CHAPTER 1

ISANG PAGTITIPON

A REFLECTION PAPER

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

In the Subject GE1804

Rizal’s Life and Works

To be Submitted to

Bautista, Marina

Submitted by

Orilla, Muse Amor M.

Date of Submission: 02, November 2022

 ABSTRACT

The month of October is coming to an end and Don Santiago de los Santos (or Capitan Tiago) is
hosting a dinner at his house in Binondo which is located along Anloague Street and near the Pasig River.
Capitan Tiago's cousin is receiving the lady guests as well as offering cigars and a compound of betel nut,
leaves, and lime to Spaniards. She soon gets bored, leaves the party which is being held at the living
room, and never reappears. Sitting around one of the tables at the living room are Padre Damaso, Padre
Sibyla, a blond youth who is a newcomer to the Philippines, Senor Laruja, and a soldier. The five men are
feasting on English biscuits and bottles of wine. Padre Damaso is telling the group of how ignorant and
indolent the indio are.

Padre Damaso and the Lieutenant nearly figures in a fist fight after the former insults the Vice-
Royal Patron (Capitan General). But Padre Sibyla intervenes and prevents the potential scuttle. Doctor de
Espadana and his wife Dona Victorina arrives at the dinner party. Padre Damaso and group greet the
couple and engage them in a conversation about the invention of the gunpowder. This chapter alone
provides deep insights on how some of the friars view themselves and how they cling onto an image that
they so desperately try to maintain, all the while creating a ominous foreboding for the things to come
upon Ibarra's homecoming.

Isang Pagtitipon

In late October, Don Santiago de los Santos, him. When he was transferred three years later

who is known as Captain Tiago, throws a large to the town of San Diego, he explains, the town

dinner party in Manila. He is very wealthy and, was sad to see him go. He then spent the next

as such, the party takes place in his impressive twenty years in San Diego, and though he still

home, to which people eagerly flock so as not to doesn’t understand very much Tagalog the

miss an important social event. As the guests country’s native language he believes himself a

mill about, groups of soldiers, European good preacher who intimately knows the

travelers, and priests speak to one another. An townspeople. Because of this, he is upset that

old lieutenant in the Civil Guard engages in when he recently ceased to be San Diego’s friar,

conversation with a quiet but argumentatively only “a few old women and a few tertiary

cunning Dominican friar named Fray Sibyla, a brothers saw [him] off. Continuing his rant,

loudmouthed Franciscan friar named Fray Father Damaso says that “indios are very lazy.”

Damaso, and two civilians, one of whom has The foreigner who is new to the Philippines

just arrived in the Philippines for the first time. challenges this notion, asking, “Are these

Authoritatively speaking over the others, Fray natives truly indolent by nature, or is it, as a

Damaso lectures this newcomer about the nature foreign traveler has said, that we make excuses

of “indios,” or native Filipinos. Father Damaso for our own indolence, our backwardness, and

explains to his listeners that his our colonial system by calling them indolent?”

As Damaso refutes this idea, Father Sibyla steps

first post in the Philippines was in a small town,
in and puts him back on track, underhandedly
where he worked for three years. He boasts that
prodding what he intuits is a sensitive issue by
he made strong connections with the
asking the boisterous priest why he left San
townspeople, who he claims loved and respected
Diego after twenty years. For the first time all who understands his responsibilities to society,

evening, Fray Damaso falls silent before an honorable and just man, does not commit

slamming his fist into his chair and cryptically suicide.” Continuing with his story, the

shouting, “Either there is religion or there isn’t, lieutenant says that Father Damaso exhumed this

and that’s that, either priests are free or they distinguished man’s body from the cemetery.

aren’t! The country is being lost…it is lost!” The Captain General knew about this, and thus

When Sibyla asks what he means, Damaso says, transferred Damaso from San Diego as a

“The governors support the heretics against punishment. Having finished the story, the

God’s own ministers!” This seems to unnerve lieutenant storms off, leaving Father Sibyla to

the lieutenant, who begins to stand and asks say, “I am sorry that without knowing it I

Damaso to clarify. “I mean that when a priest touched upon such a delicate matter.” Changing

tosses the body of a heretic out of his cemetery, the subject, one of the civilians asks about

no one, not even the king himself, has the right Captain Tiago, the host of the party. Damaso

to interfere, and has even less right to impose says that there is “no need for introductions”

punishment,” Damaso says without explanation. because Tiago is “a good sort.” And in any case,

He then references a “little general,” before there are rumors that he has stepped out of the

trailing off, which angers the lieutenant. The house for some reason, leaving his guests to

lieutenant, a member of the government’s Civil mingle. Just then, two people enter the room.

Guard, yells his support of the Spanish king’s INTERPRETATION DURING JUNIOR

representative in the Philippines, whom Damaso HIGH SCHOOL

has insulted. As Father Damaso and the

During high school, my Filipino instructor rarely
lieutenant approach the possibility of a fistfight,
gave any insights regarding the events of this
Father Sibyla intervenes with philosophical and
chapter. Since it has always been a
diplomatic reasoning. The lieutenant dismisses
straightforward prose, the scene sets up who the
this, saying that Damaso is out of line. He
characters are and their roles. Obviously, Ibarra
explains that the man whose body was removed
is the main character of the story, while Padre
from the Catholic cemetery was a friend of his
Damaso is the antagonist of this chapter. There
“a very distinguished person.”
wasn't much to talk about other than the

“So, what if he never went to confessions,” the conversation between Damaso and Sibyla with a

lieutenant says. “So what? I don’t go to member of the Guardia Civil. The fact that

confession either. But to claim that he Father Dámaso thinks he can generalize about

committed suicide is a lie, a slur. A man like the nature of “indios” indicates his excessive

him, with a son in whom he has placed all his confidence and lack of cultural compassion,

hopes and affections, a man with faith in God, considering that the term “indio” is a derogatory
term for Filipinos. Furthermore, his domineering tension between the Spanish government and the

character is evident by his authoritative tendency Catholic church. As the story revolves around

take command of a conversation, lecturing power, colonialism, and religion, it certainly

newcomers instead of entertaining their puts into perspective of the current situation of

questions. It is clear right from the start, then, the country, particularly the secularization issue

that priests are afforded an outsized amount of that eventually led into the Cavite Mutiny. In

power in this community. Father Dámaso’s this context, Padre Damaso's insistence of

ignorance emerges when he admits that he has maintaining his authoritative status and

spent 23 years in the Philippines but still doesn’t appearance reflected how much the friars were

understand Tagalog, the native language. What’s desperate enough to maintain hold over the

more, his disrespect for the community and government and over the people. Also, it could

people he claims to serve is painfully apparent in be hinted as to how the Spanish friars rejected

his apathy toward learning Tagalog. Thus, it’s the notion of ordaining local priests ever since

not hard to see that he’s more interested in the Jesuits left the country. If placed in our

appearing to be well-liked than he is in actually modern context, this reflects how some of our

taking the necessary measures to win the countrymen are willing to put up a brave front

townspeople’s respect. instead of admitting their mistakes or

wrongdoings. And if things truly went south,

REFLECTIONS OF THE ISSUE TO
they would blame someone or something else in
MODERN SOCIETY
order to maintain their "clean" image.
Rizal has a habit of plunging readers into new
PERSONAL REFLECTION
storylines and alluding to certain plot elements

that aren’t explained until later, also known as This chapter serves as the "hook, line, and

foreshadowing. In one scene, Father Sibyla’s sinker" of the entire novel. It puts up a bright

question—regarding why Dámaso had to leave and witty banter, only to exhume the darker plot

San Diego—prompts an outburst from Dámaso that lurks within the lines of each page. Rizal

that references the exhumation of an important can definitely narrate two (2) stories,

dead man, though readers aren’t expected to demonstrating his fluid capacity to intertwine a

understand the relevance of this until later. For light-hearted scenario (which follows Ibarra's

now, it will suffice to point out that Dámaso storyline and his little adventures, only to fall

insults the king and asserts that priests have down in the dark) and the underside of the novel

more power than the government. (which follows the riveting secret behind Ibarra's

Unsurprisingly, this infuriates the lieutenant, life, as well as the lives of other people involved

who represents the government’s Guardia Civil. in the mess the friars made). Rizal also has the

This is the novel’s first manifestation of the habit of using additional characters as a
mouthpiece for his own political belief that over society. It is reflected also in some

powerful colonial forces project their own politicians who use their authority to assert

expectations and shortcomings onto the people control over anything or anyone.

they try to govern. Unfortunately, Father

Dámaso is too wrapped up in his own self-image

REFERENCES
his power and importance to acknowledge that

Filipinos are respectable people in order for him
to feel authoritative, Filipinos must be below
him.
1. How does Noli Me Tangere impact our
current society?
To answer this question, I think it has little
impact on our society right now, since it has
already been widely discussed in our schools,
both in junior high school and in college. But, it
still reminds us of our past so that we can study
it, learn from it, and emulate the best qualities of
being a Filipino demonstrated by some of the
characters in the novel.
2. Are the problems presented in Noli Me
LitCharts (n.d.). Noli Me Tangere chapter 1
summary and analysis. Lifted and modified from
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/noli-metangere/cha
pter-1-a-gathering
Rizal, J. P. (1887). Isang Pagcacapisan (P.H.
Poblete, trans.). In Noli Me Tangere. Retrieved
from
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20228/20228-
h/20228-h.htm
Surname, Author's initials (year of publication).
Title of the Book (# ed.). City of Publication:
Publishing Company
Surname, Author's initials (year of publication).
Title of the Book (# ed.). City of Publication:
Publishing Company
Surname, Author's initials [YouTube username]
(year of upload). Title of the video [video clip].
Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=OEHiin9pfXA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMcGr-
FPM9M

Tangere somehow in our present society?

There are some of the problems posited in the

novel that still exists today. One is the effect of

corruption in the country. As seen from the

devious actions of some of the friars in the

novel, some politicians somehow mirror these

corrupt friars. Some of these corrupt politicians

covet money for themselves, impose laws that

they themselves don't follow, and seems to do

anything out of whim. In this chapter, Fray

Damaso foreshadowed the incident of a dead

heretic throwing out its corpse from the grave it

was buried in, signifying the friars' dominance