EL AMOR PATRIO

Rizal’s first essay, “The Love of Country,” was written when he was 21 and newly arrived in Madrid. It
was published under the name of “Laong Laan” on 20 August 1882 in Diarong Tagalog,” a Philippine
newspaper, then on 31 October 1890 in La Solidaridad, Madrid. This essay is a poignant dissertation of
what Rizal calls a “beautiful but hackneyed subject,” love of country. In crystallizing his concept on love
of country, Rizal reveals a foretaste of the style and substance of his novels. He could have had Maria
Clara and Sisa in mreind when he described the country as “enveloped in morning clouds and mist,
always beautiful and poetic, and the more idolized by her sons when they are absent and far away from
her.” Love of country is the purest, most heroic and most sublime human sentiment. It is gratitude; it is
affection for everything that reminds us of something of the first days of our life; itis the land where our
ancestors are sleeping. Love of country is never effaced once it has penetrated the heart, because it
carries with it a divine stamp, which renders it eternal and imperishable. Of all loves, that of country is
the greatest, the most heroic and the most disinterested. Some have sacrificed for her their youth, their
pleasures; others have dedicated toher the splendors of their genius; others shed their blood; all have
died, bequeathing to their Motherland an immense future: liberty and glory.

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