Chapter 11

El Filibusterismo

The year 1891 brought some happinesss in the life of Rizal. Here he met the woman he
wanted to marry and saw the publication of his second novel El Filibusterismo.

After the election in Madrid over the control of La Solidaridad, he took a vacation in the
city of Biarritz, of the famous French Rivieria, and was the guest of an old friend, Eduardo
Bousted, a rich Filipino family. He had met the Bousteds and his two charming daughters once in
Parison 1889-1890. One of the daughtersm Nellie, was the object once of a misunderstanding
with Antonio Luna, whom he almost had a duel. In paris, he used to fence with the Bousted
sisters and attend parties given by the family. It was here in Biarritz that he had a serious
romance with Nellie.

So that after a month’s stay, he felt happy and soon forgot his sad experience in Madrid.
The atmosphere was festive with many tourists enjoying the soft wind breezes from the Atlantic
Ocean, the scenery was beautiful and the air was filled with joy and laughter. Moreover he was
in love again. It was for him, for the moment a happy interlude.

This time the object of his affection was the younger Bousted daughter, Nellie (or Nelly),
whom Rizal found to be a real Filipino, highly intelligent, and who shared with him same beliefs
and values about morality. Hid marriage proposal to Nellie however, failed for two reasons: 1)
he refused to give up his catholic faith and be converted to Protestantism as Nellie had demanded
, and 2) he was not favored as a son-in-law by the mother.

Although they brook off, they remained good friends and when she learned that he was
leaving Europe, she wrote him, wishing him a happy trip and luck in his undertakings. After
bidding the family farewell, he tookma train to Parisand by the Middle of April 1889, he was
back in Brussels, meeting his landladies again, including Petite Jacoby, the woman who once
loved him.

He concentrated his efforts and energy towards the completion of his second novel El
Filibusterismo, which he started in Calamba in 1887. He worked day after day on the novel, and
on May 30,1891, after three years in the making, the novel was ready for the press.

Two months after, he left Brussels for Ghent, a famous university in Belgium where he
had his roommate Jose Alejandro lived in frugality, “ subsisting on the barest necessities.” His
hasty departure could be attributed to two reasons: 1) the cost of printing is vheaper in Ghent and
2) also to avoid a reconciliation with Petite Sussane.
 Here in Ghent, he met and boarded with Jose Alejandroan engineering student from
Pampanga who later become a general during the Filipino-American war of 1899-1902.
Likewise, he found a publisher, F. Meyer Van Loo press, located at Viaanderen street , which
gave him the lowest quotation and installment basis, but due to limited funds, the printing of the
books has to be suspended. Aside from the money sent by Basa , and P200 for the sales of his
copiesof Morga’s Sucesos, he was able to to raise some amount by pawning some of his jewelry,
which were still insufficient. As he had written to Basa , “because I have no money forthcoming
and I owe everybody and I am broke, I will have to suspend the publication and leave the work
hal-finished.” But help came unexpectedly from Valentin Ventura from Paris, who learned from
his financial difficulties and immediately sent him the money. The publication of the novel was
resumed and was completed and came off the pres on September 18,1891. That very same day,
he sent two copies to Bsa and Sixto Lopez in Hong Kong, and as atoken of gratitude for the
financial help given by the Ventura, the original manuscript and an autographed printed copy
was sent to him in Paris.he also sent complimentary copies to his close friends: Blumentritt,
Mariano Ponce, Graciano Lopez Jaena, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Antonio and Juan Luna, and
others.it is not mentioned whether he gave Del Pilar a copy.

The novel was highly praised by both the Filipinos in foreign lands and those in the
Philippines. Th Filipino Community in Barcelona published a tribute to the book in the
newspaper La Publicidad praising the novel. It described the Fili as (41):

… comparable only to Alexander Dumas and .. a model and a precious jewel in the now
decadent literature in Spain.

The novel was serialized in a liberal Madrid newspaper El Nuevo Regime, in the issues of
October 1891.

It is strange, however, that in history books there is no mention of the immediate positive
reactions of the management of the newspaper La Solidaridad regarding the novel, leading to the
presumptionthat a difference between the two Filipino patriots still existed. On the contrary, if
published and article despising Rizal, written by Eduardo De Let, months later.

However, when the copies of the first editionof the Fili were shipped to Hong Kong,
Almost all the basket were confiscated and the books were lost. But the demand for books was
greatthat the Ghent copies were sold at very high prices, reaching as high as 400 pesetas per
copy.

One incident he could not forget, in spite of hs travels across the continents and
seas,was the execution of the tree priest and so vivid was his memory of the event, that he
dedicated the second novel to the three priests.his dedication runs as follow (42):
 To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old) Don Jose Burgos
(30 years old) and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old), executed in Bagumbayan
Field on the 28th of February 1872:

The church by refusing to degrade you, ha splaced in doubt the crimes hsd been
imputed ot you; the Government by surrounding yor trials with mystery and
shadows, causes the belief that there were some error, commited in fatal moments;
and all the Philippines, by worshipping your memory and calling you martyrs, in no
sense recognizes your culpability. Insofar, therefore, as your complicity in the cavity
Mutiny is not clearly proved, as you may of may not have cherished sentimentsbfor
justice and for liberty, I have the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the
evil which I undertake to combat. And while we wait expectantlyupon Spainsome
day to restore your good name and cease to be answerable for your death, let this
pages serves a tardy wreath of drives leaves over your unknown tombs, and let it be
understood that everyone who without proofs attacks your memory stain his hands
on your blood!

The ribute is heart and soul reaching, and as Xaide (43) (1994), describes it: “Never
in the annals of mankind has a hero written such a sublime and touching tribute to other heroes
of Rizal,” however, there are facts in terms of ageand dates that Zaide (1994) corrected in the
above dedication:

1. Execution of the three priests took place on February17, not 28, 1872;
2. Father Gomez was 73 years old, not 85
3. Father Burgos was 35 years old not 30;
4. Father Zamora was 37 years old not 35.

The original manuscript of the second novel consisting of 279 pages, with
corrections found over it, was bought by the Philippine Government from Valentin Venturefor
the Sum of P10,000 and is currently preserved in the Filipiniana Division of the Bureau of Public
Libraries.

It is reported that there two features of the novel which were not included in the
printed copies, to save printing costs, as others assert. These two featute of novel are the
1)Foreword and the 2)Waring.

The manuscript on Foreword is as follows (44):

We have been frightened by the phantom of filibesterism that form only nurse’s
narration it has become a positive and real being whose name alone, (in depriving us
of our serenity) makes us commit the greatest myths in order not to meet thefeared
realoty. Instead of fleeing, we shall look at its face, and with determined, if inexpect,
 hand we shall raise the veil to ancoverbefore the multitude the mechanism of its
skeleton.

If, upon seeing it, our country and its government reflect, we shall consider ourselves
happy no matter whether they consure us for the audacity, no matter whether we pay
for it like a student of Sais who wished to penetrate the secret of of the priestly
imposture. (on the other hand if in the face of reality, instead if being soothed, one’s
fear is increased and the trepidation of another is aggravated, then they will have to
be left in hands of time which weaves the destinies of peoples and their government
with thefaults and errorsthat they are committing every day.)

Europe,1891
The Author

On the other hand, the warning is found on the other side of the dedication page. This
runs as follows:

They are going to waist their time who would attack this book by holding on to
trifles, or who from other motives, would try to discover in it more or lesssknown
physiognomies. True to his purpose of exposing the disease ,of the patient and, in
order not to divert himself nor diver the reader, whilst he narrates only real facts
which happened recently and are absolutely authentic in substance, he has disfigured
his characters so that they may not turn to be typical pictures some readers found in
his first book. Man passes, his vices remains, and to accentuate or sshow their
effects, the pen of the writer aspires.

His best friend Blumentritt, plays an important role in the book, by writing its
inscription on the title page, translated by Bocobo, in 1957. It runs as follows (45):

It can easily be supposed that a rebel (filibustero) has secretly bewitched the league
of friars – zealots and retrogrades so that, unwittingly following his incitements, they
should favor and foment that policy which pursues one sole end; to spread the idea of
rebellion the length and breadth of the land, and to convince every Filipino that there
is no salvation except through separation from the mother country.

It is probably from the insights of this inscription of Rizal’s best friend. Ferdinand
Blumentritt, that the goals of Filipino patriots become more explicit and were not just for the
institution of reforms but for independence.