ae, RIZAL AND THE UNbersiDE OF PHttippine History pon reflection, seems to me that much of schoaey eit Ing on the Philippines bears the stamp of = certain fon sy with which the counts traditions and paterns of slevelopmont have ean toate. Inegntast 0 tose part af Sout east Asia hat have been trantormes bythe "eat taditons” of ‘hinduism, Buddhism, and Confuctanism and which, as a result, fave had that aura ofthe exo and impenetrable about they Philippines has appeared transparent ad knowable, 3 "natural consequence of the experience of some four hundred yon of Sanish and American colonials ts dificult, for example, not tobe taken an bythe span features of Pippin pueblo soi (Chrtiaity the diatonic sal, aner propa, cages, and on. ‘When Jolin Pholan’s book, The Fintan of he Pipi, appeared in 1959 1 made ws review astialy the suppones ef fect of the Spanish conquest” Filipinos sere no longer seine passive meiptents of Spanish cultural simul thei responses va led fom acceptance to indtiorence and ection Becuse Pela had never set foot on the Philippines no learned s local language, however, his reading of Spanish source materials was farmed by his fairy with the story of Latin America, Phelan attempted to core the gap betwen Spanish cbserves and the strange, exotic natives they wrote about, not by Ietng the natives speik ut by assimilating them to the body of knowledge concerning ‘spanzation inthe Americas. »5 ‘The problem is not jst that Phelan and most now Filipino scholars efor the lte 1960s filed ous indigenous source mate Fil bt hat such onda bear the uunistabablestampot Spent {anil influence Furthermore, excep forthe rare diary or cache ‘St penal eoreepondence, such materials are often classted a Ufevotimal or leery and fal to provide accurate document260n tthe pst This fas lad to some anxiety among Fiipins about othe it is possible to have a tralyFlipina history pri 0 the ‘nid-inetenih century It 8 true that evisence exists aout the “lands porto the conquest that certain segons each athe Pl Country of northern Lazon and the Muslim south escaped Fispanzation, and that silent reactions to colonial rule were thily gu Such themes, however, have not been able o offset the familia view, ineducted ices at east hata golSen age Was leet nthe wake of the conguist. Tong dark past of Spanish rule ets in unt thepe occurs, in 1672, earning poi the tal sig 0 Shas in conteousess irs bind acceptance of Spain's presence {Dan avarenas ofthe atesbehind the people's suffering, ts at Jar, the public execution of thge eformist priests stired up 50 Rach public synpatny and outrage that the bonds of subservience Bhd glatitade toward Spain and the fies were seriously weak hod As the fara textbook narratives go, from 1872 unt he evolutions of 1896 and 1898 a nationalist spat isborn and reaches natu in the sruggle for independence, Suc the fay ev Ivins view of the Palipine past that senvest instill Filipino pride ther nationalist struggle the first of tskind tec the ‘Southeast Asia! "The prolera with this view is tat tress onthe assumption thar boovethe impact of ibera eas inne second alo there teenth century, Flipinos lived ina kindof static dreamvorld some (chat ke children nally fasenated and eventsaly enslaved by the cosmology introduced by the colonizers. 860 Jose Rizal the {oromoat lipino inllactual and patriot which te nineteenth eo ty produced, provided in his annotations to a seventecnth-en tury Spanish ten scholaryleginzaton for the view that with Spanish tule, the people "orgs thec native alphabet thie sons The poety her nw inorder to parrot other doctrines that they Cov 190 ve Users oF Prnurest Hiro 3@ id not understand" The result oftheir blind inutation of things foreign a incomprehensible was that “the lst all confidence in their pet all fait their preset and al hope for the future Rial ad labore for yet in te British Museum to document the inage of 3 flourishing procclonial civilization, the lot ee, lohic he the cffspring ofan era of enlightenment wakened! con Sousness and slfaseeton felt burdened to pot in writing. The Eripine people had to move fava, and i order to dos io beaware of thei origin, their history asa colonized people, and the general progress of mankind to which their future should bo eared? Rizal's constuction of a “usable past” inefet privileged the status the sia, the dera-eaacated elite tht viewed set ts among othe things, relnsed from the thoughtword of the his tov less superstitious, nanipsted masses, te so-called ore ignorenes In the very act of interpretation, then, Rizal sup~ pressed unconsciously, perhaps—phenomena that resisted his Urdering mind. Theve, nevertheless, exist om the fringes of his fe Sind work, and canbe retrieve if eset our minds to it In the Sst snd 197s ae seated euch effort by endlessly debating ‘whether Rizal was a realist or an idealist, whether or not he is de- Serving ofthe veneration he recive. We continue to probe the jntentons behind his actions, speeches and writings, and attempt to dariy his contnbution to the process of nation-bullding, there is no questioning of his evolutionist premises, particulary the notn of emergence ase, which belongs to the ral of the familar, te “common sense.” As we shall se, this nation f= problematized in the mearsngs that Rizal's gestures aicted tong the pobres yignorantes. Rizal became implicated in the ‘ery world swhich the iustrasos sought to face. What we shall feck to uncover in parila the pay of meanings which his dramatic execution in 1896 st ino motion. If ths event were sim ply corcemned san’ attempt perpetats his own memary.oF fis martyrdom against oppression and obscurantism, then hy, mong many othe ais of arryatern al execution wast singled ‘ut remember, commemerate for decades ater? What modes of thought part from Dat ofthe ustrados informed the even?2 (Co Rex me Usoasoe oF Farms Hisom ‘Twe*Faix” 1 IuvstRapo Consciousness How we understand change in the nineteenth century i cn rected to the problem that Phelan raised about the aaure of spanization Given the sncontoverile fact that thes were onvertc to Christianity ave need t move beyond established tn familiar viwe of hove their world wa afected By the new feligion. On one hand, professedly Catholic writers and Hisannphies claim that Christanty brought civized ways, 5 sation, and vnity tothe land On the other hand, natonalists| tue passionely that Chisanity was 2 weapon for folitatng the politcal and economic subjugation ofthe rai Ireither view, the inaio i the passive recipient The Spans fran as representative of Gad on earth, seen a eer a Power fal moral hold over his live waids, For beter or for wore, he inerpms the proper rues of Christan behavior, rewarding he bedient and submissive and punishing evidoers, Further there tan implait assumption that Christianity’ tepuct can be tinderstood by reference to certain core characteristic, foremost mong them being is otbervarldy erentation that encouraged fesignatin t the reality ive by te ince: resignation to forced [aor and the hea tax, submission to the whims ofthe ego ‘cenative chef and later the principales, who were mostly agents colonial rue, Those who are unwiling 4 ease the rion ‘soll view ts pastas expres nthe Philippine context a one ‘of exesive pomp and pageantry, of courtlas festivals, proce Sons and ritils that hep te indios in such a state of fsnation that they led to grasp the reality of clonal expotation™ “fo whatever pole the argument tends—Christiaity asthe indiog salvation of Christianity asthe oot oftheir alieation— there is always room for llowing for reelebrating the tiamph ot liberal iene In the Late nineteenth century. n the first place, the nation that Christianity belongs to thevaim ofthe otherworiy 25 Uistnct from the sceular ana pla lls the data om pope Gistrtances and upestags, and th rge of the nationale! and tepeatet movements to be conseacted on a “secular” sale that rarely toiches upon the ideas of the “unenlightened” because (7 0 Uren oF Puss Histo Cc ‘these appea tobolong tthe sphere of ligion,sscroly defined Following upon tis, Chustarity 4 simply equated sith some thing primitive ond repressive that has 19 give way to more plo reso forme of conesoustess.” “The conseence ofthese modes of interpretation is obvious forthe history of popular disturbances and revolts they oecar luring the "prenlghterment” corte, they ae regard! a n> Stuncve, arelylovalzed reactions to opprecsve menses," five attempes 9 reienfo a precolomual pest at best prntive precutsors to the revolution." Her horizans narrowed by religion And the divide-and-rule tactic of he Spaniards, the india is ice unable © comprehend her situation “rationally” thos she reacts blindly, the gut, to mounting iertnts impinging upon he Only withthe advent of Rizal andthe tatrados ie there pe posed to bea clear understaning ofthe couss of dissatsacion Only wits the founding of Andres Boriaco's Katipunan secret Socicy is there an organization mith clear strtegins and goals When the Katipunan superseded by Emilio ginal’ srepubli- ‘an government, the Fipino people ae soen tobe Finally eens rot only trom de colons meter country bat ako from a dark past. The history of “fallure” ens vith the birth of the seul, Progressive, enlightened rep in 1998 ‘Wit the dominant const securely established iis spose sible to regard as anything but «curious sdelight the fat that President Aguinalo, very much inthe style ofthe eightenth-cen- tury rebel Diego Silang was also seen as thi liberator sent by God," Or that Riza lke Apolinari dela Cruzin 184, ws hae 15 Tagalog Chis and king tn 1898 and 1899 the republic very ‘much Uke the old colonial administration, was beset with unrest led mostly by popes, christs, pastors, and supramon” Such “sie- Highs” suggest that personales and event award the end of the rlneeenth century were repetitions with varations, of the post, ‘They deav ou attention to he fact hat iting lemewvorks have been applied to ninetenth-entatyPilippine Insory na that cexchided or “excess” data abound with which we can atempt to Conitont the dominant paradigirs and elit a play of mesningsin place of closed strctures If Rial belonged to a series of cits" azn 0-7 UwsBe oP c (One act that renders the notin of aa” problematic, hoe vor as the survival of the igenovs languages For example, the wholecrop of foreign sory lines in Tagalog Heraine whscon ‘the one han suggest a certain lou of authontisty, upon cover ex amination turn out to be masks tht conceal age-old presse tions, Ne shal se later on thatthe fare of sch term as "sou and “sel” to encompass the meanings of fb (lit, “inside” r= leases the Talo pasion of Crist yn fom the contol ofthe ire Phe transition a allen storylines an concepts ino Taga {og not ony estes eer omestaton thes ssilation io things already known, but gave ri 0 varlous plays of meaning. ‘Ta Power oF Kise Beawanoo One ofthe allen” lors th we anus to conront stad coon of hepa tat othe Spanish lngenday Re Sermarda dl Crp inthe Taga nvitteon tat pp the odbruetert century, he scandal and tragedies punish ray the rade aie sh Moor ad th sna ace cf barardo ae cviely of frig sign Bute succnsi= ‘png and oral resations of thea hich ranks with the {oyin af Whe best-known story inthe late nineteenth century the er Beran Caro bette te ing ote Tagalog iden er imprisoned within sere mua from wach be would Someday emerge toiberae Rs people He became known Haring (King) Bernaido ox Sar Berard or np Beano Po tape he had rere’ sn lated cen of lk beet” he ‘ould aot eof much nterest ous now, But sometime during the Sor ofthe entry Rial appeed at Ser se What Gove thr meting signi? What oes it ugget ant the contours of eins kang? a we saw in the previous essay, reduced to its bare outlines, the srt ie about a oy of encrnous stength and tess energy ‘iho grote up unable conta ofc thse pers. Thscan oe ted othe fac at ee eparated fom hs orn, brght up by surrogates wha deprive hin of he aw aed sasequent (C22 0 me Usotasine oF Patras Huon e sciplinng that only true parents can give, He serves the hing of| Spain this seplather) well but somehow remains the brash end Uncoated youth who subdues hs Moorish advecsaries through ‘brute fore lati. Nevertheless the evens which bing him closer ‘to reunication with his parents ate marked by corespondingly| rater cnt and efficacy of his powers. Som ater alter fir heaven reveal to him the identity of his parents, he accomplishes single-handedly the task of liberating Spin fsom Prench domine ‘on One can readily dscera nthe aot eration of the dete ‘of les origins, Bernardo being ke the Filipinos wo fell rom at brigial sate of wholeness came under the damnation of sur sates (Spain, the friars) and therefore remained ina state of arkness nd immaturity unt they recognized thei rue mother again. I ear to see why iistados, as wel tok at irs this rt. Rizal was fem with the Bernardo Carpia story and its more evident folk meaning the imaging ofthe aspirations for feed ‘ofthe pobresyignorantes2 The revolutionist Andres Bonifacio, ‘we saw, may even have tacked nationalist meanings on the awit’ fore Sil, Bowever, King Bernardo wasa “folk belie” or ‘an expression of “popular culture” tobe noled and even used bet fom whose uadersing presuppesitons about pore and the co sos the iustrados had Boon rensed. Educ! Flipino tnd 10