)

Group: __________________________ Judge ___________________________

4 3 2 1
Category Points
Excellent Satisfactory Fair Poor
Sometimes
Always willing willing
Participation in Usually willing and Rarely willing and
and and focused
Preparation and focused during focused during
focused during during group
Presentation group work and group work and
group work and work
30 points presentation. presentation.
presentation. and
presentation.
Convincing Adequate Limited
Competent
Presentation of communication communication communication
communication of
Character of of of
character’s
25 points character’s character’s character’s
feelings, situations
feelings, situation feelings, situation feelings, situation
and motives.
and motives. and motives. and motives.
Purpose is
Purpose is clearly Purpose is clearly Purpose is
Achievement of vaguely
established and established and established but
Purpose established and
effectively generally may not be
20 points may not be
sustained. sustained. sustained.
sustained.
Impressive Satisfactory
Use of Non-Verbal
variety Good variety of variety Limited variety of
Cues (voice, gestures,
of non-verbal non-verbal cues of non-verbal non-verbal cues
eye, contact, props,
cues are used in a cues are used in a
costumes)
are used in an competent way. used in an developing way.
10 points
exemplary way. acceptable way.
Choices Choices
Choices Choices
demonstrate demonstrate
Imagination and demonstrate demonstrate
thoughtfulness little
Creativity insight and thoughtfulness
and awareness and
15 points powerfully and
completely do
enhance role completely
enhance role little to enhance
play. enhance role play.
play. role play.
Total Points
REFERENCES:

Hau, Caroline S., Introduction. In Necessary Fictions: Philippine Literature and the Nation, 1946-
1980, 2000

Anderson, Benedict, Hard to Imagine. In Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia

and the World, 2004

Writer, Hero, Myth, and Spirit: The Changing Image of Jose Rizal: Smitha Lahiri
Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University

Web-Books.Com

Prepared by:

BRENDA LOU D. DELLOSA

Instructor I