Education: Rizal’s Supreme Aspiration

Jose Rizal valued learning so much that the education of Filipinos emerged from being one of the dreams of his youth to become his supreme aspiration during his adulthood.

In 1876, when he was a 15-year-old student at the Ateneo Municipal of Manila, he wrote the poem Por la educación recibe lustre la Patria (Education Gives Luster to the Motherland), which affirmed that education was an instrument that “inspires an enchanting virtue and puts the country in the lofty seat of endless glory” (more…)

Rizal’s Love for the Motherland

OUR national hero, Jose Rizal, loved his country deeply. He had been to free, lovely, prosperous, and developed nations, yet he always preferred to return to his own. Love of country, the native land, the motherland, and the land of birth – this was the very character that defined his personality. (more…)

Rizal’s Challenge to the Youth

JOSE Rizal’s famous message for the youth is that the youth is fair hope of the nation. What he exactly said was the youth was “bella esperanza de la Patria mia” or “fair hope of my fatherland” (Rizal’s Poems, Centennial Edition, Manila: Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission, 1962, p. 15). (more…)

The Greatness of Noli Me Tangere

JOSE Rizal poured most of his literary talent into the novel. He wrote two powerful novels that are now associated with his heroism and greatness: Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (Subversion).

He began writing the Noli in late 1884, when he was still studying in Madrid, Spain, and finished it on February 21, 1887, in Berlin, Germany, while in poverty amidst a harsh winter. Only 25 years old then, he had already produced a 465-page manuscript. It went into publication in March 1887 in Berlin, when its printer churned out its first 2,000 hardbound copies. (more…)

The Rizal Cult: On How Filipinos Created Their National Hero

WHEN Jose Rizal was still alive, his countrymen had already looked up to him as their guide towards reforms, revolution, and independence from Spanish rule. And when he had died, it was also the Filipino people who eventually recognized him as their greatest national hero. (more…)

The Life and Love of Dr Jose Rizal

“Mis suenos cuando apenas muchacho adolescente,
Mis suenos cuando joven ya lleno de vigor,
Fueron el verte un dia, joya del Mar de Oriente
Secos los negros ojos, alta la tersa frente,
Sin ceno, sin arrugas, sin manchas de rubor.
Ensueno de mi vida, mi ardiente vivo anhelo,
Salud te grita el alma que pronto va a partir!
Salud! Ah, que es hermoso caer por darte vuelo,
Morir por darte vida, morir bajo tu cielo,
Y en tu encantada tierra la eternidad dormir.”

“My dreams when a lad, when scarcely adolescent:
my dreams when a young man, now with vigor inflamed:
were to behold you one day: Jewel of eastern waters:
griefless the dusky eyes: lifted the upright brow:
unclouded, unfurrowed, unblemished and unashamed!
Enchantment of my life: my ardent avid obsession:
To your health! cries the soul soon to take the last leap:
To your health! O lovely: how lovely: to fall that you may rise!
To perish that you may live! To die beneath your skies!
And upon your enchanted ground the eternities to sleep!”

Senores Caballeros, Respected Knights of Rizal, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen:

You recognize of course that I have just recited two stanzas from our hero’s Mi Ultimo Adios. The corresponding English translation is that of national artist Nick Joaquin.

I submit these lines encapsulate the life and love of Dr. Jose Rizal.

Peerless patriot.

Everything in his life subordinated to his love of country.

The moth fatally attracted to the light.

“To sacrifice one’s life for light is worthwhile” he had said; if only to prove to succeeding generations that “(n)ot all were asleep in the night of our ancestors”.

After all, he asserted “(w)hat matters death, if one dies for what one loves, for native land, and beings held dear?”.

He had written: “My career, my life, my happiness all have been sacrificed for love of my native land”.

And explained: “I have always loved my poor motherland, and I am sure I shall always love her to the last moment even though perhaps men are unjust to me; and my future, my life, my joys, all I have, I sacrificed for my love of country”.

Such was the man we honour with today’s symposium.

One who, cuando apenas muchacho adolescente or when scarcely adolescent, already had that burning dream of righting the wrongs wrought on his people.

Perhaps he was impelled by a searing experience at age ten. On the eve of his departure for schooling in Manila, he saw his own beloved mother being brought to prison. Arriving in the city, he learned that his elder brother’s mentor and friend, Father Burgos, was garrotted together with Fathers Gomez and Zamora.

The climate of fear and suspicion, in the aftermath of the execution of the three Filipino priests, had him use in school the surname Rizal, meaning “green field” or “new pasture” from the Spanish word ricial. To comply with the gubernatorial decree to hispanize Filipino surnames, his father Francisco Mercado (mercado means “market”) chose Rizal as more apt for their farming family. His Kuya Paciano had used Mercado and was identified with Father Burgos.

This experience may have defined for the young Jose, perhaps subconsciously, the very purpose of his life.

A life that, in the words of the physician and scholar Tavera, was devoted to cultivating “all his good qualities in order to perfect them, and he practised them in order to bring about the material and moral betterment of the men of his race, which had heretofore been considered incapable of producing individuals of the mental calibre of the white man. Rizal, therefore, demonstrated that the Filipino race was able to give birth to individuals endowed with the highest attributes, who could be considered an honor to the human race”.

In the socio-political milieu of his time, the friars complained that Filipinos were stupid, lazy and lacking in dignity; yet these same religious colonizers denied them the opportunity and freedom to develop traits of diligence, competence and self-respect.

Rizal set out to prove to the Spaniards, the rest of the world, and his own countrymen, that Filipinos are not the intellectual inferior of any other race.

As Rafael Palma put it: “Finding his country inert, disunited, voiceless and unconscious of its own miseries, he galvanized it, united it, and inspired in it sentiments of solidarity, self-respect, and dignity”.

Thus, did Rizal live, loving the Philippines “virtuously, disinterestedly, and with profound religiosity”.

His life became his best poem, climaxed by the epigrammatic act of fearlessly facing death.

We gather this afternoon not to wallow in the memory of that death, that transition to higher consciousness.

We have come, instead, to be inspired by that for which he died: his constant, consuming aspiration—burning and alive in his heart of hearts—hanggang sa dulo ng walang hanggan or till the end of that which never ends.

For he had clarified: “Love of country can never be erased once it has entered the heart, because it carries with it a divine stamp which makes it eternal and imperishable”

His abiding suenos or dreams were to behold the dusky eyes of his beloved Inang Bayan—the jewel of the orient seas that had become a perdido eden—griefless. Liberated from soul-diminishing oppression and injustice.

Much more, he longed to see the country comporting itself with alta la tersa frente, with brow lifted and upright. A people and a land with justice, liberty, dignity, prosperity and rightful pride in their own accomplishments and capabilities. A member of the community of nations standing with a mien that is “unclouded, unfurrowed, unblemished, unashamed”.

Respected Knights, Friends:

Almost a hundred and three years have passed since Dr. Rizal’s martyrdom.

Yet, this “ardent avid obsession” of his, remains as bright and as valid as ever. Details may differ now, but the essence is the same.

The dusky eyes of Inang Bayan still quiver with a lot of grief.

De-humanizing conditions of poverty still reign in our rural and urban centers—conditions carrying concomitant complications of injustice and oppression.

Her brow is not yet that alta, nor tersa; albeit almost so.

For the Filipino people have gone through the boulders, sudden dips and unpredictable turns of the tortuous river of history, traversing: Spanish then American colonization; Japanese invasion; political independence; US-style democracy; communist insurgency; authoritarianism and dictatorship; Islamic separatism; the glory of EDSA; revival of democracy; respect for human rights; and global competitiveness in certain sectors.

And yet our diplomacy still must pursue development assistance from donor countries, as we cannot yet fund a large part of our own needs for progress. Our national defense capability is still more potential than actual. And, of more concern, approaching six million of our people (to include those in Australia) still have to go to other climes in a diaspora to over 180 countries, to “find their place in the sun” and to fulfil their own and their families’ basic material dreams.

Sirs and Ladies:

These shortfalls from Rizal’s burning dream of “secos los negros ojos; alta la tersa frente” all boil down, I submit, to one strategic answer: break free from the fetters of poverty—not really the material kind, but more importantly, the spiritual, the belief-based, the attitudinal.

Dr. Rizal shows us the way. After analyzing and bringing to light the varied causes of the evils in his country and the weaknesses of his people, he reduced these causes to two classes: (1) defects of training, and (2) lack of national sentiment.

His prescription: reforms in education so as to give the people better physical and intellectual training that would enable them to achieve greater dignity and progress; also, granting to the people of liberty, respect, and recognition of their right to advancement.

For he argued: “Without education and liberty: that soil and that sun of mankind, no reform is possible, no measure can give the result desired”.

Through Padre Florentino, in the concluding chapter of the El Filibusterismo, he explained how the liberties of the people could most properly be secured: “We must secure our liberty by making ourselves worthy of it, by exalting the intelligence and the dignity of the individual, by loving justice, right and greatness, even to the extent of dying for them”.

At the same time, he warned that so long as Filipinos wrapped themselves up in their egotism, they would never be fit for freedom. He maintained that freedom could be a blessing to his people only if they knew how to use it, to respect it, and to defend it even if it were an enemy exercising it. “Why independence”, he asked with concern, “if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?”

Rizal thus placed education as the prime condition for the advancement of his people and the progress of his country. He gave the highest importance to schools.

“The school is the basis of society”, he said. “The school is the book in which is written the future of the nations. Show me the school of a people and we will show what the people is”, he challenged.

Ladies and gentlemen:

The Filipino nation today is still recovering from probably the worst legacy of our misadventure in dictatorship: the degradation of our basic educational system—because the budget for it was siphoned to other ends.

Given this continuing problem and the imperative on schools advocated by Rizal, might it not be a good idea for the Knights of Rizal, Sydney Chapter, to adopt at least one elementary school somewhere in our seven thousand islands, bring to it microscopes and other equipment for science and technology, computers and books—or the basic amenities in the schools here that are so taken for granted as givens but are atrociously lacking in our schools, particularly those in the barrios?

Would it not be better still if in the adopted school, the Chapter makes sure Rizal’s ideals are brought to life, science is taught to become an integral part of daily culture, entrepreneurship made the main approach to ensuring sustenance to lessen “employee-mentality”, and each one of the young—the “fair hope of the fatherland”—is convinced: to hold every Filipino in high esteem, to expect the best of every Filipino, and to live his or her life in such a way as to merit such high esteem and best expectation?

Just an idea. If you have done it, please disregard.

But the point is, there is always something one can do without need of being a hero—like doing something for the welfare of others—little things that will redound to the betterment of Inang Bayan.

Little things that, in the view of Dr. Rizal—who now floats in our air, our space, our valleys, as fragrance, light, colours, whispers, songs and sighs, constantly repeating the essence of his faith in the Filipino—would make him say:

“ah, que es hermoso dormir la eternidad en su encantada tierra!”

“how beautiful it is to sleep the eternities in your enchanted land!”

*** Paper presented by Consul General Edwin Bael at “A Symposium on the Life and Works of Dr Jose P. Rizal” by the Order of the Knights of Rizal, Sydney Chapter, on May 30, 1999 at the Bankstown RSL Club, Bankstown, NSW.

Additional information about Dr Jose Rizal

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
A photo of José Rizal, National hero of the Philippines.
Date of birth:	June 19, 1861
Place of birth:	Calamba, Laguna, Philippines
Date of death:	December 30, 1896 (aged 35)
Place of death:	Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park), Manila, Philippines
Major organizations:	Propagandistas, La Liga Filipina
Major monuments:	Rizal Park, Manila
Alma mater:	Ateneo Municipal de Manila, University of Santo Tomas, Universidad Central de Madrid, University of Paris, Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda^[1] (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896, Bagumbayan), was a Filipino polymath, nationalist and the most prominent advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is considered the Philippines’ national hero and the anniversary of Rizal’s death is commemorated as a Philippine holiday called Rizal Day. Rizal’s 1896 military trial and execution made him a martyr of the Philippine Revolution.

The seventh of eleven children born to a wealthy family in the town of Calamba, Laguna, Rizal attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts. He enrolled in Medicine and Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas and then traveled alone to Madrid, Spain, where he continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid, earning the degree of Licentiate in Medicine. He attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. Rizal was a polyglot conversant in at least ten languages.^[2][3][4][5] He was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El filibusterismo.^[6] These are social commentaries on the Philippines that formed the nucleus of literature that inspired dissent among peaceful reformists and spurred the militancy of armed revolutionaries against the Spanish colonial authorities.

As a political figure, Jose Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan^[7] led by Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of institutional reforms by peaceful means rather than by violent revolution. The general consensus among Rizal scholars, however, attributed his martyred death as the catalyst that precipitated the Philippine Revolution.

Contents 1 Family of Dr. José Rizal 2 Education 3 Rizal’s romantic attachments 4 Writings of Rizal 5 Persecutions 6 Exile in Dapitan 7 Last days 8 Execution 9 Aftermath 9.1 Retraction controversy 9.2 “Mi último adiós” 9.3 Josephine Bracken 9.4 Camilo de Polavieja 10 Criticism 11 Legacy 11.1 Rizal in popular culture 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links

Family of Dr. José Rizal

Francisco Roque Mercado II

José Rizal’s parents, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro(1818–1898)^[8] and Teodora Alonso y Quintos(1826–1911),^[8] were prosperous farmers who were granted lease of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Rizal was the seventh child of their eleven children namely: Saturnina (1850–1913), Paciano (1851–1930), Narcisa (1852–1939), Olympia (1855–1887), Lucia (1857–1919), María (1859–1945), José Protacio (1861–1896), Concepcion (1862–1865), Josefa (1865–1945), Trinidad (1868–1951) and Soledad (1870–1929).

Rizal was a 9th-generation patrilineal descendant of Domingo Lam-co (Chinese: 柯仪南; pinyin: Ke Yinan), a Chinese immigrant entrepreneur who sailed to the Philippines from Jinjiang, Quanzhou in the mid-17th century.^[9] Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa, a Sangley native of Luzon. To free his descendants from the Sinophobic animosity of the Spanish authorities, Lam-co changed the surname to the Spanish “Mercado” (market) to indicate their Chinese merchant roots. In 1849, Governor-General Narciso Claveria ordered all native families in the Philippines to choose new surnames from a list of Spanish family names. José’s father Francisco^[8] adopted the surname “Rizal” (originally Ricial, the green of young growth or green fields), which was suggested to him by a provincial governor, or as José had described him, “a friend of the family”. However, the name change caused confusion in the business affairs of Francisco, most of which were begun under the old name. After a few years, he settled on the name “Rizal Mercado” as a compromise, but usually just used the original surname “Mercado”. Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, José dropped the last three names that make up his full name, at the advice of his brother, Paciano Rizal Mercado, and the Rizal Mercado family, thus rendering his name as “José Protacio Rizal”. Of this, Rizal writes: “My family never paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate child!”^[10] This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links with native priests who were sentenced to death as subversives. From early childhood, José and Paciano were already advancing unheard-of political ideas of freedom and individual rights which infuriated the authorities.^[11][12] Despite the name change, José, as “Rizal” soon distinguishes himself in poetry writing contests, impressing his professors with his facility with Castilian and other foreign languages, and later, in writing essays that are critical of the Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial Philippine societies. Indeed, by 1891, the year he finished his sunset, this second surname had become so well known that, as he writes to another friend, “All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family name…”^[10] José became the focal point by which the family became known, at least from the point of view of colonial authorities.

Rizal, 17 years old, a student at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila.

Aside from Chinese ancestry, recent genealogical research has found that José had traces of Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. His maternal great-great-grandfather (Teodora’s great-grandfather) was Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers, who married a Filipina named Benigna (surname unknown). They gave birth to Regina Ursua who married a Tagalog Sangley mestizo from Pangasinán named Manuel de Quintos, Teodora’s grandfather. Their daughter Brígida de Quintos married a Spanish mestizo named Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, the father of Teodora. Austin Craig mentions Lakandula, Rajah of Tondo at the time of the Spanish incursion, also as an ancestor.

Education

Rizal as a student at the University of Santo Tomas.

Rizal first studied under the tutelage of Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Biñan, Laguna. He was sent to Manila and enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He graduated as one of the nine students in his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding. He continued his education at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila to obtain a land surveyor and assessor’s degree, and at the same time at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters where he studied Philosophy and Letters. Upon learning that his mother was going blind, he decided to study medicine specializing in ophthalmology at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery but did not complete the program claiming discrimination made by the Spanish Dominican friars against the native students.^[13]

Without his parents’ knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother Paciano, he traveled alone to Europe: Madrid in May 1882 and studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine. His education continued at the University of Paris and the University of Heidelberg where he earned a second doctorate. In Berlin he was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological Society under the patronage of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom, he delivered an address in German in April 1887 before the anthropological society on the orthography and structure of the Tagalog language. He left Heidelberg a poem, “A las flores del Heidelberg,” which was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his native land and the unification of common values between East and West.

At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal, completed in 1887 his eye specialization under the renowned professor, Otto Becker. There he used the newly invented ophthalmoscope (invented by Hermann von Helmholtz) to later operate on his own mother’s eye. From Heidelberg, Rizal wrote his parents: “I spend half of the day in the study of German and the other half, in the diseases of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the bierbrauerie, or beerhall, to speak German with my student friends.” He lived in a Karlstraße boarding house then moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he met Reverend Karl Ullmer and stayed with them in Wilhelmsfeld, where he wrote the last few chapters of “Noli Me Tangere“.

A plaque marks the Heidelberg building where he trained with Professor Becker, while in Wilhemsfeld, a smaller version of the Rizal Park with his bronze statue stands and the street where he lived was also renamed after him. A sandstone fountain in Pastor Ullmer’s house garden where Rizal lived in Wilhelmsfeld, stands.^[14]

Rizal’s multifacetedness was described by his German friend, Dr. Adolf Meyer, as “stupendous.”^[15][16] Documented studies show him to be a polymath with the ability to master various skills and subjects.^[2][3][15] He was an ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright and journalist. Besides poetry and creative writing, he dabbled, with varying degrees of expertise, in architecture, cartography, economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting. He was also a Freemason, joining Acacia Lodge No. 9 during his time in Spain and becoming a Master Mason in 1884.^[17]

Rizal’s romantic attachments

Rizal’s life is one of the most documented of the 19th century due to the vast and extensive records written by and about him.^[18] Most everything in his short life is recorded somewhere, being himself a regular diarist and prolific letter writer, much of these material having survived. His biographers, however, have faced the difficulty of translating his writings because of Rizal’s habit of switching from one language to another. They drew largely from his travel diaries with their insights of a young Asian encountering the west for the first time. They included his later trips, home and back again to Europe through Japan and the United States, and, finally, through his self-imposed exile in Hong Kong. This period of his education and his frenetic pursuit of life included his recorded affections. Historians write of Rizal’s “dozen women”, even if only nine were identified. They were Gertrude Becket of Chalcot Crescent (London), wealthy and highminded Nelly Boustead of the English and Iberian merchant family, last descendant of a noble Japanese family Usui Seiko, his earlier friendship with Segunda Katigbak and eight-year romantic relationship with his first cousin, Leonor Rivera. The others were: Leonor Valenzuela (Filipina), Consuelo Ortiga (Spanish), Suzanna Jacoby (Belgian),and Josephine Bracken (Irish).

His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings on pieces of paper. In the home of a Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Pérez, he left an impression that was to be remembered by his daughter, Consuelo. In her diary, she wrote of a day Rizal spent there and regaled them with his wit, social graces, and sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his research on Morga’s writings, he became a regular guest in the home of Dr. Reinhold Rost of the British Museum who referred to him as “a gem of a man.”^[18][19] The family of Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld, and the Blumentritts saved even buttonholes and napkins with sketches and notes. They were ultimately bequeathed to the Rizal family to form a treasure trove of memorabilia.

In 1890, Rizal, 29, left Paris for Brussels as he was preparing for the publication of his annotations of Antonio de Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.” There, he lived in the boarding house of the two Jacoby sisters, Catherina and Suzanna who had a niece also named Suzanna (”Thill”), 16. Historian Gregorio F. Zaide states that Rizal had “his romance with Suzanne Jacoby, 45, the petite niece of his landladies.” Belgian Pros Slachmuylders, however, believed that Rizal had a romance with the niece, Suzanna Thill, in 1890. Rizal’s Brussels’ stay was short-lived, as he moved to Madrid, leaving the young Suzanna a box of chocolates. Suzanne replied in French: “After your departure, I did not take the chocolate. The box is still intact as on the day of your parting. Don’t delay too long writing us because I wear out the soles of my shoes for running to the mailbox to see if there is a letter from you. There will never be any home in which you are so loved as in that in Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come back…” (Oct. 1, 1890 letter). Slachmuylders’ group in 2007 unveiled a historical marker commemorating Rizal’s stay in Brusells in 1890.^[20]

Writings of Rizal

Rizal’s sculpture The Triumph of Science over Death

José Rizal’s most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These writings angered both the Spaniards and the hispanicized Filipinos due to their insulting symbolism. He made the Triumph of science over death and give the sculpture to Ferdinand Blumentritt. He made this sculpture for sake of Filipino women. He gave this sculpture to Blumentritt to show how Filipino women were abused by the spaniards. They are highly critical of Spanish friars and the atrocities committed in the name of the Church. Rizal’s first critic was Ferdinand Blumentritt, a Czech professor and historian whose first reaction was of misgiving. Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade him however from writing the preface of El filibusterismo after he had translated Noli me Tangere into German. Noli was published in Berlin (1887) and Fili in Ghent (1891) with funds borrowed largely from Rizal’s friends. As Blumentritt had warned, these led to Rizal’s prosecution as the inciter of revolution and eventually, to a military trial and execution. The intended consequence of teaching the natives where they stood brought about an adverse reaction, as the Philippine Revolution of 1896 took off virulently thereafter. As leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, he contributed essays, allegories, poems, and editorials to the Spanish newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona. The core of his writings centers on liberal and progressive ideas of individual rights and freedom; specifically, rights for the Filipino people. He shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: that the Philippines is battling, in Rizal’s own words, “a double-faced Goliath”–corrupt friars and bad government. His commentaries reiterate the following agenda:^[21]

Leaders of the reform movement in Spain: L-R: Rizal, del Pilar, and Ponce

• That the Philippines be a province of Spain
• Representation in the Cortes
• Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars–Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans–in parishes and remote sitios
• Freedom of assembly and speech
• Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs)

The colonial authorities in the Philippines did not favor these reforms even if they were more openly endorsed by Spanish intellectuals like Morayta, Unamuno, Pi y Margall, and others.

Upon his return to Manila in 1892, he formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina. The league advocated these moderate social reforms through legal means, but was disbanded by the governor. At that time, he had already been declared an enemy of the state by the Spanish authorities because of the publication of his novels.

Persecutions

Wenceslao Retana, a political commentator in Spain, had slighted Rizal by a reference to his parents and promptly apologized after being challenged to a duel. Aware that Rizal was a better swordsman, he issued an apology, became an admirer, and wrote Rizal’s first European biography.^[22] The painful memories of his mother’s treatment (when he was ten) at the hands of the civil authorities explain his reaction to Retana. The incident stemmed from an accusation that Rizal’s mother, Teodora, tried to poison the wife of a cousin when she claimed she only intervened to help. With the approval of the Church prelates, and without a hearing, she was ordered to prison in Santa Cruz in 1871. She was made to walk the ten miles (16 km) from Calamba. She was released after two-and-a-half years of appeals to the highest court.^[2]

In 1887 Rizal wrote a petition on behalf of the tenants of Calamba, and later that year led them to speak out against the friars’ attempts to raise rent. They initiated a litigation which resulted in the Dominicans evicting them from their homes, including the Rizal family. General Valeriano Weyler had the buildings on the farm torn down.

Exile in Dapitan

Rizal was implicated in the activities of the nascent rebellion and in July 1892, was deported to Dapitan in the province of Zamboanga, a peninsula of Mindanao.^[23] There he built a school, a hospital and a water supply system, and taught and engaged in farming and horticulture.^{[citation needed]} Abaca, then the vital raw material for cordage and which Rizal and his students planted in the thousands, was a memorial.^{[citation needed]}

The boys’ school, in which they learned English, considered a prescient if weird option then, was conceived by Rizal and antedated Gordonstoun with its aims of inculcating resourcefulness and self sufficiency in young men.^{[citation needed]} They would later enjoy successful lives as farmers and honest government officials.^{[citation needed]} One, a Muslim, became a datu, and another, José Aseniero, who was with Rizal throughout the life of the school, became Governor of Zamboanga.^{[citation needed]}

In Dapitan, the Jesuits mounted a great effort to secure his return to the fold led by Fray Sánchez, his former professor, who failed in his mission. The task was resumed by Fray Pastells, a prominent member of the Order. In a letter to Pastells, Rizal sails close to the ecumenism familiar to us today.^[24]

“We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I doubt his when I am convinced of mine. Who so recognizes the effect recognizes the cause. To doubt God is to doubt one’s own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for? Now then, my faith in God, if the result of a ratiocination may be called faith, is blind, blind in the sense of knowing nothing. I neither believe nor disbelieve the qualities which many attribute to him; before theologians’ and philosophers’ definitions and lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable being I find myself smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the supreme Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I cannot but reply: ‘It could be; but the God that I foreknow is far more grand, far more good: Plus Supra!…I believe in (revelation); but not in revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to possess. Examining them impartially, comparing them and scrutinizing them, one cannot avoid discerning the human ‘fingernail’ and the stamp of the time in which they were written… No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However, brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I believe in revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every side, in that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. What books can better reveal to us the goodness of God, his love, his providence, his eternity, his glory, his wisdom? ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork’.”^[18]

Bust in clay, by Rizal

As a gift to his mother on her birth anniversary he wrote the other of his poems of maturity, “Mi Retiro,” with a description of a calm night overlaid with a million stars.^{[citation needed]} The poem, with its concept of a spontaneous creation and speaking of God as Plus Supra, is considered his accommodation of evolution.^{[citation needed]}

…the breeze idly cools, the firmament glows,
the waves tell in sighs to the docile wind
timeless stories beneath the shroud of night.

Say that they tell of the world, the first dawn
of the sun, the first kiss that his bosom inflamed,
when thousands of beings surged out of nothing,
and peopled the depths, and to the heights mounted,
to wherever his fecund kiss was implanted.^[25]

Rizal’s pencil sketch of Blumentritt

His best friend, professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, kept him in touch with European friends and fellow-scientists who wrote a stream of letters which arrived in Dutch, French, German and English and which baffled the censors, delaying their transmittal. Those four years of his exile coincided with the development of the Philippine Revolution from inception and to its final breakout, which, from the viewpoint of the court which was to try him, suggested his complicity in it.^[18] He condemned the uprising, although all the members of the Katipunan had made him their honorary president and had used his name as a cry for war, unity, and liberty.^[26]

Near the end of his exile he met and courted the stepdaughter of a patient, an Irishwoman named Josephine Bracken. He was unable to obtain an ecclesiastical marriage because he would not return to Catholicism and was not known to be clearly against revolution.^{[citation needed]} He nonetheless considered Josephine to be his wife and the only person mentioned in the poem, Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, my joy…^[27]

Last days

Main article: Philippine Revolution

By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become a full blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising and leading to the first proclamation of a democratic republic in Asia. To dissociate himself, Rizal volunteered and was given leave by the Governor-General, Ramón Blanco, to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever. Blanco later was to present his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an apology.

Before he left Dapitan, he issued a manifesto disavowing the revolution and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom.

Rizal was arrested en route, imprisoned in Barcelona, and sent back to Manila to stand trial. He was implicated in the revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan and was to be tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy. During the entire passage, he was unchained, no Spaniard laid a hand on him, and had many opportunities to escape but refused to do so. Rizal was convicted on all three charges and sentenced to death. Blanco, who was sympathetic to Rizal, had been forced out of office, and the friars had intercalated Camilo de Polavieja in his stead, sealing Rizal’s fate.

His poem, undated and believed to be written on the day before his execution, was hidden in an alcohol stove and later handed to his family with his few remaining possessions, including the final letters and his last bequests. Within hearing of the Spanish guards he reminded his sisters in English, “There is something inside it,” referring to the alcohol stove given by the Pardo de Taveras which was to be returned after his execution, thereby emphasizing the importance of the poem. This instruction was followed by another, “Look in my shoes,” in which another item was secreted. Exhumation of his remains in August, 1898, under American rule, revealed he had been uncoffined, his burial not on sanctified ground granted the ‘confessed’ faithful, and whatever was in his shoes had disintegrated.^[2]

In his letter to his family he wrote: “Treat our aged parents as you would wish to be treated…Love them greatly in memory of me…December 30, 1896.”^[18]

In his final letter, to Blumentritt – Tomorrow at 7, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.^[18] He had to reassure him that he had not turned revolutionary as he once considered being, and that he shared his ideals to the very end. He also bequeathed a book personally bound by him in Dapitan to his ‘best and dearest friend.’ When Blumentritt received it in his hometown Litoměřice (Leitmeritz) he broke down and wept.

Execution

A photographic record of Rizal’s execution in what was then Bagumbayan.

Moments before his execution by a firing squad of native infantry of the Spanish Army, backed by an insurance force of Spanish troops, the Spanish surgeon general requested to take his pulse; it was normal. Aware of this, the Spanish sergeant in charge of the backup force hushed his men to silence when they began raising ‘¡vivas!’ with the partisan crowd. His last words were those of Jesus Christ: “consummatum est“,–it is finished.^[3][28][29]

He was secretly buried in Pacò Cemetery in Manila with no identification on his grave. His sister Narcisa toured all possible gravesites and found freshly turned earth at the cemetery with guards posted at the gate. Assuming this could be the most likely spot, there never having any ground burials, she made a gift to the caretaker to mark the site “RPJ”, Rizal’s initials in reverse.

Rizal’s tomb in Paco Park (formerly Paco Cemetery).

A national monument

Main article: Rizal Park

A monument, with his remains, now stands near the place where he fell, designed by the Swiss Richard Kissling of the famed William Tell sculpture.^[30] The statue carries the inscription “I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves – for his country and for others dear to him.”^[18]

Aftermath

Retraction controversy

There is controversy on whether Rizal actually wrote a document of retraction which stated: “I retract with all my heart whatever in my words, writings, publications and conduct have been contrary to my character as a son of the Catholic Church.”^[31] That his burial was not on holy ground led to doubts about his retraction. Then there is no certificate of Rizal’s marriage to Josephine Bracken.^[32] Anti-retractionists also point to “Adiós”: “I go where there are no slaves, no hangmen or oppressors, where faith does not kill,” which they refer to the Catholic religion.^[33] Also there is an allegation that the retraction document was a forgery.^[34] After analyzing 6 major documents of Rizal, Ricardo Pascual concluded that the retraction document, said to have been discovered in 1935, was not in Rizal’s handwriting. Senator Rafael Palma, a former President of the University of the Philippines and a prominent Mason, argued that a retraction is not in keeping with Rizal’s character and mature beliefs.^[35] He called the retraction story a “pious fraud.”^[36] Others who deny the retraction are Frank Laubach,^[3] a Protestant minister, Austin Coates,^[28] a British writer, and Ricardo Manapat, director of the National Archives.^[37]

On the other side of the debate are Catholic church leaders, and historians such as Austin Craig,^[2] Gregorio Zaide,^[38] Ambeth Ocampo,^[37] Nick Joaquin,^[39] and Nicolas Zafra of UP.^[40] They state that the retraction document was deemed authentic by Rizal expert, Teodoro Kalaw (a 33rd degree Mason) and “handwriting experts…known and recognized in our courts of justice,” H. Otley Beyer and Dr. José I. Del Rosario, both of UP.^[40] They also refer to the 11 eyewitnesses present when Rizal wrote his retraction, signed a Catholic prayer book, and recited Catholic prayers, and the multitude who saw him kiss the crucifix before his execution. A great grand nephew of Rizal, Marciano Guzman, cites that Rizal’s 4 confessions were certified by 5 eyewitnesses, 10 qualified witnesses, 7 newspapers, and 12 historians and writers including Aglipayan bishops, Masons and anti-clericals.^[41] One witness was the head of the Spanish Supreme Court at the time of his notarized declaration and was highly esteemed by Rizal for his integrity.^[42] Because of what he sees as the strength these direct evidence have in the light of the historical method, in contrast with merely circumstantial evidence, UP professor emeritus of history Nicolas Zafra called the retraction “a plain unadorned fact of history.”^[40]

Supporters see in it Rizal’s “moral courage…to recognize his mistakes,”^[38][43] his reversion to the “true faith,” and thus his “unfading glory,”^[42] and a return to the “ideals of his fathers” which brings his stature as a patriot to the level of greatness.^[44] On the other hand, senator Jose Diokno stated: “Surely whether Rizal died as a Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts nothing from his greatness as a Filipino… Catholic or Mason, Rizal is still Rizal: the hero who courted death ‘to prove to those who deny our patriotism that we know how to die for our duty and our beliefs’.” ^[45]

“Mi último adiós”

Main article: Mi último adiós

The poem is more aptly titled, “Adiós, Patria Adorada” (literally “Farewell, Beloved Fatherland”), by virtue of logic and literary tradition, the words coming from the first line of the poem itself. It first appeared in print not in Manila but in Hong Kong in 1897, when a copy of the poem and an accompanying photograph came to J. P. Braga who decided to publish it in a monthly journal he edited. There was a delay when Braga, who greatly admired Rizal, wanted a good job of the photograph and sent it to be engraved in London, a process taking well over two months. It finally appeared under ‘Mi último pensamiento,’ a title he supplied and by which it was known for a few years. Thus, when the Jesuit Father Balaguer’s anonymous account of the retraction and the marriage to Josephine was appearing in Barcelona, no word of the poem’s existence reached him in time to revise what he had written. His account was too elaborate that Rizal would have had no time to write “Adiós.”

Six years after his death, when the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 was being debated in the United States Congress, Representative Henry Cooper of Wisconsin rendered an English translation of Rizal’s valedictory poem capped by the peroration, “Under what clime or what skies has tyranny claimed a nobler victim?”^[46] The Americans, however, would not sign the bill into law until 1916 and did not grant full autonomy until 1946—fifty years after Rizal’s death.

Josephine Bracken

Josephine Bracken promptly joined the revolutionary forces in Cavite province, making her way through thicket and mud, and helped operate a reloading jig for Mauser cartridges at the arsenal at Imus. The short-lived arsenal under the Revolutionary General Pantaleón García had been reloading spent cartridges again and again and the reloading jig was in continuous use, but Imus was under threat of recapture that the operation had to move, with Josephine, to Maragondon, the mountain redoubt in Cavite. She witnessed the Tejeros Convention prior to returning to Manila and was summoned by the Governor-General, but owing to her stepfather’s American citizenship she could not be forcibly deported. She left voluntarily, returning to Hong Kong. She later married another Filipino, Vicente Abad, a mestizo acting as agent for the Philippine firm of Tabacalera. She died in Hong Kong in 1902, a pauper’s death, buried in an unknown grave, and never knew how a line of verse had rendered her immortal.^[47]

Camilo de Polavieja

Polavieja faced condemnation by his countrymen after his return to Spain. While visiting Giron, in Cataluña, circulars were distributed among the crowd bearing Rizal’s last verses, his portrait, and the charge that Polavieja was responsible for the loss of the Philippines to Spain.

Criticism

A photo engraving of the execution of Filipino Insurgents at Bagumbayan (now Luneta)

Attempts to debunk legends surrounding Rizal, and the tug of war between free thinker and Catholic, have served to keep him a living issue. While some leaders, Gandhi for one, have been elevated to high pedestals and even deified, Rizal has remained a controversial figure. In one recorded fall from grace he succumbed to the temptation of a ‘lady of the camellias.’ The writer, Maximo Viola, a friend of Rizal’s, was alluding to Dumas’s 1848 novel, La dame aux camelias, about a man who fell in love with a courtesan. While the affair was on record, there was no account in Viola’s letter whether it was more than a one-night event and if it was more of a business transaction than an amorous affair^[48]

Others present him as a man of contradictions. Miguel de Unamuno in “Rizal: the Tagalog Hamlet”, said of him, “a soul that dreads the revolution although deep down desires it. He pivots between fear and hope, between faith and despair.”^[49] His critics assert this character flaw is translated into his two novels where he opposes violence in Noli and appears to advocate it in Fili, contrasting Ibarra’s idealism to Simoun’s cynicism. His defenders insist this ambivalence is trounced when Simoun is struck down in the sequel’s final chapters, reaffirming the author’s resolute stance, Pure and spotless must the victim be if the sacrifice is to be acceptable.^[50] In the same tenor, Rizal condemned the uprising when Bonifacio asked for his support. Bonifacio, in turn, openly denounced him as a coward for his refusal.^[51] Rizal believed that an armed struggle for independence was premature and ill-conceived. Here Rizal is speaking through Father Florentino: …our liberty will (not) be secured at the sword’s point…we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when a people reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will crumble like a house of cards and liberty will shine out like the first dawn.^[50]

The fact that Rizal never fought in the battlefield leads some to question his ranking as the nation’s premier hero, with a few who believe in the beatification of Bonifacio in his stead. In his defense, the historian, Rafael Palma, contends that the revolution of Bonifacio is a consequence wrought by the writings of Rizal and that although the Bonifacio’s revolver produced an immediate outcome, the pen of Rizal generated a more lasting achievement.^[52]

Legacy

Rizal Park, Seattle

Rizal on the obverse side of a 1970 Philippine peso coin

Rizal’s advocacy of institutional reforms by peaceful means rather than by violent revolution makes him Asia’s first modern non-violent proponent of political reforms. Forerunner of Gandhi and contemporary of Tagore and Sun Yat Sen, all four created a new climate of thought throughout Asia, leading to the attrition of colonialism and the emergence of new Asiatic nations by the end of World War II. Rizal’s appearance on the scene came at a time when European colonial power had been growing and spreading, mostly motivated by trade, some for the purpose of bringing Western forms of government and education to peoples regarded as backward. Coinciding with the appearance of those other leaders, Rizal from an early age had been enunciating in poems, tracts and plays, ideas all his own of modern nationhood as a practical possibility in Asia. In the Noli he stated that if European civilization had nothing better to offer, colonialism in Asia was doomed.^[53] Such was recognized by Gandhi who regarded him as a forerunner in the cause of freedom. Jawaharlal Nehru, in his prison letters to his daughter Indira, acknowledged Rizal’s significant contributions in the Asian freedom movement. These leaders regarded these contributions as keystones and acknowledged Rizal’s role in the movement as foundation layer.

Rizal, on the 2000 Philippine peso coin

Rizal, through his reading of Morga and other western historians, knew of the genial image of Spain’s early relations with his people.^[54] In his writings, he showed the disparity between the early colonialists and those of his day, with the latter’s atrocities giving rise to Gomburza and the Philippine Revolution of 1896. His biographer, Austin Coates, and writer, Benedict Anderson, believe that Rizal gave the Philippine revolution a genuinely national character; and that Rizal’s patriotism and his standing as one of Asia’s first intellectuals have inspired others of the importance of a national identity to nation-building.^[28][55]

Rizal Park, Wilhelmsfeld

Although his field of action lay in politics, Rizal’s real interests lay in the arts and sciences, in literature and in his profession as an ophthalmologist. Shortly after his death, the Anthropological Society of Berlin met to honor him with a reading of a German translation of his farewell poem and Dr. Rudolf Virchow delivering the eulogy.^[56]

The Taft Commission in June 1901 approved AcT 137 renaming the District of Morong into the Province of Rizal, and Act 346 authorizing a government subscription for the erection of a national monument in Rizal’s honor. Republic Act 1425 was passed in 1956 by the Philippine legislature that would include in all high school and college curricula a course in the study of his life, works and writings. The wide acceptance of Rizal is partly evidenced by the countless towns, streets, and numerous parks in the Philippines named in his honor. Monuments in his honor were erected in Madrid ^[57] Wilhelmsfeld, Germany,^[58] Jinjiang, Fujian, China,^[59]

Tribute to Rizal, Cavenagh Bridge, Singapore

Chicago,^[60] Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey, San Diego,^[61] Seattle, U.S.A.,^[62] Mexico City, Mexico, Lima, Peru,^[63] and Litomerice, Czech Republic.^[64] Several titles were bestowed on him: “Pride of the Malay Race,” “the First Filipino”, “Greatest Man of the Brown Race,” among others. The Order of the Knights of Rizal, a civic and patriotic organization, boasts of dozens of chapters all over the globe [17] [18]. There are some remote-area religious sects who claim him as a sublimation of Christ.

A two-sided marker bearing a painting of Rizal by Fabian de la Rosa on one side and a bronze bust relief of him by Philippine artist Guillermo Tolentino stands at the Asian Civilisations Museum Green. This marks his visits to Singapore (1882, 1887, 1891,1896).^[65]

A Rizal bronze bust was erected at La Molina district, Lima, Peru, designed by Czech sculptor Hanstroff, mounted atop a pedestal base with 4 inaugural plaque markers with the following inscription on one: “Dr. José P. Rizal, Héroe Nacional de Filipinas, Nacionalista, Reformador Political, Escritor, Lingüistica y Poeta, 1861-1896.”^[66][67][68]

Rizal in popular culture

The cinematic depiction of Rizal’s literary works won two film industry awards more than a century after his birth. In the 10th FAMAS Awards, he was honored in the Best Story category for Gerardo de León’s adaptation of his book Noli me Tangere. The recognition was repeated the following year with his movie version of El Filibusterismo, making him the only person to win back-to-back FAMAS Awards posthumously.^{[citation needed]}

Both novels were translated into opera by the composer-librettist Felipe Padilla de León: Noli me tangere in 1957 and El filibusterismo in 1970; and his 1939 overture, Mariang Makiling, was inspired by Rizal’s tale of the same name.^[69]

Several films were produced narrating Rizal’s life. The most successful was Jose Rizal, produced by GMA Films and released in 1998. Cesar Montano played the title role.^{[citation needed]}. A year before it was shown another movie was made portraying his life while in exile in the island of Dapitan. Titled “Rizal sa Dapitan” it stars Albert Martínez as Rizal and Amanda Page as Josephine Bracken. The film was the top grosser of the 1997 Manila Film Festival and won the best actor and actress trophies.^{[citation needed]}. A documentary called “Bayaning Third World” directed by Mike de Leon and starring Joel Torre was released in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Dr. Jose Rizal is the first Filipino to be on any game system. On the Sony Playstation, he is a playable character on the multiplayer mode for Medal of Honor.

See also

Rizal province José Rizal (film) Rizal Day bombings Rizal Without the Overcoat

Rizal Shrine USS Rizal Paciano Rizal Makamisa

Rizal’s vision on global fellowship Jose Rizal University and Rizal Technological University Rednaxela Terrace (列拿士地台)

References

1. ^ The Project Gutenburg eBook BUHAY AT MG̃A GINAWÂ NI DR. JOSÉ RIZAL
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Austin Craig, Lineage, Life and Labors of Rizal (Manila: Philippine Education Co., 1913). He was conversant in Spanish, French, Latin, Greek, German, Portuguese, Italian, English, Dutch and Japanese. Rizal also made translations from Arabic, Swedish, Russian, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. He translated the poetry of Schiller into his native Tagalog. In addition he had at least some knowledge of Malay, Chavacano, Cebuano, Ilocano, and Subanun.(Read etext at Project Gutenberg:[1]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Frank Laubach, Rizal: Man and Martyr (Manila: Community Publishers, 1936)
4. ^ Rizal’s annotations of Morga’s Sucesos de las islas Filipinas (1609), which he copied word for word from the British Museum and had published, called attention to an antiquated book, a testimony to the well-advanced civilization in the Philippines during pre-Spanish era. In his essay “The Indolence of the Filipino” Rizal stated that three centuries of Spanish rule did not do much for the advancement of his countryman; in fact there was a ‘retrogression’, and the Spanish colonialists have transformed him into a ‘half-way brute.’ The absence of moral stimulus, the lack of material inducement, the demoralization–’the indio should not be separated from his carabao‘, the endless wars, the lack of a national sentiment, the Chinese piracy–all these factors, according to Rizal, helped the colonial rulers succeed in placing the indio ‘on a level with the beast’. (read English translation by Charles Derbyshire at [2]. Retrieved 10 January. 2007.
5. ^ In his essay, “Reflections of a Filipino,” (La Solidaridad, c.1888), he wrote: “Man is multiplied by the number of languages he possesses and speaks.’
6. ^ His signature book Noli was one of the first novels in Asia written outside Japan and China and was one of the first novels of anti-colonial rebellion. Noli me Tangere, translated by Soledad Locsin (Manila: Ateneo de Manila, 1996) ISBN 9715691889. Read Benedict Anderson’s commentary: [3]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
7. ^ Bonifacio was a member of La Liga Filipina. After Rizal’s arrest and exile, it was disbanded and the group splintered into two factions; the more radical group formed into the Katipunan, the militant arm of the insurrection.[4]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
8. ^ ^{a b c} National Historical Institute “…Angelo Ivan Mendoza added “Rizal” to the family surname…”
9. ^ Rizal’s rags-to-riches ancestor from South China. Retrieved February 18, 2007.
10. ^ ^{a b} Vicente L. Rafael — On Rizal’s El Filibusterismo
11. ^ When José was baptized, the record showed his parents as Francisco Rizal Mercado and Teodora Realonda.
12. ^ At age 8 (in 1869) he was reputed to have written the poem Sa aking mga Kabata and had for its theme the love of one’s native language [5]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
13. ^ [6]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
14. ^ inquirer.net, Medical Files, Dr. Jose Rizal in Heidelber
15. ^ ^{a b} [7]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
16. ^ Adolf Bernard Meyer (1840-1911) was a German ornithologist and anthropologist, and author of the book Philippinen-typen (Dresden, 1888)
17. ^ Accessed 10 January 2007. In short, his the best
18. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Epistolario Rizalino: 4 volumes, 1400 letters to and from Rizalg, edited by Teodoro Kalaw (Manila: Bureau of Printing,193038)
19. ^ Dr. Reinhold Rost was the head of the India Office at the British Museum and a renowned 19thcentury philologist.
20. ^ inquirer.net, Rizal’s affair with ‘la petite’ Suzanne
21. ^ In his letter “Manifesto to Certain Filipinos” (Manila, 1896), he states: Reforms, if they are to bear fruit, must come from above; for reforms that come from below are upheavals both violent and transitory.(Epistolario Rizalino, op cit)
22. ^ Wenceslao Retana Vida y Escritos del José Rizal (Madrid: Libreria General de Victoriano Suarez, 1907). According to Laubach it was Retana more than any other who ’saved Rizal for posterity’ (Laubach, op.cit., p. 383)
23. ^ “Appendix II: Decree Banishing Rizal. Governor-General Eulogio Despujol, Manila, 7 July 1892.” In Miscellaneous Correspondence of Dr. Jose Rizal / translated by Encarnacion Alzona. (Manila: National Historical Institute.)
24. ^ Raul J. Bonoan, S.J., The Rizal-Pastells Correspondence (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1996)
25. ^ “Mi Retiro”, stanzas 7 and 8 (Craig, op.cit., p. 207)
26. ^ FilipinoWriter.com. “Kultong Rizalismo (sanaysay ni Jon E. Royeca)”. FilipinoWriter.com. http://www.filipinowriter.com/kultong-rizalismo-sanaysay-ni-jon-e-royeca. Retrieved 2009-12-30. 
27. ^ Mi Ultimo Adios, stanza 14. (See original Spanish text at Project Gutenberg.[8])
28. ^ ^{a b c} Austin Coates, Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr (London: Oxford University Press, 1968) ISBN 019581519X
29. ^ Rizal’s trial was regarded a travesty even by prominent Spaniards of his day. Soon after his execution, the philosopher Miguel de Unamuno in an impassioned utterance recognized Rizal as a “Spaniard”, “…profoundly and intimately Spanish, far more Spanish than those wretched men–forgive them, Lord, for they knew not what they did–those wretched men, who over his still warm body hurled like an insult heavenward that blasphemous cry, ‘Viva Espana!’”Miguel de Unamuno, epilogue to Wenceslao Retana’s Vida y Escritos del Dr. Jose Rizal (Retana, op. cit.)
30. ^ Interestingly, Rizal himself translated Schiller’s William Tell into Tagalog in 1886.[9]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
31. ^ Me retracto de todo corazon de cuanto en mis palabras, escritos, impresos y conducta ha habido contrario á mi cualidad de hijo de la Iglesia Católica: Jesus Cavanna, Rizal’s Unfading Glory: A Documentary History of the Conversion of Dr. Jose Rizal (Manila: 1983)
32. ^ Ricardo Roque Pascual, Jose Rizal Beyond the Grave (Manila: P. Ayuda & Co., 1962)
33. ^ Mi Ultimo Adios, stanza 13
34. ^ Ildefonso T. Runes and Mameto R. Buenafe, The Forgery of the Rizal “Retraction” and Josephine’s “Autobiography” (Manila: BR Book Col, 1962)
35. ^ “Rizal’s Retraction: A Note on the Debate, Silliman Journal (Vol. 12, No. 2, April, May, June, 1965), pages 168-183″. Life and Writings of Jose Rizal. http://joserizal.info/Reflections/retraction.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-09. 
36. ^ Rafael Palma, Pride of the Malay Race (New York: Prentice Hall, 1949)
37. ^ ^{a b} Ambeth Ocampo (2008). Rizal Without the Overcoat. Anvil Publishing. 
38. ^ ^{a b} Gregorio Zaide (2003). Jose Rizal: Life, Works and Writings of a Genius, Writer, Scientist and National Hero. National Bookstore. 
39. ^ Joaquin, Nick (1977). A Question of Heroes: Essays and criticisms on ten key figures of Philippine History. Manila: Ayala Museum.
40. ^ ^{a b c} Nicolas Zafra (1961). Historicity of Rizal’s Retraction. Bookmark. 
41. ^ Marciano Guzman (1988). The Hard Facts About Rizal’s Conversion. Sinagtala Publishers. 
42. ^ ^{a b} Jesus Cavanna (1983). Rizal’s Unfading Glory: A Documentary History of the Conversion of Dr. Jose Rizal. 
43. ^ Javier de Pedro (2005) Rizal Through a Glass Darkly, University of Asia and the Pacific; Evolution of Rizal’s Religious Thought. The retraction, Javier de Pedro contends, is the end of a process which started with a personal crisis as Rizal finished the Fili.
44. ^ Joint Statement of the Catholic Hierarchy of the Philippines on the Book “The Pride of the Malay Race”, 6 January 1950
45. ^ preface to The Great Debate: The Rizal Retraction, by Ricardo P. Garcia. Quezon City: R.P. Garcia Publishing Co., 1964
46. ^ Esteban de Ocampo, “Why is Rizal the Greatest Filipino Hero?”[10]. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
47. ^ Mi Ultimo Adios, stanza 14
48. ^ Ambeth Ocampo, Rizal without the Overcoat (Manila: Anvil Publishing Co., 1990) ISBN 9712700437. Rizal’s third novel Makamisa was rescued from oblivion by Ocampo. See also [11] (Accessed 10 January 2007), and [12] . Retrieved 10 January 2007.
49. ^ Miguel de Unamuno, “The Tagalog Hamlet” in Rizal: Contrary Essays, edited by D. Feria and P. Daroy (Manila: National Book Store, 1968).
50. ^ ^{a b} Jose Rizal, El Filibusterismo (Ghent: 1891) chap.39, translated by Andrea Tablan and Salud Enriquez (Manila: Marian Publishing House, 2001) ISBN 9716861540. (read online text at Project Gutenberg[13])
51. ^ Bonifacio denounced him, at the same time, he mobilized his men to attempt to liberate Rizal while in Ft. Santiago (Laubach, op.cit., chap. 15)
52. ^ Rafael Palma, Pride of the Malay Race (New York: Prentice Hall, 1949) p. 367.
53. ^ Also stated in his essay, “The Philippines: A Century Hence”: The batteries are gradually becoming charged and if the prudence of the government does not provide an outlet for the currents that are accumulating, someday the sparks will be generated. (read etext at Project Gutenberg[14])
54. ^ Jose Rizal, “Indolence of the Filipino” (read online English translation at Project Gutenberg [15].) Retrieved 10 January 2007.
55. ^ According to Anderson, Rizal is one of the best exemplars of nationalist thinking. Benedict Anderson, Under Three Flags: anarchism and the anti colonial imagination (London: Verso Publication, 2005)ISBN 1844670376. (See also [16])
56. ^ Dr. Virchow’s obituary on Rizal, 1897
57. ^ Accessed 10 January 2007
58. ^ Accessed 10 January 2007
59. ^ Article Index – INQUIRER.net
60. ^ http://www.Knightsofrizal.org/content/ Accessed 10 January 2007
61. ^ Accessed 13 February 2007
62. ^ Accessed 10 January 2007
63. ^ “Philippine president to open park in Lima during APEC Summit”. Andina.com.pe. http://www.andina.com.pe/ingles/Noticia.aspx?id=XNWYIuvHPCo=#. Retrieved 2009-12-30. 
64. ^ http://www.bootsr.blogspot.com/ Accessed 19 January 2009
65. ^ Philippine Information Agency (PIA) (June 20, 2008). “Feature: Rizal returns to Singapore”. Press release. http://www.pia.gov.ph/default.asp?m=12&fi=p080620.htm&no=76. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 
66. ^ “ログイン – 日刊まにら新聞” (in (Japanese)). Manila-shimbun.com. http://www.manila-shimbun.com/category/english/news181606.html. Retrieved 2009-12-30. 
67. ^ En route to APEC meet, First Gentleman rushed to hospital
68. ^ Peru erects monument for Jose Rizal
69. ^ Mari Arquiza (1992-12-02). “:: Felipe De Leon ::”. Philmusicregistry.net. http://www.philmusicregistry.net/artist_profile.php?artist_id=218. Retrieved 2009-12-30. 

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Jose Rizal

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Further reading

• Hessel, Dr. Eugene A. (1965) Rizal’s Retraction: A Note on the Debate. Silliman University
• Mapa, Christian Angelo A.(1993) The Poem Of the Famous Young Elder Jose Rizal
• Catchillar, Chryzelle P. (1994) The Twilight in the Philippines
• Venzon, Jahleel Areli A. (1994) The Doorway to hell, Rizal’s Biography
• Tomas, Jindřich (1998) Jose Rizal, Ferdinand Blumentritt and the Philippines in the New Age. The City of Litomerice: Czech Republic. Publishing House Oswald Praha (Prague).
• The Dapitan Correspondence of Dr.Jose Rizal and Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt. Compiled by Romeo G. Jalosjos. The City Government Dapitan City: Philippines, 2007. ISBN 978-971-93553.
• Craig, Austin. (2004) Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1419130587
• Fadul, Jose (2002/2008). A Workbook for a Course in Rizal. Manila: De La Salle University Press. ISBN 9715554261 /C&E Publishing. ISBN 9789715846486
• Fadul, J. (ed.) (2008). Encyclopedia Rizaliana. Morrisville, NC: Lulu Press. ISBN 9781430311423
• Guerrero, Leon Ma. (2007) The First Filipino. Manila: National Historical Institute of The Philippines (1962); Guerrero Publishing. ISBN 971-93418-2-3
• Joaquin, Nick (1977). A Question of Heroes: Essays and criticisms on ten key figures of Philippine History. Manila: Ayala Museum.
• Ocampo, Ambeth R.(2008).Rizal Without the Overcoat. Pasig: Anvil Publishing.
• Ocampo, Ambeth R.(2001).Meaning and history: The Rizal Lectures. Pasig: Anvil Publishing.
• Ocampo, Ambeth R.(1993). Calendar of Rizaliana in the vault of the National Library.Pasig: Anvil Publishing.
• Ocampo, Ambeth R.(1992).Makamisa: The Search for Rizal’s Third Novel. Pasig: Anvil Publishing.
• Quirino, Carlos (1997). The Great Malayan. Makati City: Tahanan Books. ISBN 9716300859
• Medina, Elizabeth (1998). Rizal According to Retana: Portrait of a Hero and a Revolution. Santiago, Chile: Virtual Multimedia. ISBN 9567483094
• Rizal, Jose. (1889).”Sa mga Kababayang Dalaga ng Malolos” in Escritos Politicos y Historicos de Jose Rizal (1961). Manila: National Centennial Commission.
• Runes, Ildefonso (1962). The Forgery of the Rizal Retraction’. Manila: Community Publishing Co.
• Zaide, Gregorio F. (2003) Jose Rizal: Life, Works and Writings of a Genius, Writer, Scientist and National Hero. Manila: National Bookstore. ISBN 9710805207

External links

• The Complete Jose Rizal at Filipiniana.net
• Rizal’s monument, Mexico City Accessed July 2009
• Talambuhay ni Jose Rizal
• Statue of Jose Rizal in Texas
• More photos and information on José Rizal Park, Dapitan City
• The Life and Writings of Jose Rizal. Accessed January 10, 2007.
•  “José Mercado Rizal”. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Jos%C3%A9_Mercado_Rizal. 
• Works by José Rizal at Project Gutenberg Accessed 10 January 2007
• Jose Rizal Website Accessed 10 January 2007.
• Rizal’s Little Odyssey. Accessed January 10, 2007.
• 22 languages at 3rd paragraph reference 3
• Review of Dimasalang: The Masonic Life Of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Accessed January 10, 2007.
• Benedict Anderson Accessed 10 January 2007.
• Jose Rizal, a revolutionary friend of Don Quixote (French) Accessed January 10, 2007.
• Comparison between Jose Rizal and Jose Marti (Spanish) Accessed January 10, 2007.
• Caiñgat Cayo! original image scans of the pamphlet written in 1889.
• Why is Rizal the greatest Filipino hero?. Accessed January 10, 2007.
• Extensive annotated list of Rizaliana materials on the Internet
• (French) Chevaliers de Rizal
• Rizal’s ‘rags-to-riches’ ancestor from South China By Wilson Lee Flores. INQUIRER.net 06/18/2008
• Hispanic Literature and José Rizal, articles by José Tlatelpas, Edmundo Farolán and others. Published in Spanish by La Guirnalda Polar, webzine, Canada, 1997.

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Rizal: A Man for All Times

Editor’s Notes: The following article was a speech delivered by Sir Allan Terrett, KR.

————

Rizal was truly an amazing man. Professor Blumentritt had said that a man of his stature only appears in the history of any nation, once every century. I don’t believe Australia has yet produced a man of his stature.

I will briefly review some of the areas in which he excelled, in his short life of only 35 and a half years.

He was:

    *      an anthropologist
    *      a botanist
    *      a businessman
    *      a cartographer
    *      a dramatist
    *      an economist
    *      an educator
    *      an engineer
    *      an essayist
    *     an entomologist,

While he was in Dapitan he used to send plant, animal and insects to Europe. (1) A rare frog which was named Rahpcophorus Rizali, (2)  A small beetle belonging to the species coleoptera, which was named Apogonia Rizali, and (3) A dragon fly which was named Draco Rizali.

He was a farmer

    *      a folklorist
    *      a geographer
    *      a grammarian
    *      a historian
    *      a horticulturist
    *      a humorist
    *      a lexicographer
    *      a linguist, He could speak with ease 22 languages, and in many was able to write letters and poetry.

He was

    *     a musician
    *     a novelist
    *    a painter
    *    a physician – including a specialist ophthalmologist
    *    a poet
    *    a philosopher
    *    a polemist
    *    a psychologist.

He was

    *    a satirist
    *    a sculptor
    *    a sportsman
    *    a sociologist
    *    a surveyor
    *    a traveller, and
    *    a zoologist;

but more than these a patriot, a hero and a martyr.

Some believe that Rizal is no longer relevant to the present day; because the circumstances and the tyranny of the times in which he lived have long since passed.

But I believe this is wrong. Rizal and his legacy are for all times, and all ages, and all classes of people.

I am a great believer that we should all have a hero in our lives, somebody to try to emulate; – and there is no better person to have as a hero, and to try to emulate, – than Rizal.

Rizal was a man who suffered

    *    hardship
    *    persecution
    *    poverty
    *   disillusionment
    *   sorrow.

We must remember that he was a man; made of flesh and bones just like us; – and though we may fall short of his example, we will be better for having been inspired by his example.

I believe that we who have children of Filipino background have an obligation to teach children about Rizal.

I believe that if we, and if we teach our children to try to emulate aspects of Rizal’s life, then this will raise ours; – and our children’s standards of:

    *   dedication to ideals
    *   dedication to study
    *   standards of morality, actions, behaviour, thinking, aims, and ethics
    *   respect for law, parents, other people, and country
    *   and to use our lives more productively.

I believe that the teachings of Rizal are very relevant today; he is a man for all times, and that if he becomes a role model for ourselves, and our children, then we, our community, and our country will be better for it.

*** Paper presented at “A Symposium on the Life and Works of Dr Jose P. Rizal” by the  Order of the Knights of Rizal, Sydney Chapter, on May 30, 1999 at the Bankstown RSL Club, Bankstown, NSW.

To the Young Women of Malolos

This famous letter was written by Jose Rizal in Tagalog, while he was residing in London, upon the request of M. H. del Pilar. The story behind this letter is that on December 12, 1888, a group of twenty young women of Malolos petitioned governor-general Weyler for permission to open a “night school” so that they might study Spanish under Teodoro Sandiko. The Spanish parish priest, Fr. Felipe Garcia, objected so that the governor-general turned down the petition. However, the young women, in defiance of the friar’s wrath, bravely continued their agitation of the school, a thing unheard of in the Philippines in those times. They finally succeeded in obtaining government approval to their project on condition that Señorita Guadalupe Reyes should be their teacher. The incident caused a great stir in the Philippines and in far-away Spain. Del Pilar, writing in Barcelona on February 17, 1889, requested Rizal to send a letter in Tagalog to the brave women of Malolos. Accordingly, Rizal, although busy in London annotating Morgan’s book, penned this famous letter and sent it to Del Pilar on February 22, 1889 for transmittal to Malolos.
To the Young Women of Malolos
(London, February 22, 1889)

When I wrote Noli Me Tangere, I asked myself whether bravery was a common thing in the women of our people. I brought back to my recollection and reviewed those I had known since my infancy, but there were only few who seem to come up to my ideal. There was, it is true, an abundance of girls with agreeable manners, beautiful ways, and modest demeanor, but there was in all an admixture of servitude and deference to the words or whims of their so-called “spiritual fathers” (as if the spirit or soul had any father other than God), due to excessive kindness, modesty, or perhaps ignorance. They seemed faded plants sown and reared in darkness, having flowers without perfume and fruits without sap.

However, when the news of what happened at Malolos reached us, I saw my error, and great was my rejoicing. After all, who is to blame me? I did not know Malolos nor its young women, except one called Emilia, and her I knew by name only.

Now that you�ve responded to our first appeal in the interest of the welfare of the people; now that you have set an example to those who, like you, long to have their eyes opened and be delivered from servitude, new hopes are awakened in us and we now even dare to face adversity, because we have you for our allies and are confident of victory.

No longer does the Filipina stand with her head bowed nor does she spend her time on her knees, because she is quickened by hope in the future; no longer will the mother contribute to keeping her daughter in darkness and bring her up in contempt and moral annihilation. And no longer will the science of all sciences consist in blind submission to any unjust order, or in extreme complacency, nor will a courteous smile be deemed the only weapon against insult or humble tears the ineffable panacea for all tribulations. You know that the will of God is different of that of the priest; that religiousness does not consist of long periods spent on your on your knees, nor in endless prayers, big rosarios, and grimy scapulars, but in spotless conduct, firm intention and upright judgement.

You also know that prudence that does not consist in blindly obeying any whim of the little tin god, but in obeying only that which is reasonable and just, because blind obedience is itself the cause and origin of those whims, and those guilty of it are really to be blamed. The official or friar can no longer assert that they alone are responsible for their unjust orders, because God gave each individual reason and a will of his or her own to distinguish the just from the unjust; all were born without shackles and free, and nobody has a right to subjugate the will and the spirit of another. And why should you submit to another your thoughts, seeing that thought is noble and free?

It is cowardice and erroneous to believe that saintliness consists in blind obedience and that prudence and the habit of thinking are presumptuous. Ignorance has ever been ignorance, and never prudence and honor God, the primal source of all wisdom, does not demand that man, created in his image and likeness, allow himself to be deceived and hoodwinked, but wants us to use and let shine in the light of reason with which He has so mercifully endowed us. He may be compared to the father who gave each of his sons a torch to light their way in the darkness bidding them keep its light bright and take care of it, and not put it out and trust to the light of the others, but to help and advice each other to find the right path. They would be madmen were they to follow the light of another, only to come to a fall, and the father could unbraid them and say to them: “Did I not give each of you his own torch,”, but he could not say so if the fall were due to the light of the torch of him who fell, as the light might have been dim and the road very bad.

The deceiver is fond of using the saying that “It is presumptuous to rely on one�s own judgment,” but, in my opinion, it is more presumptuous for a person to put his judgment above that of the others and try to make it prevail over theirs. It is more presumptuous and even blasphemous for a person to attribute every movement of his lips to God, to represent every whim of his as the will of God, and to brand his own enemy as an enemy of God. Of course, we should not consult our own sense that is most reasonable to us. The wild man from the hills, if clad in a priest�s robe, remains a hillman and can only deceive the weak and ignorant. And, you will be lucky if the carabao does not become lazy on account of the robe. But I will leave this subject to speak of something else.

Youth is a flower-bed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants. What offspring will be that of a woman whose kindness of character is expressed by mumbled prayers; who knows nothing by heart but awits, novenas, and the alleged miracles; whose amusements consists in playing panguingue or in the frequent confession of the same sins? What sons will she have but acolytes, priest�s servants, or cockfighters? It is the mothers who are responsible for the present servitude of our compatriots, owing to the unlimited trustfulness of their loving hearts, to their ardent desire to elevate their sons. Maturity is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of its mother. The mother who can only teach her child how to knell and kiss hands must not expect sons with blood other than of vile slaves. A tree that grows in the mud is unsubstantial and good only for firewood. If her son should have a bold mind, his boldness would be deceitful and will be like the bat that cannot show itself until the ringing of the vespers. They say that prudence is sanctity. But, what sanctity have they shown us? To pray and kneel a lot, kiss the hand of the priests, throw money away on churches, and believe all the friar sees fit to tell us; gossip, callous rubbing of noses�

As to the gifts to God, is there anything in the world that does not belong to God? What would you say of a servant making his master a present of a cloth borrowed from that very master? Who is so vain, so insane that he will give alms to God and believe that the miserable thing he has given will serve to clothe the Creator of all things? Blessed be they who succor their fellow men, aid the poor and feed the hungry; but cursed be they who turn s dead ear to supplications of the poor, who only give to him who has plenty and spend their money lavishly on silver altar hangings for the thanksgiving, or in serenades and fireworks. The money ground out of the poor is bequeathed to the master so that he can provide for chains to subjugate, and hire thugs and executioners. Oh, what blindness, what lack of understanding!

Saintliness consists in the first place in obeying the dictates of reason, happen what may. “It is acts and not words that I want of you,” said Christ. “Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven.” Saintliness does not consist in abjectness, nor is the successor of Christ to be recognized by the fact that he gives his hand to be kissed. Christ did not give the kiss of peace to the Pharisees and never gave His hand to be kissed. He did not cater to the rich and vain; he did not mention scapularies, nor did he make rosaries, or solicit offerings for the sacrifice of the mass or exact payments for His prayers. Saint John did not demand a fee on the River Jordan, nor did Christ teach for gain. Why, then, do the friars now refuse to stir a foot unless paid in advance? And, as if they were starving, they sell scapularies, rosaries, bits, and other things which are nothing but schemes for making money and detriment to the soul; because even if all the rags on earth were converted into scapularies and all the trees in the forest into rosaries, and if the skins of all the beasts were made into belts and if all the priests of the earth mumbled prayers over all this and sprinkled oceans of holy water over it, this would not purify a rogue or condone sin where there is no repentance. Thus, also, through cupidity and love of money, they will, for a price, revoke the numerous prohibitions such as those against eating meat, marrying close relatives, etc. you can do almost anything if you but grease their palms. Why that? Can God be bribed and bought off, and blinded by money, nothing more nor less than a friar? The brigand who has obtained a bull of compromise can live calmly on the proceeds of his robbery, because he will be forgiven. God, then, will at a table where theft provides the viands? Has the omnipotent become pauper that He must assume the role of the excise man or gendarme? If that is the God whom the friar adores, then I turn my back upon that God.

Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you are the first to influence the consciousness of man. Remember that a good mother does not resemble the mother that the friar has created; she must bring up her child to be the image of the true God, not of a blackmailing, a grasping god, but of a God who is the father of us all, who is just; who does not suck the life-blood of the poor like a vampire, nor scoffs at the agony of the sorely beset, nor makes a crooked path of the path of justice. Awaken and prepare the will of our children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all that is sincere and firm of purpose, clear judgement, clear procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for the fellow man and respect for God; this is what you must teach to your children. And, seeing that life is full of thorns and thistles, you must fortify their minds against any stroke of adversity and accustom them to danger. The people cannot expect honor nor prosperity so long as they will educate their children in a wrong way, so long as the woman who guides the child in his steps is slavish and ignorant. No good water comes from a turbid, bitter spring; no savory fruit comes from acrid seed.

The duties that woman has performed in order to deliver the people from suffering are of no little importance, but be they may, they will not be beyond the strength and stamina of the Filipino people. The power and good judgment of the woman of the Philippines are well known, and it is because of this that she has been hoodwinked, and tied, and rendered pusillanimous; and now her enslavers rest at ease, because so long as they can keep the Filipina mother a slave, so long they will be able to make slaves of her children. The cause of the backwardness of Asia lies in the fact that there the women are ignorant, are slaves, while Europe and America are powerful because there the women are free and well educated and endowed with lucid intellect and string will.

We know that you lack instructive books; we know that nothing is added to your intellect, day by day, save that which is intended to dim its natural brightness; all this we know, hence our desire to bring you the light that illuminates your equals here in Europe. If that which I tell you does not provoke your anger, and if you will pay a little attention to it then, however dense the mist may that befogs our people, I will make the utmost efforts to have it dissipated by the bright rays of the sun, which will light, though they may be dimmed. We shall not feel any fatigue if you help us: God, too, will help to scatter the mist, because he is the God of truth; He will restore to its pristine condition the fame of the Filipina in whom we now miss only a criterion of her own, because good qualities she has enough and to spare. This is our dream; this is the desire we cherish in our hearts; to restore the honor of a woman, who is half of our heart, our companion in the joys and tribulations of life. If she is a maiden, young man should love her not only because of her beauty and her amiable character, but also on account of her fortitude of mind and loftiness of purpose. Which quicken and elevate the feeble and timid and ward off all vain thoughts. Let the maiden be the pride of her country and command respect, because it is a common practice on the part of the Spaniards and friars here who have returned from the Islands to speak of the Filipina as complaisant and ignorant, as if it should be thrown into the same class because of the missteps of a few, and as if women of weak character did not exist in other lands. As to purity what could the Filipina not hold up to others!

Nevertheless, the returning Spaniards and friars, talkative and fond of gossip, can hardly find time enough to brag and bawl, amidst guffaws and insulting remarks, that a certain women was thus; that she behave thus at the convent and conducted herself thus with the Spaniards who on the occasion was her guest, and other things that set your teeth on edge when you think of them which, in the majority of cases, were faults due to candor, excessive kindness, meekness or perhaps ignorance and were all the work of the defamer him self. There is a Spaniard now in high office, who has sat at our table and enjoy our hospitality in his wanderings through the Philippines and who upon his return to Spain, rushed worth with into-print and related that on one occasion in Pampanga he demanded hospitality and ate, and slept at the house and the lady of the house conducted herself in such and such a manner with him; this is how he repaid the lady for her supreme hospitality! Similar insinuation are made to the friars to the chance visitor from Spain concerning their very obedient confesandas, hand-kissers, etc., accompanied by smiles and very significant wingkings of the eyes. In a book published by D. Sinibaldo de Mas and in other friar sketches sin are related of which women accused themselves of the confessional and of which the friar made no secret in talking to their Spanish visitor seasoning them, at the best, with idiotic and shameless tales not worthy of credence. I cannot repeat here the shameless stories that a friar told Mas and to which Mas attributed no value whatever. Everytime we hear or read anything of this kind, we ask each other: Are the Spanish women all cut after the pattern of the Holy Virgin Mary and the Filipinas all reprobates? I believe that If we are to balance accounts in this delicate question, perhaps� But I must drop the subject because I am neither a confessor nor a Spanish traveler and have no business to take away anybody�s goodname. I shall let this go and speak of the duties of women instead.

A people that respect woman, like the Filipino people, must know the truth of the situation in order to be able to do what is expected of it. It seems an established fact that when a young student falls inlove, he throws everything to the dogs � knowledge, honor and money, as if a girl could not do anything but sow misfortune. The bravest youth becomes a coward when he married and the born coward becomes shameless, as if he had been waiting to get married in order to show his cowardice. The son, in order to hide his pusillanimity, remembers his mother, swallows his wrath, suffers his ears to be boxed, obeys the most foolish orders, and become an accomplice to his own dishonor. It should be remembered that where no body flees there is no pursuer; when there is no little fish, there can not be a big one. Why does the girl not require of her lover a noble and honored name, a manly heart offering protection to her weakness, and high spirit incapable of being satisfied with engendering slaves? Let her discard all fear, let her behave nobly and not deliver her youth to the weak and faint-hearted. When she is married, she must aid her husband, inspire him with courage, share his perills, refrain from causing him worry and sweeten her moments of affliction, always remembering that there is no grief that a brave heart can not bear and there is no bitterer inheritance than that of infamy and slavery. Open your children�s eyes so that they may jealousy guard their honor, love their fellowmen and their native land, and do their duty. Always impress upon them they must prefer dying with honor to living in dishonor. The women of Sparta should serve you as an example in this; I shall give some of their characteristics.

When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching to the battle, she said nothing to him but this: “Return with it, or on it,” which mean, come back victorious or dead, because it was customary with the routed warrior to throw away his shield, while the dead warrior was carried home on his shield. When a mother received word that that her son had been killed in battle and the army routed, she did not say a word, but expressed her thankfulness that her son returned alive and the mother put on mourning. One of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning to battle asked if if her three sons had been victorious or not. We have been victorious � answered the warrior. If that is so, then let us thank God, and she went to the temple.

Once upon a time a king of theirs, who had been defeated, hid in the temple, because he feared the popular wrath. The Spartans resolved to shut him up there and starve him to death. When they were blocking the door, the mother was the first to bring the stones. These things were in accordance with the custom there, and all Greece admire the Spartan woman. Of all women � a woman said jestingly � only you Spartans have power over the men. Man, the Spartan women said, was not born to live life for himself alone but for his native land. So long as this way of thinking prevailed and they had that kind of women in Sparta, none was there a woman in Sparta who ever saw a hostile army.

I do not expect to be believed simply because it is I who am saying this; there are many people who do not listen to reason, but will listen only to those who hear the cassock or have gray hair or no teeth; but while it is true that the aged should be venerated, because of their travails and experience, yet the life I have lived, consecrated to the happiness of the people, add some years, though not many of my age. I do not pretend to be looked upon as an idol or fetish and to be believed and listened to with the eyes closed, the head bowed, and the arms crossed over the breast; what I ask of all is to reflect on what I tell him, think it over and sift it carefully through the sieve of reason.

First of all. That the tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice and negligence on the part of others.

Second. What makes one contemptible is lack of dignity and object fear of him who holds one in contempt.

Third. Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allowed himself to be guided by the thought of other is like the beast led by a halter.

Fourth. He who loves his independence must first aid his fellowman, because he who refuses protection to others will find himself without it; the isolated rib of the buri palm is easily broken, but not so the broom made of the ribs of the palm bound together.

Fifth. If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more children, let her merely give birth to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home, otherwise she will unconsciously betray husband, child native land, and all.

Sixth. All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with a reason to have him deceived by others. It is not fatuous to refuse to worship one�s equal, to cultivate one�s intellect, and to make use of reason in all things. Fatuous is he who makes a god of him, who makes brutes of others, and who strives to submit to his whims all that is reasonable and just.

Seventh. Consider well that kind of religion that they are teaching you. See whether it is the will of the God or according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be succored and those who suffer alleviated. Consider what they are preaching to you, the object of the sermon, what is behind the masses, novenas, rosaries, scapularies, images, miracles, candles, belts, etc., etc.; which they daily keep before your minds; ears and eyes; jostling, shouting, and coaxing, investigate whence they came and whether they go and then compare that religion with the pure religion of Christ and see whether the pretended observance of the life of Christ does not remind of the fat mik cow or the fattened pig, which is encouraged to grow fat not through love of the animal, but not grossly mercenary motives.

Let us, therefore, reflect and consider our situation and see how we stand. May these poorly written lines aid you in your good purpose and help you to pursue the plan you have initiated. “May your profit be greater than the capital investment,” and I shall gladly accept the usual reward of all who dare the people the truth. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned with success; may you in the garden of learning gather not bitter, but choice fruit, looking well before you eat because on the surface of the globe all is deceit, and the enemy sows weeds in your seedling plot.

All this is the ardent desire of your compatriot.

JOSE RIZAL
*** Reprinted from the Jose Rizal web site, www.joserizal.ph, for the benefit of emanila.com users. For clarity, changes to the text and layout had been made to the original Jose Rizal web site publication. Posted: Dec 17, 2002, emanila*pilipino

Pahimakas ni Dr Jose Rizal

Pinipintuho kong Bayan ay paalam,
Lupang iniirog ng sikat ng araw,
mutyang mahalaga sa dagat Silangan,
kaluwalhatiang sa ami’y pumanaw.

Masayang sa iyo’y aking idudulot
ang lanta kong buhay na lubhang malungkot;
maging maringal man at labis alindog
sa kagalingan mo ay aking ding handog.

Sa pakikidigma at pamimiyapis
ang alay ng iba’y ang buhay na kipkip,
walang agam-agam, maluag sa dibdib,
matamis sa puso at di ikahapis.

Saan man mautas ay dikailangan,
cipres o laurel, lirio ma’y patungan
pakikipaghamok, at ang bibitayan,
yaon ay gayon din kung hiling ng Bayan.

Ako’y mamamatay, ngayong namamalas
na sa silinganan ay namamanaag
yaong maligayang araw na sisikat
sa likod ng luksang nagtabing na ulap.

Ang kulay na pula kung kinakailangan
na maitina sa iyong liway-way,
dugo ko’y isabong at siyang ikinang
ng kislap ng iyong maningning na ilaw.

Ang aking adhika sapul magkaisip
ng kasalukuyang bata pang maliit,
ay ang tanghaling ka at minsan masilip
sa dagat Silangan hiyas na marikit.

Natuyo ang luhang sa mata’y nunukal,
taas na ang noo’t walang kapootan,
walang bakas kunot ng kapighatian
gabahid man dungis niyong kahihiyan.

Sa kabuhayang ko ang laging gunita
maningas na aking ninanasa-nasa
ay guminhawa ka ang hiyas ng diwa
hingang papanaw ngayong biglang-bigla.
pag hingang papanaw ngayong biglang-bigla.

Ikaw’y guminhawa laking kagandahang
akoy malugmok, at ikaw ay matanghal,
hiniga’y malagot, mabuhay ka lamang
bangkay ko’y masilong sa iyong Kalangitan.

Kung sa libingan ko’y tumubong mamalas
malagong damo mahinhing bulaklak,
sa mga labi mo’y mangyayaring itapat,
sa kaluluwa ko hatik ay igawad.

At sa aking noo nawa’y iparamdam,
sa lamig ng lupa ng aking libingan,
ang init ng iyong paghingang dalisay
at simoy ng iyong paggiliw na tunay.

Bayaang ang buwan sa aki’y ititig
ang iwanag niyang lamlam at tahimik,
liwayway bayaang sa aki’y ihatid
magalaw na sinag at hanging hagibis.

Kung sakasakaling bumabang humantong
sa krus ko’y dumapo kahit isang ibon
doon ay bayaan humuning hinahon
at dalitin niya payapang panahon.

Bayaan ang ningas ng sikat ng araw
ula’y pasingawin noong kainitan,
magbalik sa langit ng boong dalisay
kalakip ng aking pagdaing na hiyaw.

Bayaang sino man sa katotang giliw
tangisang maagang sa buhay pagkitil;
kung tungkol sa akin ay may manalangin
idalangin, Bayan, yaring pagka himbing.

Idalanging lahat yaong nangamatay,
mangagatiis hirap na walang kapantay;
mga ina naming walang kapalaran
na inihihibik ay kapighatian.

Ang mga bao’t pinapangulila,
ang mga bilanggong nagsisipagdusa;
dalanginin namang kanilang makita
ang kalayaan mong, ikagiginhawa.

At kung an madilim na gabing mapanglaw
ay lumaganap na doon sa libinga’t
tanging mga patay ang nangaglalamay,
huwag bagabagin ang katahimikan.

Ang kanyang hiwagay huwag gambalain;
kaipala’y maringig doon ang taginting,
tunog ng gitara’t salterio’y mag saliw,
ako, Bayan yao’t kita’y aawitin.

Kung ang libingan ko’y limat na ng lahat
at wala ng kurus at batang mabakas,
bayaang linangin ng taong masipag,
lupa’y asarolin at kauyang ikalat.

At mga buto ko ay bago matunaw
maowi sa wala at kusang maparam,
alabok ng iyong latag ay bayaang
siya ang babalang doo’y makipisan.

Kung magka gayon na’y aalintanahin
na ako sa limot iyong ihabilin
pagka’t himpapawid at ang panganorin
mga lansangan mo’y aking lilibutin.

Matining na tunog ako sa dingig mo,
ilaw, mga kulay, masamyong pabango,
ang ugong at awit, pag hibik sa iyo,
pag asang dalisay ng pananalig ko.

Bayang iniirog, sakit niyaring hirap,
Katagalugang ko pinakaliliyag,
dinggin mo ang aking pagpapahimakas;
diya’y iiwan ko sa iyo ang lahat.

Ako’y patutungo sa walang busabos,
walang umiinis at berdugong hayop;
pananalig doo’y di nakasasalot,
si Bathala lamang dooy haring lubos.

Paalam, magulang at mga kapatid
kapilas ng aking kaluluwa’t dibdib
mga kaibigan bata pang maliit
sa aking tahanan di na masisilip.

Pag pasasalamat at napahinga rin,
paalam estranherang kasuyo ko’t aliw,
paalam sa inyo, mga ginigiliw;
mamatay ay siyang pagkakagupiling!

Pagsasalin ng “Mi Ultimo Adios” ni Andres Bonifacio

*** This material was transferred from emanila*pilipino (Dec 29, 2002)

Mi Ultimo Adios por Dr Jose Rizal

Adios, Patria adorada, regin del sol querida,
Perla del Mar de Oriente, nuestro perdido eden,
A darte voy, alegre, la triste, mustia vida;
Y fuera mas brillante, mas fresca, mas florida,
Tambien por ti la diera, la diera por tu bien.

En campos de batalla, luchando con delirio,
Otros te dan sus vidas, sin dudas, sin pesar.
El sitio nada importa: cipres, laurel o lirio,
Cadalso o campo abierto, combate o cruel martirio.
La mismo es si lo piden la Patria y el hogar.

Yo muero, cuando veo que el cielo se colora
Y al fin anuncia el dia, tras lobrego capuz;
Si grana necesitas, para tenir tu aurora,
i Vierte la sangre mia, derremala en buen hora,
Y durela un reflejo de su naciente luz!

Mis suenos, cuando apenas muchacho adolescente,
Mis suenos cuando joven, ya lleno de vigor,
Fueron el verte un dia, joya del Mar de Oriente,
Secos los negros ojos, alta la tersa frente,
Sin ceno, sin arrugas, sin manchas de rubor.

Ensue�o de mi vida, mi ardiente vivo anhelo.
i Salud! te grita el alma que pronto va a partir;
i Salud! iah, que es hermoso caer por darte vuelo,
Morir por darte vida, morir bajo tu cielo,
Y en tu encantada tierra la eternidad dormir!

Si sobre mi sepulcro vieres brotar, un dia,
Entre la espesa yerba, sencilla humilde flor,
Acercala a tus labios y besa el alma mia,
Y sienta yo en mi frente, bajo la tumba fria,
De tu ternura el soplo, de tu holito el calor.

Deja a la luna verme, con luz tranquila y uave;
Deja que el alba envie su resplandor fugaz;
Deja gemir al viento, con su murmullo grave;
Y si desciende y posa sobre mi cruz un ave,
Deja que el ave entone su centico de paz.

Deja que el sol, ardiendo, las lluvias evapore
Y al cielo tornen puras, con mi clamor en pos;
Deja que un ser amigo mi fin temprano Ilore;
Yen las serenas tardes, cuando por me alguien ore,
Ora tambien, oh patria, por mi descanso a Dios.

Ora por todos cuantos murieron sin ventura;
Por cuantos padecieron tormentos sin igual;
Por nuestras pobres madres, que gimen su amargura;
Por huerfanos y viudas, por presos en tortura,
Y ora por ti, que veas tu redencion final.

Y cuando, en noche oscura, se envuelva el cementerio,
Y solos solo muertos queden velando alle,
No turbes su reproso, no turbes el misterio:
Tal vez acordes oigas de c etara o salterio;
Soy yo, querida Patria, yo que te canto a tu.

Y cuando ya mi tumba, de todos olvidada,
No tenga cruz ni piedra que marquen su lugar,
Deja que la are el hombre, la esparza con la azada,
Y mis cenizas, antes que vuelvan a la nada,
En polvo de tu alfombra que vayan a formar.

Entonces nada importa me pongas en olvido;
Tu atmosfera, tu espacio, tus valles cruzaro;
Vibrante y limpia nota sere para tu oido:
Aroma, luz, colores, rumor, canto, gemido,
Constante repitiendo la esencia de mi fe.

Mi Patria idolatrada, dolor de mis dolores,
Querida Filipinas, oye el postrer adios.
Ahi, te dejo todo: mis padres, mis amores.
Voy donde no hay esclavos, verdugos ni opresores;
Donde la fe no mata, donde el que reina es Dios.

Adios, padres y hermanos, trozos del alma mia,
Amigos de la infancia, en el perdido hogar;
Dad gracias, que descanso del fatigoso dia;
Adios, dulce extranjera, mi amiga, mi alegria;
Adios, queridos seres. Morir es descansar.

Originally posted Dec 29, 2002 at emanila*pilipino