RIZAL!

Rizal was a reformer for an open society rather than a revolution for political independence. As a leader of the Propaganda Movement of Filipino students in Spain, he contributed newspaper articles to La Solidaridad in Barcelona with the following agenda:

·         That the Philippines be a province of Spain

·         Representation in the Cortes (Parliament)

·         Filipino priests rather than the Spanish Augustinians, Dominicans,  or Franciscans

·         Freedom of assembly and speech

·         Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs)

The authorities in the Philippines could not accept these reforms, as the social reforms threatened the status quo; thus upon hid return to Manila in 1892 he was exile, being accused of subversion for forming a civic movement called La Liga Filipina. While exiled in Dapitan, Mindanao, he established a school ad a hospital.

As Rizal himself explains, he wrote Noli “to awaken the feelings of his countrymen”. The book is denunciation of a political system founded on the privilege of the rules, discrimination against the ruled and liberty of the Filipino people. For the presentation of his arguments, Rizal chose to depict a series of typical Filipino scenes in which he vividly and realistically describes the classical types in the country during that era, including the Spanish peninsular, with their virtues and vices. These descriptions reveal his excellent gift observation. In his criticisms of the religious orders, he direct his attack especially against the Dominicans and the Franciscans, principally in the figure of Father Damaso who he presents as an intolerable fanatic and the adulterous father of Maria Clara. The Jesuits, on the other hand, are treated with considerable respect and the consideration. The abuses of the police authorities are revealed in the dialogue. The remarks about the guardia civil may reflect the wounds left in Rizal’s and his mother’s hearts by painful experiences with the firce.

To prove his point and refute the accusations of prejudiced Spanish writres against his race, Rizal annotated the book, Sucesis de las Islas Filipinas, written by the Spaniard Antonio Morgan. The book was an unbiased presentation of 16^th century Filipino culture. Rizal through his annotation showed that Filipinos had developed culture even before the coming of the Spaniards.

While annotating Morgan’s book, he began writing the sequel to the Noli, the El Filibusterismo. He completed the El Fili in July 1891 while he was in Brussels, Belgium. As in the printing of the Noli, Rizal could not publish the sequel for the lack of finances. Fortunately, Valentin Ventura gave him financial assistance and the El Fili came out of the printing press on September 1891.

The El Filibusterismo indicated Spanish colonial policies and attacked the Filipino collaborators of such system. The novel pictured a society on the brink of a revolution.

 

To buttress his defense of the native’s pride and dignity as people, Rizal wrote three significant essays while abroad: the Philippines a Century hence, the Indolence of the Filipino and the Letter to the Women of Malolos. These writings were his brilliant responses to the vicious attacks against the Indio and his culture.