GROUP 1

EL FILIBUSTERISMO TO THE FILIPINOS AND THEIR GOVERNMENT

(Why counting counts; a study of forms of consciousness and problems of language in Noli
me tangere and El Filibusterismo)

ABOUT:

This book examines Jose Rizal’s great novels, NoliMe 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 lenguade Parian. Special attention
is given to which characters (including the Narrator) use these terms and languages and
with what frequency.

The study aims to throw new light on Rizal’s changing political consciousness and use of his
native language. The most important questions raised are:

• The shifting nature of Rizal’s intended readership;

• The geographical location of the birth of a Filipino identity in the modern sense;
• The odd concealment of the Chinese mestizos combined with a growing hostility to
the Chinese as an alien race;
• The level and ambit of the author’s political sophistication;
• The complicated relationship between the colonial-international aspects of Spanish,
the ethnic-nationalist claims of Tagalog, and the emergence of a democratic cross-
class lingua franca, especially in Manila.
 PATRIA - has a relatively broad semantic range, ranging from home-town to native-land to
mother-country. Additionally, it is frequently used in a general sense, such that the speaker
may refer to "motherlands" of other people rather than just his or her own.

PUEBLO - is a term that can refer to much larger units like "countries," "lands", and the
"peoples" living in these lands or countries. It can also refer to a small-scale human
habitation such as a "town," the townspeople, and also to both at the same time.
Additionally, it can mean "the nation" and "the common people."

•In the name of "classical" aristocratic Castilian culture and values, the Chinese were to be
despised, not merely as nonwhite, but also as:

• irreligious,
• ignorant,
• money-grubbing,
• dishonest,
• cunning,
• and vulgar

MULATO - commonly refers to a mixed-race ancestry that includes white European and black
African roots.

TAGALOG - the indigenous people of the Philippines, of Malay origin, who live in the center of
the island of Luzon and in some other immediate islands.

A high percentage of the Tagalog words used in Nolihad Spanish translations attached to
them, unlike in Fili, which none of the Tagalog words in it is explained or paraphrased in
Spanish.
•Dr. Jose Rizal’s readership was intended for his fellow countrymen.

Tagalog exclamations are often deployed for purely comic effect.

-Aba, naku, ay, uy, aray, sulung, susmariosep
-Most of the exclaimers are bossy and shallow middle-aged woman for whom Rizal seemed to
particularly dislike (such as Donya Consolacion)

The big difference between the two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, comes with
the students, who use Tagalog 44 times.

•Young, educated, and mostly from well-off families males such as Makaraig, Pecson,
Penitente, Tadeo uses Tagalog words.
•Middle-aged, female, poorly educated characters like Hermana Penchang, Cabesang Andang,
and Donya Victorina uses a mix of Filipino and Spanish words.

El Filibusterismo uses español del Parián, which is a type of Spanish-based language; similar to
how we in the Philippines have different dialects.

•Racial censorship seemed to have taken place in El Filibusterismo

➢ -Chinese mestizos are brushed off the picture all throughout El Filibusterismo
➢ -The use of a pure mixture of Spanish and Tagalog

Concluding Reflections (both Noliand Fili):

1. There is no single and definite meaning for racial and political terms used
2. The novels were clearly written in part for a non-Filipino readership
3. Rizal was gradually, and perhaps not always consciously, reconsidering his ideas and his
identity as well as those of his fellow countrymen.
4. Mestizo chinos were barely recognized and mentioned in the novels
5. The complete lack of any "recognition" of the vast ethnolinguistic and cultural diversity of
the Filipino people.
6. Limited modern political vocabulary used
7. Complexities of the relationship between nationalism and languages

The final conclusion, the novels reveal to us the complexities of the relationship between
nationalism and language, or, better, languages.
•Nothing better exemplifies this better than Simoun's long, confused tirade against
Hispanization.
•Rizal attempted to write a third novel written in Tagalog
•Rizal's reticence about his own Tagalog in the novels
•If the malign Kano had not seized his country, and if the First Republic had been allowed to
survive, a kind of Filipino Spanish would have become, either the official language or the
country's lingua franca.
•Mabini on the other hand, was fluent in Spanish despite not being a wealthy ilustrado and
have never traveled to Europe.

If one looks at the decolonized world that began to emerge after 1945, one sees two
solutions to the first problem.
1. To establish formally one of the “international languages” such as English, French, Spanish,
and Arabic, perhaps Portuguese too- as an "official language" (alongside a local "national"
language).
2. The second solution is to give the selected foreign language no formal status, but confine its
use to the narrow strata that need special training in dealing with the outside world.

•The domestic issue is something very different. There are two broad alternatives once more.
1. The first is to declare one local language to be the "national language," which is a
holdover from "second-generation" European romantic nationalism

• The local language selected is typically that of the politically and economically dominant
ethnolinguistic group, not in the least interested in learning other domestic languages.
The policy is almost always resisted, because the pressure comes from the state and the
state's educational system, and appears to offer members of the dominant group a huge
advantage in the realm of public-service employment, especially if it is policed by an
examination system.

• This is why, at one level, Tagalog has been resisted in many parts of the Philippines. The
formal logic is that only the Tagalog speak "really good" Tagalog, and so . As in many
other countries, Tagalog, resisted as "the national language" when it comes via the
state, is embraced as a "lingua franca" via the markets of domestic travel and
commerce, and of the mass media

2. The second alternative is to understand the cultural politics involved and opt for an
open lingua franca that does not belong to any one group.