Section 1.

Overview and Synopsis of the Novels

Overview of the Novels

The greatest Philippine social documents ever written in the 19th century are the
Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Some would call these as the bible of the
Philippine nationalism. The profundity of these novels have made Rizal known all
over the world, and more so in Spain. Through the characters of the Noli and El
Fili Rizal was able to personify the characters of the colonizers, the Spaniards.
Rizal was very bold in his goal of ending the exploitation and colonization. These
novels aim to agitate the Spaniards for political and social reforms. Ironically these
works strongly warned against rebellion against Spain but these triggered a
national consciousness and uprising.

These two novels are long however the characters like Maria Clara, Sisa, Pilosopo
Tasyo and Padre Damaso have been absorbed in our culture and society. Many of
the events and conditions mentioned in the novel are still politically and socially
relevant to our situations. These novels serve as the catalyst for patriotism,
nationalism and reforms.

Synopsis of the Novels

Rizal was a cultured man of ideas, a scholar with versatile talents, an
intellectual humanist obsessed with the fact that his people must be liberated from
their oppressive ignorance and delivered into a conscious awareness of unity and
freedom by means of education.
None of Rizal’s writings has had a more tremendous effect on the Filipino
people than his two novels that courageously criticized Philippine life during the
19th century – Noli Me Tangere and El Filibustirismo. These works of fiction
expressed the theme of Philippine nationalism in a most profound and dramatic
manner to arouse the latent spirits of a frustrated people. And though Rizal aimed
his message to the people of his own generation, the novels remain the most potent
inspiration for national unity today. They are considered “the greatest Philippine
social documents.” And in official recognition of the “gospels of Philippine
nationalism,” the Congress of the Philippines passed Republic Act 1425 on 12
June 1956, making the reading of the two novels compulsory in all the country’s
colleges and universities.
The profundity of these two novels has made Rizal known all over the world as
the foremost Asian nationalist. With utmost perspicacity the novels express his
concept of love of country with an innate sense of dedication. Through them he
boldly spoke out against unjust Spanish colonial exploitation and he agitated for
political and social reforms. Ironically these works strongly warned against
rebellion against Spain but they triggered off the first nationalist uprising in Asia.
And for his temerity in speaking out his mind, Rizal paid dearly with his life
leaving behind a conscious people aware of what they had to do.
The alert reader today will find the Noli and the Fili two delightful, if
somewhat poignant comedies of manners, not unlike many novels of Victorian
England. Running through their pages is an unforgettable array of Dickensian
characters, ranging from true nationalists and pseudonationalists to pitiful victims
of the society’s malaise.
The reader will find the novels irreverent at times and out-spokenly anti-
clerical for fiction of the 19th century, but they were written to present an anarchy
of unbridled greed existing in the country. Rizal was not necessarily anti-religious.
But as he trained his guns with impunity on the Spanish friars whom he felt were
responsible for the misery of his countrymen, he inevitably condemned some
procedures and practices of the religion behind which the friars were shielding
themselves.
Rizal’s novels are more meaningfully studied as political satires for his reform
propaganda. With disarming honesty, Rizal wrote to free the human spirit from
deterioration as depicted in the historical situation from 1877 to 1887.
To the Filipino reader who understands the historical background of the
novels, Rizal traced the delicate portrait of a people faced with social problems and
political enigma. Many of the predicaments presented have contemporary
relevance. And the novels provide an inexhaustible source of inspiration for
solutions to current conditions and problems.
Noli Me Tangere literally means “touch me not.” It sketches a wound painful
even to the healer’s touch causing more agony than relief. The concerned healer
reveals the actions that a frustrated society resorts to in the moment of despair.
Such despair could force the oppressed to insurgence, as El Filibustirismo, the
sequel, suggests.
Rizal did not advocate revolution. But while he spoke vehemently against it in
his novels, he emphasized that revolution would be the inevitable alternative if no
attempt were made by the Spanish government to introduce social and political
reforms and check the injustices committed against the natives. An enslaved
people, Rizal claimed, eventually would revolt against their oppressors. To the
philosopher Rizal, freedom meant liberty, and liberty meant the free exercise of
people’s rights.
With a sensitive pen, Rizal portrayed in his novels the miserable plight of the
Filipino masses in an effort to convince the Spanish authorities that there was an
urgent need for reforms in society, in the government, and in the Catholic Church
of the Philippines. He did not put the blame of society’s malaise entirely on the
Spaniards; he felt that the indios had an equal share of hypocrisy and indifference.
Thus, while the novels are sincere denunciations of the abuses and excesses of
authority committed by the friars and the civil administrators, they are also an
honest exposure of the weaknesses and defects of the Filipinos. “There are tyrants
where there are no slaves,” he often said. And he hoped that by presenting an
authentic picture of decadent Philippine society – a picture he ahd largely drawn
from his own experiences and observations - he would awaken a lethargic people
to a realization that only through education of the masses could a strong moral
fiber be developed.
To understand Rizal’s purpose in writing the novels, one has only to look at
his dedication of the Noli Me Tangere, which reads thus:

To My Country:
In the catalogue of human ills there is to be found a cancer so malignant that
the least touch inflames it and causes agonizing pains; afflicted with such a cancer,
a social cancer, has your dear image appeared to me, when, for my own heart’s
ease or to compare you with others, I have sought, in the centres of modern
civilization, to call you to mind.
Now desirous of your welfare, which is also ours, and seeking the best cure of
your ills, I shall do with you what was done in ages past with the sick, who were
exposed on the steps of the temple so that the worshippers, having invoked the
god, should each propose a remedy.
To this end, I shall endeavor to show your condition, faithfully and ruthlessly, I
shall lift a corner of the veil which shrouds the disease, sacrificing to the truth
everything, even self-love for, as your son, your defects and weaknesses are also
mine.

The Author

Europe, 1886
The fervor in Rizal’s nationalism is articulated in the dedication of El
Filibusterismo:
To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez, eighty-five, Don Jose Burgos,
thirty, and Don Jacinto Zamora, thirty-five, who were executed on the scaffold of
BAgumbayan on 28 February 1872.
The Church, by refusing to unfrock you, has put in doubt the crime charged against
you; the Government by enshrouding your trial in mystery and pardoning your co-
accused has implied that some mistake was committed when your fate was
decided; and the whole of the Philippines in paying homage to your memory and
calling you martyrs totally rejects your guilt.
As long therefore as it is not clearly shown that you took part in the uprising in
Cavite, I have the right, whether or not you were patriots and whether or not you
were seeking justice and liberty, to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil I
am trying to fight. And while we wait for Spain to clear your names some day,
refusing to be a party to your death, let these pages serve as a belated wreath of
withered leaves on your forgotten graves. Whoever attacks your memory without
sufficient proof has your blood upon his hands.

J. RIZAL
Noli Me Tangere
(Touch Me Not)

Juan Crisostomo Ibarra is a young Filipino who, after studying for seven years
in Europe, returns to his native land to find that his father, a wealthy landowner,
has died in prison as the result of a quarrel with the parish curate, a Franciscan friar
named Padre Damaso. Ibarra is engaged to a beautiful and accomplished
girl, Maria Clara, the supposed daughter and only child of the rich Don Santiago
de los Santos, commonly known as Capitan Tiago.
Ibarra resolves to forego all quarrels and to work for the betterment of his people.
To show his good intentions, he seeks to establish, at his own expense, a public
school in his native town. He meets with ostensible support from all, especially
Padre Damaso’s successor, a young and gloomy Franciscan named Padre Salvi,
for whom Maria Clara confesses to an instinctive dread.
At the laying of the cornerstone for the new schoolhouse, a suspicious accident,
apparently aimed at Ibarra’s life, occurs, but the festivities proceed until the dinner,
where Ibarra is grossly and wantonly insulted over the memory of his father by
Fray Damaso. The young man loses control of himself and is about to kill the friar,
who is saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.
Ibarra is excommunicated, and Capitan Tiago, through his fear of the friars, is
forced to break the engagement and agree to the marriage of Maria Clara with a
young and inoffensive Spaniard provided by Padre Damaso. Obedient to her
reputed father’s command and influenced by her mysterious dread of Padre Salvi,
Maria Clara consents to this arrangement, but becomes seriously ill, only to be
saved by medicines sent secretly by Ibarra and clandestinely administered by a girl
friend.
Ibarra succeeds in having the excommunication removed, but before he can
explain matters, an uprising against the Civil Guard is secretly brought about
through agents of Padre Salvi, and the leadership is ascribed to Ibarra to ruin him.
He is warned by a mysterious friend, an outlaw called Elias, whose life he had
accidentally saved; but desiring first to see Maria Clara, he refuses to make his
escape, and when the outbreak page occurs, he is arrested as the instigator of it and
thrown into prison in Manila.
On the evening when Capitan Tiago gives a ball in his Manila house to celebrate
his supposed daughter’s engagement, Ibarra makes his escape from prison and
succeeds in seeing Maria Clara alone. He begins to reproach her because it is a
letter written to her before he went to Europe which forms the basis of the charge
against him, but she clears herself of treachery to him. The letter had been secured
from her by false representations and in exchange for two others written by her
mother just before her birth, which prove that Padre Damaso is her real father.
These letters had been accidentally discovered in the convento by Padre Salvi, who
made use of them to intimidate the girl and get possession of Ibarra’s letter, from
which he forged others to incriminate the young man. She tells him that she will
marry the young Spaniard, sacrificing herself thus to save her mother’s name and
Capitan Tiago’s honor and to prevent a public scandal, but that she will always
remain true to him.
Ibarra’s escape had been effected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka up the
Pasig to the Lake, where they are so closely beset by the Civil Guard that Elias
leaps into the water and draws the pursuers away from the boat, in which Ibarra
lies concealed.
On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears,
wounded and dying, to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his
mother, a poor woman who had been driven to insanity by her husband’s neglect
and abuses on the part of the Civil Guard, her younger son having page
disappeared some time before in the convento, where he was a sacristan. Basilio,
who is ignorant of Elias’s identity, helps him to build a funeral pyre, on which his
corpse and the madwoman’s are to be burned.
Upon learning of the reported death of Ibarra in the chase on the Lake, Maria Clara
becomes disconsolate and begs her supposed godfather, Fray Damaso, to put her in
a nunnery. Unconscious of her knowledge of their true relationship, the friar breaks
down and confesses that all the trouble he has stirred up with the Ibarras has been
to prevent her from marrying a native, which would condemn her and her children
to the oppressed and enslaved class. He finally yields to her entreaties and she
enters the nunnery of St. Clara, to which Padre Salvi is soon assigned in a
ministerial capacity.

EL FILIBUSTIRISMO
The book is also known in English by the title The Reign of Greed.
The protagonist of El Filibusterismo is a jeweler named Simoun. He is the new
identity of Crisostomo Ibarra who, in the prequel Noli, escaped from pursuing
soldiers. It is revealed that Crisostomo dug up his buried treasure and fled to Cuba,
becoming richer and befriending Spanish officials.
After many years, the newly fashioned Simoun returns to the Philippines, where he
is able to freely move around. He is a powerful figure not only because of his
wealth but also because he is a good friend and adviser of the governor general.
Outwardly, Simoun is a friend of Spain; however, in secret, he is plotting a terrible
revenge against the Spanish authorities. His two obsessions are to rescue his
paramour Maria Clara from the nunnery of Santa Clara and to foment a
Philippine revolution against Spain.
The story of El Filibusterismo begins on board a steamer ship sailing up the Pasig
river from Manila to Laguna de Bay. Among the passengers are Simoun; Doña
Victorina, a pro-Spanish native woman who is going to Laguna in search of her
henpecked husband, Tiburcio de Espadaña, who has deserted her; Paulita
Gomez, her beautiful niece; Ben-Zayb (anagram of Ibañez), a Spanish journalist
who writes silly articles about the Filipinos; Padre Sibyla, vice-rector of the
University of Santo Tomas; Padre Camorra, the parish priest of the town of
Tiani; Don Custodio, a pro-Spanish Filipino holding a position in the
government; Padre Salvi, thin Franciscan friar and former cura of San
Diego; Padre Irene, a kind friar who was a friend of the Filipino students; Padre
Florentino, a retired scholarly and patriotic Filipino priest; Isagani, a poet-nephew
of Padre Florentino and a lover of Paulita; and Basilio, son of Sisa and promising
medical student, whose medical education is financed by his patron, Capitan
Tiago.
A man of wealth and mystery, Simoun is a very close friend and confidante of the
Spanish governor general. Because of his great influence in Malacañang, he was
called the “Brown Cardinal” or the “Black Eminence”. By using his wealth and
political influence, he encourages corruption in the government, promotes the
oppression of the masses, and hastens the moral degradation of the country so that
the people may become desperate and fight. He smuggles arms into the country
with the help of a rich Chinese merchant, Quiroga, who aspires to be Chinese
consul of Manila. His first attempt to begin the armed uprising did not materialize
because at the last hour he hears the sad news that Maria Clara died in the nunnery.
In his agonizing moment of bereavement, he did not give the signal for the
outbreak of hostilities.
After a long time of illness brought about by the bitter loss of Maria Clara, Simoun
perfects his plan to overthrow the government. On the occasion of the wedding of
Paulita Gomez and Juanito Pelaez, he gives a wedding gift to them a
beautiful lamp. Only he and his confidential associates, Basilio (Sisa’s son who
joined his revolutionary cause), know that when the wick of his lamp burns lower
the nitroglycerine, hidden in its secret compartment, will explode, destroying the
house where the wedding feast is going to be held killing all the guests, including
the governor general, the friars, and the government officials. Simultaneously, all
the government buildings in Manila will be blown by Simoun’s followers.
As the wedding feast begins, the poet Isagani, who has been rejected by Paulita
because of his liberal ideas, is standing outside the house, sorrowfully watching the
merriment inside. Basilio, his friend, warns him to go away because the lightened
lamp will soon explode.
Upon hearing the horrible secret of the lamp, Isagani realizes that his beloved
Paulita is in grave danger. To save her life, he rushes into the house, seizes the
lightened lamp, and hurls it into the river, where it explodes.
The revolutionary plot is thus discovered. Simoun is cornered by the soldiers, but
he escapes. Mortally wounded, and carrying his treasure chest, he seeks refuge in
the home of Padre Florentino by the sea.
The Spanish authorities, however, learns of his presence in the house of Padre
Florentino. Lieutenant Perez of the Guardia Civil informs the priest by letter that
he will come at eight o’clock that night to arrest Simoun.
Simoun eludes arrest by taking poison. As he is dying, he confesses to Padre
Florentino, revealing his true identity, his dastardly plan to use his wealth to
avenge himself, and his sinister aim to destroy his friends and enemies.
The confession of the dying Simoun is long and painful. It is already night when
Padre Florentino, wiping the sweat from his wrinkled brow, rises and begins to
meditate. He consoles the dying man saying: “God will forgive you Señor Simoun.
He knows that we are fallible. He has seen that you have suffered, and in ordaining
that the chastisement for your faults should come as death from the very ones you
have instigated to crime, we can see His infinite mercy. He has frustrated your
plans one by one, the best conceived, first by the death of Maria Clara, then by a
lack of preparation, then in some mysterious way. Let us bow to His will and
render Him thanks!”
Watching Simoun die peacefully with a clear conscience and at peace with God,
Padre Florentino falls upon his knees and prays for the dead jeweler. The priest
then takes the treasure chest and throws it into the sea.

Nationalism in the Novels

The Plots of the Novels

Noli Me Tangere is the story of Juan Crisostomo Ibarra, scion of a wealthy family,
who returns home to San Diego “where still roam deer and boars” from his seven-
year education in the German section of sophisticated Switzerland. During his
absence, his father Don Rafael Ibarra was imprisoned for the accidental death of a
Spanish tax-collector. Don Rafael died in prison and he was denied a Christian
burial by Father Damaso, San Diego’s parish priest, because he had stopped going
to confession long before his death, and was a subscriber to liberal publications.

The young Ibarra finds the deplorable conditions in his country virtually
unchanged since he had left for Europe. Inflamed with a desire to educate his
people and bring progress to his hometown, he establishes a school, patterned after
the progressive schools he had known in Europe. His project, though
enthusiastically endorsed by the townspeople, is met with skepticism by the old
scholar Tasio who years before had attempted to do the same thing but he failed.
The new parish priest, Father Salvi, also looks at the school disapprovingly for he
sees it as a dangerous threat to his authority over the natives.

During the laying of the school’s cornerstone, an attempt is made on Ibarra’s life
but he is saved by Elias, the mysterious boatman whom he had earlier rescued from
death during a picnic at the lake. The friars constantly harass and persecute Ibarra
at San Diego. At one gathering, the vilification hurled against his dead father
almost provoked Ibarra to kill Father Damaso, but his hand is stayed by his fiancée
Maria Clara. He is excommunicated by the friar and later absolved by the
Archbishop.

Finally, a false rebellion is plotted and through forged documents, Ibarra is

implicated as its leader. Unwittingly, his fiancée had lent support to the plotter by
providing them with a specimen of his signature when she was forced to exchange
his love letter for some letters which contained the hidden secret or her paternity.

Ibarra is imprisoned and later rescued once again by Elias who hides him in a
banca covered with zacate and rows him under a barrage of gunfire. Elias is
wounded and sacrifices his life for his beloved friend. Ibarra quietly buries Elias in
the woods belonging to his family; then he flees the country, leaving the
impression that he died from the civil guard’s bullets.

The distraught Maria Clara is urged by Father Damaso to marry the Spaniards
Alfonso Linare. She refuses and enters the nunnery of the Poor Clares instead.

El Filibustirismo picks up the threads of the narrative where Noli leaves off, with
the return of Ibarra, under an assumed name Simoun. On board the dingy
steamer, Tabo, enroute to San Diego on the Pasig River, he is the subject of
conversations on the lower deck. The thirteen years away from his country has
transformed him into an exotic looking, mysterious personality. He radiates great
influence and he becomes the indispensable consultant and closest friend of the
Governor General.

No one suspects that Simoun, the affluent jeweler, is the fugitive Ibarra. Only
Basilio, son of the demented Sisa of Noli Me Tangere, comes to know the secret.
But even Basilio finds it difficult to reconcile the dreamer and the idealist that once
was Ibarra to the shrewed, sly schemer that is now Simoun.
Now a young man pursuing a medical career, Basilio stumbles on Simoun’s secret
on a Christmas day visit to his mother’s grave in the woods of the Ibarras. Simoun
tries to win Basilio to his side as he explains his plans. He has returned to
overthrow the government and avenge the injustices he has suffered. He would use
his wealth and his influence to encourage corruption in the high circles of
government; as a result, he would drive the people to despair and incite them to
revolution. His obsession, the revolution, would primarily become a fulfilment of
his vow of vengeance. The people’s freedom in the process came only as a
secondary purpose.

Twice Simoun attempts to ignite the fires of rebellion but he fails. On the first
occasion, the news of Maria Clara’s death reaches him just as he is about to give
the signal for the coordinated attack on the city. He had planned this revolution so
that in the ensuring confusion he would be able to rescue Maria Clara from the
nunnery. But now she is dead. In his numbness, he forgets that his followers await
his signal. Panic ensues and they break out in disorganized rampage.

His second attempt is thwarted by Isagani, the young poet, who snatches the lamp
Simoun sends as a wedding gift to Isagani’s former sweetheart who marries
another suitor. The lamp contained a homemade bomb which was timed to blow
up when all the invited high officials and friars were seated at the wedding feast.
Having been warned by his good friend Basilio of the impending explosion,
Isagani risks his life to save his faithless Paulita. Meanwhile, a parchment
prophesying doom is passed around among the wedding guests and Simoun is
pinpointed as the instigator of the scheme. The signature identifies Simoun as
Ibarra.

Simoun flees with his box of jewels. Hunted by the law and wounded, he seeks
sanctuary in the house of a native priest, Father Florentino. To escape his pursuers,
he takes poison and dies in despair.

The Characters
As gospels of Philippine nationalism, Rizal’s novels convey the essence of his
nationalism that was to reverberate in the hearts of his people. He identified this
essence in his letters as his aspiration: to alleviated the sufferings of the masses, to
make men worthy, to avenge one day the many victims of cruelty and injustice, to
erect a monument to the native tongue and to educate his people.

In Noli and Fili, the essence of Rizal’s nationalism is best understood through a
study of the characters. Through their dialogue and actuations, in their ideas and
ideals, or in the lack of these are seen Rizal’s range of vision, his concept of love
of country, his appeal for reforms, his attitude towards the friars, and his views on
the weaknesses of the Filipinos. The characters are the Spaniards and the Filipinos
whom Rizal praise, or condemned with compassion.

Ibarra-Simoun. The main protagonist in the Noli is Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y

Magsalin, first shown as a well-mannered young man recently arrived sometime in
the 1880s from his studies and travels in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
His maternal surname symbolizes the “translated” Filipino. His paternity goes back
to the Pelayos and Elcanos of Northern Spain. Al Elcano was companion to
Magellan. His grandfather was a taciturn Basque, Don Saturnino, a conqueror of
the soil; his father was the well-loved Don Rafael, who was fascinated by the
native camisa and indigenous culture while subscribing to Madrid publications,
and who venerates the likeness of the “executed priest” (Fr. Jose A. Burgos). These
forebears have provided Ibarra with “his more than average height, the impression
of youth and of health, equally developed in mind and body, [with] slight traces of
Spanish blood, beautifully bronzed and somewhat rosy in the cheeks (Noli, p 13).”

Upon his return to the Philippines, Ibarra is easily the talk of the town.

Indeed one of the most serious newspaper in Manila had devoted to Ibarra a front-
page article entitled ‘Imitate Him!’; lavishing advice on him and not a few praises.
It had called him the cultured youth and wealthy businessman; two lines below that
‘the distinguished philanthropist’; in the next paragraph, ‘the pupil of Minerva who
went to the motherland to greet the true home of the arts and sciences’; a little
farther on, ‘The Filipino Spaniard’, and so forth. (Noli, p 169)

The long-ignored respectability of the father is remembered; Don Rafael is

publicly acknowledged as “one of the most honorable and honest men in the
Philippines” (Noli, p 14). Even the friars, such as Father Sybila, are willing to
accede some credit: “The young Ibarra is sensible enough; he doesn’t seem stupid;
I think he is all right (Noli, p 49).” Indeed Ibarra is gracious and respectful but
sensitive and quick to strike at anyone who would malign the good name of his
dead father. In the course of time he becomes a harassed young man whose
ambitious projects fail one by one.

In the Fili, Ibarra reappears as Simoun, an influential jeweler. His contrasting

appearance is an ingenious disguise. He is tall, lean, sinewy and very deeply
tanned:

Who dressed in the English fashion and wore a pith helmet. His most striking
gesture was his long hair, completely white, which set off a black goatee so sparse
that it suggested he was a half-breed. To protect himself from the sun, he always
wore a pair of huge dark glasses that covered his eyes and part of his cheeks
completely, giving him the appearance of a man who was either blind or suffered
from some defect in his eyesight. (Fili, p 6)

Having the reputation of being the “adviser and true author of all the acts of His
Excellency the Governor-General (Fili, p 3),” he is sarcastically referred to as the
“Brown Cardinal” or “His Black Eminence” by the natives who compared him to
that influential Capuchin adviser of the notorious Cardinal Richelieu. Ibarra is no
longer the educator but a corruptor bet on the collapse of Castillian sovereignty.
People recognize his carriage and his Escolta residence, but doubt whether he is
half-English or half-Latin-American.
 Elias. Ibarra’s mysterious friend Elias appears in an almost deux ex
machina fashion every time Ibarra is in trouble. His robust appearance is marred
by great sad eyes and a stern mouth, long, unkempt black hair that falls to his
strong neck, and a coarse dark shirt that reveals powerful sinewy arms.

Although regarded as an outlaw, Elias is no ordinary renegade. His family

misfortunes had forced him to brigandry. Elias’ grandfather had been a bookkeeper
in the employ of Don Pedro Eibarramendia. When a fire razed the district where
Don Pedro lived, the bookkeeper was blamed. He was publicly flogged and
dragged through the streets by a horse, in effect “executed” through total ostracism
and humiliation. His wife, in despair for the family’s needs, turned to prostitution.
The husband hanged himself and widow, accused of causing the hanging, left the
town with her two children.

In time, the older son Balat had become a dreaded tulisan while the younger
brother stayed in the woods with their mother. Balat eventually got caught and his
body was quartered. His trunk was buried, his limbs were exhibited in different
towns, and his head was forcibly hung at the entrance to his mother’s hut. Seeing
this gory piece, the mother died on the spot.

The younger brother then fled to Tayabas to start a new life but misfortune
followed him all the way. He soon fell in love with the daughter of a wealthy man,
but before they could marry, his lineage. The woman, however, gave birth to the
twins, Elias and his sister, and died soon after. Their father was tortured in prison
and left for dead.

The children were then raised by their wealthy grandfather who sent them to good
schools leaving them a large legacy. In a dispute, a disgruntled relative uncovered
their past and they were forced to leave town with an old, devoted servant who
turned out to be their real father. The father soon died in misery. Soon, Elias’
sister, bereft of her betrothed, disappeared; she was found dead with a dagger
pierced on her breast. Elias feeling abandoned and desolate became an outlaw. As
such he could freely comb the hills and towns in search of the descendants of the
man who caused his family misfortunes.

Tasio. The spirit of nationalism is also reflected in Don Anastacio, the

scholar. Tasio is the fool to the majority who are apathetic to his unorthodox ideas
and bizarre behavior. Because he had brain, his mother decided that his security lay
in the priesthood and not in an academic career. He gave up his studies for love but
was widowed and orphaned in less than a year. To avoid self-pity, idleness and the
temptations of the cockpit, he concentrated on his books. He became so engrossed
in his hieroglyphics and other intellectual pursuits that he neglected his estates and
was completely ruined.

Once he had planned to open a school, but failed because so many factors
worked against him. In the story, he reacts coldly to Ibarra’s own plans for a town
school, but offered true sympathy and sensible advice. Upon Ibarra’s arrest and
imprisonment, Tasio’s efforts to testify to Ibarra’s innocence prove futile. His long
walk to town compounded by his excitement and anger at the obvious conspiracy
against Ibarra exhausts him. He is found dead at the foot of the stairs of his house.

Maria Clara. Ibarra’s fiancée is Maria Clara de los Santos, daughter of Doña Pia
Alba de los Santos and Father Damaso. Don Santiago, Doña Pia’s husband, had
always regarded her as his child. She was a Caucasian beauty with a classic profile.
Her hair was fair and her nose was well-shaped. She had a winsome mouth with
cheerful dimples, white onion-fine skin, and “her mother’s eyes, large, black,
shadowed by long lashes, gay sparkling when she was at play, thoughtful and deep
otherwise (Noli, p 37).”

Her mother’s death of puerperal fever evoked endless sympathy for the
orphan. She became everybody’s darling and she responded with all graciousness.
She became the object of paternal affection and concern of her baptismal
godfather, Father Damaso.
 Maria Clara provided continuity and motivation in the story. She is Ibarra’s
inspiration in the planning and execution of his projects in two novels. The
odyssey of her locket used by Rizal as literary device to link incidents in the
development of the plot. The locket a gift from Capitan Tiago is tenderly given
away to a leper. Much later, in the Fili, the locket is given to Basilio by the leper as
payment for medical treatment. Basilio lovingly offers to his sweetheart Juli, who
hesitantly allows her father Matanglawin (Cabesang Tales) to use it as payment to
Simoun for arms and ammunitions. Simoun is quietly overjoyed at obtaining the
locket as a memento of lost love.

Father Damaso Verdolagas. The former parish priest of San Diego, a

Franciscan, is easily the antihero in Noli. His verbosity is matched only by his
arresting manner. “His classic features, penetrating look, heavy jaws, and
herculean build, gave him the appearance of a Roman partrician in disguise (Noli,
p 5).” His voice was rough and his humor, “like that of a man who never held his
tongue and who thinks that what he says s dogma and beyond and question.”

He is depicted as an uncouth, bigoted, power-mad ingrate, the

personification of depraved evil among the friars. He had been in the country for
23 years and served as curate of San Diego for 20 years. There he had come to
know most of the townspeople intimately. He exploited them apparently for the
interest of his Church and Kin, but actually for his own personal gain and
convenience.

He had no respect for any authority except his religious superior. He

denounced the Madrid misters as “mad.” He was a renegade Carlist during the
reign of King Alfonso. He dominated his associates and caused fear due to his
irritating innuendoes, downright indignities, and utter disregard of people’s
feelings. His manners were brusque thus failing to cultivate the trust and
confidence of his parishioners.
 But his toughness was mellowed when he sought the welfare of Maria Clara.
His love and concern for his daughter seemed to be the only good in this
Franciscan priest.

The Undesirables. These are the characters that portray the pervading social
cancer in the novels of Rizal. The most harmless looking among them erodes
society with their base intentions and nobody takes them seriously. The pretentious
Chinese half-breed Don Santiago de los Santos leads this group. He is an
entertaining character and it is equally challenging to uncover, beneath the naughty
sarcasm, the cancers for which his type is responsible.

“He was short and rotund, thanks to an abundance of fat that, according to his
friends, was a sign of heavenly favour and, to his enemies, came from battening on
the poor… his face wore a habitually amiable expression… there was no lack of
brains in his skull, which in outward appearance was small and round. And
covered with ebony-black hair cut long in front and very short in the back. His
eyes, small but not at all almond-shaped, never betrayed emotion… he would have
been quite justified in believing and passing himself off for a handsome man if his
mouth had not been distorted by the abuse of tobacco and betel-nut ….
Nevertheless, that bad habit had not impaired the whiteness of his own teeth and
two other furnished by the dentist at twelve pesos each (Noli, p 28).

Capitan Tiago was one of the richest property-owners in Binondo,

Pampanga, and the lakeside town of San Diego. He had come to his fortune and
social title by marrying Doña Pia Alba, a prominent good-looking mestizo who
was very astute in the sugar, coffee and indigo business as well as in the
management of farm lands in San Diego. Capitan Tiago would patronize new ideas
but would not dare to accept them without prior approval of the religious or civil
authorities.

“Santiago does not consider himself a native,” Father Damaso remarks about
him. For Capitan Tiago tries to imitate the Europeans in dress and in manners. “He
would put on a frock coat and top-hat to go to the cockpit, the market, religious
processions, the humblest Chinese store.” Aligning himself with the Spaniards, he
would exploit the natives.” His subordinates considered him a martinet and a
tyrant; the poor thought him ruthless, cruel, and ready to profit from all their
miseries (Noli, p 34).”

Was he feared or laughed at? “It is true that his debtors welcomed him with
orchestras, gave banquets in his honour, and showered him with gifts. The best
fruit will always be found on his table, when a deer or wild pig was caught, he was
given a quarter; if he admired a debtor’s horse, it was in his stables half an hour
late. But people at him behind his back and called him Sacristan Tiago (Noli p.
55).”

About his religiosity, “Capitan Tiago had never addressed himself to God in
his prayers, not even in his greatest difficulties; he was rich, and he let his money
pray for him (Noli, p 29).”

His materialism is such that he considers Maria Clara’s loss of a sweetheart

secondary only to his loss of money. Forced to break his daughter’s engagement to
Ibarra, he thinks of his money, too:

“Calm yourself, my child, I am more unfortunate than you and I am not crying.
You can find another fiancé, a better one, but I, I am losing fifty thousand pesos!
(Noli, p 229).”

He is always eager to please the authorities who consider him “full of the
best will in the world, peaceful, obsequious, obedient, and generous with gifts.”

Capitan Tiago was a happy man, as happy as a man with a little brain could be in
those parts; he was rich, he was at peace with God, with the Government, and with
men (Noli, p 29).”
 When this peace is later threatened, Capitan Tiago withdraws to that haven of
opium. In the Fili, this addiction causes his death.

The other undesirables are the Espadañas. Doña Victorina is another native
who tries to act more Spanish than the Spaniards. She is almost illiterate and
unintelligent. She speaks little Spanish, but nonetheless she considers herself
superior to most people because of her pretenses to Spanish affinity. She claims to
be 32 years at 45, and disdains her many Filipino suitors for a Spanish husband.

At the time of the story in the Noli, she is married to Don Tiburcio de
Espadaña – a late marriage, to be sure, but to a Spaniard nevertheless. She has
grown to be “ more than blowsy; she was over blown.” Her hair had dwindled
down to a bun the size of an onion, her face was furrowed with wrinkles, her teeth
were falling; she had to squint to see some distance away. She is a pretentious and
domineering shrew, and holds her husband in control by threatening to tear out his
false teeth and leave him a horrible sight for days if he would not grant her wishes.

The husband is a lame and bald man who stutters and sprays saliva when he talks.
A native of Extrmadura, Spain, he had come to the Philippines as a customs
official, but aside from getting seasick and breaking a leg during his trip, he had
the ill fortune of finding his dismissal papers waiting for him upon his arrival.
Jobless and hungry, he felt that a marriage to Dona Victorina would alleviate his
woes. In the Noli, through his wife’s machinations, he passes for a Doctor of
Medicine who treats only patients” of quality.” His only qualifications were his
work experience as an attendant in the hospital of San Carlos in Madrid and his
citizenship.

In the Fili, Don Tiburcio is the Philippine Ulysses, hopping from town to
town, with his Calypso in pince-nez Doña Victorina in hot pursuit. He finds refuge
at the offshore residence of Father Florentino, she finds distraction in her niece
Paulita Gomez’s suitor Juanito Pelaez. The reader parodies of the Filipino without
identity, the Spaniards without dignity; apparently harmless creatures, yet for their
huge number they actually magnify the insincerity and absurdity of Philippines
society.

The Supporting Characters. Other symptoms of the social cancer are

indicated among the victims of poverty and ignorance. These are Sisa, driven by
her sufferings to insanity, and her sons, ten-year-old Basilio who survives the
family travails and pursues a medical career in the Fili, supporting himself through
servitude to and vigilance over the opium addict Capitan Tiago, and seven-year-old
Crispin, who becomes a fatal target of the blows of the parish caretaker.

The victims of injustice are equally pathetic figures. Cabesang Tales is

driven to outlaw by circumstances that reveal the roots of agrarian malaise in the
country. His son, Tano, “so good, so honest!” is conscripted into military service in
the Carolines where he is so alienated and confused by physical and moral distress
that he comes home in a state of shock. He did not recognize the dumb old man
who is his own grandfather Selo, whom he shoots in a clash with some “bandits.”
Tano’s sister Juli, beloved of Basilio, is the innocent and hardworking rustic who
sacrifices her honor and her life for her family and beloved.

The nameless and countless defeatists are typified by the fanatic Tertiary
sisters, Rura, Sipa and Juana whose examples prefigure the “spit level” Christianity
of Contemporary Filipinos – “perfect” Christians in name alone. A frivolous sense
of values is displayed by Paulita Gomez, niece of Dona Victorina and sweetheart
of Isagani, who marries the more affluent Juanito Pelaez. Another character
common even today is Senor Pasta whose pertenses to learning have made him
voluble in evasive argument.

The misdirected zeal of the unholy friars has definitely aggravated the social
cancer. Along with Father Damaso in interfering with the public welfare are Father
Bernardo Salvi, ecclesiastical governor of the archdiocese and incumbent curate of
San Diego, and Fathers Hernando de la Sybila and Camorra.
The idealists and dreamers must excise the cancer before they succumb to their
own deterioration and hopelessness. The Dominican Father Fernandez lends a fair
ear to his students; he is Isagani’s classical exception to the majority of uncaring,
illogical friar-teachers. Isagani, nephew of Father Florentino and young poet
trained at the Ateneo, is a symbol of the liberated Filipino youth whose unselfish
devotion urges him to save the faithless Paulita. He aborts Simoun’s master
conspiracy to blow up the Spanish hierarchy at the wedding party.

Rizal's ultimate spokesman in the Fili is Father Florentino. He os a distinguished

native priest whose serious countenance evinced the "tranquility of a soul
strengthened by study and meditation and perhaps tested by intimate moral
sufferings" (Fili, p 17). He is Rizal's portrait of the ideal shepherd of God's flock.

The delicate and noble delineation of characters is the strongest literary asset of the
novels. Replying to the torrent of comments, suggestions and queries that was
unleashed by the Noli, Rizal said:

I am not enraged with all the Spaniards. In my work there are noble honorable
Spaniards. . . There are also bad Indio's, worse even than various Spaniards. My
adversaries would like me to portray the Peninsular Spaniards like angels and the
Filipinos like stupid men, without drawing distinctions. This is not only folly but
also an imitation of Spanish writers, and I do not do this. There are persons who
enjoy grumbling or backbiting but they are resentful when they hear the truth.

This motley array of characteristics treated humorously or satirically at times,

portray the causes and the symptoms and the cure of the social cancer itself. The
suffering of the people, the constraints in the school and judicial systems, the
misdirected concern and ill-defined roles of the military, civil, and religious
authorities and the multifarious concepts and manifestations of nationalism, are
depicted in these great works of art.
Expressions of Nationalism Among the Characters. The spirit of nationalism
that pervades in the novels is expressed in the impassioned dialogue of the
principal protagonists. At other times it is implied by the veiled comments and
actuations of the sensitive characters whose ignorance of Rizal sought to eradicate.

In the early part of the Noli, the principal character Ibarra elucidates Rizal's
political sentiment that Spain and the Philippines were two parts of one nation and
that loyalty to one was loyalty to the other. One was patria grande, the other
was patria chica; today this is recognized as nationalism and regionalism.

Ibarra states in a toast that is reminiscent of Rizal's brindis speech of 1884,

"Gentlemen, in spite of everything, I give you Spain and the Philippines. "( Noli, p
19)

This sentiment for one's country is based on the knowledge of the country's
tradition and culture. Thus, Ibarra explained to a young Spaniard at the bienvenida
party:

Before visiting any of those countries i would try to study its history, its Exodus, so
to speak, and after that I found everything understandable. I saw that in all cases
the prosperity or unhappiness of nations is in direct proportion to their liberties and
their problems, and by that token, to the sacrifices or selfishness of their
ancestors." ( Noli, pp 18-19)

Later as he reflects on the country's ills and the possibility of rebellion, he says:

'No, in spite of everything, my country comes first - first the Philippines, daughter
of Spain - first Mother Spain. What was destined, what was unavoidable, cannot
stain the honour of the Motherland." (Noli, p 47)
And later, he again says to Tasio:

"Is my love of country incompatible with love for Spain? . . . I love my country,
the Philippines, because I owe her my life and happiness, and because every man
should love his country. I love Spain, the country of my forefathers, because, after
all, the Philippines owe and will owe to Spain both happiness and future." (Noli, p
159)

Conversing with the Governor General, Ibarra honestly declares:

"Sir, my greatest desire is the happiness of my country, a happiness which I would

wish to be due to the Motherland and to the efforts of my fellow citizens, one
united to the others with eternal ties of common ideals and common interests.
What I ask can only be given by the Government after many years of continuous
work and the correct measures of reform." ( Noli, p237)

However, the disillusioned Ibarra turned Simoun in the Fili looks forward to the
separation of the Philippines from Spain and urges Basilio to work for a free
nation:

"... So they refuse to integrate you into the Spanish nation. So much the better!
Take the lead in forming your own individuality, try to lay the foundations of the
Filipino nation. They give you no hopes. All the better! Hope only in yourselves
and your own efforts. They deny you representation in the Spanish parliament.
Good for you! Even if you were able to elect representatives of your choosing,
what could you do there but be drowned among the many voices, yet sanction by
your presence the abuses and wrongs which may be afterwards committed? The
less rights they recognize in you the more right you will have later to shake off
their yoke and return evil for evil. If they refuse to teach you their language, then
cultivate your own. Make it more widely known, keep alive our native culture for
our people, and instead of aspiring to be mere province, aspire to be a nation,
develop an independent, not a colonial mentality, so that in neither rights nor
customs nor language the Spaniard may ever feel at home here, or ever be looked
upon by our people as a fellow citizen, but rather, always as an invader, a
foreigner, and sooner or later you shall be free." (Fili, pp 51-52)

In Simoun , Rizal provides a philosophy of patriotism:

"However perfect humanity may become, patriotism will always be a virtue in

oppressed peoples because it will always mean the love of justice, freedom and
self-respect ... A man is great not because he goes ahead of his generation, which
in any case impossible, but because he guesses what it wants. The intellect may
think that geniuses are ahead of their time, but they only appear so to those who
look at them from afar or who mistake the rearguard for a whole generation ."
(Fili, p 53)

Elias' enkindled love for country is shown in his sympathy for the poor and the
oppressed who are the victims of Spanish repression in the islands. He is the
people's spokesman as he outlines to Ibarra the abuses committed on them by the
friars and the civil authorities. And the pleads with the young man in whom he sees
qualities of leadership to use his influence to seek reforms. In vain does he
convince Ibarra of the imperativeness of the reforms to prevent the suffering
masses from rising up in arms.

Towards the end of the Noli, as both he and Ibarra are being hunted by the
authorities, Ibarra invites Elias to leave the country. Elias refuses and insists:

"Impossible. It is true that I cannot live or be happy in my country but I can suffer
and die in it, and perhaps for it; that is something. Let the misfortunes of my
country be my own, and since our people are not all united by a noble ideal, since
our hearts do not beat faster to the same name, at least our common unhappiness
may unite me with them. I shall weep with them over our sorrows, and let the same
misfortunes oppress all our hearts." (Noli, p 386)

When the embittered Ibarra vows to return to incite revolution, Elias counsels by
reminding Ibarra of his former words:

"I would tell you to think well about what are you going to do. You are going to
start a war, for you have money and brains, and will easily find many helping
hands; unfortunately many are discontented. But in this fight which you propose to
start, the defenseless and the innocent will suffer most. The same sentiments which
a month ago led me to ask you for reforms, lead me now to ask you to reflect
further. Our country does not think of independence from the Motherland; she asks
nothing more than a small measure of liberty, of justice, and of love. The
discontented, the criminal and the desperate will follow you, but the people will
stand apart. I would not follow you myself; I would never resort to these extreme
measures while I could see some hope in man." (Noli, pp 388-89)

Isagani, on the other hand, nurses a sentimental desire to die for his country:

Ah, he too would like to die, to become nothing, to leave his country a glorious
name, to die for her, defending her against foreign invaders, and let the sun
afterwards shine on his dead body, an immovable sentinel on the rocks of the sea!
(Fili, pp 195-96)

Contrasted to this patriotic fervor is Senor Pasta's reply to Isagani when the young
poet asked the lawyer to work for the student's cause on the question of the
Academy for the Spanish language:

"O yes, I yielded to no one in my love of country and in my progressive ideas, but .
. . I cannot commit myself. I do not know whether o or not you realize my position;
it is very delicate . . . I have many interests . . . I must act within the limits of strict
prudence . . . It would be most embarrassing. (Fili, p 116)

Tasio, disgusted with the failure of his projects and futility of overcoming the
obstacles to progress, cynically advises Ibarra to be resigned to things as they are:

"Why shouldn't we do as that weak stem loaded with roses and buds? The wind
blows and shakes it and it blows down as if to hide its precious burden. If the stem
were to stay straight it would break, and wind would scatter the flowers, and the
buds would die unopened. But the wind passes on, and then the stem straightens up
again, proud of its treasure. Who will blame it for having bowed necessity? . . . To
fight alone against the world is not courage but foolhardiness." (Noli, pp 160-61)

Regarded as a fool by people who did not understand his progressive ideas, Tasio
withdraws into his ivory tower. In spite of his frustrations, he looks forward to a
bright future for his country where ignorance shall have been replace by liberal and
noble ideas from Europe, and his country would encourage economic and
technological development.

Decadence in the Social Order. Rizal's concept of nationalism is not only

expressed explicitly in the patriotic dialogue of the characters, but also largely
reflected in the portrayal of a Philippine society that needed social reforms.

The town of San Diego was typically rural, inhabited by petty, petulant people. "In
San Diego no less than in Rome, there were continuous quarrels, for each authority
wanted to be the sole master and found the other superfluous. (Noli, p 56) The
mayor's office" had cost him five thousand pesos and many humiliations, although,
considering the income, it was cheap at that." (Noli, p 55)

The dingy steamer, Tabo, that sluggishly plies the Pasig River in the Fili
Was typical of the country, something like a triumph over progress, a steamship
that was not quite a steamship, changeless, defective but an undisputable fact,
which, when it wanted to look modern, was perfectly happy with a new coat of
paint. No doubt the ship was genuinely Filipino! With a little good will, it could
even be taken for the Ship of State itself built under the supervision of Most
Reverent and Illustrious personages. (Fili, p 1)

The placement of the steamer’s passengers suggests the positions of the oppressed
and the oppressors in a colonial hierarchy. It also reveals the kind of discrimination
that Rizal knew so well in his college days. Accordingly,

below decks could be seen brown faces and black hair; natives, Chinese, half-
breeds, jammed in among baggage and cargo, while above them on the upper deck,
under the awning that protected them from the sun, and handful of passengers
dressed in European style, friars and officials, were seated in comfortable
armchairs, smoking huge cigars and admiring the view, without taking the slightest
notice of the efforts of the skipper and the crew to negotiate the difficulties of the
passage. (Fili, p 2)

The abuses of these “upper deck passengers” are exposed by Rizal as the true
“social cancer.” As a consequence, people had lost their self-respect. They are
berated by Don Filipo: “Sacrifice your self-esteem for a good cause. You sacrificed
it before for a bad one, and you ruined everything,” he reminds them, referring to a
community project. (Noli, p 113)

But the social cancer is conditioned by foreign factors of which the local
authorities wash their hands. “It’s plain to see,” smirks Father Damaso “ever since
the Suez Canal was opened, we have been corrupted. Before, when we had to go
round the Cape (of Good Hope), we didn’t get so many souls here, nor did so many
go abroad to lose their souls.” (Noli, page 220)
 Whatever the cause of source to the cancer, indolence was always pointed to
be at its root. A young Spaniard inquires:

“Are the natives really born lazy? Or was that foreigner traveller right who said
that we Spaniards use this change of laziness to excuse our own, as well as to
explain the lack of progress and policy in our colonies? He was, of course,
speaking of other colonies of ours, but I think the inhabitants there belong to the
same race as these people.”

Simoun satirically remarks:

“Beer is a good thing. I have heard Father Camorra say that the lack of energy in
this country is due to the fact that its inhabitants drink so much water.” (Fili, page
15)

“The trouble is not that there are bandits in the mountains and in uninhabited
places,” Simoun continues (page 76). “The trouble lies with bandits in the towns
and cities,” cynically alluding to both religious and civil authorities, whether
peninsular or local in origin, who viciously exploited the natives. Decadence
pervaded in the morass of bias and in the misguided innate virtue of family
practices and values.

These are shown in Capitana Tinay’s parody of Rizal’s mother Teodora

Alonso. Tinay announces, “I shall tell my son to give up his studies. They say wise
men die on the gallows.” (Noli page 25)

Ibarra pinpoints the parochial view of the people as an urgent reason for
further education. In his letter to Maria Clara, he quoted his father’s legacy:
“You must learn something about life in order to serve your country. But you
cannot learn it here; if you stay with me, under my care, sharing my worries from
day to day, you will never be able to take in a long view. And when I’m gone, you
will be like the plant described by our poet Baltazar, grown in water, withering the
moment it is not tended, shrivelled by a touch of sun.” (Noli, page 42)

With the fragile Sisa, it was simply a matter of ignoring the problem until it
resolved itself. Thus, did she close her hut and stoke the handful of coals in the
kitchen stove. “Thus does man cover up with the ashes of outward indifference the
burning emotions of his soul lest they be extinguished by careless exposure “to
one’s fellow.” (Noli, page 85)

Ibarra laments the presence of bad officials, abetted by inert people:

“There are officials who are useless, even bad, if you will, but there are also good
ones, and, if the latter can do nothing, it is because they are faced with an inert
mass, the people, who take scant interest in the matters which concern them.
However, I did not come here to argue with you on this point; I came to ask your
advice. You say I should my head before grotesque idols.” (Noli, page 159)

As Simoun, he is irked by the absence of initiative. To Basilio, he

remonstrates: “Resignation is not always a virtue; it is a crime when it encourages
oppression. There are no tyrants where there are no slaves. Man is by nature so evil
that he always abuses his powers when he is not resisted.” (Fili, page 54)
Exasperated by Basilio’s non-involvement, Simoun chides: “Don’t you realize that
a life which is not dedicated to a great idea is useless? It is a pebble lost in the
field, when it should form part of some building.” (Fili, page 52)

The Abuses of the Religious Authorities

 Rizal further depicts the corruption of the clergy in the characters of Father
Damaso, Salvi, Sibyla and Camorra. The friar was generally regarded as “the chief
moral, political, and civil authority in the town, supported by his order, feared by
the government, high, powerful, consulted, listened to, believed and obeyed always
by all” (Noli, page 98) As such, he demanded privileges and enjoyed priorities
over high government officials whose tenures of office he could control. As
expected, his respect for civil authority depended on its convenience to his whims.
“The highest civil official in the Philippines was, in the opinion of the priests,
much inferior to the convent cook.” (Noli, page 16) Tasio noted this to Ibarra:
“The lowest lay-brother is more powerful than the Government with all its
soldiers” (Noli, page 156)

The priest made the civil officials fear them. They controlled the acts of the
ignorant natives and threatened indios’ heads with excommunication for the
slightest sign of disrespect and disobedience. In this sermon delivered on the feast
of San Diego one sees the utmost trepidation:

“Listen to what the Holy Councils say. When a native meets a priest on the street,
he shall bend his head and offer his neck so that the Father may lean on it; if the
priest and the native are both on horseback, then the native shall stop, and shall
take off his hat reverently; and finally if the native is on a horseback and the priest
is on foot, the native shall get off his horse and will not remount until the priest
tells him to be off, or has gone out of sight. That is what the Holy Councils say and
whoever does not obey shall be excommunicated. (Noli, page 199)

Father Damaso regarded the indios with contempt. He called them lazy,
vicious, and ungrateful even when he was royally entertained at their homes. He
despised their aspirations for enlightenment;

“You know what the native’s like. Let him learn a few letter and he passes himself
off as a doctor. All these chaps go off to Europe without having learned to wipe
their noses.” (Noli, page 220)
 He orders the schoolmaster of San Diego to stop teaching to his pupils
“Don’t go around in borrowed clothes. Use your own native tongue. Don’t go
spoiling Spanish; it’s not for you.” (Noli, page 98)

This opposition to the education of the masses is supported by many of his

colleagues. Father Salvi secretly tries to foil Ibarra’s school project, and Fathers
Irene, Sibyla, and Camorra, argue strongly against the students’ petition for the
establishment of the academy for the Spanish language. One says’

“But the natives should now know Spanish, don’t you realize that? When the do.
They start arguing with us and they have no business arguing, all they should do is
pray and obey, they have no business interpreting laws and books.” (Noli, page 82)

This biased attitude causes Isagani’s grievances which he tells Father

Fernandez. He accuses the friars of
“Curtailing the pursuit of knowledge . . . stiffing al fervor and enthusiasm for it,
and implanting in us outmoded ideas, discredited theories and false principles
incompatible with progress.” (Fili, page 219)

The friars, who could easily encourage the latent abilities of the native,
insulted and exploited him. They made him think that religion was a matter of
observing external rituals, mouthing devotional prayers without understanding
them, and rendering strict obedience to the friars. They made him believe that
salvation could be obtained through a generous donation to the Church, paying for
a large number of masses or candles lighted at the shrine of a particular saint. Thus,
Captain Tiago made his gold pray for him and completed with Doña Patrocinio on
the display of religious fervor and generosity.

Many of the friars were sadly deficient in spiritual leadership. Despite the
vow of chastity, they had immoral liaisons with native women who, either through
threat or gentle persuasion had accede to their carnal desires. Maria Clara is a
product of such liaison and Juli is a victim of Father Camorra’s lewd designs. In
utter shame, she jumps from the second-floor window of the convent to her death.

The friars were guilty of bribery and corruption. In the Fili, Father Camorra
asked Captain Basilio for a gift of a pair of lady’s earrings; otherwise the parish
priest’s unfavorable report would cause the Captain’s great harm. “These earrings
were compulsory gifts” (Fili, page 38) and the students gave Father Irene a pair of
chestnut horses to gain approval of their petition.

The friars also enriched themselves not only by exhorting excessive fees for
Church services (200 pesos for Father Damaso’s sermon on the feast of San
Diego), but also by unjust acquisition of landed estates. The religion orders would
stake claims on certain on certain parcels of land and rent them out to tenants. Very
often, the property was already owned by some natives who would vainly protest
this illegal occupancy.

On the eve of their first harvest, a religious Order which owned the lands in
the neighboring town had claimed ownership of the newly acquired fields, alleging
that they were within the limits of its property, and to establish its claim
immediately attempted to put up boundary markers. The administrator of the
religious Order’s estate, however, let it be understood that out of pity he would
allow Tales the enjoyment of the land of an annual rental, a mere trifle, a matter of
20 or 30 pesos. (Fili, page 24-25)

Not wishing to anger the powerful friars, the peace-loving Tales gave in. After a
year, for one reason or another, the friar landlords raised the rental to P50.00. The
rental increased annually from then on and when it reached to P200.00, Cabesang
Tales grumbled in protest. The friar administrator threatened that if Tales would
not pay, then another tenant would take over. Thinking that the friar was not
serious Tales refused to pay and he brought the case to court and dared to “battle
against a most powerful Religious Order before which Justice lowered her head
and judges dropped their scales and surrendered their swords.” After a long period
of litigation, the case was decided against Tales. An appeal to the higher court
proved futile, and the poor man turned to the eventual life of an outlaw.

In a letter to Felix Resurrection Hidalgo, Rizal showed his vehemence to

friar hypocrisy:

I have replied to the insults that for so many centuries have been heaped upon us
and our country. I have described the social conditions, the life there, and our
beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our complaints our sorrows. I have unmasked
hypocrisy that under the clock of religion impoverished and brutalized us. I have
distinguished the true religion from the false, from the superstitious, from that
which capitalizes on the holy word in order to extract money, in order to make us
believe in absurdities of which Catholicism would blush if it would know them. I
have lifted the curtain in order to show what is behind the glittering words of our
government. I have told our complaints, our defects, our vices, and our culpable
and cowardly complacency with the miseries over there in the Philippines.
Whenever I have virtue, I have proclaimed it and rendered homage to it… The
incidents are all true and they happened!

Corruption in the Civil Government. The civil government perpetuated

anomalies with its own defective organization which was largely dependent on the
authority of the friars and with the appointment of the weak officials who had no
training at all in government administration. As Tasio succinctly points out,

“The Government itself sees nothing, and decides nothing except what the parish
priest or the head of the religious Order makes it see, hear, and decide. It is
convinced that it rests on them alone; that it stands because they support it; that it
lives because they allow it to live; and that the day they are gone, it will fall like
discarded puppet. It is only an arm, the convent is the head. (Noli, p 157)

Isagani lament this situation to Senor Pasta:

 “Governments have been made for the good of peoples, and to fulfill
their purposes properly, they must follow the wishes of the citizens who best know
what they need.” (Fili, p 117)

But the Governor General clarifies to Ibarra the over-centralized and under
systemized policy:

“Here, we old soldiers must do everything and be everything: King, Ministers of

State, of War, of the Interior, of Economic Development, of Justice, and all that.
What is worse, we must consult the home government on every point, and that
distant government, according to circumstances, approves our proposal, sometimes
without knowing anything about them. And we Spaniards say: jack of all trades,
master of none! Furthermore, we come, usually knowing little about the country,
and leave it just when we are getting to know it… We in the Government do not
lack good intentions, but we are compelled to make use of the eyes and arms of
others, whom we usually do not know, and who perhaps, instead of serving the
interest of the country, only serve their own. That is not our fault but that of
circumstances.” (Noli, p 236)

Regarding the presence of corrupt officials in the government, the concerned

Lieutenant Guevarra tells Ibarra:

“The continual changes in the administration, demoralization in high places,

favoritism, combined with the cheaper fares and shorter trip out here since the
Suez Canal was opened, are to blame for everything; the worst elements of the
Peninsula come here, and if a good man comes, he is soon corrupted by the present
condition of the country.” (Noli, p 22)

The majority of peninsular Spaniards sent to the Philippines resembled

Tiburcio de Espadana, the Customs official in the Noli who could not even speak
Spanish correctly. Laid off by the government that found him incompetent, he
staves off hunger by marrying a wealthy indio and naively allows himself to be
called a Doctor of Medicine even though he knew nothing about the profession.

The corrupt Governor General in the Fili bribed his way into his
appointment using Simoun’s money. His excessive lack of administrative ability is
shown in his dependence on Simoun, whose Machiavellian design and ridiculous
decisions distorted his sense of values. He pays more attention to trivial matters
than to the pressing needs of the country. He tolerates gambling as it would enrich
government coffers, and, consequently, his own pocket. Although it is prohibited
to encourage the cultivation of poppy in the colony, he allows opium-smoking
because it “gives the government, without any work at all, a yearly revenue of
more than four hundred and fifty thousand pesos.” (Noli, p 236)

The civil government ignored the basic needs of the people. It discouraged
freedom of the press. It entrusted the matter of educating the natives to the friars
who discouraged the learning of the natives. It often showed a maladministration
of justice, with decision constantly tipped to favor the Spaniards, as in the case of
Cabesang Tales, or favored the party that gave “gifts” to the judges. It also
exploited the natives through conscript labor and increased taxes.

The Civil Guard. One of the government agencies, the guardia civil,
particularly stands out in its cruel treatment of the natives. Rizal's novels describe
the illegal searches and planned robberies committed by the guards in the guise of
law enforcement, as well as the terrible tortures suffered by the people.

Answering Ibarra's assertion that the guardia civil is a necessary institution

for security of the towns, Elias gives proof of its rampant abuses:

"It paralyses communication because everybody is afraid of being harassed for

petty causes. It is concerned with appearance rather than with fundamentals --one
of the first symptoms of incapacity. A man is tied and beaten up because he has
forgotten his identity card, no matter if he is a decent person with good reputation.
The officers think it is their duty to exact a salute, willing or unwilling, even at
night, and they are imitated in this by their subordinates, who use it as an excuse--
although an excuse is never lacking--to manhandle and fleece the peasants. The
sanctity of the home does not exist for them; not long ago they entered a house in
Kalamba through the window and beat up a peaceful inhabitant to whom their
commanding officer owed money and favours. There is no security for the
individual: when they want their barracks or their houses cleaned, they go out and
seize anyone who does not resist and make him work the whole day." (Noli, p 309)
Elias observes that the guardia civil lorded over the towns for fifteen years,
yet outlaws abounded, robberies continued and the perpetuators were never caught.
Crime existed and real culprits went about freely, while the peaceful inhabitants
cringed in terror.

"Ask any honest citizen if he looks upon the constabulary (guardia civil) as a
good thing, as a means of protection furnished by the Government and not as an
imposition, a despotism whose excesses are more harmful than the depredations of
the outlaws... One cannot even protest against the imposition of the forces of laws
and order." (Noli, pp 308-309)

The Defective Educational System. Another deplorable aspect of the

colonial government was the poor administration and ineffective supervision of the
educational system in the country.

The importance of the school system was acknowledged. At the laying of the
cornerstone of Ibarra's school, the governor proclaimed:

"Residents of Sand Diego, we have the honour to preside over a ceremony whose
importance you will understand without our telling you. This is the foundation of a
school, and the school is the foundation of society, the book on which is written the
future of nations. Show us the schoosl of a nation and we shall tell you what kind
of a nation it is." (Noli, p 205)
 Ibarra complemented:

"I want my country's good, that is why I am building the schoohouse, but I seek it
through education, through progress. We cannot find our way without the light of
knowledge." (Noli, p 320)

The town situation was pitiful. In San Diego, before Ibarra return, there was no
school building. The school master in the Noli had to use a portion of the “ground
floor of the parish house, beside the carriage of the parish priest" as a schoolroom.
Under these circumstances, not much learning was accomplished, to the delight of
Father Damaso. The schoolmaster was limited by the curriculum prescribed by the
parish priest and cautioned against teaching the pupils Spanish language. Added to
his difficulties was the prejudice against educating the people. Out of 200 children
listed, only 25 came to class regularly. (Noli, p 96) The teacher denounces this
desperate condition to Ibarra:

"In our present circumstances education will be never be possible without the most
powerful help, first, because the young have no inducement or encouragement to
study, and secondly, because even if they had, they would be stifled by poverty and
other needs more pressing than education. They say that Germany even the son of
the peasant spends eight years in the village school. Here, who would spend half
that time where there is so little to be gained from it? They learn to read and write,
they memorize passages, whole books, in Spanish, without understanding a single
word--how does school do any good to our village boys?"

"A poor school teacher does not fight single-handed against prejudices, against
certain influences. I would need, above all, a schoolhouse, a place to teach in; now
I must do so on the goundfloor of the parish house, beside the carriage of the parish
priest." (Noli, p 96)

Teachers had no prestige:

"The children lose their respect for their teacher when they see him badly used, and
unable to assert his rights. If the teacher is to be listened to, if his authority is to be
beyond question, he needs prestige, a good name, moral authority, a certain
freedom." (Noli, p 96)

Teachers were downgraded:

“Neither learning nor zeal are expected from a schoolmaster; only resignation, self-
abasement, and passivity.” (Noli, p 08)

At the college level, it was a farce. A very discouraging atmosphere is shown in the
physics class described in the Fili. The schoolroom was bare except for an
impressive for an mahogany framed blackboard. Whatever laboratory equipment
the school had locked away in a glass cabinet for students “to gaze at but not
touch.” It would be brought out from time to time for display. No laboratory
experiments were conducted and class recitation was often a farce. Why go to
school?

One went to school, they argued not to study or learn but to complete the
prescribed course, and, if they could memorize the textbook, nothing more could
be asked of them and they would be sure to pass on to the next grade. (Fili, p 42)

One went class not to learn but to avoid the mark (for absence), there was nothing
else to the class except to recite the lessons by heart, to read the textbook, and at
most to answer one or two questions, abstract, profound, misleading, enigmatic;
there was never lacking, it is true, the usual little homily on humanity, submission
and respect for the religious, (Fili, p 92).

The professor invariably required his students to recite the day’s assignment by
heart and word for word. The human phonographs went to work, some well, others
helped by friendly promptings. Whoever accomplished a flawless recitation gains a
good mark; whoever made three mistakes, a zero.
Basilio passed his oral examination by “answering the only question they asked
him like a machine, without pausing for breath, and the examining board approved
his performance amid great laughter.” (Fili, p 42)

The college teachers were very often insulting; they even stooped to make fun of
the students’ names. And all the students felt at the end of the session that

each one of them had lost one more hour of his life and with it a measure of his
dignity and self-respect, an hour which, on the hand, had added to the
discouragement, resentment, and aversion to study in his heart.

For just like the two hundred and thirty-four [students in Physics class], thousands
before them had wasted their time and, if matters were not set right, so would
others still to come, to be brutalized, to have their dignity outrage and their
youthful enthusiasms turned into indolence and hatred, like waves on a polluted
beach that one after the other accumulate the garbage upon it. (Fili, p 103)

A few hopefully kept their optimism. Basilio joined the science enthusiast’s
bandwagon: “It is the goal of the most cultured nations.” (Fili, p 52) Señor Pasta
singled out the responsibility of students: “He who wants to learn, learns and learns
well.” (Fili, p 120)

The Plight of the Filipinos. Eight million Filipinos had become the victims of
human indignities. Rizal did not spare them from censure. He sympathized with
their sufferings, yet he felt that the people’s indifference had made them inert. His
sensitive pen reminded the people that these follies and misfortunes were caused
by a colonial subservience that had to stop; the moral cast of his thoughts
demanded a renewal of strength and a recourse of change.
There was abject misery among the poor: “Sugar prices were low, the rice harvest
had been lost, half the work animals had died, rentals and taxes were rising no one
knew why or what for, while more and more abuses by the Constabulary
discouraged merrymaking in the towns.” (Fili, p 37) The people were continuously
exploited and harassed by the authorities such as the despondent Sisa, whose sons
are falsely accused of stealing the parish priest’s money. The younger of the two,
Crispin, is beaten to death by the sacristan mayor. The family of Cabesang Tales
suffered poverty and oppression andis driven to outlawry as Sisa becomes insane.

It was futile to complain against the excesses of authority. Day after day they were
reminded that they had no right to question authority – they born to serve, they
were fit only to be ruled, and therefore, they were not supposed to complain. The
most effective constraint was the threat of filibusterismo, or subversion, the serious
charge for a non-conformist attitude of mind, “as an overt attempt to overthrow an
established order of society.” (Fili, p XIV)

Simoun decribes the depredations of the natives to Father Florentino thus:

“Ah, if you had seen what I have: unfortunate wretches suffering unspeakable
tortures for crimes they never committed, the murders done to conceal the crimes
or blunders of others, pitiful fathers of families torn from their homes to work
uselessly on highways that crumbled the next morning and which seemed to be
built to bury their families in misery – endure, work, it is the will of God!” (Fili, p
296)

Rizal did not wholly blame the religious and civil authorities for their sordid state
of affairs. The people themselves, by their timidity, fear and cowardice had
shackled their minds and debased their souls. They gradually allowed the
Spaniards to enslave them. The Governor General observed;
“Ah, if these people weren’t so stupid, they’d take the measure of these
Reverences! But every people deserves its fate, and let us do what everybody else
does.” (Noli, pp 51-52)

Don Filipo impatiently admits that the friars are always right “because we always
start by admitting they are right.” (Noli, pp 223-224) The Mayor concludes, “The
friars are rich and united; we are divided and poor.”

The burning need to unite and clamor for emancipation from the malaise of the
country was unheeded by the people. Many had grown callous through suffering
and had learned by experience that it was dangerous to go against the
Establishment. Tasio advised Ibarra, “To fight alone against the world is not
courage but foolhardiness.” (Noli, p 161). Taking “prudence” as synonymous to
“fear,” they chose to be silent and left things as they were.

One such character is Señor Pasta who preferred security in office to a risky
involvement in the agitation for civil rights. Another is Basilio who would rather
have the simple, uneventful life of a country doctor than fight for his right.

Simoun berates him that resignation becomes a crime when it breeds tyrants and
slaves. Still failing to arouse Basilio’s interest in his schemes, Simoun bitterly
rationalizes:

“When somebody is dead it is useless to try to wake him up. Twenty years of
uninterrupted slavery, of systematic humiliation, of constant prostration, can make
a soul so hunch-backed that it will take more than a day to straighten it up.
Children inherit from their fathers their ways of thought, good or bad. Long live
then your ideas of a happy life, long live the dreams of the slave who only asks for
a rag with which to wrap his chains so they won’t make so much noise or bruise
his skin. Your ambition is a cozy little home, a woman of your own and a handful
of rice. Behold the model Filipino!” (Fili, pp 54 – 55)
Tasion had earlier dampened Ibarra’s idealism with brutal frankness.

“The reforms which come from above are annulled below by the vices of all, by,
for example, the get-rich-quick madness, and the ignorance of the people who let
everything pass. Abuses cannot be corrected by royal decree if zealous authorities
do not watch over its execution, and while freedom of speech against the excesses
of petty tyrants is not granted.” (Noli, p 158)

Rizal criticized the unspoken embarrassment of the natives for their own ancestry
so that the search for a national identity was a superficial imitation of European
manners and mode of dressing. Capitan Tiago, who “does not think of himself as a
native,” and Doña Victorina de Espadaña personify this colonial mentality.

The Filipinos’ gullible obedience and surrender of individual rights abetted rather
than curtailed the abuses of the friars. The Tertiary Sisters and the members of the
Municipal Board of San Diego, particularly the mayor, are examples of this
subservience to the friars’ whims.

This distorted sense of values is shown in the general attitude towards gambling
and fiestas. The cockpit was a most frequented place, but people shied away from
the schools. In an effort to compete with the neighboring towns in the celebration
of the feat of the patron saint, the people of San Diego spent money lavishly, even
if this meant continued poverty. Speaking through Tasio, Rizal criticized this
extravagance thus:

“Having a good time doesn’t mean making fools of ourselves. It’s the same
senseless orgy every year. And all for what? Throwing away all that money when
there is so much misery and need! But of course! I understand. The orgy, the
bacchanal, serves to drown out the general lamentation.” (Noli, p 183)
Tasio also scorns the increasing apathy of society towards the country’s need for
improvement. Sinking into pessimism shortly before his death, he admits to his
good friend Don Filipo:

“You are right; our young people think only of love affairs and pleasures; they
spend more time and effort on seducing and dishonouring a girl than on planning
the good of their country; our women are so devoted to the care of God’s house
and household that they neglect their own; our men are energetic only in the
pursuit of vice and heroic only in dishonouring themselves. Childhood awakens in
meaningless routine; youth lives its best years without an ideal; and maturity,
sterile maturity, serves no other purpose than to corrupt by its example.” (Noli, p
334)

The people despaired, and turned to hatred and crime. Father Florentino clarifies
this degeneration to Simoun:
“The glory of saving a country cannot be given to one who has contributed to its
ruin. Yu believed that what crime and iniquity had stained and deformed, more
crime and more iniquity could cleanse and redeem. This was error. Hate only
creates monsters; crime, criminals; only love can work wonders, only virtue can
redeem. If our country is some day to be free, it will not be through vice and crime,
it will not be through corruption of its sons, some deceived, others bribed;
redemption presupposes virtue; virtue, sacrifice, and sacrifice, love!” (Fili, p 295)

The Urgency of Needed Reforms

Eventually the people would rise from their lethargy, Tasio predicts. In a
conversation with Ibarra, Tasio says:

“The people do not complain because they have no voice; they do not move
because they are in stupor; and you say that they do not suffer because you have
not seen how their hearts bleed. But some day you will see and hear! Then woe
unto those who draw their strength from ignorance and fanaticism, who take their
pleasure in fraud, and who work under cover of night, confident that all are asleep!
When the light of day reveals the monstrous creatures of the night, the reaction will
be terrifying. All the forces stifled for centuries, the poison distilled drop by drop,
all repressed emotions, will come to light in a great explosion.” (Noli, pp 157 –
158)

The same prediction is made by a ranking official who courted his own dismal cy
criticizing the Spanish administration in the islands. To the Governor General, he
reasons out:

“It is because I love Spain that I am speaking now and I do not care how much it
displeases you. I do not want her to be accused in time to come of having been a
stepmother of nations, a bloodsucker of peoples, a despot over a handful of islands,
because that would be a terrible mockery of the noble purposes of our ancient
kings. How do we fulfill their sacred will and testament? They promised these
islands protection and justice and we make game of lives and liberties of their
inhabitants; they promised civilization, and we begrudge it, fearing that the natives
may aspire to a full life; they promised light, and we blindfold the natives so they
may not witness our excesses; they promised to teach virtue, and we foment vice:
and instead of peace, prosperity and justice, there is distress; commerce withers
away and the masses lose their faith. Let us put ourselves in the place of the
Filipinos and ask ourselves what we would do. Ah, in your silence I read their right
to rebel and, if things do not get better, some day they will rebel, and in truth
justice will be on their side as well as the sympathies of all honest men, of all the
patriots of the world.” (Fili, pp 250 – 251)

All this agitation point to the urgency for immediate social and political reforms.
Through the delineation of characters, Rizal expounded on what he expected from
Spain and he aroused a moral sensitiveness in his beloved people.
Immediate reform, Rizal said, would have to start from the Spaniards. The
colonial philosophy would have to be redefined, as Father Fernandez suggested to
Father Syvila:

“I say, then, why not take this opportunity, when they are still ignorant, to change
our policies completely, to place those policies on a solid and permanent
foundation, say, that of justice, instead of ignorance? There is nothing like being
fair; I have always told my brethren that, although they do not want to believe me.
The natives, like any young people, idolize justice; they even ask to be punished
when they are at fault, but by the same token they are exasperated by being
punished when they do not deserve it. Is what they want reasonable and fair? Then
let us give it to them; let us give them all the schools they want, they will soon tire
of them, youth is lazy and only our opposition makes them active. The bonds of
prestige, Father Sybila, are very much worn out; let us make ready other bonds,
say, the bonds of gratitude.” (Fili, p 83)

The old Dominican superior concurred, admitting urgency for change:

“Attacks wake us ups; we discover our weaknesses, and we can improve ourselves.
Exaggerated praises only fool us, lull us to sleep, while making us ridiculous, then
we shall fall as we fell in Europe.” (Noli, p 50)

Speaking for the masses, Elias pleads that the Spaniards institute “radical reforms
in the armed forces, in the clergy, in the administration of justice, that is to say, a
more paternal approach from the Government.” (Noli, p 307)

When Ibarra asks, “Reforms? In what sense?” Elias answers: “For example, more
respect for human dignity, greater security for the individual, less strength in the
armed forces, less privileges for an organization which so easily abuses them.”
(Noli, p 307)
Elias definitely asks for the abolition of the guardia civil. But this cannot be done
since the government needed “a body of men with that unlimited power and
authority which it needs to make itself respected,” then

“we should consider well to whom we give such unlimited power placed in human
hands of ignorant and willful men, without moral training, without proven honesty,
is a weapon placed in the hands of a madman let loose in an unarmed crowd. I
admit, and I want to believe like you [Ibarra], that the Government needs this
strong right arm, but it should choose it well from among the most worthy, and
since it prefers to confer authority on itself rather than receive it from the people,
let it at least show that it knows how to do so.” (Noli, p 311)

Elias also proposed reforms in the administration of justice. Much change was
necessary about a system that upheld rental for untitled lands and arbitrary increase
of rent accompanied by the threat of expulsion if the tenant did not comply with
the landlord’s demands. This was a system that encouraged the inordinate
corruption of court officials and showed partiality in the settlement of cases. The
tragic families of Elias and Cabesang Tales and Sisa were such victims.

Regarding the state of the religious orders, Elias claims that the people do not
really ask for their removal “but only for the reforms required by new
circumstances and necessities.” (Noli, p 313) Let the friars pay more attention to
their religious mission of teaching the True Faith rather than encouraging
superstition and fanaticism by giving greater importance to mundane practices. Let
them stop enriching themselves at the people’s expense.

The friars should also attend to their obligation “of constantly improving the young
morally and physically, of guiding them to happiness, of creating an honest,
prosperous, intelligent, virtuous, noble and loyal people,” instead of obstructing
education, Isagani admonishes. (Fili, p 218)
There was need for the government to institute reforms in the faulty educational
system. Assigning the educational system to the friars was a blunder:

“When it is a matter of giving a whole people moral sustenance, a matter of

nourishing the youth, a people’s best part, destined to be the whole, the
Government not only does not call for competitive tenders but awards the power
precisely to that organization which presides itself in not wanting education or any
form of progress.” (Fili, p 219)

The government might start by directly assuming the administration and

supervision of the schools, Isagani suggests. It also should redefine the educational
goals. What was necessary was the training of worthy professionals as lawyers and
physicians.

There was need for qualified teachers, effective methods of instruction, an enriched
curriculum, adequate educational facilities, and encouragement of students. As
Isagani pointed out to Father Fernandez, “When we have real professors, you shall
have real student.” (Fili, p 224)

The schoolmaster in San Diego valued his students and initiated innovations:

“Since it is necessary to have an outward and an inward calm, a serenity in the

spirit, a material and moral tranquility and receptivity for the brain to receive the
ideas, I believe that, before everything else, I should inspire in the children
confidence, a sense of security, and self-respect. Also, I realized that the sight of
daily floggings killed the sense of pity, and stifled that of personal dignity, which
moves the world; and with it the sense of shame, which once lost is difficult to
recover. I tried to make study pleasant and good-humored; I wanted to make the
primer not a black book bathed in the tears of childhood, but a friendly guide to
marvelous secrets; I wanted to make the school not a torture-chamber but a
playground of the mind. So I cut down floggings gradually; I took the rod and the
whip home and replaced them with the spurs of competition and self-esteem. If a
child did not learn his lesson, I blamed it in his lack of effort, never on his lack of
brains. I made the children believe that they had more talent than they really had,
and trying to live up to it they were compelled to study, just as self-confidence
leads to heroism. Any child who was praised before the whole class studied twice
as much the next day.” (Noli, pp 99 – 100)

The town council could include the school in their annual program of projects:

“A fifth part of the money raised could be utilized to award prizes: for instance, to
the best herdsman, farmer, fisherman, and so on. We can organize boat-races on
the river and the lake, run horse-races, put up greased poles, and hold other games
in which the country folk can join … With the remainder of the money we can
begin a small building to serve as a school, for we should not expect God Himself
to come down and build it for us.” (Noli, p 112)

Such encouragement could lead to something laudable, a spiritual, intellectual

freedom and renewal, according to a priest martyr:

“Do not forget that if wisdom is the patrimony of all men, only those of good heart
can inherit it; I have tried to transmit to you what I in turn received from my
teachers, adding to that legacy as much as I was able in handing it on to the next
generation. You must go to countries that are very rich. They come here seeking
gold; you go to their countries in search of the treasures that we lack. But
remember all that glitters is not gold.” (Noli, p 46)

Perceptive Spaniards like Father Fernandez realized the necessity for reforms: first,
by changing the attitude towards the natives, and then advocating the much needed
changes for the advancement and eventual freedom of the masses.
Rizal implies that the natives, on the other hand, should prove that they are worthy
of the reforms. “Money and good-will are not enough,” Tasio stresses to Ibarra, “in
our country abnegation, tenacity, and faith are also required; the field is not for
sowing, it is full of weeds.” (Noli, p 160) They should understand that reform
measures would contribute to the common good and that a sense of social
consciousness would prepare them for freedom and happiness. Circumspection
would eradicate corruption:

“The reforms which come from above are annulled below by the vices of all, by,
for example, the get-rich-quick madness, and the ignorance of the people who let
everything pass. Abuses cannot be corrected by royal decrees if zealous authorities
do not watch over its execution, and while freedom of speech against the excesses
of petty tyrants is not granted.” (Tasio to Ibarra, Noli, p 158).

This preparation would start with the reorientation of the masses’ attitude towards
education. The masses should be taught that education is not only for a few, but for
all. “Freedom is to man what education is in the mind,” says Isagani. (Fili, p 220)

Basilio had envisioned this freedom even as a little boy, when he declared to his
mother Sisa:

“I’m not going to work for the friars anymore . . . I’m going to be a herdsman
instead, I’ll take very good care of the herds, and so I’ll make the owner like
me . . . I’ll pick fruits in the forest . .. I’ll lay traps and snares to catch birds and
wild goats, I’ll fish in the river, and when I’m bigger I’ll go hunting. I could also
cut firewood . . . Meantime I’ll be my own master . .. And since old Tasio says
Crispin is very clever, we’ll send him to Manila to study; I’ll support him by
working.” (Noli, p 87)

Building up agricultural manpower was a mean to self-reliance, as Isagani says:

“I see nothing wrong in training these farmers and peasants, in giving them at least
the skills that will enable them to improve themselves and to improve their work,
that will allow them to understand many things which now they do not.” (Fili, p
120)

The enlightened natives would then eradicate superstition, develop a cultured sense
of values, improve their economic lives, make their homes comfortable, and
consequently, enjoy the true happiness they deserve. They would eventually study
science and bring about technological advancement in the country. This could
inspire infrastructure programs, like road planning and development. For instance,
Simoun proposed “to dig a canal, straight through from the lake to Manila, that is
to say, to make a new river channel, and close up the old Pasig. Land will be saved,
distances shortened, and mud-banks avoided.” (Fili, p 6)

The masses must develop the idea of human dignity and free themselves from the
fetters of deterioration and greed. Rizal’s belief in the integrity of the Filipinos is a
renewal of strength and an awareness that the Filipino will survive by his very
endurance. This is reiterated by Father Florentino:

“I do say that we must win our freedom by deserving it, by improving the mind
and enhancing the dignity of the individual, loving what is just, what is good, what
is great, to the point of dying for it. When a people reaches these heights, God
provides the weapon, and the idols and the tyrants fall like a house of cards, and
freedom shines in the first dawn. Our misfortunes are our fault, let us blame
nobody else for them. If Spain were to see us less tolerant of tyranny and readier to
fight and suffer for our rights, Spain would be the first to give us freedom because,
when the fruit of conception reaches the time of birth, woe to the mother that tries
to strangle it! But as long as the Filipino people do not have sufficient vigour to
proclaim, head held high and chest bared, their right to a life pf their own in human
society and to guarantee it with their sacrifices, with their very blood; as long as
we see our countrymen feel privately ashamed, hearing the growl of their rebelling
and protesting conscience, while in public they keep silent and even join the
oppressor in mocking the oppressed; as long as we see them wrapping themselves
up in their selfishness and praising with forced smiles the most despicable acts,
begging with their eyes for a share of the booty, why give them independence?
With or without Spain they would be the same, and perhaps, perhaps worse. What
is the use of independence if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?”
(Fili, p 297)

And through Simoun, Rizal advised that the people look beyond their oppression to
the establishment of a sovereign nation. “Take the lead in forming your own
individuality, try to lay the foundations of a Filipino nation . . . and develop an
independent, not colonial mentality.” (Fili, p 51)

As long as a people keeps its own language, it keeps a pledge of liberty, just as a
man is free as long as he can think for himself. Language is a people’s way of
thinking. Fortunately your independence is secure. Human passions watch over it.”
(Fili, p 50)

These passions obliterate the individual, for it is only the nation that counts, as
Elias indicated to Basilio: “Nothing will remain of me . . . I die without seeing the
sun rise on my country. You who are to see the dawn, welcome it, and do not
forget those who fell during the night.” (Noli, p 402)

This echoed by Father Florentino:

“Where are the youth who will dedicate their innocence, their idealism, their
enthusiasm, to the good of the country? Where are they who will give generously
of their blood to wash away so much shame, crime and abomination? Pure and
immaculate must the victim before the sacrifice to be acceptable. Where are you,
young men and women, who are to embody in yourselves the life-force that has
been drained from our veins, the pure ideals that have grown stained in our minds,
the fiery enthusiasm that has been quenched in our hearts? We await you, come for
we await you!” (Fili, p 298)
Symbolism in Maria Clara and Sisa

Among the characters of Noli Me Tangere, two women, Maria Clara and Sisa,
represent the enduring sacrifices of Filipino womanhood and the nation itself.

Maria Clara, the main female character of the Noli, is portrayed by Rizal as the
fruit of an illicit love affair between the Spanish Franciscan friar, Father Damaso,
and a native woman, Pia Alba, for six years the childless wife of Capitan Tiago.
Why such an origin?

Because in Rizal’s mind, the unhappy state of the Philippines which Maria Clara
symbolizes was the product of the exploitation of the Spanish rulers and the failure
of the people. In chapter 63 of the Noli, Father Damaso sternly disapproves of the
marriage of Ibarra to Maria Clara. Ibarra symbolized the liberalism that was
sweeping the Philippines as a result of stimulating influences from European
sources.

Rizal injected womanly qualities into the symbol that was Maria Clara. He
moulded her into something like Leonor Rivera, his real life sweetheart. She was
the typical, although not the ideal, Filipino woman. Thus she is shown as a young
convent-bred woman, shy and awkward in spite of her innate charms. At twenty-
one, she was immature and unable to form her own convictions without the
approval of her confessor or elders. She lacks the mature intellect and industry that
Rizal praised among the German women who “cared more for the substance of
things than for appearance.” Thus Maria was not Rizal’s ideal woman who would
possess not only the modesty and gentleness of Leonor Rivera but also the
intellectual acumen of the German fraulein.

The distinction between the “typical” and the “ideal” is important in understanding
and interpreting the character and symbolism of Maria Clara. As Rizal
characterized her, he exposed her weaknesses, her lack of courage and sound
judgement. At the same time, he enfolded her in the delicate soft mist of his poetic
imagination. He criticized her too, for her blind obedience to her parents. He
treated her with compassion, never with spite and hatred. He loved her in spite of
her short comings, as he loved his country.

Maria Clara was the image of the Philippines with her virtues and consistencies, a
symbol made more human by characteristics of the typical 19th century Filipino.

Sisa is described as another symbolic character.

Sisa was still young; once she must have been pretty and charming. Her eyes,
which like her character, her sons had inherited, were beautiful, deep, and long
lashed; her nose were well proportioned, her pale lips attractively drawn. Her
complexion was what the Tagalogs call kayumangging kaligatan, that is to say, a
clear, golden brown. In spite of her youth, sorrow or perhaps hunger, had made her
pale cheeks sunken; and if her abundant hair; once her greatest glory, was still well
groomed, with a so simple chignon unadorned with pins and combs, it was not out
of coquetry but habit. (Noli, p 82)

From this eloquent description, Sisa is the Philippines. Her features are beautiful,
but are made uncomely by later sorrow and suffering. She represents to
Motherland, as well as Rizal’s own mother and all Filipino women.
Sisa knows her sons characteristics intimately, even the way they walked: Basilio,
with strong sure steps; Crispin, with light irregular footfalls. She is highly
sensitive, especially to slurs against her character, as when she was referred to as
the “mother of the thieves.”

She knew she was wretchedly poor, forsaken by all, even by her own husband, but
until now she had treasured her good reputation and looked with pity on the
women, scandalously dressed, who were known to the town as camp followers.
Now it seemed to her that she had fallen even lower than they in human society.
(Noli, p 116)
This is the typical Filipino, submissive to all miseries, yet refusing any degradation
to honor!

She was all forgiveness, all heart, and this reaction invited further exploitation. To
Sisa, this was resignation to her fate. But when applied to a people, such an attitude
may be an acceptance of laziness and a selfish disregard for rights and duties.

Sisa in fact is both self-effacing and courageous. She could not assert her essential
ideals but she held on to her martyrdom. Perhaps this is because of acceptance for
the fate of her sons. She wanted to save them from oppression and suffer any
humiliation for their sake.

The Response to the Novels. The message conveyed by the novels made Rizal
famous overnight. There was a deluge of both favorable and unfavourable response
to his “eye-openers”. Rizal’s interpretation of the political and social malaise
caused the popular feeling of animosity towards the Spaniards. The idealism and
fortitude of Ibarra and Elias, the Maria Clara type of beauty, the antiheroic friar,
the meaning of the cover design—all these features were acclaimed by his readers.

Their ambivalent message seemed to incite revolution while serving as a grave

warning. It kindled varied reactions among the readers. Within weeks of the
publication and distribution of the Noli, Rizal began receiving tributes from friends
in Europe. Commendations came from such European scholars as Doctors, Adolph
B. Meyer, Friedrich Ratzel, Feodor Jagor, and Ferdinand Bluementritt. The
Filipino painter par excellence Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo wrote:

I admire your courage in saying plainly what you think and the inspiration
reflected in your work which makes one feel the palpitation of the heart of a man
who loves his country.
At Rizal’s expression that his mission had ended, Marcelo H. del Pilar retorted:

Rizal has no right yet to die. His name constitutes the purest and most immaculate
standard of sacrosanct aspirations and Plaridel and his men are no other than mere
volunteers who serve under that standard.

From other quarters, too, came words of caution and advice against the author’s
return to the Philippines where, it was believed, he would be imprisoned and
eventually put to death for his brutal frankness against the ruling powers of Spain.
Rizal had his own misgivings, frustrations and negative reactions. He grieve to
Ponce:

In Madrid where I had so many friends among our countrymen, my work not only
did not find support, but was not even permitted to enter, due to the neglect and
strange conduct of others, according to a friend, my only one remaining there it
seems. I don’t mind it personally; I’m sorry for what it signifies: I’m sorry because
I see fading out even our last virtue, which is our unconditional unity when it
concerns the welfare of our country. If we lose that, what will become of us be
miserable in everything, what virtues have we learned—we who came to Europe—
what superiority would we have to our other blind brothers?

In Manila, illustrious country men have tried to blacken my work, and I said to
myself; now that Filipino colony of Madrid, the most patriotic, the most advanced,
behaves that way toward me, I am very sorry, because this is an implied
condemnation of my book by my countrymen, if not something worse, which
would be moral degeneration. Between the two, I would rather be sacrificed.

In the Philippines the Spanish friars reacted to the novels with maddening anger
and alarm. The committee of Dominican Priests from the University of Santo
Tomas which the archbishop assigned to pass judgement on the Noli found it to be
heretical, scandalous, and subversive. The strongest objections were raised by the
Augustinian Salvador Font, whose report was used as the basis for Governor
Terrero’s order prohibiting the circulation of the novel, and Father Jose Rodriguez,
prior of Guadalupe, who wrote a pamphlet attacking the Noli. Simultaneously, in
Madrid, Senators Jose Salamanca, Luis Ma Paredes and Fernando Vida lambasted
the book and the author. Newsmen Vicente Barrantes and Wenceslao E. Retana
condemned the presentation of facts. Font was rebutted by Del Pilar, Rodriguez by
Father Vicente Garcia who protested:

In the words or various phrases in his book that I am going to cite, I see his faith in
God and the Christian religion that contradicts all idea of impiety and atheism.

In the Philippines, the effect of the novels on the masses was enthusiastic. Tomas
Arejola testified:

Your moral influence on us is indisputable . . . The tact and persuasiveness of a

Rizal is necessary in order that what we want to do for the common welfare of our
motherland should conform to our desires.

Alejandrino contributed ₱240 through Pedro Serrano Laktaw. Narcisa Rizal Lopez
sent ₱400 “from our countrywomen, single, married, and old, who wish to send
you more if they had more money but unfortunately at this time money is scarce.”
Another friend, the town druggist of Kalamba, Mateo Elejorde, informed Rizal of
how the people believed in him:

Receive thirty pesos that your friends, in spite of their poverty, send you. You may
use it according to your discretion… Alas! Jose! All the people here ask about you
and pin their hope on you. Even the poorest people of the mountains are asking me
about your return. It seems that they consider you the second Jesus who will
liberate them from misery… They have a thirst for news and what is happening to
you. Send us also the volume of Noli if available already, and
also Solidaridad, and if you have time, write us frequently, for it is a pleasure for
us to know what is happening to you there.
 The few copies of the novels that cleared the Customs and reached the bookstores
were sold out. The copies changed hands rapidly, passing around in less than a
month from first hand to third hand at more than twice the original sale price. Even
the illiterate natives were not spared the excitement the novels generated. From the
lips of those who read them, the message was relayed, the context varying,
depending on how the plot impressed the reader. Whichever way this was, the
excited retellers inflamed the intelligence of the people who became more
conscious of their plight. For the first time, the Filipinos were seeing themselves
and their problems in a truthful awareness. The people’s perception grasped the
message of a patriotic nationalism that was to become the inspiration for a future
blessed with freedom and happiness.

The ban against the books only served to arouse curiosity rather than discourage
their clandestine circulation. Some readers paid the full price for taking risks;
others hesitated. With the aplomb of the sage Tasio, Rizal resigned himself:

If the present generation does not want to read me because of fear, I shall keep
what I have written for the coming generation, but I continue and will continue
working. What are we going to do? Our countrymen are afraid to spend two or
three days in prison for the sake of enlightenment; perhaps the coming generation
may be more daring. Let us hope.

In due course, a copy of the Fili came into hands of Andres Bonifacio who
interpreted the message as a call to armed uprising. The rest is history and a fight
for emancipation.

Rizal had feared that his novels would not be read by his people. But he wrote
Ponce that the Noli had been written for the Filipinos and that it was necessary that
they read it. In his reply to Barrantes, Rizal had explained why: “I ask for reforms
so that the little good that there is may be saved and the bad may be redeemed.”
Hence, he determined to learn French sufficiency to translate his novels for a
Gallic audience which, he felt, would be more receptive to his ideas than his own
people. But these fears were allayed. Antonio Ma Regidor predicted:
Every Filipino patriot will read your book with avidity and upon discovering in
every line a voracious idea and every word a fitting advice, he will be inspired and
he will regard your book as the masterpiece of a Filipino and the proof that those
who thought us incapable of producing intellects are mistaken or are lying.

Praises are reiterated by Ponce:

Your work continues to arouse enthusiasm among our countrymen, with very few
exceptions—exceptions which I cannot understand nor explain, considering that it
is an eminently patriotic work in which you have staked your name, exposing
yourself to the vultures of clericalism, just to prescribe some remedy to the infinite
maladies of which our mother country is complaining. Those who criticize such
acts of self-denial and sacrifice deserve eternal condemnation in the history of our
motherland.

You are right in saying that we should be solidly united to ward off all the evils in
our beloved country. Let us work together, every one of us within his own sphere,
toward the same end. Let us have faith.

Ferdinand Bluementritt defined the role of Rizal in his country’s future.

You can become for your people one of those great men who will exert a definite
influence on their spiritual development.

The novels were widely circulated in his time, they survived the Spanish era, and
they have come to be adopted by the Filipinos as the living gospels of Philippine
nationalism. They have been translated into several foreign languages and native
dialects, thereby reaching a greater audience than Rizal ever anticipated. They have
been interpreted in play, recorded for prosperity in motion pictures and scripted for
the sophisticated opera.
The readership and acclaim of the novels is much more extensive today. The
readers are also more discerning. They have perceived the novels as a renewal of
mind and spirit. Critics have debated on the social and political influence of the
novels, as well as their intellectual and literary merits.

Rizal’s message is heeded by a grateful Filipino people in a paramount concerted

effort towards progress and self-reliance. Tasio and Isagani's dreams have finally
become the reality of 40 million eager Filipinos.

Section 2. Ideology in the Prose

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
1.assess and describe the style and theme of Rizal's prose;
2.appraise the value of understanding the past;
3.summarize and Analyze Rizal’s Essays: “The Philippines: A Century Hence”,
“The Indolence of Filipinos”
and “Letter to the he Young Women of Malolos”; and
4.describe the future of the Philippines as predicted by Rizal.
OVERVIEW

Jose Rizal was not only writing for his time but for the next generation. To quote
him "I am writing for other ages. If this could read me, they would burn my books,
the work of my whole life. On the other hand, the generation which interprets these
writings will be an educated generation; they will understand me and say: Not all
were asleep in the nighttime of our grandparents." Rizal has the talent and power to
inspire his readers. Sectors of the society like women and the youth during the
Spanish occupation were often forgotten by leaders, scholars of indios. Essays like
Letter to the Women of Malolos is Rizal’s greatest legacy for all generations of
women.
Rizal’s writings formed an integral part of his political and social thinking.
Scholars, researchers, historians and political leaders have drawn inspiration and
guidance from his writings on patriotism and nationalism. Majority of his essays
contains his commitment to his mission to his country and fellowmen. He has
published several essays. Rizal’s greatest contribution to the building of Filipino
nation was his untiring efforts in urging his countrymen to work together for
national unity, a condition for national survival. Any man who refused to fight
injustice is not for the welfare of society
Rizal's intellectual pursuits in his short span of life left a legacy of profound
nationalistic concept that have enkindle the aspiration of the Filipino people for
many decade.
Influence by the motives celebrating the Rizal centenarian 1961, researchers and
scholars have systematically compiled his essays and other memorabilia to
preserve for prosperity works of our great hero.

The Philippines a Century Hence: Summary and Analysis

“The Philippines a Century Hence” is an essay written by Philippine national hero
Jose Rizal to forecast the future of the country within a hundred years. Rizal felt
that it was time to remind Spain that the circumstances that ushered in the French
Revolution could have a telling effect for her in the Philippines.

This essay, published in La Solidaridad starts by analyzing the various causes of

the miseries suffered by the Filipino people:
1. Spain’s implementation of her military policies – because of such laws, the
Philippine population decreased dramatically. Poverty became more rampant than
ever, and farmlands were left to wither. The family as a unit of society was
neglected, and overall, every aspect of the life of the Filipino was retarded.
2. Deterioration and disappearance of Filipino indigenous culture – when Spain
came with the sword and the cross, it began the gradual destruction of the native
Philippine culture. Because of this, the Filipinos started losing confidence in their
past and their heritage, became doubtful of their present lifestyle, and eventually
lost hope in the future and the preservation of their race.
3. Passivity and submissiveness to the Spanish colonizers – one of the most
powerful forces that influenced a culture of silence among the natives were the
Spanish friars. Because of the use of force, the Filipinos learned to submit
themselves to the will of the foreigners.

The question then arises as to what had awakened the hearts and opened the minds
of the Filipino people with regards to their plight. Eventually, the natives realized
that such oppression in their society by foreign colonizers must no longer be
tolerated.
One question Rizal raises in this essay is whether or not Spain can indeed prevent
the progress of the Philippines:
1. Keeping the people uneducated and ignorant had failed. National consciousness
had still awakened, and great Filipino minds still emerged from the rubble.
2. Keeping he people impoverished also came to no avail. On the contrary, living
a life of eternal destitution had allowed the Filipinos to act on the desire for a
change in their way of life. They began to explore other horizons through which
they could move towards progress.
3. Exterminating the people as an alternative to hindering progress did not work
either. The Filipino race was able to survive amidst wars and famine, and became
even more numerous after such catastrophes. To wipe out the nation altogether
would require the sacrifice of thousands of Spanish soldiers, and this is something
Spain would not allow.
Spain, therefore, had no means to stop the progress of the country. What she needs
to do is to change her colonial policies so that they are in keeping with the needs of
the Philippine society and to the rising nationalism of the people.

What Rizal had envisioned in his essay came true. In 1898, the Americans
wrestled with Spain to win the Philippines, and eventually took over the country.
Theirs was a reign of democracy and liberty. Five decades after Rizal’s death, the
Philippines gained her long-awaited independence. This was in fulfillment of what
he had written in his essay: “History does not record in its annals any lasting
domination by one people over another, of different races, of diverse usages and
customs, of opposite and divergent ideas. One of the two had to yield and
succumb.”

To the Young Women of Malolos: Summary and Analysis

Jose Rizal’s legacy to Filipino women is embodied in his famous essay entitled,
“To the Young Women of Malolos,” where he addresses all kinds of women –
mothers, wives, the unmarried, etc. and expresses everything that he wishes them
to keep in mind.

SUMMARY

“To the Women of Malolos” was originally written in Tagalog. Rizal penned this
writing when he was in London, in response to the request of Marcelo H. del Pilar.
The salient points contained in this letter are as follows:
1. The rejection of the spiritual authority of the friars – not all of the priests in
the country that time embodied the true spirit of Christ and His Church.
Most of them were corrupted by worldly desires and used worldly methods
to effect change and force discipline among the people.
2. The defense of private judgment
3. Qualities Filipino mothers need to possess – as evidenced by this portion of
his letter, Rizal is greatly concerned of the welfare of the Filipino children
and the homes they grow up in.
4. Duties and responsibilities of Filipino mothers to their children
5. Duties and responsibilities of a wife to her husband – Filipino women are
known to be submissive, tender, and loving. Rizal states in this portion of
his letter how Filipino women ought to be as wives, in order to preserve the
identity of the race.
6. Counsel to young women on their choice of a lifetime partner.
RIZAL’S MESSAGE TO FILIPINO WOMEN
Jose Rizal was greatly impressed by the fighting spirit that the young women of
Malolos had shown. In his letter, he expresses great joy and satisfaction over the
battle they had fought. In this portion of Rizal’s letter, it is obvious that his
ultimate desire was for women to be offered the same opportunities as those
received by men in terms of education. During those days young girls were not
sent to school because of the universal notion that they would soon only be taken
as wives and stay at home with the children. Rizal, however, emphasizes on
freedom of thought and the right to education, which must be granted to both boys
and girls alike.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF FILIPINO MOTHERS TO THEIR

CHILDREN
Rizal stipulates a number of important points in this portion of his letter to the
young women of Malolos. The central idea here, however, is that whatever a
mother shows to her children is what the children will become also. If the mother
is always kissing the hand of the friars in submission, then her children will grow
up to be sycophants and mindless fools who do nothing but do as they are told,
even if the very nature of the task would violate their rights as individuals.

QUALITIES MOTHERS HAVE TO POSSESS

Rizal enumerates the qualities Filipino mothers have to possess:
1. Be a noble wife.
2. Rear her children in the service of the state – here Rizal gives reference to
the women of Sparta who embody this quality
3. Set standards of behavior for men around her.

RIZAL’S ADVICE TO UNMARRIED MEN AND WOMEN

Jose Rizal points out to unmarried women that they should not be easily taken by
appearances and looks, because these can be very deceiving. Instead, they should
take heed of men’s firmness of character and lofty ideas. Rizal further adds that
there are three things that a young woman must look for a man she intends to be
her husband:
1. A noble and honored name
2. A manly heart
3. A high spirit incapable of being satisfied with engendering slaves.

ANALYSIS

“To the Women of Malolos” centers around five salient points (Zaide &Zaide,
1999):
1. Filipino mothers should teach their children love of God, country and
fellowmen.
2. Filipino mothers should be glad and honored, like Spartan mothers, to offer
their sons in defense of their country.
3. Filipino women should know how to protect their dignity and honor.
4. Filipino women should educate themselves aside from retaining their good
racial values.
5. Faith is not merely reciting prayers and wearing religious pictures. It is
living the real Christian way with good morals and manners.
In recent times, it seems that these qualities are gradually lost in the way Filipino
women conduct themselves. There are oftentimes moments where mothers forget
their roles in rearing their children because of the overriding idea of having to earn
for the family to supplement their husband’s income. Although there is nothing
negative about working hard for the welfare of the family, there must always be
balance in the way people go through life. Failure in the home cannot be
compensated for by any amount of wealth or fame.

Rizal's Letter: To the Young Women of Malolos (Full Copy)

To the Young Women of Malolos
by José Rizal

When I wrote Noli Me Tangere, I asked myself whether bravery was a common
thing in the young 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 faced 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 Emila [Emilia Tiongson, whom
Rizal met in 1887], and her I knew by name only.

Now that you have 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 from that of the priest; that religiousness does not
consist of long periods spent on your knees, nor in endless prayers, big rosarios,
and grimy scapularies [religious garment showing devotion], but in a spotless
conduct, firm intention and upright judgment. You also know that prudence 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 your thoughts.
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 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 advise each other to fiind the right path.
They would be madman 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 cold 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 for a man to constitute himself into an idol and pretend to be in
communication of thought with God; and it is more than 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 judgment alone, but hear
the opinion of others before doing what may seem most reasonable to us. The wild
man from the hills, if clad in a priest's robe, remains a hill man and can only
deceive the weak and ignorant. And, to make my argument more conclusive, just
buy a priest's robe as the Franciscans wear it and put it on a carabao [domestic
water buffalo], 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 [hymns],
novenas, and the alleged miracles; whose amusement consists in playing
panguingue [a card game] 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 kneel and kiss hands
must not expect sons with blood other than that 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 will be deceitful and will be like the bat that cannot show itself
until the ringing of 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 mites and gifts of 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 a 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 a 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 sit at a table
where theft provides the viands? Has the Omnipotent become a 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 judgment, clear procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for
the fellowman and respect for God; this is what you must teach 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 to perform in order to deliver the people from suffering
are of no little importance, but be they as they may, they will not be beyond the
strength and stamina of the Filipino people. The power and good judgment of the
women 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
will they 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 a strong 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 be that befogs our
people, I will make the utmost efforts to have it dissipated by the bright rays of the
sun, which will give light, thought they 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 woman, who is half of our heart, our companion in the joys and
tribulations of life. If she is a maiden, the 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
Spaniards and friars here who have returned from the Islands to speak of the
Filipina as complaisant and ignorant, as if all 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 woman was thus; that she behaved 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 himself. There is a Spaniard now in high office,
who has set at our table and enjoyed our hospitality in his wanderings through the
Philippines and who, upon his return to Spain, rushed forthwith into print and
related that on one occasion in Pampanga he demanded hospitality and ate, and
slept at a 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 insinuations are made by the friars to the chance visitor from Spain
concerning their very obedientconfesandas, hand-kissers, etc., accompanied by
smiles and very significant winkings of the eye. In a book published by D.
Sinibaldo de Mas and in other friar sketches sins are related of which women
accused themselves in the confessional and of which the friars made no secret in
talking to their Spanish visitors 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. Every time
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 good name. I shall let this go and
speak of the duties of women instead.

A people that respect women, 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 in love, 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
order, and and becomes an accomplice to his own dishonor. It should be
remembered that where nobody 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 a 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
perils, refrain from causing him worry and sweeten his moments of affection,
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 jealously 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 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 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. A mother
received word 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 had been saved from
disgrace. However, when her son returned alive, the mother put on mourning.
One of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning from battle was
told by one that her three sons had fallen. I do not ask you that, said the mother,
but whether we have 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 their 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 stones. These things were in accordance with the custom there, and
all Greece admired the Spartan woman. Of all women -- a woman said jestingly --
only your Spartans have power over the men. Quite natural -- they replied -- of all
women only we give birth to men. Man, the Spartan women said, was not born to
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, no enemy was able to put his
foot upon her soil, nor 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 wear 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, adds 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 shift it
carefully through the sieve of reasons.

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 abject 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 another is
like the beast led by a halter.
Fourth. He who loves his independence must first a id his fellowman, because he
who refuses protection to others will find himself without it; the isolated rib in the
buri 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 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 what kind of religion they are teaching you. See whether
it is the will of God or according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be
succored and those who suffer alleviated. Consider what they 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
whiter 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 you of
the fat milch cow or the fattened pig, which is encouraged to grow fat nor through
love of the animal, but for grossly mercenary motives.

Let us, therefore, reflect; let us 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 invested;" and
I shall gladly accept the usual reward of all who dare tell your 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.

JOSÉ RIZAL

Section 3. Idealism in the Poetry

This section contains background, themes and selected prose of Jose Rizal. These
selected prose are: “Sa Aking mga Kabata”, “To Education”, A la Juventud
Filipina (To the Filipino Youth), Song of Maria Clara and Mi Ultimo Adios

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this lesson, the student should be able to:
1. analyze how patriotism and nationalism is portrayed in each poem;
2. cite how the sense of history is reflected in his poetry;
3. identify what feelings, attitudes and values recur a number of times in the
selected poems; and
4. find out if these poems are still relevant in the recent times.

OVERVIEW
Murmurs of pleasant memories, pains and wrongs, Rizal’s poetry sings of
exceptional passions, of humanity’s escapades into freedom. Poetry that soothes
and heals, excites and haunts, embracing the nation’s soul as one, with a kind of
chemical solvent to social corruption, to an “archipelagic nation wrought by
centuries of abuse, injustice and repression.”
Poetry often appears at night, wrapped in a darker, sadder mood. Rizal’s most
renowned “Mi Ultimo Adios,” whose exquisite music of a darker, sadder mood,
speaks in authentic voices to and for the country, was written in a familiar style of
rhymed cadences about an amorphous subject (himself) in a strange brew of
confession, prophecy and language of the soul. He believed in using literature as an
instrument for improving the conditions of society, to open the gates to social
justice and benevolence. Though he didn’t believe in didactic homilies at the end
of his poems, he’d rather reach out by teaching in that charming gesture proving
that literature itself can be an anodyne to profit, acquisition and utility. To push
away a culture of moral blindness and rampant selfishness, he pointed out that the
true greatness of a nation is the greatness of the mind, the true glory on its moral
and intellectual predominance. De Leon, Myla. The poetry of Dr. Jose Rizal. 2017.
Asian Journal.
Sa Aking Mga Kabata
Kapagka ang baya’y sadyang umiibig
Sa kanyang salitang kaloob ng langit,
Sanlang kalayaan nasa ring masapit
Katulad ng ibong nasa himpapawid.
Pagka’t ang salita’y isang kahatulan
Sa bayan, sa nayo’t mga kaharian,
At ang isang tao’y katulad, kabagay
Ng alin mang likha noong kalayaan.
Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita
Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda,
Kaya ang marapat pagyamaning kusa
Na tulad sa inang tunay na nagpala.
Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin
Sa Ingles, Kastila at salitang anghel,
Sapagka’t ang Poong maalam tumingin
Ang siyang naggawad, nagbigay sa atin.
Ang salita nati’y huwad din sa iba
Na may alfabeto at sariling letra,
Na kaya nawala’y dinatnan ng sigwa
Ang lunday sa lawa noong dakong una.
 "Sa Aking Mga Kabatà" (English: To My Fellow Youth) is a poem about the love
of one's native language written in Tagalog. It is widely attributed to the Filipino
national hero José Rizal, who supposedly wrote it in 1868 at the age of seven.
Recently, there had been debates on Rizal’s authorship of the poem. Historians
suspects that the actual authors are Gabriel Beato Francisco or Herminigildo Cruz.
This poem emphasizes that strong sense of nationalism is expressed through love
for our own language. He emphasized the significance and the usage of our mother
tongue. Mother tongue was the language we learned since birth (which was
Filipino). It gave us a sense of identity. Language could not only be our way to
communicate but it also served as the reflection of our culture. Rizal also
highlighted on this poem that all languages were equal in terms of its significance
and usage. Filipino language like other languages had its own alphabet and words.

The values and attitude that still valid and usable today is we should be more proud
of our nationality and identity, and by enriching our language we could show our
sense of pride as Filipinos.
Education Gives Luster to Motherland
This poem proved that he valued education so much that may give the power of the
country to survive from any forces in the struggles of societal freedom . Through
education, it creates the virtue of power to human race. This gives security and
peace to the motherland as the Filipinos would learn the sciences and arts as the
basis to calm down the life of the society.

Wise education, vital breath

Inspires an enchanting virtue;
She puts the Country in the lofty seat
Of endless glory, of dazzling glow,
And just as the gentle aura's puff
Do brighten the perfumed flower's hue:
So education with a wise, guiding hand,
A benefactress, exalts the human band.

Man's placid repose and earthly life

To education he dedicates
Because of her, art and science are born
Man; and as from the high mount above
The pure rivulet flows, undulates,
So education beyond measure
Gives the Country tranquility secure.

Where wise education raises a throne

Sprightly youth are invigorated,
Who with firm stand error they subdue
And with noble ideas are exalted;
It breaks immortality's neck,
Contemptible crime before it is halted:
It humbles barbarous nations
And it makes of savages champions.
And like the spring that nourishes
The plants, the bushes of the meads,
She goes on spilling her placid wealth,
And with kind eagerness she constantly feeds,
The river banks through which she slips,
And to beautiful nature all she concedes,
So whoever procures education wise
Until the height of honor may rise.

From her lips the waters crystalline

Gush forth without end, of divine virtue,
And prudent doctrines of her faith
The forces weak of evil subdue,
That break apart like the whitish waves
That lash upon the motionless shoreline:
And to climb the heavenly ways the people
Do learn with her noble example.

In the wretched human beings' breast

The living flame of good she lights
The hands of criminal fierce she ties,
And fill the faithful hearts with delights,
Which seeks her secrets beneficent
And in the love for the good her breast she incites,
And it's th' education noble and pure
Of human life the balsam sure.

And like a rock that rises with pride

In the middle of the turbulent waves
When hurricane and fierce Notus roar
She disregards their fury and raves,
That weary of the horror great
So frightened calmly off they stave;
Such is one by wise education steered
He holds the Country's reins unconquered.
His achievements on sapphires are engraved;
The Country pays him a thousand honors;
For in the noble breasts of her sons
Virtue transplanted luxuriant flow'rs;
And in the love of good e'er disposed
Will see the lords and governors
The noble people with loyal venture
Christian education always procure.

And like the golden sun of the morn

Whose rays resplendent shedding gold,
And like fair aurora of gold and red
She overspreads her colors bold;
Such true education proudly gives
The pleasure of virtue to young and old
And she enlightens out Motherland dear
As she offers endless glow and luster.

To the Philippine Youth

In his poem “To the Philippine Youth”, which he wrote in 1879, when he was 18
years old (and which won a prize from the literary group), Rizal speaks of the
Filipino youth as the “Fair hope of my Motherland”, and of the “Indian
land” whose “son” is offered “a shining crown”, by the “Spaniard… with wise and
merciful hand”. Still in this poem, Rizal considered Spain as a loving and
concerned mother to her daughter Filipinas.

Hold high the brow serene,

O youth, where now you stand;
Let the bright sheen
Of your grace be seen,
Fair hope of my fatherland!

Come now, thou genius grand,

And bring down inspiration;
With thy mighty hand,
Swifter than the wind's violation,
Raise the eager mind to higher station.

Come down with pleasing light

Of art and science to the fight,
O youth, and there untie
The chains that heavy lie,
Your spirit free to blight.
See how in flaming zone
Amid the shadows thrown,
The Spaniard'a holy hand
A crown's resplendent band
Proffers to this Indian land.

Thou, who now wouldst rise

On wings of rich emprise,
Seeking from Olympian skies
Songs of sweetest strain,
Softer than ambrosial rain;
Thou, whose voice divine
Rivals Philomel's refrain
And with varied line
Through the night benign
Frees mortality from pain;
Thou, who by sharp strife
Wakest thy mind to life ;
And the memory bright
Of thy genius' light
Makest immortal in its strength ;

And thou, in accents clear

Of Phoebus, to Apelles dear ;
Or by the brush's magic art
Takest from nature's store a part,
To fig it on the simple canvas' length ;

Go forth, and then the sacred fire

Of thy genius to the laurel may aspire ;
To spread around the fame,
And in victory acclaim,
Through wider spheres the human name.

Day, O happy day,

Fair Filipinas, for thy land!
So bless the Power to-day
That places in thy way
This favor and this fortune grand!

The Song of Maria Clara

The poem "Song of Maria Clara" is in the novel "Noli Me Tangere." It was sung
by the character named Maria Clara. The first stanza expresses how wonderful
everything is in one’s own Native Land. The hours are sweet, everything is
friendly, the breeze is vivifying, love is more tender, and even death is gratifying.
In these four lines, Rizal signifies that Maria Clara’s love for her country is so
great that it colors everything else that she sees. It is this love that makes
everything else, no matter how mundane and ordinary, more beautiful than even
the most beautiful wonders elsewhere. Rizal closes the poem with the line: "It is
sweet to die in one's own native land...

The Song of Maria Clara

Sweet the hours in the native country, where friendly shines the sun above!
Life is the breeze that sweeps the meadows; tranquil is death; most tender, love.

Warm kisses on the lips are playing as we awake to mother's face:

the arms are seeking to embrace her, the eyes are smiling as they gaze.

How sweet to die for the native country, where friendly shines the sun above!
Death is the breeze for him who has no country, no mother, and no love!

The Last Poem of Rizal

Mi Ultimo Adios was the farewell poem of Rizal that originally had no title and
was unsigned. This was believed as Rizal’s last will because he wrote it on the
night before he was executed. Also through this poem, Rizal was giving his last
message to his countrymen. For him, offering his life was the best way he could
show his love for the country. Even he was going to die, he was not resentful
instead he challenged the each of the Filipinos to serve and love our country.
However he was also hopeful that his death would serve as inspiration to everyone.
He encouraged the youth to continue to dream and fulfill it.

My Last Farewell

Farewell, my adored Land, region of the sun caressed,

Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost,
With gladness I give you my Life, sad and repressed;
And were it more brilliant, more fresh and at its best,
I would still give it to you for your welfare at most.

On the fields of battle, in the fury of fight,

Others give you their lives without pain or hesitancy,
The place does not matter: cypress laurel, lily white,
Scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom's site,
It is the same if asked by home and Country.

I die as I see tints on the sky b'gin to show

And at last announce the day, after a gloomy night;
If you need a hue to dye your matutinal glow,
Pour my blood and at the right moment spread it so,
And gild it with a reflection of your nascent light!

My dreams, when scarcely a lad adolescent,

My dreams when already a youth, full of vigor to attain,
Were to see you, gem of the sea of the Orient,
Your dark eyes dry, smooth brow held to a high plane
Without frown, without wrinkles and of shame without stain.

My life's fancy, my ardent, passionate desire,

Hail! Cries out the soul to you, that will soon part from thee;
Hail! How sweet 'tis to fall that fullness you may acquire;
To die to give you life, 'neath your skies to expire,
And in your mystic land to sleep through eternity!

If over my tomb some day, you would see blow,

A simple humble flow'r amidst thick grasses,
Bring it up to your lips and kiss my soul so,
And under the cold tomb, I may feel on my brow,
Warmth of your breath, a whiff of your tenderness.

Let the moon with soft, gentle light me descry,

Let the dawn send forth its fleeting, brilliant light,
In murmurs grave allow the wind to sigh,
And should a bird descend on my cross and alight,
Let the bird intone a song of peace o'er my site.

Let the burning sun the raindrops vaporize

And with my clamor behind return pure to the sky;
Let a friend shed tears over my early demise;
And on quiet afternoons when one prays for me on high,
Pray too, oh, my Motherland, that in God may rest I.

Pray thee for all the hapless who have died,

For all those who unequalled torments have undergone;
For our poor mothers who in bitterness have cried;
For orphans, widows and captives to tortures were shied,
And pray too that you may see your own redemption.

And when the dark night wraps the cemet'ry

And only the dead to vigil there are left alone,
Don't disturb their repose, don't disturb the mystery:
If you hear the sounds of cittern or psaltery,
It is I, dear Country, who, a song t'you intone.

And when my grave by all is no more remembered,

With neither cross nor stone to mark its place,
Let it be plowed by man, with spade let it be scattered
And my ashes ere to nothingness are restored,
Let them turn to dust to cover your earthly space.

Then it doesn't matter that you should forget me:

Your atmosphere, your skies, your vales I'll sweep;
Vibrant and clear note to your ears I shall be:
Aroma, light, hues, murmur, song, moanings deep,
Constantly repeating the essence of the faith I keep.

My idolized Country, for whom I most gravely pine,

Dear Philippines, to my last goodbye, oh, harken
There I leave all: my parents, loves of mine,
I'll go where there are no slaves, tyrants or hangmen
Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.
Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me,
Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed;
Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day;
Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way;
Farewell, to all I love. To die is to rest.