The Birth of a Filipino

National Consciousness
What makes us “Filipino”?
What does it mean to be a
“Filipino”?
What unites us as a
“nation”?
NATIONALISM

Consciousness Spirit that

of an identity binds men
= one people together
ACTIVITY (#1) – NEO Discussion Thread
•What makes us FILIPINO?
•List down things that makes us uniquely
Filipino
•What unites us as a nation?
•Respond to two posts from your classmates
and reply to those who will comment on
yours.
The Philippine Experience: Foundations of
our Indigenous Culture
•Developed religious and social norms,
language, system of writing, literature, and
political and judicial system
•But the country was divided into small
independent-political groups → barangays
The Philippine Experience: Foundations of our
Indigenous Culture
 Unification of the Country by
Spain
• Most worthy legacy of Spanish
colonization → unification under a
highly centralized and bureaucratic
government
• Roman Catholicism
• Western system of writing and alphabet
• Native ingenuity →modified Hispanic
and indigenous elements to suit local
conditions
Spanish Colonization
•Spain: divide et impera (divide and rule)
•Notorious monopolistic restrictions and
control
•Abuse and oppression
•Common hardships and sorrows caused a
growing latent sentiment for freedom and
change
Regional Revolts
• Pampango-Pangasinan-Ilocos uprisings (1660-
Regional 1661)
discrimination • Diego Silang (1762-1763)

•Panay, Tayabas and Mountain

Religious freedom
Province

Friars usurpation of
the lands of the •Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Cavit
natives
Turbulence and Change 19th Century:
Industrialization

• New Technology – Bourgeosie

chemistry, physics and
engineering - colonizers
• Fast economic progress –
made the bourgeoisie Proletariat
even richer, more - Natives
powerful and influential
Turbulence and Change 19th Century
• Rizal in Europe –
Rizal’s Book List explosed to the
• Le Socialismo nationalistic spirit,
Contemporain by E. De internal reforms as
Levalye well as national
• Compilation of theories projects of European
of Karl Marx; Catholic states – esp. Germany
Socialism etc.
Turbulence and Change: Waning Role of the
Catholic Church
• Once the most powerful
institution
• Now the adversary of
liberals and republican
states
• Rise of “anti-clericalism”
• Breaking down Catholic
Church power and
control
Rizal’s
European Emerging
Exposure power of the
Proletariat
Democratic
Economic and
Prosperity nationalistic
thoughts
Filipinos:
More
aggressive in
his struggle
for his rights
New Breed of Native Middle Class

Bourgeois -
Spanish

Middle Class –
Natives/Filipino

Proletariat –
Native/Filipino
 The Response
Francisco Father Pedro Father Jose A.
“Balagtas” Baltazar Pelaez Burgos
• 1st Filipino artist • Exposed and • Wrote that the
with a conscience criticized the friars were
rampant racial responsible for
discrimination the
against the native backwardness of
clergy the country and
the fanaticism of
the indio
 Spanish Attempts to Initiate Reforms
• Revolution to deposed Queen Isabela II of Spain
1868 • Liberals came into power in Spain

• Appointed Governor General Carlos Ma. De La Torre

• Most active organizers of reform: Fr. Mariano Gomez, Fr. Jose Burgos, Fr. Jacinto
Liberals Zamora

• In Spain, liberals were deposed by the conservatives

• Gov. Rafael de Izquierdo – reinstated old practices undermining de la Torre’s
Conservatives reforms
The Growing Filipino Sentiment of Nationality
• Arrested liberal intellectuals
including GOMBURZA
• Accused of “wanting to establish a
republic conspiracy with the
republic partisans in Spain”
• Sentenced to die via garrote
• Trigger a series of militant
expressions of nationalist
sentiments
THE PROPAGANDA MOVEMENT
Laying the Groundwork

•Unity of the Filipino intellectual class in

Spain started a nationalistic campaign
•Gregorio Sanciano – El Progreso de Filipinas
(1881)
• Economic reforms to improve political
administration
 The Unorganized Years: Unifying Forces

Graciano Lopez
Jaena & Pedro De Noli Me Tangere
Govantes 1887

Juan Luna & Feliz

Resurreccion
Hidalgo – Exposicion
de Bellas Artes 1884
 The Unorganized Years: Unifying Forces

Marcelo H. Del Pilar – wrote a

defense of Noli

Through literature –
propagandists had an
opportunity to reiterate issues
and the urgent need for reforms
 Revival of Activities in the Philippines
Propaganda work Literature became
being propelled by the threshold for
Marcelo H. Del spreading national
Pilar consciousness

Basilio Teodoro –
published and
edited Diariong
Tagalog
 Consolidation of Propaganda Activities: Filipino
Nationalists Formally Organized
• 1889 – La Solidaridad organized in Barcelona

Galicano Apacible – President
Graciano Lopez Jaena – Vice
Manuel Santa Maria – Secretary
Mariano Ponce – Treasurer
Jose Ma Panganiban – Auditor
Marcelo Del Pilar – Editor
Jose Rizal – Honorary President
Active Contributors
Rizal – Dimas Alang and Laong
Laan
Del Pilar – Plaridel
Lopez Jaena – Diego Laura
Jose Ma Panganiban – JoMaPa
Antonio Luna – Taga-Ilog
Ferdinand Blumentritt
Reforms they worked for
• EQUALITY – rights and dignity of the Filipinos would be guaranteed
and respected through administrative and economic reforms.

Assimilation of the Philippines
as a regular province of Spain
and Philippine representation
to the Spanish Cortes
Other reforms:
-Extension of peninsular laws to the
Philippines
-Judicial reforms
-Integrity in administration
-Appointment of Filipino priests to
administer parishes
-Free governmental participation
Propaganda Literature
• Writer/ reformists through their prolific writings make their demands
for reform clear and build the Filipino image of hope, pride and
dignity

Mariano Ponce
• biographer Jose Ma Panganiban
• historical essays stressed • philosophical essays
the importance of education,
analyzed the grievances of his
countrymen
 Propaganda Literature
Antonio Luna
• Noche Buena
• Biographical sketch that depicted
actual life in the Philippines
• La Maestra de mi Pueblo
• Defects of the educational system
for women
• Todo por el Estomago
• Satirized the biased Spanish
method of colonization and
taxation policies
Blumentritt
• “Critique of the Noli”
• Wrote: the Spanish
national pride were hurt to
know that an Indio had
boldly exposed in his novel
the facts of friar’s abuses
• Rizal had spoken in the
spirit of truth and honesty
Propaganda Literature
Marcelo H. Del Pilar Lopez Jaena
• La Soberania Monacal • Orator of the group
en Filipinas • Known works:
• Main goal → expulsion • Dasalan at Toksohan
of the friars to • Long Live Spain, Long Live
eliminate the obstacles the King and Down with the
to progress and Friars
happiness in the • Sagot ng Espana sa Hibik ng
Philippines Filipinas
Propaganda Literature
•Jose Rizal
•Most scholarly of the group
•Wrote principal essays for La Solidaridad
•Published his annotation of Antonio
Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas
•Wrote El Filibusterismo when the
propaganda movement was at its height
Disappointing Reforms
• The propaganda movement yielded minor
reforms
• Provincial reform of 1886
• Extension of the Spanish Civil Code to the
Philippines
• Code of Commerce
• Becerra Law (right to organize city governments)
 Problems of the Propagandists
Time was running Widening rift among
Financial difficulties
out the propagandists
• Friars were • Rizal got frustrated • Infighting
tightening their – some talked a • Regionalist mindset
grip great deal but
• Read at the risk of reluctant to help
persecution, financially
imprisonment or • Spain deported
exile propaganda
supporters
Rizal’s Attempts to Carry on the Propaganda in
the Philippines
Objectives
• July 3, 1892 – • Unification of the whole archipelago
La Liga Filipina • Mutual protection in every want and necessity
• Short-lived → • Defense against all violence and injustice
Rizal was exiled
• Encouragement of education, agriculture and
to Dapitan in commerce
1892
• Study and application of all reforms
Motto: “One Like All”
“the poor shall be supported in his right against
any powerful person”
Death of the Reformists
• La Solidaridad folded up for lack of funds on
November 15, 1895
• Graciano Lopez Jaena died of Tuberculosis Jan.
1896
• Marcelo H. Del Pilar died penniless July 1896
• Rizal was executed December 1896
Legacy

•The message conveyed by their literary

works enraptured the Filipino’s sense of
pride and gave them a hope of redemption
•Through their writings → developed sense
of identity and national consciousness