Jose rizal, as a nineteen-year old student, won first prize in an essay- writing contest manila.

His Alleged
winning piece, entitled EL COnsejo de los dioses

Rizal noted that, "Truth came back to occupy its place, announcing a new era to the world, then
corrupted."

They were arguing who among the three (3) literary figures was the best in terms of art and virtue,
whose musings led to them declaring Cervantes as a winner, whose works were centered around social
reform and the rule of reason.

This essay composed by Rizal |

afflicted by a kind of madness, made more dismal and frantic when stupid authors with feverish
imaginations write about it; bad taste was propagated everywhere and time was uselessly spent in
pernicious reading …"

This essay, composed and submitted in 1880, was composed by Rizal during the early days of the
Propaganda.

Rizal tried different things that would incorporate and highlight the filipino culture: from researching
and writing his own version of national history to composing and creating a lexicon of all known dialects
in the country, starting from T’boli up to well- known ones such as tagalog and Cebuano _ All in the
name of asserting difference in culture.