El Filibusterismo (Overview)

Why Counting Counts

Legend:
Intro/ Overview (1) - REY
Spanish-Colonial ‘Racial’ Strata and Ethnicity (2)
Political Vocabulary and Concepts (3)
Questions about Tagalog (3)
- Angelica

Benedict Anderson’s Why Counting Counts: A study of forms of consciousness and the
problems of language in Noli and Fili took the arduous task of counting the occurrence of
particular linguistic terms—racial or ethnic terms, political vocabulary among others—in the two
novels.

This microscopic approach sought to turn away from one that relies on ‘selective and often
tendentious short quotations from the novels in order to force their author into particular politics’
(80). As an alternative, Anderson looked at contexts: the characters using the terms, the
interlocutors and the context of the conversations.

Examines Jose Rizal’s great novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, through a
hitherto untried quantitative analysis of the scope and evolution of their political and
social vocabulary, as well as their use of Tagalog and the lengua de Parian.

Special attention is given to which characters (including the narrator) use these terms and
languages and with what frequency.

Aims to:
- Throw new light on Rizal’s changing political consciousness and use of his native
language.
- Nolil was published when he was still 25, and when his experience outside Spain
was largely confined to France and Germany.
- Fili came out in 1891, when the Rizal was just 30, and when he had gone home
to the Philippines for a few months, and then travelled to Japan and the United
States, before settling in the United Kingdom and Belguim.
Most important questions raised are:
- Shifting nature of Rizal’s intended readership
- The geographical location of the birth of Filipino identity in the modern sense
- Odd concealment of the Chinese mestizos combined with a growing hostility to the
Chinese as an alien race
- Level and scope of the author’s political sophistication
- Complicated relationship between the colonial-international aspects of Spanish, then
ethnic-nationalist claims of Tagalog, and the emergence of a democratic cross-class
lingua franca, especially in Manila

Spanish-Colonial ‘Racial’ Strata and Ethnicity

Colonial society in the Philippines was conceived theoretically as a ‘racial’ pyramid, with each
descending stratum marked by greater biological, ethical, and economic distance from a
hypothesized metropolitan norm.

Top Peninsulares Spaniards born and raised

int he imperial center

Criollos/ creoles Spanish descent, but

unfortunate enough to
have been born and raised
in the Philippines

Mestizos Not only locally born and

bred, but were the
products of ‘interracial’
sexual relationships

Bottom Indios Homogenous mass

Political vocabulary and concepts

R - Patria - one’s native country or homeland

- Patritismo
- Patriota

R -Pueblo
- Local towns, genera, people of Filipinas
 - Spanish word for “town” or “village”. It comes from the Latin root word populus, meaning
“people”

Collective
- A group of words signifying collective or personal autonomy of a vague kind:
1. Libertad
2. Libre
3. Independencia
4. Independientes
- Politica
- Politic - an action seeming sensible and judicious under the circumstances:
1. Politica
2. Politicos
3. Conservador

R - Filibustero
- Filibuster - a native of the Philippines who was accused of advocating their separation
from Spain.
1. Filibustermo
2. Filibusterismo
3. Filibusterillo
4. Filibusterado
- Liberal - open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values

Sociedad
- Revolucion - is a successful attempt by a large group of people to change the political
system of their country by force.
- Contrarevolucion

Citizenship
- Words connected to the idea of citizenship
1. Ciudadan
2. Conciudadano
3. Paisanos

Metropolis, Colonias
- A group of words directly referring to colonies and metropolises
Espanolismo, Espanolizacion
- Words referring to politico-cultural assimilation

R - Progreso, Reformistas
- Words referring to reforms and progress

A pile of miscellanea (miscellaneous items, especially literary compositions,

that have been collected together)
1. Partido
2. Policia secreta
3. Ideologia
4. Republicas
5. Capitalista

Intermezzo
- Geographic bias in favor of Luzon is obvious, and reminiscent of what we observed in
Noli
- No saints are mentioned at all
- Lost interest in Catholicism, even in a polemical (relating to or involving strongly critical,
controversial, or disputatious writing or speech) sense

Questions about Tagalog

1. Shift of Rizal’s intended readersihp
2. Rizal’s use of his native language
3. Aimed at a sympathetic but not very informed “international” readership
4. Entrusted the entire print to Jose Basa in Hong Kong and smuggle to the Philippines
5. His readers are now his fellow countrymen
6. None of the Tagalog words were explained in Spanish.
- A high percentage of the Tagalog words used in Noli had Spanish translations
attached to them, unlike in FIli, which non of the Tagalog words in it is explained
or paraphrased in Spanish.
- Reason: Dr. Jose Rizal’s readership (or his target audience). Noli was intended
for international readership (audiences from different parts of the world where he
aimed to distribute his novel, Noli) while in Fili, readership was intended for his
fellow countrymen.
7. Approx. 196 unstressed Tagalog words derived from Spanish words in Fili (breakdown
below)
Note: Rizal uses a total of 127 unstressed Tagalog words derived from Spanish words for Noli
(these words are Tagalog words that has a Spanish origin, such as the words “la mesa” which
originated from the Spanish word “mesa”, which means table and in Noli, 127 words were
used), while he uses an approx. of 196 for Fili.

People # of words

Narrator 80

Unnamed students 20

Makaraig 10

Cany vendor & Hermana Penchang 8 each

Simoun 7

Tadeo P. Millon & Primitivo 5 each

Isagani, Ship’s captain, unknown woman, 4 each

Pecson

Cabesang Andang & rumormongers 3 each

Padre Salvi, Donya Victorina, Capitana, 2 each

Loleng, Hermana Bali, Quiroga, Town clerk

Cabesang Tales, Basilio, Ben Zayb, Tandang 1 each

Selo, Captain Basilio, Penitente,
SIlversmiwth, Sacristan, Curate of San Diego,
Neighbors, Conspirator

Candy vendor and customer (sample)

“... despite the racist censorship involved, the chatter between the candy vendor and her
customer shows that we are in the presence of a real, Hokkien-inflected lingua franca for the
streets of Manila, egalitarinaly shard by poor vendors and their elite student customers. A
patois, yes… but also an instr for ument of social communication and not an emblem of political
shame. The Noli contains nothing like this.”
Presence of Tagalog
- Crispin’s children’s riddle and the lines from Balagtas.
- La Consolacion’s “Perfect Tagalog” surfaces when she allows herself feel the
melancholy power of Sisa’s kundiman

Absence of Tagalog
- The heroic Indio Elias neve r uses the language Tagalog.
- Simoun, could also be a speaker of pure Spanish, untainted by Tagalog.