“JOSE RIZAL’S TRIP TO AMERICA”

While doing research on Rizal’s manuscripts kept in the vault of the

National Library, I came across one of his travel diaries. It contained a drawing of
what looked like the Statue of Liberty. (Actually it is the Niederwald monument in
Germany) It was an exciting find, mainly because not too many people realize
that Rizal traveled around America from April to May 1888. He landed in San
Francisco, paid $4 for his room at the Palace Hotel, visited Market Street,
Chinatown, and of course, the Golden Gate. (The place not the bridge that wasn’t
there during Rizal’s visit)

In his diary he wrote that Sacramento supper cost 76 cents, in Salt Lake
City……..the Mormons were spreading, an in Colorado “the porter of the Pullman
car, an American, is somewhat of a thief.” Being kuripot, he was probably
annoyed by tip-hungry porters and bellboys.

He described Niagara Falls as “not as pretty or mysteriously beautiful as

the waterfalls in Los Banos, but it is so much more gigantic and imposing that no
comparison is possible.”

He was impressed with New York, which he referred to as a great city,

“but there, everything is new!” – obviously, a remark of someone acquainted with
the antiquity of Europe. Rizal also noted the statues of Indians outside the
tobacco shops in Chicago.

The diary was sparse, and from the tone of his writing, he seemed to be in
a hurry to leave America and proceed to Europe. We find his impressions of the
United States in a letter to Mariano Ponce dated July 27, 1888.

I visited the largest cities of America with their big buildings, electric
lights, and magnificent conceptions. Undoubtedly America is a great
country, but still has many defects. There is no real civil liberty. In some
states, The Negro cannot marry a white woman, nor a Negress a white
man. Because of their hatred for the Chinese, other Asiatics, like the
Japanese, being confused with them, are likewise disliked by the ignorant
Americans. The Customs are excessively strict. However, as they say
rightly, America offers a home to the poor who like to work. There was,
moreover, much arbitrariness. For example, when we were in quarantine.
They place us under quarantine, in spite of the clearance given by
the American Consul, of having been at sea for about one month, of not
having had a single case of illness abroad, and of the telegram of the
governor of HongKong declaring that port free from epidemic.
We were quarantined because there were on board 800 Chinese
and, as elections were being held in San Francisco, the government
wanted to boast that it was taking strict measures against Chinese to win
votes and the people sympathy. We were informed of the quarantine
verbally, without specifying its duration. However, on same day of our
arrival, they unloaded 700 bales of silk without fumigating them, the ship’s
doctor went ashore; many customs employees and an American doctor
from the hospital for cholera victims ate on board.
Thus we were quarantined for about thirteen (13) days. Afterwards,
only passengers of the first class were allowed to land; the Japanese and
Chinese of the 2nd and 3rd classes remained in quarantine for an indefinite
period. It is said that in that way, they got rid of about 300 Chinese, letting
them gradually die on board. I don’t know of this is true.

Rizal was no ordinary Asian traveler. He wore Western clothes and spoke
English, French, Spanish, and German. To top it all, he was probably the only
Asian traveling first class! Had he been subjected to more discrimination, his
impressions of America could have been worse. (04/19/88)
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