The Social Cancer, original title Noli me tangere, novel by Filipino political activist and author

José Rizal, published in 1887. The book, written in Spanish, is a sweeping and passionate

unmasking of the brutality and corruption of Spanish rule in the Philippines (1565–1898).

The story begins at a party to welcome Crisóstomo Ibarra back to the Philippines after seven

years of studying in Europe. His father, Don Rafael, passed away shortly before his return, and

Crisóstomo soon learns that he died in prison after accidentally killing a tax collector and being

falsely accused of other crimes by Father Dámaso, the longtime curate of the church in

Crisóstomo’s hometown of San Diego. Crisóstomo returns to San Diego, and his fiancée, María

Clara, joins him there. After the schoolmaster tells him that Father Dámaso and the new curate,

Father Salví, interfere with his teaching, Crisóstomo decides to build a new modern school in

San Diego.

On a picnic with María Clara, Crisóstomo goes on a fishing boat and helps the pilot, Elías, kill a

crocodile. Elías later warns Crisóstomo that there is a plot to murder him at the ceremony for

the laying of the school’s cornerstone, and indeed, as Crisóstomo is placing mortar for the

cornerstone, the derrick holding the stone collapses. Although Crisóstomo escapes injury, the

derrick operator is killed. At a dinner later, Father Dámaso insults the new school, Filipinos in

general, Crisóstomo, and Don Rafael. An enraged Crisóstomo attacks him, but María Clara stops

him from killing the priest. Later her father breaks off her engagement to Crisóstomo and

arranges for her betrothal to a young Spanish man, Linares.

Father Salví plots with Lucas, the brother of the deceased derrick operator, to organize a strike

on the barracks of the Civil Guard and to convince the attackers that Crisóstomo is their

ringleader. Father Salví then warns the head of the Civil Guard of the impending assault. When

the attack fails, the rebels say that Crisóstomo was their leader, and he is arrested. Elías helps

Crisóstomo escape from prison, and they flee by boat on the Pasig River with members of the

Civil Guard in pursuit. Elías dives into the river to distract the pursuers and is mortally wounded.

It is reported that Crisóstomo was killed, and a distraught María Clara insists on entering a

convent.

In the novel’s dedication, Rizal explains that there was once a type of cancer so terrible that the

sufferer could not bear to be touched, and the disease was thus called noli me tangere (Latin:
“do not touch me”). He believed that his homeland was similarly afflicted. The novel offers both

a panoramic view of every level of society in the Philippines of the time and droll satire. Its

description of the cruelty of Spanish rule was a catalyst for the movement for independence in

the country. It later came to be regarded as a classic of Philippine literature, though it is more

frequently read in English or Tagalog translation than in its original Spanish.