RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORKS

Enrique Santos
Jeiel F. Ibañez
Francisco Doble
Mario Diozon
Mayra Christina M. Ambrocio, DEM

70
 Table of Contents

Module 8: Rizal’s Literary Genius

Introduction 108
Learning Outcome 108
Lesson 1. Rizal’s Poems 109
Lesson 2. His Essays and Memoirs 133
Summary 142
Assessment Task 143
References 145

Module 9: Rizal’s Role in the Propaganda and the Revolution

Introduction 147
Learning Outcome 147
Lesson 1. The Propaganda Movement 148
Lesson 2. Jose Rizal and the Revolution of 1896 155
Summary 159
Assessment Task 160
References 161

71
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Description Page

8.1 Jose P. Rizal 109

8.2 Rizal as a Young Boy 110
8.3 Teodora Alonzo 111
8.4 Rizal as a Teenager 117
8.5 Flowers of Heidelberg 122
8.6 Josephine Bracken 125
8.7 My Last Farewell (Untitled) 129
8.8 The Story of the Moth 133
8.9 Luna and Hidalgo 136
8.10 University of Heidelberg 141
9.1 Members of the Propaganda Movement 148
9.2 Marcelo Del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena 149
9.3 Andres Bonifacio 150
9.4 La Solidaridad 151
9.5 Ferdinand Blumentritt and Miguel Morayta 153
9.6 Filipino Members of the Revolution 154
9.7 Rizal’s Manifesto 155
9.8 Dr. Pio Valenzuela 156

107
 MODULE 8
RIZAL’S LITERARY GENIUS

INTRODUCTION

According to Manebog (2013) one way to gauge a person’s life is to look at his works and

writings. Poetry reveals an individual’s thoughts, hopes, dreams, aspirations, and even

heartaches. The genius in Jose Rizal, our national hero, had resulted in several poems during his

childhood, schooling, life struggles, and right before his martyrdom.

This module focuses on the works of our National Hero in the forms of poems, essays and

memoirs.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify Rizal’s literary works.

2. Analyze the value and importance of Rizal’s literary works

3. Exemplify on Rizal’s literary abilities.

108
Lesson 1. Rizal’s Poems

Figure 8.1. - Jose P. Rizal (n.d.)

According to Acibo and Adanza (1995), only Rizal among the Filipino hero’s has left a
legacy of rich literature to posterity. He was so sensitive to things and events that were happening
around him that he always felt an urge to record them. No one can describe all the literary works
of Rizal and treat it with real compassion and emotion that he had when he wrote them; no one
can ever do it with like eloquence. One can only approximate the real feelings of the great national
hero. Rizal was a real genius.

As stated by Cabinta (2015), Dr. Jose Rizal expresses nationalism in his poem "To My
Fellow Children", by encouraging his Filipino peers to adopt Tagalog as their language. That by
endeavoring this language it would show them the beauty of using it instead of other languages.
Jose Rizal wrote the poem "My Fellow Children" to inspire the youth to use their talents and be
the best they can be. He also wrote it to encourage the youth to be proud of being who they are
and the first step to do that is to use their mother tongue or native language in communicating or
speaking.

Dr. Jose Rizal shows great pride in the Filipino youth of his country by calling them the
'Fair hope of my Motherland.' He is saying that he believes in the talents of the youth. It was in a

109
poem entitled “To My Fellow Children" that he manifested first his nationalistic sentiments. In this
poem, he said that "a people who truly love their native language will surely strive for liberty, like
a bird which soars to freer space above." Furthermore, he averred that the Filipino language was
equally as elegant as that of the other languages, Latin, English, Spanish and others. The poem
was written, when Rizal was only eight years old, but it portrayed mastery of an expert poet.

Figure 8.2. Rizal as a Young Boy (n.d.)

Source: https://www.joserizal.com/childhood-jose-rizal/

To My Fellow Children
Whenever people of a country truly love
The language which by heaven they were taught to use
That country also surely liberty purse
As does, the bird which soars to freer space above.
For language is the final judge and referee
Upon the people in the land where it holds sway;
In truth our human race resembles in this way
The other living beings born in liberty.
Whoever knows not how to love his native tongue
is worse than any beast or evil smelling fish.

110
 To make our language richer ought to be our wish
The same as any mother loves to feed her young.
Tagalog and the Latin language are the same
And English and Castilian and the angels' tongue,
And God, whose watchful care o'er all is flung.
Has given us His blessing in the speech we claim.
Our mother tongue, like all the highest that we know
Had alphabet and letters of its very own;
But these were lost by furious waves were overthrown
Like bancas in the stormy sea, long years ago.
(English Translation from Kapitbisig.com, n.d.)

The most known poem written by Rizal in Ateneo, ‘Mi Primera Inspiracion’ (My First
Inspiration) was dedicated to his mother on her birthday. It is believed to have been written in the
year 1874, upon the release from prison of his mother. (Mañebog, 2020)

Figure 8.3. Teodora Alonzo (Rizal’s Mother) (n.d.)

111
 My First Inspiration
Why do the scented flowers
In fragrant fray
Rival each other's flowers
This festive day?
Why is sweet melody bruited?
In the sylvan dale,
Harmony 8weet and fluted
Like the nightingale?
Why do the birds sing so?
In the gender grabs,
Flitting from bough to bough
With the winds that pass?
And why does the crystal spring
Run among the flowers
While lullaby zephyrs sing
Like its crystal showers?
I see the dawn in the East
With beauty endowed.
Why goes she to a feast
In a carmine cloud'?
Sweet mother, they celebrate
Your natal day
The rose with her scent innate,
The bird with his lay.
The murmurs spring this day
Without alloy,
Murmuring birds you always
To live in joy.
While crystalline murmurs glisten,

112
 Hear you the accents strong
Struck from my lyre, listen!
To my love's first song.
(English Translation from OurHappySchool.com, 2013)
Rizal was a versatile poet, for he could write on any topic that had an impact on his life.
He had a very high regard for education for he believed that the progress and welfare of a nation
were dependent on it, so much so that this belief was encountered again in his advice to the
revolutionary leaders that freedom should be attained by peaceful means: by education and
industry (Osias, 1921).
To these beliefs, he wrote another poem, entitled Through Education Our Motherland
Receives Light," and another one showing the important relationship between religion and
education which is entitled "The Intimate Alliance Between Religion and Good Education." He
also wrote other religious poems and among these were: "To the Child Jesus" and To the Virgin
Mary."

After his mother's imprisonment, he wrote many poems, mostly inspired by his friend and
professor: Father Sanchez. Among the poems he wrote, in 1875 were the following (89):

1. Felicitacion (Felicitation)

2. El Embarque Himno a la Flota de Magallanes (The Departure: Hymn to Magellan's Fleet)

3. Y Es Español: Elcano, el Primero en dar la Vueltaa al Mundo (And He Is Spanish Elcano,

the First to Circumnavigate the World)

4. 4 El Combate: Urbiztondo, Terror de Jolo (The Battle: Urbiztondo, Terror of Jolo)

In 1876, he wrote other poems on various topics. Among these are (90):

1. Un Recuerdo a Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town) which was also another tender poem
about the town where he was born.

2. El Cuativerio y el Triunfo: Batalla de Lucena y Prisioni de Boabdil (The Captivity and the
Triumph: Battle of Lucena and the Imprisonment of Boabdil) This martial poem describes
the defeat and capture of Boabdil, last Moorish sultan of Granada. (Acibo, and Adanza,
1995)

113
 Jose Rizal wrote Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo (A Tribute To My Town) when he was 15 years
old in 1876. He was then a student in Ateneo de Municipal. Rizal, being away from his family,
reminisced his memories of childhood in his hometown, Calamba, Laguna and wrote this poem
to express his love and appreciation for the place where he grew up.

In Memory of My Town

When early childhood's happy days

In memory I see once more
Along the lovely verdant shore
That meets a gently murmuring sea
When I recall the whisper soft
Of zephyrs dancing on my brow
With cooling sweetness, even now
New luscious life is born in me.
When I behold the lily white
That sways to the wind's command,
While gently sleeping on the sand
The stormy water rests awhile;
When from the flowers there softly breathes
Outpoured the newborn dawn to meet
As on us she begins to smile.
With sadness I recall.
Thy face, in precious infancy,
Oh mother, friend most dear to me,
Who gave to life a wondrous charm.
I yet recall a village plain,
My joy, my family, my boon,
Besides the freshly cool lagoon
The spot for which my heart beats warm.
Ah yes! my footsteps insecure
In your dark forests deeply sank;

114
 And there by every river's bank
I found refreshment and delight;
Within that rustic temple prayed
With childhood's simple faith unfeigned
While cooling breezes, pure, unstained,
Would send my heart on rapturous flight.
I saw the Maker in the grandeur
Of your ancient hoary wood,
Ah, never in your refuge could
A mortal by regret be smitten;
And while upon you sky of blue
I gaze, no love nor tenderness
Could fail, for here on nature's dress
My happiness itself was written.
Ah, tender childhood, lovely town,
Rich fount of my felicities,
Oh those harmonious melodies
Which put to flight all dismal hours,
Come back to my heart once more!
Come back, gentle hours, I yearn!
Come back as the birds return,
At the budding of the flowers!
Alas, farewell! Eternal vigil I keep
For thy peace, thy bliss and tranquility
O Genius of good, so kind!
Give me these gifts, with charity.
To thee are my fervent vows
To thee I cease not to sight
These to learn, and I call to the sky
To have thy sincerity.
(English Translation from https://iamjoseprizal.wixsite.com, 2016)

115
 The following year of 1877 also showed a lot of poetry that were written by him:

1. El Heroismo de Colon (The Heroism of Columbus). This poem praises Columbus for his
adventurous spirit and his success an explorer.
2. Colon y Juan II (Columbus and John ID). This poem relates how the King of Portugal, John
II missed fame and riches by his failure to finance the expedition of Columbus to the New
World.
3. Gran Consuelo en la Mayor Desdicha (A Farewell Dialogue by the Students). This is a virtual
farewell poem of Rizal written during his last days in Ateneo.

Jose Rizal is said to have first expressed his sense of nation, and of the Philippines as a
nation separate from Spain, as a young student in Manila. Proof of this, it is said, can be found
in two of his writings. In his poem “To the Philippine Youth”, which he wrote in 1879, when he
was 18 years old (and which won a prize from the literary group), Rizal speaks of the Filipino
youth as the “Fair hope of my Motherland”, and of the “Indian land” whose “son” is offered “a
shining crown”, by the “Spaniard… with wise and merciful hand”. Still in this poem, Rizal
considered Spain as a loving and concerned mother to her daughter Filipinas. (PIA, 2018)

Figure 8.4. Rizal as a Teenager (2020)

Source: https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/jose-rizal-rare-photos-a00297-20200619-lfrm

116
 To the Filipino Youth
(Theme: "Grow, O Timid Flower)
Hold high the brow serene,
O youth, where now you stand,
Let the bright sheen
Of your grace be seen,
Fair hope of my fatherland!
Come now, thou genius grand,
And bring down inspiration
With thy mighty hand,
Swifter than the winds volition,
Raise the eager mind to higher station.
Come down with pleasing light
Of art and science to the flight,
O youth, and there untie
The chains that heavy lie,
Your spirit free to bright.
See how in flaming zone
Amid the shadows thrown
The Spaniard's holy hand
A crown's resplendent band
Proffers to this Indian land.
Thou, who now would rise
On wings of rich empires,
Seek from Olympian skies
Songs of sweetest strain,
Softer than ambrosial rain
Thou, whose voice divine
Rivals Philomel's refrain,
And with varied line

117
 Through the night benign
Frees mortality from pain.
Thou, who by short strife
Wakes thy mind to life;
And the memory bright
Of thy genius' light
Makes immortal in its strength.
And thou, in accents clear
Of Phoebus, to Apollos dear,
Or by the brush's magic art
Takes from nature's store a part.
To fix it on the simple canvas langue
Go forth, and then sacred fire
they genius to the laurel may aspire
To spread around the flame,
And in victory acclaim,
Through wider spheres the human name
Day, O happy day,
Fair Filipinas, for thy land!
So bless the Power today
That places in thy way
This favor and this fortune grand.

In 1879, he wrote a poem entitled "Abd- el- Azis Mahoma which was declaimed by Manuel
Fernandez, an Atenean on the occasion of the Ateneo's patroness.

In the same year of 1880, he wrote a sonnet entitled "A Filipinas" for the Album of the
Society of Sculptures. In the next year (1881) he composed a poem entitled "Al M.R. P. Pablo
Ramon' The Ateneo rector whom he considered a very good and helpful friend

While still in Barcelona, he wrote "Amor Patrio" (Love of Country), which is described as
a nationalistic essay wherein a pen name Laong Laan was used. This article was published in

118
two texts, one in Tagalog and one in Spanish. While the Spanish text was the original written by
Rizal and appeared in Diariong Tagalog on August 20, 1882, the Tagalog version was a
translation prepared by Marcelo H. del Pilar. The article caused sensation because of its
nationalistic nature. In this article, Rizal wrote to enjoin his compatriots to love their country and
to serve its interests. A part of the article is furnished below:

After the fashion of the ancient Hebrews who offered in the temple the first fruits of their
love, we in a foreign land, dedicate our first accounts to our country, enshrouded among the
clouds and mists of morn, always beautiful and poetic, but ever more idolized in proportion as we
are absent and away from it. Under whatever aspect, whatever its name, we love her (patria)
always just as the child loves its mother in the midst of hunger and misery.

And how strange! The poorer and more miserable she is, the more we suffer for her, and
the more she is idolized and adored; yes, there is real joy in suffering for her

Child, we love play; adolescent, we forget it; youth, we seek our ideal; disillusioned, we
weep and go in quest of something more positive and more useful; parent, the children die and
time gradually erases our pain just as the air of the sea slowly effaces the shores as the boat
departs from them. But, love of country can never be effaced, once it has entered the heart;
because it carries in itself the divine stamp that makes it eternal and imperishable.

It has always been said that love is the most potent force behind the most sublime deeds;
very well, of all loves, the love of country is what produced the greatest, the most heroic, the most
disinterested. . (Acibo, and Adanza, 1995)

They Ask Me for Verses (Me Piden Versos) reflects how sad it was for Rizal to be able to
stir emotions through his poems but have them stifled by the Spaniards. Rizal’s poem below was
written while he was a member of Circulo Hispano Filipino. Me Piden Versos (They Asked Me for
Verses) reflects how sad it was for him to have the ability to steer emotions through his poems,
and have these emotions stifled and muted by the powerful and oppressive Spaniards.

They Ask Me for Verses

You bid me now to strike the lyre,

That mute and torn so long has lain,

119
And yet nor will the Muse one note inspire!
Coldly, it shakes in accents dire,
As if many soul itself to wring,
And when its sound seems but to fling
A jest at its own low lament;
So in said isolate pent,
My soul can neither feel nor sing
cannot wake the strain,
There was a time- ah,- "tis too trump
But that time long ago has past
When upon me the Muse had cast
Indulgent smile and friendship's due;
But of that age now all too few
The thoughts that with me yet will stay
As from the hours of festive play
There linger on mysteri0us notes,
And in our minds the memory floats
Of minstrelsy and music gay.
A plant I am, that scarcely grown,
Was torn from out its Eastern bed,
Where all around perfume is shed
And life but as a dream is known;
The land that I can call my own
By me forgotten ne'er to be.
Where thrilling birds their song taught me,
And cascades with their ceaseless roar,
And all along the spreading shore
The murmurs of the sounding sea.
While yet in childhood's happy day,
T learn upon its sun to Smile,
And in my breast there seems the while

120
 Seething volcanic fires to play,
A bard I was, my wish always
To call upon the fleeting wind,
"Go forth, and spread around its flame,
From zone to zone with glad acclaim,
And earth to heaven together bind!"
But it left, and now no more
Like a tree that is broken and Bare
My natal gods bring the echo clear
The songs that in past times they bore,
Wide seas I crossed to foreign shore,
With hope of change and other fate,
My folly was made clear too late,
Poor in the place of good I sought
The seas revealed unto naught,
But made death's spectra on me wait.
All these fond fancies that were mine,
All love, all feeling, all emprise,
Were left, beneath the sunny skies
Which o'er that flowery region shine,
SO press no more that plea of mine,
Poor songs of love from out a heart
That coldly lies a thing apart,
Since now with tortured soul I haste
Unarresting o'er the desert waste,
And lifeless gone is all the art.
(English Translation from Joserizal.com, 2012)

Rizal wrote this when he was at Germany. In France and Germany, Rizal was well known
and respected. But he may have realized what good will their respect do to his country. What
good will this do to the Philippines if he is serving foreign lands and not his own. His verses had

121
a single symbol--The flowers of Heidelberg. But it symbolizes two realities. First, the flowers'
beauty symbolizes Rizal's love for his country, and second, the flowers' reduced quality refers to
Rizal's useless presence in another country. Later he decided to return to the country despite
repeated warning from his friends and relatives (Alejandro, 2010).

Figure 8.5. Flowers of Heidelberg (2015)

Source: https://www.slideshare.net/kamsteph012/rizal-paris-to-berlin

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

Go to my country, go, O foreign flowers,

sown by the traveler along the road,
and under that blue heaven
that watches over my loved ones,
recount the devotion
the pilgrim nurses for his native sod!
Go and say say that when dawn
opened your chalices for the first time
beside the icy Neckar,
you saw him silent beside you,
thinking of her constant vernal clime.

122
 Say that when dawn
which steals your aroma
was whispering playful love songs to your young
sweet petals, he, too, murmured
canticles of love in his native tongue;
that in the morning when the sun first traces
the topmost peak of Koenigssthul in gold
and with a mild warmth raises
to life again the valley, the glade, the forest,
he hails that sun, still in its dawning,
that in his country in full zenith blazes.
And tell of that day
when he collected you along the way
among the ruins of a feudal castle,
on the banks of the Neckar, or in a forest nook.
Recount the words he said
as, with great care,
between the pages of a worn-out book
he pressed the flexible petals that he took.

Carry, carry, O flowers,

my love to my loved ones,
peace to my country and its fecund loam,
faith to its men and virtue to its women,
health to the gracious beings
that dwell within the sacred paternal home.

When you reach that shore,

deposit the kiss I gave you
on the wings of the wind above
that with the wind it may rove
and I may kiss all that I worship, honor and love!

123
 But O you will arrive there, flowers,
and you will keep perhaps your vivid hues;
but far from your native heroic earth
to which you owe your life and worth,
your fragrances you will lose!
For fragrance is a spirit that never can forsake
and never forgets the sky that saw its birth.
(English Translation by Nick Joaquin from Allpoetry.com, n.d.)

Acibo and Adanza (1995) noted that the poetry style of Rizal has changed not only in
format, but also in meter. Rizal has a high versatility in his poetry's form, structure and sentiments.
In this poem, there is one stanza with eight (8) lines, two with seven (7) lines, while the rest have
six (6) lines. One recalls that his mother taught him poetry and even corrected and criticized his
work. Rizal's mother was a remarkable woman, whose influence is evident in his poetry, and other
literary works. In many ways, Rizal's mother contributed to the perfection of Rizal's works.

In his first novel, Noli Me Tangere, inside it is a poem entitled "The Song of Maria Clara"
which is also a popular piece of poetry. The song runs as follows:

The Song of Maria Clara

Sweet are the hours in one's native land,

Where all is dear the sunbeams bless;
Life-giving breezes sweep the strand,
And death is softened by love's caress.
Warm kisses play on mother’s lips,
On her fond, tender breast awakening;
When around her neck the soft arm slips,
And bright eyes smile, all love partaking.
Sweet is death for one's native land,
Where all is dear the sunbeams bless
Death is the breeze that sweeps the strand,

124
 Without a mother, home, or love's caress.

While an exile in Dapitan, Rizal wrote a poem about Talisay, where he built a school, a
hospital and a home. His favorite rendezvous with his pupils was beneath the tree. The poem,
which he asked his pupils. (6) Stanzas with eight lines and a chorus of seven lines

He also wrote a poem for Josephine:

Figure 8.6. Josephine Bracken (n.d.)

Source: https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/5770305761477440/?autologin=true

Josephine, Josephine

Who to these shores have come?

Looking for a nest, a home,
Like a wandering swallow,
If your fate is taking you
To Japan, China or Shanghai,
Don't forget on these shores
A heart for you beats high.

125
 The "Song of the Traveler" was written when he received a letter from Governor Blanco
on July 1, 1896, that his volunteer application for medical service in Cuba was accepted. On that
score he was very happy and he thought that at last he was free and that he was going to travel
more. The poem is produced in full blow:

The Song of the Traveler

Like to a leaf that is fallen and withered,

Tossed by the tempest from pole unto pole;
Thus roams the pilgrim abroad without purpose,
Roams without love, without country or soul
Following anxiously treacherous fortune;
Fortune which ne'er as he grasps at it flees,
Vain though the hopes that his yearning is seeking
Yet does the pilgrim embark on the seas.
Ever impelled by the invisible power,
Destined to roam from the East to the West;
Oft he remembers the faces of love ones,
Dreams of the day when he, too, was at rest.
Chance may assign him tomb of the desert,
Grant him a final asylum of peace;
Soon by the world and his country forgotten,
God rest his soul when his wanderings cease!
Often the sorrowing pilgrim is envied,
Circling the globe like a seagull above;
Little, ah, little they know what a void
Saddens his soul by the absence of love.
Home may the pilgrim return in the future,
Back to his loved ones his footsteps he bends,

126
 Naught will he find out snow and the ruins,
Ashes of love and the tomb of his friends.
Pilgrim, begone! Nor return more hereafter,
Stranger thou art in the land of thy birth;
Others may sing of their love while rejoicing,
Thou once again must roam o'er the earth.
Pilgrim, begone! Nor return hereafter,
Dry are the tears that a while for thee ran;
Pilgrim, begone! And forget thine affliction,
Loud laughs the world at the sorrows of man.

The above poem, Rizal sticks to the four lines per stanza. He wrote a poem for Lipa in
1888 in commemoration of the town's elevation to a villa (city) by virtue of the Becerra Law of
1888, which was unique and far different from the others in the sense that it prepared other
members of a group to join the hymn. The poem runs as follows:

Hymn to Labor

Chorus:
For our country in war
For our country in peace
The Filipino will be ready
While he lives and when he dies.
Men:
As soon as the East is tinted with light
Forth to the fields to plow the loam!
Since it is work that sustains the man,
The motherland, family and the home.
Hard though the soil may prove to be,
Implacable the sun above,
For motherland, out
wives and babes,

127
 Twill be easy with our love.
Wives:
Courageously set out to work,
Your home is safe with a faithful wife
implanting in her children, love
For wisdom, land, and virtuous life
When nightfall bring us to our rest,
May smiling fortune guard our door,
But if cruel fate should harm her man,
The wife would toil on as before.
Girls:
Hail! Hail! Give praise to work!
The country's vigor and her wealth;
For work lift up you brow serene
It is your blood, your life, your health.
If any youth protests his love
His work shall prove if he is good.
That man alone who strives and toils
Can find the way to feed his brood
Boys:
Teach us then the hardest tasks
For down thy trails we turn our feet
That when our country calls tomorrow
Thy purposes, we may complete.
And may our elders say, who see us,
See! How worthy of their sires!
No incense can exalt our dead ones
Lake a brave son who aspires
The most famous of the poems of Rizal, is his last one, a masterpiece, written on the eve
of his execution. Originally, the poem was without a title and was not signed, but the title of the
poem "EI Ulimo Adios" (My Last Farewell) was given by Father Mariano Dacanay, a Filipino priest

128
–patriot and under such title, it was published for the first time n La Independencia, a newspaper
of General Antonio Luna on September 25, 1898, almost one year and a half after Rizal's
execution.

To some people, the poem in Spanish is more touching than the different translation in
English. Currently, there Where twenty-eight translations of the poem, but that made by Charles
E. Darbyshire is considered more approximate to the Original, The famous poem is produced
below:

Figure 8.7. My Last Farewell (Untitled) (2021)

Source: https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/776/today-in-philippine-history

My Last Farewell
Farewell, dear Fatherland, clime of the sun caressed,
Pearl of the Orient seas, our Eden lost!
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life's best,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest,
Still would I give it thee, nor count the cost.

129
 On the field of battle, 'mid the frenzy of fight,
Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed;
The place matters not cypress or laurel or lily white,
Scaffold or open plain, combat or martyrdom’s plight,
Tis ever the same; to serve our home and country's need.
I die just when I see the dawn break,
Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take,
Pour'd out at need for thy dear sake,
To dye with its crimson the waking ray.
My dreams, when life first opened to me,
My dreams, when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see thy loved face, O gem of the Orient sea
From gloom and greet, from care and sorrow free;
No blush on thy brow, no tear in thine eye.
Dream of my life, my living and burning a desire
All hail! cries the soul that is now to take flight
All hail! And sweet it is for thee to expire
To die for thy sake, that thou mayst asp
And sleep in thy bosom eternity's long night
If over my grave someday thou seest grow,
In the grassy sod, a humble flower,
Draw it to thy lips and kiss my soul so
While I may feel on my brow in the cold to below
The touch of thy tenderness, thy breath's warm power.
Let the moon beam over me soft and serene,
Let the dawn over me in its radiant flashes
Let the wind with the sad lament over me keen,
And if on my cross a bird should be seen,
Let it trill there its hymn of peace of my ashes
Let the sun draw the vapors up to the sky,

130
 And heavenward in purity bear my tardy protest
Let some kind soul o'er my untimely fate sigh,
And in the still evening a prayer be lifted on high
From thee, O my country, that in God I may rest.
Pray for all those that hapless have died,
For all who have suffered the unmeasured pain
For our mothers that bitterly their woes have cried,
For widows and orphans, for captives by torture tried;
And then for thyself that redemption thou mayst gain.
And when the dark night wraps the graveyard around,
With only the dead in their vigil to see;
Break not my repose or the mystery profound;
And perchance thou mayst hear a sad hymn resound,
Tis I, O my country, raising a song unto thee.
When even my grave is remembered no more,
Unmarked by never a cross or a stone
Let the plow sweep through it, the spade turns it o'er
That my ashes may carpet thy earthly floor,
Before into nothingness at last they are blown.
Then will oblivion bring to me no care;
As over thy vales and plains
Throbbing and cleansed in thy space and air,
With color and light, with song and lament fare,
Ever repeating the faith that I keep. sweep;
My Fatherland ador'd that sadness to my sorrow lends,
Beloved Filipinas, hear now my last good-bye!
I give thee all; parents and kindred and friends;
For I go where no slave before the oppress or bends,
Where faith can never kill, and God reigns e’er on high!
Farewell to you, from my soul torn away,
Friends of my childhood in the home dispossessed!

131
 Give thanks that I rest from the wearisome day!
Farewell to thee, too, sweet friend, that lightened my way
Beloved creatures all, farewell! in Death there is rest!
(English Translation by Charles Derbyshire, 1996)

And it is also noted that in his last moments, his thoughts were strongly for his country,
except at the last stanza, where he said goodbye to a "sweet friend, that lightened my way which
could have referred to Josephine. In the same poem Rizal tried to compare the death of a martyr
and that of one who dies in the battlefield or in combat. It is quite possible that what he had in
mind, were the thoughts of some of his friends, that the one who dies in the battlefield is more of
a hero than one who dies a martyr's death. This sentiment is noted in the second stanza when he
said that "the place nor the way to die matters not, for it is the same, to serve our home and
country's need." In this poem, he maintains the format of having five Iines to a stanza, with words
very well arranged to produce rhymes, likewise so poignantly descriptive of his feelings of a man
about to die. In the early days, it recite this poem during Rizal Day, December 30, in rural
communities. This was the poem that aroused the sentiments of the Filipinos throughout the
islands and in unison stood for the Philippine Revolution that hastened the fall of the Spanish
Empire.

132
Lesson 2. His Essays and Memoirs (Coursehero, n.d.)

Rizal did not only write poems but also essays, notes and 0ther literary pieces for his
memoirs, mostly those that concerned him personally, his family, and of his friends.

Figure 8.8.The Story of the Moth (n.d.)

Source: https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/401735229236898462/

For instance, Rizal could not forget the story about the moth so that he wrote lengthily
about it:

One night, all the family, except my mother and myself, went to bed early. Why, I do not
know, but we two remained sitting alone. The candles had already been put out. They had been
blown out in their globes by means of a curved tube of tin. That use seemed to me the finest and
most wonderful plaything in the world. The room was dimly lighted by a single light of coconut oil.
In all Filipino homes such a light burns through the night. It goes out just as daybreak to awaken
people by its spluttering.

My mother was teaching me to read in a Spanish reader called "The Children's Friend" (El
Amigo de los Niños). This was quite a rare book and an old copy. It had lost its cover and my
sister had cleverly made a new one. She had fastened a sheet of thick blue paper over the back
and then covered it with a piece of cloth.

133
 This night my mother became impatient with hearing me read so poorly. I did not
understand Spanish and so I could not read with expression. She took the book from me. First
she scolded me for drawing funny pictures on its pages. Then she told me to listen and she began
to read. When her sight was good, she read very well. She could recite well, and she understood
verse-making, too. Many times during Christmas vacations, my mother corrected my poetical
compositions and she made always valuable criticism.

I listened to her, full of child dish enthusiasm, marveled at the nice sounding phrases which
is read from those same pages. The phrases she read so easily stopped me at every breath.
Perhaps lacked self-control. Anyway, I paid little attention the reading. I was watching the cheerful
flame. About it, some little moths were circling in playful flights. By chance, too, I yawned. My
mother soon notice that I was not interested. She stopped reading. Then she said to me: "I am
going to read a very pretty story. Now pay attention."

On hearing the word "story" I at once opened my eyes wide. The word "story" promised
something new and wonderful. I watched my mother while she turned the leaves of the book, as
if she were looking for something. Then full of curiosity and wonder, I had never even dreamed
that there were stories in the old book which I read without understanding. My mother began to
read me the fable of the young moth and the old one. She translated it into Tagalog a little at a
time.

My attention increased from the first sentence. I looked toward the light and fixed my gaze
on the moths which were circling around it. The story could not have been better timed. My mother
repeated the warning of the old moth. She dwelt upon it and directed it to me. I heard her, but it
is a curious thing that the light seemed to me each time more beautiful, the flame more attractive.
I really envied the fortune of the insects. They frolicked so joyously in its enchanting splendor that
the ones which had fallen and been drowned in the oil did not cause me any dread.

My mother kept on reading and I listened breathlessly. The fate of the two insects
interested me greatly. The flame rolled its golden tongue to one side and a moth which this
movement had singed fell into the oil, fluttered for a time and then became quiet. That became
for me a great event. A curious range came over me which I have always noticed in myself
whenever anything has stirred my feelings. The flame and the moth seemed to go farther away

134
and my mother's words sounded strange and uncanny. did not notice when she ended the fable.
All my attention was fixed on the face of the insect. I watched it with my whole soul... It had died
a martyr to its illusions.

As she put me to bed, my mother said: "See that you do not behave like the young moth.
Don't be disobedient, or you may get burnt as it did. I do not know whether I answered or not..
The story revealed to me things until then unknown. Moths no longer were, for me, insignificant
insects. Moths talked; they know how to warn. They advised just like my mother. The light seemed
to me more beautiful. It had grown more dazzling and more attractive. I knew why the moths
circled the flame.

The death of the moth had a profound impression on Rizal and his life. He pictured himself
as a moth, "fated to die as a martyr" for the love of his country. He also wrote the various
experiences that he saw during his childhood days in Calamba. In the late afternoon walks which
he loved at the shores of Laguna de Bay with his pet dog, he reflected on the sad conditions of
the country and remembered a cruelty made by a Spaniard, and to which he wrote:

I spend many, many hours of my childhood down on the shore of the lake, Laguna de Bay.
I was thinking of what was beyond. I was dreaming of what might be over on the other side of the
waves. Almost every day, in our town, we saw the Guardia Civil lieutenant caning and injuring
some unarmed and inoffensive villagers. The villagers only fault was that while at a distance he
had not taken off his hat and made his bow. The alcalde treated the poor villagers in the same
way whenever he visited us. We say no restraint put upon brutality. Acts of violence and other
excesses were committed daily... I asked myself if, in the lands which lay across the lake, the
people lived in this way. I wondered u tortured any countryman with hard and cruel whip merely
on suspicion. Did they there respect the or ever yonder also, in order to live in peace, would one
have to bribe tyrants?

In 1880, there were many literary activities that u delved in. He participated in a literary
contest held with opened to both Spaniards and Filipinos. He entered a drama entitled "EI Consejo
de los Dioses" (The Council of the Gods Sitting as judges were all Spaniards, who awarded first
prizeto izals entry because of "its literary superiority over the other. The winning in this contest
was a significant one, and in spite of the protests by the Spanish community in Manila, primarily

135
because he was an Indio, and because the second prize was awarded to a Spaniard, D.N. Del
Puzo. But it proved "the fallacy of the alleged Spanish superiority over the Filipinos."

The drama was inspired by the Greek Classics and established an allegory with other
literary pieces of Homer, Virgil, and Cervantes

Aside from the two prize-winning works of Rizal, he also produced other poems and also
a zarzuela entitled "Junto al Pasig" (Beside the Pasig), although such work was rated as
mediocre.

A banquet was held on the evening of June 25, 1884, and he was invited as a guest
speaker to honor Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo for winning first and second prizes
respectively in the contest in the National Exposition of Fine Arts. The magnificent speech that he
gave, was in Castillan, which was greeted with ovations from the audience. He spoke of the
university of the genius of which the two honorees were an example, and chided the Spaniards
for their bigotry and failure to see or accept that principle. The full text of his speech Is reproduced
below:

Figure 8.9.Luna and Hidalgo (n.d)

Source: https://artbooks.ph/products/the-first-national-juan-luna-and-felix-resurreccion-hidalgo-
commemorative-exhibition?variant=13051296323

136
 In speaking before you, fear that you may listen to me with lukewarmness. I come to join
your enthusiasm, ours, the stimulus am not scared by the youth, and you cannot help but be
indulgent. sympathetic effluvia saturate the atmosphere; fraternal currents run in all directions,
generous souls listen; and consequently I do not fear for goodwill, you seek Only goodwill, and
from that height where noble sentiments reside, you do not perceive pretty trifles, you see the
whole and you judge the case, and you extend your hand to one who like me, desires to join you
in one single thought, in one single aspiration - the glory genius, the splendor of the Motherland.

Here is, in fact, the reason why we are gathered. In the history of nations there are names
that by themselves signify an achievement, that recall passion and greatness, names that, like
magic formula, evoke pleasant and smiling thoughts, names that became a pact, a symbol of
peace, a bond of love between the nations. The names of Luna and Hidalgo belong to these; their
glories illumine the two extremes of the globe the East and the West, Spain and the Philippines.
In uttering them I believe I see two ominous arches that, starting from both regions, are going to
be entwined there above, impelled by the feeling of common origin, and from that height untie two
peoples with eternal bonds, two peoples and space separate in vain, two peoples in which the
seeds of disunion that men and their despotism blindly so do not germinate. Luna and Hidalgo
are Spanish as well as Philippine glories. They were born in the Philippines, but they could have
been born in Spain, because genius, knows no country, genius sprouts everywhere, genius is like
light, air, the patrimony of everybody, cosmopolitan like space, like life, like God.

The patriarchal era in the Philippines is waning. The deeds of her illustrious sons are no
longer wasted away at home. The oriental chrysalis is leaving the cocoon. The morrow of a long
day for those regions is announced in brilliant tints and rose-colored dawns, and the race, fallen
into lethargy during the historic night while the sun illumines other continents, again awakens,
moved by the electric impact that contact with Western peoples produces, and demands light,
life, the civilization that at one time they bequeath her, thus confirming the eternal laws of constant
evolution, of change, of periodicity, of progress.

You know this well and you exult it. To you is due the beauty of the diamonds that the
Philippines wear in her crown. She produced the precious stones; Europe gave them polish. And
all of us contemplate proudly your work, we are the flame, the breath, the material furnished.

137
 They imbibed over there the poetry of nature a nature grandiose and terrible in its
cataclysms, in its evolutions, in its dynamism; a nature, sweet, tranquil, and melancholy in its
manifestation constant, static; a nature that stamps its seal on all that it creates and produces. Its
children carry it whenever they go. Analyze if not their character, their works, and however slightly
you may know that people, you will see it in everything as forming their knowledge, as the soul
that presides over everything, as the spring of the mechanisms, as the substantial form, as the
raw material. It is not possible not to reflect on what one's self feels, it is not possible to be one
thing and do something else. The contradiction are only apparent, they are only paradoxes. In El
Spoliarium through that canvas, that 1s not mute, can be heard the tumult of the multitude, the
shouting of the slaves, the metallic clicking of the armor of the corpses, the sobs of the bereaved,
the murmurs of prayer, with such vigor and realisms, as one bears the din of thunder in the midst
of the crash of the cataracts or the impressive and dreadful tremor, of the earthquake.

The same nature that engenders such phenomena intervenes also in those strokes. On
the other hand, in Hidalgo's painting the purest moment throbs, ideal expression of melancholy,
beauty, and weakness, victims of brute force; and it 1s because Hidalgo was born under the
brilliant azure of that sky, to the coping of its sea breezes, in the midst of the serenity of its lakes,
the poetry of its valleys, and the majestic harmony of its mountains and ranges.

For that reason in Luna's are the shadows, the contrasts, the moribund lights, mystery,
and the terrible, like the reverberation of the dark tempests of the tropics, the lightning and the
roaring eruptions of their volcanoes. For that reason Hidalgo 1s al light, color and harmony,
feeling, limpidity, like the Philippines in her moonlight nights on her tranquil days, with her horizon
that invite to meditation, and where the infinite lulls. And both, despite being so distinct in
themselves, in appearance at least, coincide at bottom, as all our hearts do in spite of notable
differences. In reflecting on their palette the splendiferous rays of unfolding glory with which they
their Native Land, both express the spirit of our social, moral, and political life; mankind subjected
to harsh tests; unredeemed mankind; reason and aspiration in an open struggle with
preoccupations, fanaticism, injustices, because sentiments and opinions cut passage through the
thickest walls, because to them all bodies have pores, all are transparent, and if they lack pen, if
the press does not help them, the palette and brushes will not only delight the eye but will also be
eloquent tributes.

138
 If the mother teaches her child her language in order that she may understand his joys,
his necessities, or his sorrows, Spain, as mother, teaches also her language to the Philippines in
spite of the opposition of those myopic men and pigmies, who, desiring to insure the present do
not see the future, do not weigh the consequences - rachitic wet nurses, corrupt and corruptors,
who tend to extinguish all legitimate feelings, who perverting the hearts of the people, sow in them
the germs of discord in order to reap later the fruit, the aconite, the death of future generations.
But, I forgot those miseries! Peace to those who are dead, because the dead are dead; they lack
breath, soul, and worms corrode them! Let us not evoke their dismal memory; let us not bring
their stench into the midst of our rejoicings! Fortunately, brothers are larger in number; generosity
and nod are innate under the sky of Spain; all of you are a patent proof of that. You have
responded unanimously you have helped and you would have done more it more had been asked
of you. Seated to share our supper and to honor the illustrious sons of the Philippines, you honor
also Spain because you have done very well. The boundaries of Spain are neither the Atlantic
nor the Cantabrigian nor the Mediterranean -it would be ignominious for the water to place a dam
to her grandeur, to her idea Spain is there, there where her beneficent influence is felt, and though
her flag might disappear, there would remain her memory, eternal and imperishable. What does
a piece of red and yellow cloth matter, what do rifles and cannons matter, there where no fusion
or ideas, unity of principles, harmony of opinions exist?

Luna and Hidalgo belong as much to you as to us; you love them and we see in them
generous hopes, precious examples. The Filipino youth in Europe, ever enthusiastic, and other
whose hearts always remain young for the disinterestedness and enthusiasm that characterize
their actions, offer to Luna as a crown, a modest gift, small indeed for our enthusiasm, but the
most spontaneous and the most voluntary of all the gifts hitherto presented to them.

But the gratitude of the Philippines towards her illustrious sons was not yet satisfied, and
desiring to them free rein to the thoughts that bubble in the mind, to the sentiments that abound
in the heart, and to the words that escape from the lips, we have all come here to this banquet to
join our wishes, in order to give form to the mutual embrace of two races that love one another
and like one another, morally, socially and politically united for a period of four centuries, so that
they may form in the future one single nation in spirit, in their duties, in their views, in their
privileges.

139
 I drink to the health of our artists Luna and Hidalgo, legitimate and pure glories of two
peoples! drink to the health of the persons who have lent them a helping hand on the dolorous
path of art. 1 drink to the health of the Filipino youth, sacred hope of my Native Land, that they
imitate such precious examples so that Mother Spain, solicitous and heedful of the welfare other
provinces, implement Soon the reforms she has contemplated for a long time. The furrow is ready
and the ground is not sterile! And I drink finally for the happiness of those parents who, deprived
of the tenderness of their children, from those distant regions follow them with moist eyes and
palpitating hearts across seas and Space, sacrificing on the altar of the common welfare the sweet
consolation that are scarce in the twilight of life, precious and lonely winter flowers that sprout
along the snow-white borders of the grave.

On the student demonstration, which occurred on November 20-22, 1884, due to the
excommunication of Dr. Morayta, Rizal wrote a lengthy letter to his family describing the riots and
violence prevailed. The first paragraph of the letter, dated November 26, 1884, as given below:

When the new Rector went to assume office next day, November 21, 1884, feelings were
much irritated, we were still seeing red, it was resolved not to return to classes as long as they
did not give us satisfaction, and remove the Rector. There were repeated shouts of "Down with
Creus!" I was there als0. On that day there were new encounters, new fights, wounded, came
blows, imprisonment, etc. It was on this same day, the 21st, when a police lieutenant and a secret
man wanted to seize Ventura and me, but he and I escaped. Two Filipinos were taken prisoners.
After completing his studies in Madrid, Rizal went to Paris and Germany to specialize in
ophthalmology. It was in early part of 1886, Rizal arrived at Heidelberg City, famous for its old
university. On the occasion of the celebration of the fifth centenary of the famous University of
Heidelberg, he wrote a description, which is as follows for its fifth centenary the famous University
of Heidelberg celebrated its Fest sung this morning, and we attended. I liked the picture better
than the original itself. There were, however, many elegant and brilliant costumes; Bugmuller, the
famous student of Heidelberg, was dressed as Frederick the Victorious; Lieberman, as a
gentleman of the seventeenth century Gregoire, Wolf of Schwahen, etc. Last night was the
Schlorsfets. When will these gaieties enjoyed in this poetic beautiful city come back? When will
the foreigners return there? When shall I return after I shall have left? inquire the fate of the
molecules of water that the sun evaporated. Some fall as dew on the bosoms of the flowers;

140
others are converted into ice and snow; others into mud or swamp or torrential cascade they are
not lost but continue to live in nature. Will my soul have the fate of water never being lost into
nothingness? Rizal has a way of portraying his ideas with clarity by using comparison and
stresses his uncertainty of destinations like molecules of water and where they go. (Coursehero,
n.d.)

Figure 8.10 – University of Heidelberg (n.d.)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_University

141
 SUMMARY

This Module inspires us of know the poetical achievements of Rizal and his nationalistic
insights. His inspiring poems proved his poetical genius that reflected about his life and his
childhood. Including his experiences and insights about education, religion and colonial
administration of Spain in the Philippine islands. He wrote poems of varied interest and
perspectives about life. Some of which are(1) My First Inspiration (2) In Memory of My Town; (3)
Through Education the Mother Receives Light; (4) Intimate Alliance between Religion; and (5) A
Farewell Dialogue of the Students and among others.

In the Philippine Literature nationalistic concept. He is best known for writing " To the
Philippine Youth" which was offered a prize for the best poem by a native sponsored by a society
known as the Lyceum of Art and Literature in 1877. He also wrote poems that dealt with the
Spanish interest such as: (1) The Heroism of Columbus; (2) Columbus and John II; (3) Great
Solace in Great Misfortune; (4) The Triumphal Entry of the Catholic Monarch into Granada; (5)
The Battle: Urbiztondo, Terror of Jolo; (6) The Departure: Hymn to Magellan's Fleet; and (7) And
He is Spanish Elcano, the First to Circum-navigate the World.

While it is true that Jose Rizal, National Hero of the Philippines, wrote a great deal for a
nation that cannot read him in the original Spanish, nevertheless his vast and excellent opus
guarantees his place in Filipino letters. These include, of course, his two major novels, Noli me
tangere, published in 1887, and El filibusterismo, published in 1891, and the annotated edition of
Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas that Rizal completed and published in 1890.
With all of his writings, there is no doubt that Rizal was one of the greatest writer the Malayan
race had ever produced.

142
 Assessment Task 8

A. True or False. Write TRUE if the statement is true and write FALSE if the statement
is false. (10 Points)

1. _______ Rizal called his country in one of his poem “Fair Hope of My Fatherland”.

2. _______ Rizal wrote “My Fellow Children” at the age of 10.

3. _______ “Whoever knows not how to love his native tongue is worse than any beast or evil
smelling fish” was taken from the poem “El Amor Patrio” (Love of Country).

4. _______ Rizal’s poem “Mi Primera Inspiracion” was dedicatet to Leonor Rivera.

5. _______ Rizal’s poem that he dedicated to his mother was written in 1874.

6. _______ Rizal believed that freedom can be attained through a revolution.

7. _______ Rizal wrote the poem “Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo while he was a student in UST.

8. _______ Rizal wrote the poem “Amor Patrio” using the pen name Dimasalang.

9. _______ Rizal’s wrote a poem in appreciation of his hometown Calamba at age 15.

10. ______ Rizal’s poem “To the Philippine Youth” won a prize from a literary contest.

B. Matching Type

Chronologically arranged the following events by writing the letters opposite the number.
(10 Points)

1. _______ A. Rizal wrote the “The Council of the Gods”

2. _______ B. Luna won the first prize of the contest National Exposition of fine Arts.
3. _______ C. Dr. Miguel Morayta was excommunicated
4. _______ D. Rizal gave a speech a speech in honor of Luna and Hidalgo.
5. _______ E. Rizal learned the story of the moth.
6. _______ F. Rizal went to Paris.
7. _______ G. Celebration of the Fifth centennial of Heidelberg University.
8. _______ H. Noli Me Tangere was published.
9. _______ I. Rizal specialized in Ophthalmology.
10. ______ J. Rizal completed his studies in Madrid.

143
Write a short reflection on the “Story of the Moth” in the Life of Dr. Jose Rizal. Limit your answer

to not more than ten (10) sentences. (10 Points)

144
 • References

Alejandro, R. (2010). To The Flowers Of Heidelberg. Retrieved 6 December 2020, from

http://laonlaan.blogspot.com/2010/02/to-flowers-of-heidelberg.html
Amorganda L., Galicano-Andaza E., (1995). Jose P. Rizal, His Life, Works, and Role in the
Philippine Revolution. Rex Book Store, Recto Avenue, Manila
Cabinta, L. (2015) To my fellow children. (2020). Retrieved 6 December 2020, from
https://prezi.com/iixldjicc0iu/to-my-fellow-children
Coursehero (n.d.) (2020). Life And Works Of Dr. Jose Rizal Retrieved 6 December 2020, from
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p3mck6i/On-Memories-at-Laguna-de-Bay-I-spent-
many-many-hours-of-my-childhood-down-on/
Derbyshire, C. (1996) My Last Farewell. (2020). Retrieved 6 December 2020, from
https://www.univie.ac.at/Voelkerkunde/apsis
Joaquin, N. (n.d.) To the Flowers of Heidelberg by Jose Rizal. (2020). Retrieved 6 December
2020, from https://allpoetry.com/To-the-Flowers-of-Heidelberg
JoseRizal.com, (2012). – They Ask Me for Verses!. Retrieved 6 December 2020, from
https://www.joserizal.com/they-ask-me-for-verses/
Mañebog J., (2013) Jose Rizal’s Poems | OurHappySchool. Retrieved 4 December 2020, from
https://ourhappyschool.com/history/jose-rizal%E2%80%99s-poems
Mañebog, J. (2020). Jose Rizal’s Love for Teodora Alonzo, His Mother. Retrieved 6 December
2020, from https://myinfobasket.com/jose-rizals-love-for-teodora-alonzo-his-mother/
Ocampo, A. (2020). Jose Rizal in Filipino Literature and History. Retrieved 4 December 2020,
from https://archium.ateneo.edu/history-faculty-pubs/43/
Osias, C. (1921). Rizal and Education, Retrieved 6 December 2020, from
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/philamer/AHZ9301.0001.001
Philippine Information Agency, (2018) Retrieved 6 December 2020, from
https://pia.gov.ph/features/articles/1016602
On The Story of the Moth (2011) 6 December 2020, Retrieved from
http://thelifeandworksofrizal.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-story-of-moth.html

145
To My Fellow Children by Dr. José Rizal (English version of “Sa Aking mga Kababata”). (2011).
Retrieved 6 December 2020, from https://www.kapitbisig.com/philippines/poems-written-
by-dr-jose-rizal-to-my-fellow-children-by-dr-jose-rizal-english-version-of-sa-aking-mga-
kababata_617.html
Wixsite (2016) Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo (A Tribute To My Town) (2020). Retrieved 6 December
2020, from https://iamjoseprizal.wixsite.com/lifeandworks/single-post/2016/03/02/Un-
Recuerdo-A-Mi-Pueblo-A-Tribute-To-My-Town

146
 MODULE 9
RIZAL’S ROLE IN THE PROPAGANDA AND THE REVOLUTION

INTRODUCTION

Pugay (2012) states that when we open the pages of history books in the Philippines, it

is not surprising to see texts about the martyrdom of our most celebrated hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. In

fact, it seems that his name already occupied a permanent and prominent place in every

publication that has something to say about the Philippines.

This module will give light on the role of our National Hero in the Philippine Revolution

through a series of discussion focusing on Propaganda Movement and his impressions on the

Spanish Cruelty.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify Rizal’s contributions to the Propaganda Movement and the Revolution.

2. Analyze Rizal’s context of the Revolution

3. Understand the bipartite views on Rizal in the light of Philippine Revolution.

147
Lesson1. The Propaganda Movement (Piedad-Pugay and Uckung, 2020)

Figure 9.1. Members of the Propaganda Movement in Europe (n.d.)

Propaganda Movement, reform and national consciousness movement that arose among
young Filipino expatriates in the late 19th century. Although its adherents expressed loyalty to the
Spanish colonial government, Spanish authorities harshly repressed the movement and executed
its most prominent member, José Rizal. Public education did not arrive in the Philippines until the
1860s, and even then the Roman Catholic Church controlled the curriculum. Because the Spanish
friars made comparatively little effort to inculcate a knowledge of Castilian, less than one-fifth of
those who went to school could read and write Spanish, and far fewer could speak it. The Filipino
populace was thus kept apart from the colonial power that had been ruling it for more than three
centuries. After the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869, sons of the wealthy were sent to Spain
and other countries for study. At home and abroad, a growing sense of Filipino identity had begun
to manifest, and in 1872 this burgeoning nationalism spawned an armed insurrection. About 200
Filipino soldiers at the Cavite arsenal revolted, killed their officers, and shouted for independence.
Plans for a similar demonstration in Manila failed. The rebellion was quickly suppressed and led
to wholesale arrests, life imprisonment, and the execution of, among others, three Filipino priests,
whose connection with the uprising was not satisfactorily explained.

148
 In 1888 Filipino expatriate journalist Graciano López Jaena founded the newspaper La
Solidaridad in Barcelona. Throughout its course, La Solidaridad urged reforms in both religion
and government in the Philippines, and it served as the voice of what became known as the
Propaganda Movement. One of the foremost contributors to La Solidaridad was the precocious
José Rizal y Mercado. Rizal wrote two political novels—Noli me tangere (1887; Touch Me Not)
and El filibusterismo (1891; The Reign of Greed)—which had a wide impact in the Philippines.
López Jaena, Rizal, and journalist Marcelo del Pilar emerged as the three leading figures of the
Propaganda Movement, and magazines, poetry, and pamphleteering flourished. While López
Jaena and Pilar remained abroad.

Figure 9.2. Marcelo Del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena (n.d.)
Source: https://stock.adobe.com/ph/images/marcelo-h-del-pilar-and-graciano-lopez-jaena-portrait-from-
an-old-paper-banknotes-vintage-retro-famous-ancient-banknote-philippines-money-philippines-banknote-
collection/305163475

in 1892 Rizal returned home and founded the Liga Filipina, a modest reform-minded
society that was loyal to Spain and breathed no word of independence. As with the Cavite mutiny,
the Spanish authorities overreacted to a perceived threat to their rule. They promptly arrested and
exiled Rizal to a remote island in the south. Meanwhile, within the Philippines there had developed

149
a firm commitment to independence among the somewhat less privileged class. Shocked by the
arrest of Rizal, these activists formed the Katipunan under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio.

Figure 9.3. Andres Bonifacio (n.d.)

Source: https://real-life-heroes.fandom.com/wiki/Andres_Bonifacio

Bonifacio self-educated warehouseman. The Katipunan was dedicated to the expulsion of

the Spanish from the islands, and preparations were made for armed revolt. There had been
many Filipino rebels throughout the history of Spanish rule, but now for the first time they were
inspired by nationalist ambitions and possessed the education needed to make success a real
possibility. On August 26, 1896, Bonifacio issued the Grito de Balintawak (“the Cry of
Balintawak”), calling for an armed uprising against the Spanish. The centre of the revolt was in
Cavite province, where Filipino independence leader Emilio Aguinaldo first came into prominence.
Spain sent reinforcements until there was an army of 28,000, along with a few loyal regiments of
Filipino soldiers. A stiff campaign of 52 days brought about the defeat of the insurgents, but the
Spanish once again endeavoured to work against their own interests. Although Rizal had no
connection to the uprising or Katipunan, the Spanish military arrested him and, after a farcical
trial, found him guilty of sedition. He was executed by a firing squad in Manila on December 30,
1896. The execution of Rizal breathed new life into the insurrection, and the Philippine Revolution
spread to the provinces of Pangasinan, Zambales, and Ilocos. With the destruction of the U.S.

150
battleship Maine on February 15, 1898, in the harbour of Havana, Cuba, and the subsequent
wave of public indignation, hostilities erupted between Spain and the United States. The exiled
Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines on May 19 and announced renewal of the struggle with
Spain. The Philippines declared independence from Spain on June 12 and proclaimed a
provisional republic with Aguinaldo as president. With the conclusion of the Spanish-American
War, the Philippines, along with Puerto Rico and Guam, were ceded by Spain to the U.S. by the
Treaty of Paris, on December 10, 1898. The Filipino struggle for independence would continue
through the Philippine-American War and would not be achieved until after World War II.
(Britannica, 2020)

The Propaganda Movement was a cultural organization formed in 1872 by Filipino

expatriates in Europe. Composed of the Filipino elite called "ilustrados", exiled liberals and
students attending Europe's universities gravitated to the movement.

Figure 9.4. La Solidaridad (n.d.)

Source: https://www.knights-of-rizal.be/la-solidaridad/

151
 La Solidaridad, a bi-weekly Spanish language broadsheet, became the platform for
intelligent discourse on economic, cultural, political, and social conditions of the country.

This sub-project aims to organize genealogical data on these historical figures who
contributed to the fight for independence. Find similar projects at the master project page,
Families of the Philippines.

The organization aimed to increase Spanish awareness of the needs of its colony, the
Philippines and labored to bring about:

• Recognition of the Philippines as a province of Spain;

• Representation of the Philippines in the Cortes Generales, the Spanish parliament;
• Secularization of Philippine parishes;
• Legalization of Spanish and Filipino equality;
• Equal opportunity for Filipinos and Spanish to enter government service;
• Creation of a public school system independent of the friars;
• Abolition of the polo (labor service) and vandala (forced sale of local products to
the government);
• Guarantee of basic freedoms of speech and association;
• Recognition of human rights

The Propagandists

• José Alejandrino
• Anastacio Carpio
• Graciano López Jaena, publisher of La Solidaridad
• Marcelo H. del Pilar - the editor and co-publisher of the La Solidaridad and wrote
under the name "Plaridel"
• Eduardo de Lete
• Antonio Novicio Luna - wrote for La Solidaridad under the name "Taga-Ilog"
• Juan Novicio Luna - painter and sculptor
• Miguel Moran
• Jose Maria Panganiban - wrote for La Solidaridad under the name "Jomapa"
• Pedro Ignacio Paterno - served as prime minister of the first Philippine Republic

152
 • Mariano Ponce - wrote for La Solidaridad under the name "Tikbalang"
• Antonio Maria Regidor
• Isabelo Jr. L. delos Reyes
• Dr. Jose Rizal - author of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, wrote for La
Solidaridad under the name "Laon Laan"

Friends of the Movement

• Ferdinand Blumentritt - Austrian ethnologist

• Miguel Sagrario Morayta - Spanish historian, university professor and statesman)
(Geni.com, n.d.)

Figure 9.5. Ferdinand Blumentritt and Miguel Morayta (2019)

Source: https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/12/30/19/how-rizals-life-in-europe-and-
friendship-with-a-czech-scholar-changed-a-nations-fate

The Philippine Revolution of 1896 to 1901 is seen by many historians as a period when
the Filipino people were most united, most involved and most spirited to fight for a common
cause—freedom. As to the actual involvement of Rizal in the Revolution, however, they disagree,
with the issue remaining, to date, controversial, disputed and unresolved. Historians do not deny
that Rizal played a major part in the country’s struggle for reforms and independence. His writings,
particularly the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo, were viewed as the guiding force for
other patriots to rally behind the country’s cause. But some of them do not credit the hero with the

153
leadership of the Revolution, even playing down his actual role in the fight for freedom. Rizal’s
hesitation about the Revolution was, however, muddled by the accounts of Dr Pio Valenzuela
regarding his mission to seek the hero’s opinion and approval in launching an armed rebellion
against the Spanish administration. The mission, ordered by Andres Bonifacio, sent Valenzuela
to Dapitan, where Rizal was in exile after he got into trouble with the Spaniards for writing his two
novels. (Piedad-Pugay and Uckung, 2020)

154
Lesson 2. Jose Rizal and the Revolution of 1896 (Piedad-Pugay, 2012)

Truthfully, there is nothing wrong about immortalizing Rizal and his heroism in books and
literatures read by several generations of Filipinos and non-Filipinos. Probably, most writers
deemed that doing such is a fitting way of paying respect and gratitude to his contributions and
sacrifices for the benefit of the Filipino people and of our nation. It’s just unfortunate that in trying
to present him as an icon of heroism, he was placed in a pedestal that became too tough for Juan
dela Cruz to reach.

Figure 9.6 – Filipino Members of the Revolution (2019)

Source: https://ideapod.com/how-katipunan-became-the-catalyst-that-sparked-the-philippine-
revolution/

The national revolution that we had in our country from 1896 to 1901 is one period when the
Filipino people were most united, most involved and most spirited to fight for a common cause—
freedom. While all aspects of Jose Rizal’s short but meaningful life were already explored and
exhausted by history writers and biographers, his direct involvement in the Philippine Revolution
that broke out in 1896 remains to be a sensitive and unfamiliar topic.

155
 Historians cannot deny that Rizal played a major part in the country’s struggle for reforms
and independence. His writings, particularly the Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were
viewed as the guiding force for other patriots to rally for the country’s cause. While most of us
believed that Rizal dedicated his life and labor for the cause of the revolution and venerated him
to a certain extent, a brave historian rose up and went against the tide by making known to the
public his stand that Rizal was NOT an actual leader of the Philippine Revolution. While most of
his biographers avoided this topic, it is important to note that this greatest contradiction in Rizal
made him more significant than ever.

In his Rizal Day lecture in 1969 entitled “Veneration without Understanding,” Prof. Renato
Constantino tried to disclose the real Rizal and the truth of his heroism stripping off the superficial
knick-knacks adorned on him by hagiographers and hero-worshippers.

The very striking fact that Constantino forwarded was the notion that Rizal was not a leader
of the Philippine Revolution, but a leading opponent of it. Accordingly, in the manifesto of 15
December 1896 written by Rizal himself which he addressed to the Filipino people, he declared
that when the plan of revolution came into his knowledge, he opposed its absolute impossibility
and state his utmost willingness to offer anything he could to stifle the rebellion. Rizal thought of
it as absurd, and abhorred its alleged criminal methods.

Figure 9.7. Rizal’s Manifesto (2017)

156
 Source: https://slideplayer.com/slide/10462458/

Rizal in his manifesto put into premise the necessity of education in the achievement of
liberties. Most importantly he believed that reforms to be fruitful must come from above and that
those that come from below are shaky, irregular, and uncertain.

Rizal’s weakness for this matter was his failure to fully understand his people. He was
unsuccessful in empathizing with the true sentiments of the people from below in launching the
armed rebellion. He repudiated the revolution because he thought that reforms to be successful
should come from above. It could be understandable that the hero thought of such because it
was the belief of the prevailing class to which Rizal belonged. It is also possible that Rizal
disproved the revolution due to his belief that violence should not prevail. In this case, Rizal
unintentionally underestimated the capacity of those from below to compel changes and reforms.

This hesitation of Rizal against the revolution was supported by Dr. Pio Valenzuela’s 1896
account of the revolution after he was sent by Andres Bonifacio to Dapitan to seek Rizal’s opinion
and approval in launching an armed rebellion against the Spanish administration. In September
1896, Valenzuela before a military court testified that Rizal was resolutely opposed to the idea of
a premature armed rebellion and used bad language in reference to it, the same statement was
extracted from him in October 1896, only that he overturned that it was Bonifacio, not Rizal, who
made use of foul words.

Figure 9.8. Dr. Pio Valenzuela (n.d.)

157
 Source: http://museovalenzuela.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-pio-valenzuela.html

However, Valenzuela after two decades reversed his story by saying that Rizal was not
actually against the revolution but advised the Katipuneros to wait for the right timing, secure the
needed weapons and get the support of the rich and scholarly class. Valenzuela recounted that
his 1896 statements were embellished due to duress and torture and it was made to appear that
in his desire “not to implicate” or “save” Rizal, testified that the latter was opposed to the rebellion.
This turn of events put historians into a great confusion, making Rizal’s stand over the Philippine
Revolution, controversial and debatable, making him both hero and anti-hero.

Constantino, in reality did not disrobe Rizal the merit he deserves, what he did was a critical
evaluation of Rizal as a product of his time. He pointed out that even without Rizal, the
nationalistic movement would still advance with another figure to take his place because it was
not Rizal who shaped the turn of events but otherwise. Historical forces untied by social
developments impelled and motivated Rizal to rose up and articulate the people’s sentiments
through his writings. In fact, the revolution ensued even Rizal disagreed with it. Finally,
Constantino argued that to better understand the hero, we should also take note of his
weaknesses and learn from them. (Piedad-Pugay, 2012)

158
 Summary

Rizal became one of the leaders of a reform movement called the Propaganda, an
unwavering campaign in lobbying the peninsular government for political and social freedoms in
the country. Some of its specific goals were representation of the Philippines in the Cortes, or
Spanish parliament; secularization of the clergy; legalization of Spanish and Filipino equality;
creation of a public school system independent of the friars; abolition of the polo (labor service)
and vandala (forced sale of local goods) and among others.

Other important Propagandists included Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo del Pilar, Antonio
Luna, Ferdinand Blumentritt, and some other Filipino illustrados living in Europe. The Propaganda
Movement languished after Rizal's arrest and the collapse of the Liga Filipina. La Solidaridad, the
organ of the reform movement went out of business due to lack of necessary fund in November
1895, and in 1896 both del Pilar and Lopez Jaena died in Barcelona,

In 1892 Filipinos interested in the overthrow of Spanish rule founded an organization

following Masonic rites and principles to organize armed resistance that started as a secret
society. Andres Bonifacio, a common man served as the guiding light of the society later to
become a revolutionary government. Its aim is to overthrow the Spanish colonial government. It
operated as an alternative Filipino government complete with hierarchical officials known as the
Katipunam that culminated into a Revolutionary government that lasted until 1901.

Rizal a man of great intelligence was not in favor of the revolution considering that the
Filipnos were not yet ready and do not have the necessary preparations. This was made clear in
a meeting with Dr. Pio Valenzuela as directed by Andres Bonifacio during his exile in Dapitan. It
was further strengthen by a Manifesto written by him before his execution in 1896.

159
 Assessment Task 9

A. True or False. Write TRUE if the statement is true and write FALSE if the statement is false.
(10 Points)
1. _______ The Philippine revolution broke out on the year 1896.

2. _______ Rizal played a major role in the struggle for reforms in the country.

3. _______ Rizal was not an actual leader of the Philippine Revolution.

4. _______ Dr. Pio Valenzuela made a lecture entitled “Veneration without Understanding”.

5. _______ Dr. Renato Constantino was a revolutionist.

6. _______ Rizal opposed the revolution in his Manifesto of 1896.

7. _______ The Katipuneros were the revolutionist themselves.

8. _______ Dr.Valenzuela sent Bonifacio to Dapitan to seek Rizal’s opinion of the revolution.

9. _______ The revolution lasted for almost five (5) years.

10. ______ Renato Constantino was a member of the revolution.

B. Identification. (10 Points)

1. __________ The reform and national consciousness movement
2. __________ The year when the Suez Canal was completed.
3. __________ The founder of La Solidaridad
4. __________ The year when Rizal returned to the Philippines
5. __________ The month of the “Cry of Balintawak”.
6. __________ The US battleship destroyed in Havana, Cuba.
7. __________ The year the Propaganda Movement was formed.
8. __________ The city where Spain ceded the Philippines in favor of United State.
9. __________ The pen name used by Mariano Ponce
10. _________ The name of Filipino elite in Europe that started the Propaganda Movement.

160
C. Write a short essay on Rizal’s involvement and participation in the Reform Movement and the
Revolution. Limit your answer in a single page. (10 Points)

• References

Amorganda L., Galicano-Andaza E., (1995). Jose P. Rizal, His Life, Works, and Role in the
Philippine Revolution. Rex Book Store, Recto Avenue, Manila
Members of the Propaganda Movement genealogy project. (2020). Retrieved 4 December 2020,
from https://www.geni.com/projects/Members-of-the-Propaganda-Movement/13919
Propaganda Movement | Facts, Definition, & History. (2020). Retrieved 4 December 2020, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Propaganda-Movement
Piedad-Pugay, Chris A and Uckung, P. J. V. (2020). From the Archives: Rediscovering Rizal's
Human Side. Retrieved 6 December 2020, from https://ph.asiatatler.com/society/a-
closer-look-on-the-more-human-side-of-national-hero-dr-jose-rizal
Piedad-Pugay C. (2012). Jose Rizal and the Revolution - National Historical Commission of the
Philippines. Retrieved 4 December 2020, from https://nhcp.gov.ph/jose-rizal-and-the-
revolution/
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2020). Propaganda Movement Retrieved 4 December
2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Propaganda-Movement

161
- END –

162