Reflection on Rizal’s Travel and its Impact on Current Times (in the Context of the

Pandemic Situation)

“Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age.“ — 
José Rizal
"'Los Viajes' ('Travels')". Essay by José Rizal, La Solidaridad, May 15, 1889.

A man so hungry for wisdom, obsessed with knowledge, addicted to information and thirsty for a
fount of nurture, has set foot into great continents to indulge into some educational and partly academic
pursuits. Jose Rizal was the first Filipino to return to his beloved Philippines revitalized with vigor,
reinforced by ideas of liberte, fraternite and egalite, induced by French Revolution’s ideas, galvanized by
German ingenuity and reformed with propitious vision for his people who are prisoned in a plight of the
Spanish tyranny. Furthermore, the Spanish rule, in which Rizal lived in, was a time full of barriers yet he
penetrated through these barriers, by means of travelling. It was challenging but he made sure he was
productive. His travel journey has great implications in this challenging circumstances that we are in since
it is resonant for all of us whose lives have been changed by the pandemic. A Filipino travelling through
divergent countries in the late 19th century who conquered impediments and gained knowledge of his
own humanity and his boundless possibilities, provides us a source of insight to also find the mechanisms
to break the repression barrier that this pandemic has put on all of us.