El Filibusterismo

Disclaimer: The notes provided herein

shall not serve as substitute for the
reading materials assigned to the class.
1. Del Pilar and Rizal
The Break with Del Pilar
o Rizal’s relationship with some of his colleagues in the propaganda movement had become
increasingly difficult. Many Filipinos in Madrid found him too harsh, too demanding and
patronizing, lacking in moderation.
o Tension developed between him and Del Pilar
❖ According to Del Pilar, Rizal may have been the victim of Filipinos who wanted to
teach him a lesson.
❖ The day before the elections for the leadership position of the Filipinos in Madrid, Rizal
did not want to shoulder the expenses for the champagne and instead took up a
collection for it. He also criticized the boisterous laughter of the crowd.
❖ Del Pilar did not want to become leader, so he allegedly told others to vote for Rizal.
❖ During the elections, the voting process had to be done three times before Rizal was
eventually elected.
 The Break with Del Pilar
❖ Rizal arrived at the conclusion that the election was an attempt to embarrass him. He
resigned the leadership post and in March 1891 left Madrid for France.
❖ Del Pilar attempted to draw him back, asking him to write again for La Solidaridad.
❖ Rizal: the leader of the Filipino community should have a say at the direction of the La
Solidaridad. Private funding made the newspaper an outlet of a private group.
❖ He would subsequently refuse to write anything for the paper, stating that he was writing for
the nation, and not for a private group. He also accused Del Pilar of having allowed himself
to be used by the group that had proposed the election to deliberately humiliate him.
❖ In a letter dated 13 October 1891, Rizal wrote a letter to Del Pilar holding him responsible
for the humiliation he suffered at the hands of his colleagues in Spain.
1. El Filibusterismo
 El Filibusterismo
o Finished El Filibusterismo after his falling out with the Filipino expatriates in Spain.
o Left Paris for Brussels because life was cheaper there. Moved to Ghent because the printers
charged less than in the capital. Shared a room with Jose Alejandrino, a chemical engineering
student at the University of Ghent, who would become a general during the Phil Revolution
and the Philippine-American War.
o Paciano could no longer send him money. His family no longer rich after being dispossessed
of the land which they previously leased from the Dominican hacienda.
o Began printing of the El Filibusterismo early in June 1891. Pawned his possessions in order
to get the book published. He did not receive funds from people who promised to send him
money for the publication of his book.
o Rizal had to suspend printing of the book due to lack of funds. He was then forced to cut
the novel drastically. He previously announced that it was longer than the Noli but became
shorter as published. Only 38 chapters compared to the Noli’s 64.
 El Filibusterismo
o Juan Luna, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, and Lopez Jaena congratulated Rizal. Jaena found it
superior to the Noli in style, language and ideas. He then sent a copy to Marcelo del Pilar for
the book to be reviewed in the La Solidaridad.
o Del Pilar gave his frank opinion: considered it inferior to the Noli. He replied to Del Pilar by
saying that he is also of the opinion that the El Fili is inferior to the Noli. He even
mentioned that everyone in Paris and Barcelona told him it was superior. This is Rizal clearly
being petty against Del Pilar.
 El Filibusterismo

o Thought about going to Hong Kong: planned to open a school there

under his direction which would teach languages, the sciences and the
arts in the Jesuit manner. Also practice ophthalmology.

o December 30, 1891: reunited in Hong Kong with his family ( Father,
brother, brothers-in-law, mother, sisters).
 El Filibusterismo

o Dedicated to the memory of GomBurZa

o In the original dedication, Rizal tells the Filipino people and their
government that he intends to expose the mechanism used by the friars
to scare both the Filipino people and their government with the threat
of filibusterismo.
o Rizal heard the word ‘filibustero’ for the first time in 1872 when the
tragic executions took place. Used against anyone by the authorities to
whomever they wished to make suspicious of being a revolutionary. It
means a dangerous patriot who will soon be hanged, or else a conceited
fellow.
 El Filibusterismo
Plot

o Part One: Beginnings (Chapters 1-7)

❖ Image of Philippine society: steamship traveling up the Pasig to the province of Laguna
❖ Upper deck: Spaniards
❖ Lower deck: Filipinos
❖ Introduction of most of the main characters
❖ Chapter 3, the story is told of Ibarra’s death in the waters of the lake
❖ Chapters 4 and 5: Cabesang Tales and Basilio are introduced
❖ Chapter 6: Story of Basilio after the events in the Noli
❖ Chapter 7: Simoun’s back story
❖ Introduced to two storylines that will course through the novel: Simoun’s plot to organize a
revolution and the student’s (Basilio’s classmates) project to put up an academy to teach
Spanish.
 El Filibusterismo

Plot

❖ Simoun attempts to persuade Basilio to join his revolution. Basilio is convinced that the
betterment of Philippine society will not be achieved through arms but through the pursuit
of science. Simoun uses emotional blackmail but Basilio does not bite. Basilio is determined
to live a peaceful life with a family of his own.
 El Filibusterismo

Plot

o Part Two: Protagonists and Supporters (Chapters 8-14)

❖ Scene in Los Baños: students’ request for a Spanish academy is brought

up before the governor-general who was there on holiday. Friars are
divided on the petition.
❖ Two chapters follow on the student Placido Penitente, in which Rizal
criticizes classes in UST. Placido will join the crew of Simoun.
 El Filibusterismo

Plot

o Part Three: Development (Chapters 15-20)

❖ Story about the students

 El Filibusterismo
Plot

o Part Four: Failure (Chapters 21-25)

❖ The two projects fail – Simoun’s and the students’.

❖ Simoun belatedly discovers that Maria Clara has died. Goal of Simoun’s
revolution was Maria Clara’s abduction from the convent. Simoun is
completely discouraged and forgets about the revolution. Attempted
suicide.
❖ Don Custodio, a Spaniard who has been asked by the government for
an opinion on the students’ petition, rejected the petition of the
students to open a school.
 El Filibusterismo
Plot

o Part Five: Dénouement (Chapters 26-32)

❖ Students are arrested because of subversive posters full of threats, massacre, invasion found
in the university. Basilio was one of the students arrested.
❖ Capitan Tiago dies
❖ Juli commits suicide. She is the girlfriend of Basilio, and the youngest daughter of Kabesang
Tales. When Tales was captured by bandits, Juli petitioned Hermana Penchang to pay for his
ransom. In exchange, she had to work as Penchang's maid. Basilio ransomed her and bought
a house for her family. When Basilio was sent to prison, Juli approached Padre Camorra for
help. When Camorra tried to rape her, Juli jumped to her death from the church's tower.
❖ Resignation of a high government official who interceded for Basilio before the governor-
general
 El Filibusterismo
Plot

o Part Six: Simoun’s Second Attempt (Chapters 33-39)

❖ Basilio visits Simoun to thank him for interceding for his release from prison and to
volunteer for any subsequent plans Simoun might have against the colonial government.
❖ Simoun has a plan that will take place in the wedding reception of Paulita (Isagani’s ex).
Mined the gazebo in which Paulita, her groom, and their guests of honor will sit and filled
the lamp hanging in the gazebo with nitroglycerine. When the lamp explodes, this will be the
signal for armed men outside Manila to attack. Basilio will have the task of slaughtering
everyone who refuses to join Simoun’s revolution
❖ Chapter 34: House of Capitan Tiago where the reception will take place and which is now
mined.
 El Filibusterismo
Plot

o Part Six: Simoun’s Second Attempt (Chapters 33-39)

❖ Chapter 35: Basilio saw Isagani loitering outside, attempts to lead him to safety telling him
about the lamp. Isagani though in a trance refuses to follow Basilio who flees. Isagani snaps
out of his trance, decides Basilio is teling the truth, rushes into the house, grabs the lamp
and dives into the Pasig river with it.
❖ Chapters 36 and 37: Manila abuzz with gossip about the failed massacre. Plot has been
traced to Simoun who is in the run.
❖ Last chapter of the Fili consists of a long conversation between Padre Florentino (uncle of
Isagani), and Simoun who is dying after having taken poison to escape arrest. Last part of
the conversation is on the future of the Philippines.
 El Filibusterismo

Themes

o Irony: the filibuster – a friend to the governor-general, the friars, the rich Filipinos and
Chinese. Plotting the very downfall of the colony while the students accused of
filibusterismo are precisely lovers of Hispanic culture with only the progress of the colony
in mind.
o Simoun’s new project: “Terrorism” (solution to the problem of an oppressive government
combined with genocide). Refuted by the narrator.
o Debate between Basilio and Simoun: revolution and the pursuit of one’s own national
identity or assimilation into European culture and the pursuit of science, progress, and
peace?
 El Filibusterismo
Themes

o “Do the crime well and it will be admired and will have more defenders
than virtuous acts, carried out with modesty and timidity.”

o Rizal’s rejection of the Enlightenment. Lamp. In Mi retiro, a poem to

his mother, he called his ten years in Europe a waste of time. Isagani
diving into the Pasig with Simoun’s lamp is Rizal consigning the
Enlightenment to the dustbin in his life. Instead, he would return to the
Christian humanism of Fr. Leoncio Lopez, Rizal’s model for Padre
Florentino, the man who guided him in his youth.
 El Filibusterismo

Chapter 7

o Simoun’s plan to overthrow the system through crime and immorality

o Simoun criticism of the reform movement.
❖ A people without character, a nation without liberty—everything you have will
be borrowed, even your very defects!
WHY INDEPENDENCE, IF
THE SLAVES OF TODAY
WILL BE THE TYRANTS OF
TOMORROW?
 El Filibusterismo

Chapter 39

o Took poison and there is no remedy.

o Revealed to Padre Florentino his real identity and his life story: Name,
fortune, love, future, liberty, all were lost, and he escaped only through
the heroism of a friend. Then he swore vengeance. With the wealth of
his family, which had been buried in a wood, he had fled, had gone to
foreign lands and engaged in trade. He took part in the war in Cuba,
aiding first one side and then another, but always profiting.
o Wanted to clear a doubt before he dies.
 El Filibusterismo

Simoun: Is it God’s will that these islands continue in the condition in

which they suffer?

Padre Florentino: Disclaimer that he cannot read the mind of God. States
that God is justice, and he cannot abandon the cause of liberty, without
which no justice is possible.
Simoun: Why then has God denied me his aid?

Padre Florentino: Because you chose means that God could not sanction..
Hate produces monsters and crime criminals. Virtue alone can save.
For the country to be free, it will not be through immorality and
crime. Redemption presupposes virtue, virtue presupposes sacrifice,
and sacrifice love.
 El Filibusterismo

Simoun: Why does God let so many worthy and just ones suffer?

Padre Florentino: The just and the worthy must suffer in order that their
ideas may be known and extended. An immoral government presupposes a
demoralized people, a conscienceless administration, greedy and servile
citizens in the settled parts, outlaws and brigands in the mountains. Like
master, like slave! Like government, like country!”
 El Filibusterismo

Simoun: Given this situation, what can be done?

Padre Florentino: Suffer and work.
 El Filibusterismo
o Padre Florentino: We must secure liberty/civic freedom by making ourselves worthy
of it. By exalting the intelligence and dignity of the individual, by loving justice,
goodness, and greatness even to the extent of dying for them. When a people reaches
that height, God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, the tyranny will crumble
like a house of cards and liberty will shine out like the first dawn.

o While we see them wrap themselves up in their egotism and with a forced smile praise the
most immoral actions, begging with their eyes a portion of the booty—why grant them
liberty? With Spain or without Spain they would always be the same, and perhaps
worse! Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?
And that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it.
o When our people is unprepared, when it enters the fight through fraud and force,
without a clear understanding of what it is doing, the wisest attempts will fail, and
better that they do fail, since why commit the wife to the husband if he does not sufficiently
love her, if he is not ready to die for her?”
 El Filibusterismo

o Look at Philippine history after Rizal. There is still rampant corruption

and oppression.

o Was Rizal correct in his analysis?

Thank you!
Does anyone have any questions?

marlowe.uy@uap.asia
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