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Constantino - Veneration without

understanding
Created @September 30, 2022 10:30 AM

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❓ What are the main points of Renato Constantino in his book “Veneration
without understanding”? 

The unity of the venerated mass action and the honored individual enhances each
other’s influence

Usually the honored individual or the hero of the people is usually the leader of the
revolution but Rizal was against the revolution for the fight of liberty

Ever since the beginning of that revolution that Bonifacio led, Rizal was against
and even used his reputation and name for it to be used for the sake of being
against it

Rizal and the Revolution

Due to Rizal’s refusal towards the mass action of the revolution, this caused the
Filipinos a dilemma: either the revolution or rizal is wrong but none of the two can
be disowned by the people

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 Some looked at him as an embarrassment to the Filipino while others looked at
him with praise for his refusal to the revolution, if they dared

There are also others that are careless and superficial with the history and
choose not to dwell in the controversy between the two

The revolution has always been overshadowed by the figure and reputation of Rizal
and the perspective towards Rizal about national development remains superficial
due to the refusal to analyze the significance of his repudiation

The problem with the refusal of Rizal to the revolution was that his stature and
efforts towards the country’s liberty can be made as an excuse to exculpate anyone
who actively betrays the revolution and who is for the anti-colonial movement

An American-Sponsored Hero
Rizal’s superiority was the result of American Sponsorship and this can be done in
two ways

Encouraging a Rizal cult

Minimizing the works of other heroes or even vilifying them

Although he has the attributes of greatness, it does not change the fact that his
present eminence was due to the sponsorship of Americans

It was thanks to Civil Governor W. H. Taft, back in 1901, when he contributed to the
formation of a national hero by suggestion to the Philippines Commission

Other contestants and their reasons for not being picked as the national hero

Aguinaldo - too militant

Bonifacio - too radical

Mabini - unregenerate

Rizal never advocated for independence nor armed resistance to the government
but rather, he urged reform within publicity, public education, and appeal to the
public conscience

The Americans picked Rizal as the national hero simply because his ways of
advocation and urge are not against American colony policy while for those that

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 advocate independence (Bonifacio or Mabini) are against such rule

Factors that made the Americans favor Rizal

No embarrassing anti-American quotations could be attributed to him

Rizal’s martyrdom has become the symbol of Spanish oppression

Focusing the attention on Rizal would concentrate the hatred of the Filipinos
towards the current and future oppressors of the Philippines

Rizal was a reformist, not a separatist, so he is not in question for Philippine

independency

Rizal belonged to the social class, conservative illustrados, that the Americans
that were cultivating and building up for leadership

Role of Heroes
Even in a possibility where there is no Rizal, there will be another talent that will
bring about the Filipino struggle for liberty in a different form

Rizal may have accelerated our maturation of the libertarian struggle and gave form
and articulation and color to our aspirations, but it doesn’t change the presence of
the nationalist struggle

The fundamental cause of mass action is not the utterances of a

leader;
rather, these leaders have been impelled to action by historical
forces unleashed by
social development.

History is made when man confront the problems of social progress in favor of the
historical conditions of their epoch

Innovation and Change

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 There was national awakening due to the grave and deep alterations that occurred
in the country

Rizal’s time had great economic changes

From re-thinking of the economic system in the Philippines to the improvement

of communications and linkages

The Ideological Framework

Economic prosperity brought discontent to the natives as they saw a new world
opening to them and their class

This constituted a new awareness and goal with the equality with the
peninsulares and in practical economic and political terms

Hispanization = conscious manifestation of economic struggle

That and assimilation became the ideological expression of the economic

motivations of affluent indios and mestizos

Rizal fulfilled his function of articulating the needs of the people by voicing of the
goals of his class and adding in the aspirations of the people

The goals that were made are in a reformist approach since it is limited in their
social class

He had to become a Spaniard before becoming a Filipino

Rizal’s writings formed a separatist movement which promoted for a distinct national
consciousness

This contribution was in the realm of Filipino nationhood - the

winning of our name as a race, the recognition of our people as
one, and the elevation of the indio into Filipino.

In fairness, although his actions may have been limited in our eyes, his actions
acted as a big step to our nationalism, to our identity as Filipinos

The Concept of Filipino Nationhood

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 This contribution of Rizal, though it won consciousness and racial sense, it
separated us from true de-colonization, thus not yet being able to distinguish the
true Filipino from the incipient Filipino

The true filipino is a developing concept that strives for de-colonization and
independence

“Filipino” is a term originally referring to the creoles (Spaniards born in the

Philippines), the Espanoles-Filipinos or Filipinos

Natives = indios

Spanish mestizo that pass for white = Filipino

Hispanized and urbanized indios + spanish mestizos + sangly in last quarter of

19th century = Filipinos

After the abolition of the tribute lists and the economic prosperity

Filipinos in Spain during the propaganda period were indios

….under the present circumstances, we do not want separation

from
Spain. All that we ask is greater attention, better education, better
government employees, one or two representatives and greater
security for
our persons and property. Spain could always win the appreciation
of the
Filipinos if she were only reasonable! [11]

- Excerpt from Rizal’s letter to Blumentritt

Eventually, the winning of the term Filipino was an anti-colonial victory for it signified
the recognition of racial equality between Spaniards and Filipinos

The “Limited” Filipinos

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 Despite the winning of the term, “Filipino”, it was a limited win overall due to…

The ones who used the terms are limited Filipinos, in terms of education and
property

Those who use it are those who spoke in the name of the people but are not of
the people

The next step is the mass recognition of the Filipinos as a real nation and their
transformation into true Filipinos

True Filipinos = de-colonized Filipinos

He may have helped us won the term “Filipino” but he spoke on behalf of the people
while being separated by our culture due to the upbringing of his social class

His class position, his upbringing, and his foreign education were
profound influences which constituted a limitation on his
understanding of his countrymen.

Even though his patriotic acts for his people and the refusal against the anti-colonial
movement seem contradictory from one another, they were actually both in
character, both with patriotic motives

In Rizal’s social class, he instinctively underestimated the power of the people and
perceived freedom as something to be deserved, not a right

For him, liberty ≠ independence because liberty, to him, is a demand of those

rights

Rizal did not consider political independence as a prerequisite to freedom

Rizal would rather let us wait until the Spaniards abandon us than have ourselves
fight for our own freedom

….. many have have interpreted my phrase to have liberties as to

have independence, which are two different things. A people can be
free without being independent, and a people can be independent
without being free. I have always desired liberties for the Philippines

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 and I have said so. Others who testify that I said independence
either have put the cart before the horse or they lie.

Even if Rizal was behind the people in their forward march, the people see him as a
martyr and revere him because he is someone that died for the beliefs that they
believe in

A people have every right to be free. Tutelage in the art of

government as an excuse for colonialism is a discredited alibi.
People learn and educate themselves in the process of struggling
for freedom and liberty. They attain their highest potential only when
they are masters of their own destiny. Colonialism is the only
agency still trying to sell the idea that freedom is a diploma to be
granted by a superior people to an inferior one after years of
apprenticeship.

The Precursors of Mendicancy

In a way, Rizal and his generation are the precursors to the current mendicants,
those who say that they stand for independence but do not want to hurt the feelings
of the Americans

Rizal is a practitioner of the mendicant policy as it is a fact that propagandists chose

Spain as their arena of struggle than work with their people, instead of teaching and
learning from them, helping them realize their own condition and articulate their
aspirations

The elite felt that education gave them the right to speak for the people, thus
forming an elitist type of leadership, without considering a part of history where the
people decide on their own, in what they want to do

They are not accustomed to people deciding on their own

Illustrados and Indios

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 The Katipunan was a people’s movement that is based on the confidence of their
own ability to act on their own

Rizal and the propagandists embodied consciousness with no movement while

Bonifacio and the Katipunan resembles the unity of consciousness and
revolutionary practice

Although Rizal is known as a national hero to all and his validity gave him an
everlasting heroism, it doesn’t have to mean that he has to be valid all the time and
should be the foundation to our aspirations and goals as a nation

Each hero’s contribution, however, are not nullified thereby but

assume their correct place in a particular stage of the people’s
development. Every nation is always discovering or rediscovering
heroes in the past or its present.

Blind Adoration
Hero-worship must be both historical and cultural

We should always be conscious of the conditions and circumstances of the history

that makes a person who they are

We must view Rizal as an evolving personality in an evolving historical period

We must determine factors that influenced the formation of character of the person
of interest

Limitations of Rizal
It is a useless speculation to bring him here and make him understand the means of
our times, the means of the current colonialism for he will not truly understand and
grasp what it means to be a person of today, given his knowledge and experience

Many of his social criticisms are still valid today as it they are carry-overs of our
lives from his period

A true appreciation to Rizal is to understand such statements and take the

steps to eradicate such evil, in which he sourced out

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 Negation of Rizal
We must create new heroes with the right motivation and aspirations to solve our
problems of today, we should not rely on Rizal alone

A true hero is one with the people, not some exception of the society that is special

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