Calsado, Lourdes Antonette V. Commented [1]: I.

18
151662 II. 18
III. 18
Synthesis Paper 2: Champion of Nationalism IV. 18
V. 18
Whether or not Jose Rizal should be considered a national hero, has been in dispute for a long time.
While his contributions are undeniable, many have argued that he was not a revolutionary but a reformist which
meant that he was not in favor of independence from Spain and freedom from colonizers which all the other
national heroes had fought for valiantly. Additionally, they could cannot ignore the fact that Rizal was an
ilustrado, a well-off Filipino who did not experience the abuse and injustice of the indios during the Spanish
colonial rule because he had limitless opportunities due to his family’s wealth and had gone abroad to study.
While this holds some truth in it, there is more to Rizal than being a reformist and an ilustrado. Rizal should
be proclaimed a national hero because his contributions were essential in creating the Filipino identity
and the Philippine nation in its truest sense and espousing the nation’s freedom despite his reluctance
to revolt against the revolutionary.

Nation, as defined by Benedict Anderson, is “an imagined political community [that is] imagined as
both inherently limited and sovereign” (49). Prior to Spanish colonization, the Philippines was not a nation. It
was merely a group of islands that communicate and trade with each other but this changed when the Spaniards,
their colonizers grouped together these islands to make the Philippine archipelago and the people in it, Filipinos.
To this day, it is hard to think of Filipinos as Filipinos as they are so regionalistic. They relate more to the
people who speak their language and their dialect, yet there are Filipinos. One of the main contributions of Jose
Rizal is that he developed the concept of who a Filipino is.

One of Rizal’s earlier works seen in Selected Writings of Rizal, To the Filipino Youth, was one of the
earliest accounts to separate the Filipinos from the Spaniards in the lines, “See how in flaming zone/Amid the
shadows thrown,/The Spaniard’s holy hand/A crown’s resplendent band/Proffers to this Indian land.” (117).
According to Fernandez, Rizal wrote this in 1879 for a contest held by Liceo Artistico Literario de Manila (46),
a few years prior to leaving the Philippines to study in Spain. In this poem, he urged the Filipino youth to study
especially the arts and sciences as it would unchain them from the shackles of ignorance and bring hope to the
Philippines. He differentiated the Spaniards to the “Indians” or the indios. When he wrote this, he was grateful
to Spain yet it was evident that Rizal’s sense of nationalism was starting to bud. He recognize that there was a
distinction between Spaniards and Filipinos yet they were both capable of being great if they were given the
same opportunities.

His writings in La Solidaridad seen in Selected Writings of Rizal , Philippines, a Century Hence and
Indolence of the Filipinos talked about who the Filipinos were and how they have forgotten who they were
before the Spaniards came in. In Philippines, a Century Hence, he wrote: “the Philippines was depopulated,
impoverished and retarded -- caught in metamorphosis, without confidence in their past, without faith in their
present and with no fond hope for the years to come. (5)”. Furthermore, in the Indolence of the Filipinos, he
explains a little bit about the Filipinos’ indolence due to the humid weather of the country, “The Filipinos, who
can measure up with the most active peoples in the world, will doubtless not repudiate this admission, for it is
true that there one works and struggles against climate, against nature and against men. (36)”. He later attribute
indolence as the consequence of backwardness and not its cause. He depicts the state of the Filipinos in his
writings to promote change and to instruct the people on what to do. This was during his time in Spain where
he was exposed to the differences how Spaniards ran Spain as compared to how Spaniards ran the Philippines.
 The most influential works of Jose Rizal was the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. In Noli Me
Tangere, Rizal “saluted Spain but flayed frailocracy in the Philippines”(Rajaretnam, 11). Rajaratem also wrote
that when Noli Me Tangere was first published he sent copies to the governor-general and the archbishop of
Manila so that they can cure to the social cancer festering the country. Yet it was considered an attack to the
Church and the government (13). The El Filibusterismo took on a different route, it was a more inferior novel
yet it held a more powerful message because the two opposing schools of thought in Noli Me Tangere were
gone and he had identified himself as an “apostle of revolution.” (Guerrero, 281). In The First Filipino, Guerrero
attributes this change of heart to the trouble in Cavite wherein his family’s leased lands were seized after not
being able to pay rent that has been increasingly high and was not resolved when it was brought into court.
Rizal realized that it was not just the friars that were the problem, it was also the government because they
could not separate from the friars because of the influence they had to the people (282-289). These works were
most influential of all because it showed the development of the ideology of nationalism which inspired the
likes of Andres Bonifacio.
It is important to know that Rizal also touch on civic virtue in El Filibusterismo because he had
mentioned previously that it was not just the Spaniards at fault but also the Filipinos when it came to the state
of the Philippines. Through the character of Father Florentino he says what he wanted: “No if our country
would be free some time in the future, it shall not be through vice and crime; it will not be by means of
corruption of its sons, deceiving some and buying others, no, redemption presupposes virtue, sacrifice and
love!” (Rizal in Fernandez, 212). It shows us that in the end Rizal realizes that freedom comes at a cost and it
is only by noble means that this can be achieved. Rizal was able to impart all of this to enable Filipinos to lay
down their lives for freedom.

To conclude, while the Rizal was known as a reformist and an ilustrado, the value of his contribution
to the national consciousness of Filipinos cannot be denied. Through his works, he was able to inspire love for
the country as well as a desire for freedom from the oppressors. Because of this, Filipino came together to work
towards a common goal, freedom through revolution despite the sacrifices that needed to be made. While his
participation is dormant and unintended, it was through his works that the struggle for independence was
instigated. Rizal is a national hero because championed not only love for country but also freedom which was
used as a framework to nation building in the Philippines, something that springs from the community rather
than imposed by an external force. The freedom the Philippines has now can be traced back to those brave
enough to act on their love for country and desire for freedom and anyone instrumental to that can be
considered a hero too which is why Rizal should be the national hero.

Works Cited
Anderson, Benedict R. O. G. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London:
Verso, 1991. Print. p. 49
Fernandez, Jose Baron. Jose Rizal: Filipino Doctor and Patriot. Edited by Teodoro M Locsin. Translated by Lilia
H Laurel, Manuel L. Marato, 1995. Print. pp. 212-215
Guerrero, L. The First Filipino. Manila: National Historical Commission. 1974. Print
Rajaretnam, Murugaiah. José Rizal and the Asian Renaissance. Inst. Kajian Dasar, 1996. Print
Rizal, J. El Filibusterismo. Vol. II, Barcelona, 1911 Print. p. 121
Rizal, J. Select Writings of Rizal. Manila:Technology Supply, Inc. 1976. Print