Lesson 14: Jose P.

Rizal's Return to Europe and the novel El

Filibusterismo
Realizing that Rizal’s family and friend’s safety were at risk; and that his fight against the
Spaniards had better chance of winning if he had to go abroad, he finally decided to sail
back to Europe. Before his departure, he gave the poem dedicated to the industrious
workers of Lipa City which was the Himmo Al Trabajo. (Hymn to Labor)

EAST ASIA

         On February 3, 1888, for the second time, Rizal sailed to Hong Kong as an observer
who wanted the utmost reform in his native land. Terrero’s former secretary, Jose Sainz
de Varranda, followed Rizal in the said British colony, and was believed to be
commissioned by the Spanish authorities to spy on the hero. After almost three weeks
on board the American steamer, Oceanic, he left Hong Kong and sailed to Japan where
he was invited by Secretary Juan Perez Caballero to live at the Spanish Legation. His
instinct told him that it was a bait- a way for the Spanish officials to keep track of his
activities.

          Since it was economical to stay at the legation and he believed that he had
nothing to hide, he accepted it. Rizal was impressed by the scenic Japan and had keenly
observed the life, customs and culture of the people. He had fallen in love not only with
the view but more to its women, particularly with the 23- year old O-Sei-San (a.k.a. Usui
Seiko).

SAIL TO THE WEST

         Rizal was almost tempted to settle in Japan with O-sei-San, but on April 13, 1888,
Rizal boarded the English steamer, Belgic bound for the United States reaching the land
on April 28. He visited San Francisco, left it on the second day for Oklahoma, then to
Sacramento, then to Reno, and finally to New York. On May 16, 1888 the ship, City of
Rome sailed for Liverpool and where he decided to stay in London until March 1899.

          Rizal chose to stay in London so that he could improve his English skills, study and
do an annotation of Antonio Morga’s Success de las Islas Filipinas and because he
believed that the said English city was a place for him to carry on the reforms he wanted
for the Philippines. He stayed at Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor’s home and boarded at the
Beckett family where he fell in love with Gertrude.

IN GREAT BRITAIN
         In London, Rizal received both good news and bad news from home. This good
news was that Rev. Vicente Garcia was defending his Noli from the attacks of the friars.
On the other hand, the bad news was that the Filipino signatories of the “Petition of
1888” and the tenants of the Calamba agrarian trouble were facing persecution, that his
brothers-in-law, Manuel T. Hidalgo and Mariano Herbosa were exiled to Bohol and was
denied Christian burial, respectively; and his friend Laureano Viado, a UST medical
student, was imprisoned for possessing a copy of his Noli. During his stay in the country,
Rizal also made used of his time in writing essays and articles for the La Solidaridad. On
June 12, 1889, with Filipino and Spanish friends, they founded the Asociacion Hispano-
Filipino which aimed for unionism and reforms. After ten months, Rizal left London and
departed for Paris. 

IN FRANCE

         In Paris, Rizal continued his study on various languages and practiced his artistic
skills, and finished two statues – “The Beggar” and “The Maid With A Basket.” He
organized a social club called Kidlat Club which brought together young Filipinos
residing in France. Soon, the members of the said club founded a new Filipino Society-
the Indios Bravos, an organization which envisioned Filipinos being recognized by Spain
for being excellent in various fields of knowledge. By January 1890, Rizal’s annotation of
the Sucesos was finally printed and published by the Garnier Freres.

IN BELGIUM

         With his roommate, Jose Albert, Rizal celebrated Christmas in Paris. Shortly after
New Year, he visited London for the last time and on January 28, 1890, left Paris for
Brussels. With Albert, they left the extravagant and gay social life in Paris and stayed in a
boarding house owned by the Jacoby sisters in Brussels. Rizal continued contributing
for La Solidaridad  under the pseudonyms Dimas Alang and Laong Laan. From Calamba,
Rizal received letters telling that the agrarian trouble in the province was getting worse.

          And as such, he decided to go home. But instead of going home, a letter from
Paciano told him that they already lost the case against the Dominicans and they were
in need of a lawyer who would defend their family and the families in Calamba from
Madrid. Rizal traveled to Madrid to seek justice but in vain-he could not find the right
person and he heard that his family was already evicted from their land in Calamba and
other family members were banished to Mindoro and Manila.

IN SPAIN
         Rizal had many misadventures in Madrid. For one, he challenged Antonio Luna and
Wenceslao Retana in a duel. With Luna, it was about the latter’s frustration with his
unsuccessful “love affair” with Nellie Bousted, and so gave negative remarks on the lady
which Rizal did not tolerate. The other encounter was with Retana who had insulted
Rizal and his family by writing in La Epoca, an anti-Filipino newspaper, that the Rizal
family in Calamba was evicted from their lands because they did not pay their rents. It is
also from this city where Rizal heard the news of Leonor Rivera’s marriage with Henry
Kipping, an Englishman, which terribly broke his heart.

          Another marked event in Madrid was the Marcelo H. del Pilar-Jose Rizal rivalry for
leadership in the Asociacion Hispano Filipino. A faction emerged from the Filipinos in
Madrid, Rizalistas and Pilaristas, Rizal and del Pilar’s compatriots, respectively, during the
organization’s election. Losing the election, Rizal decided to go back home, fearing that
his presence may result to bigger and stronger faction among the Filipinos in Madrid.
But instead of going straight to Hong Kong, he went back to Brussels to finish his
second novel, the El Filibusterismo.

EL FILIBUSTERISMO

          Jose Rizal wrote his second novel which is a continuation of the Noli Me Tangere
in Brussels and he finished it in Biarritz Madrid, inspired by the magnificent place and his
romance with Nellie Boustead. On March 29, 1891 the of his departure from Biarritz to
Paris, he finished the manuscript of El Filibusterismo and he completed the revision on
May 30,1891, ready for printing. He searched for a cheaper printing shop and he did
find a publisher F. MEYER-VAN LOO PRESS, No. 66 Viaanderen Street that published his
books in an installment basis. He pawned his jewels in order to pay the down payment
and early partial payment during the printing of the novel. He had received some funds
from Basa and Rodriguez Arias.

         But printing was suspended because of insufficient funds and then Valentin
Ventura in Paris helped him because he learned about Rizal’s predicament. He
immediately sent the necessary funds for printing.

          On September 18,1891, the novel came off the press in Ghent. He immediately
sent copies to Basa to Sixto Lopez in Hong Kong, to, to his friends Valentin S. Ventura in
Paris and to his friends in the Philippines.

          The novel was praised to the skies by Filipino patriots in foreign lands and in the
Philippines. The members of the Filipino colony of Barcelona published a tribute in La
Publicidad, a Barcelona newspaper, eulogizing the novel’s original style which is
comparable only to sublime Alexander Dumas and may well be offered as “a model, a
precious jewel in the decadent literature of Spain”.

         The liberal Madrid newspaper, El Nuevo Regimen, serialized the novel in its issues
of October 1891.

         Rizal dedicated El Filibusterismo to the martyrs, Father Gomez, Father Burgos and
Father Zamora. Their martyrdom, which Paciano related to him when he was a boy in
Calamba was never forgotten.