LETTER to the YOUNG WOMEN of MALOLOS

On February 22, 1889, national hero Dr. Jose Rizal wrote a letter to a group of young women of
Malolos supporting their plan of putting up a night school.

The so-called Women of Malolos comprised of 20 women from prominent Chinese-Filipino families
in Malolos, Bulacan who signed and presented a letter to Governor- General Valeriano Weyler on
December 12, 1888, requesting permission to open a night school where they could be taught the Spanish
language.

The Spanish parish priest, Fr. Felipe Garcia, objected so that the Governor-General turned down the
petition. However, the young women, in defiance of the friar's wrath, bravely continued their agitation for
establishment of the school, a thing unheard of in the Philippines in those times.

They finally succeeded in obtaining government approval for their project on condition that Señorita
Guadalupe Reyes should be their teacher, and that the classes be held in the daytime and not at night. The
incident caused a great stir in the Philippines and in far-away Spain. Marcelo H. Del Pilar, writing in
Barcelona on February 17, 1889, requested Dr. Rizal to send a letter in Tagalog to the brave women of
Malolos.

Although busy in London annotating Morga's book, penned his famous very long letter and sent it to Del
Pilar on February 22, 1889 for transmittal to Malolos.

Part of this letter reads:

I do not expect to be believed simply because it is I who am saying this; there are many people who do
not listen to reason, but will listen only to those who wear the cassock or have gray hair or no teeth; but
while it is true that the aged should be venerated, because of their travails and experience, yet the life I
have lived, consecrated to the happiness of the people, adds some years, though not many, to my age. I do
not pretend to be looked upon as an idol or fetish and to be believed and listened to with the eyes closed,
the head bowed, and the arms crossed over the breast; what I ask of all is to reflect on what I tell them,
think it over and sift it carefully through the sieve of reason.

First of all.
That the tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice and negligence on the part of others.

Second.
What makes one contemptible is lack of dignity and object fear of him who holds one in contempt.

Third.
Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself lacks
personality; the blind man who allows himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led
by a halter.

Fourth.
He who loves his independence must first aid his fellow man, because he who refuses protection to
others will find himself without it; the isolated rib of the buri palm is easily broken, but not so the broom
made of the ribs of the palm bound together.

Fifth.
If the Filipino will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more children, let her merely give
birth to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home, otherwise she will unconsciously betray
husband, child, native land, and all.

Sixth.
All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he endow
him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked or adorn him with reason to have him deceived by others.
It is not fatuous to refuse to worship one's equal, to cultivate one's intellect, and to make use of reason in
all things. Fatuous is he who makes a god of him who makes brutes of others, and who strives to submit
to his whims all that is reasonable and just.
Seventh.
Consider well what kind of religion they are teaching you. See whether it is the will of God or
according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be succored and those who suffer alleviated. Consider
what they are preaching to you, the object of the sermon, what is behind the masses, novenas, rosaries,
scapularies, images, miracles, candles, belts, etc., etc., which they daily keep before your minds, ears, and
eyes, jostling, shouting, and waxing; investigate whence they came and whither they go, and then
compare that religion with the pure religion of Christ and see whether that pretended observance of the
life of Christ does not remind you of the fat milk cow or the fattened pig, which is encouraged to grow fat
not through love of the animal, but for grossly mercenary motives.

Let us therefore reflect; let us consider our situation and see how we stand. May these poorly written lines
aid you in your good purpose and help you to pursue the plan you have initiated. "My profit will be
greater than the capital invested"; and I shall gladly accept the usual reward of all who dare tell our people
the truth. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned with success; may you in the garden of learning
gather not bitter, but choice fruit, looking well before you eat, because on the surface of the globe all is
deceit and often the enemy sows weeds in your seeding-plot.
Summary

Rizal pays homage to 20 women of Malolos who desire to educate themselves In this way, Rizal sees
in these women a ray of hope in restoring the Filipino women’s dignity and worth Rizal emphasizes the
importance of Filipino mothers Rizal refers to different women in society: mothers, daughters, wives and
even the unmarried ones.

Responsibilities of Filipino mothers to their children

There are many points mentioned in this portion of Rizal’s letter, but the central idea is: Whatever the
mother shows to her children is what the children will also become

Rizal’s advice to unmarried men and women

Appearance and looks can be very deceiving Three things that young woman should look for a man she
intends to be her husband: A noble and honored name, A manly heart, and A high spirit incapable of
being satisfied with engendering slaves

Analysis “To the Women of Malolos” centers around five salient points (Zaide & Zaide, 1999):

1. Filipino mothers should teach their children about the love of God, country, and fellowmen 2.
Filipino mothers should be glad and honored, like Spartan mothers, to offer their sons in defense of their
country
3. Filipino women should know how to protect their dignity and honor 4. Filipino women should educate
themselves aside from retaining their good racial values 5. Faith is not merely reciting prayers and
wearing religious pictures. It is living the real Christian way with good morals and manners

Relevance in today’s society

There are often that mothers forget their roles to their children because of the overriding idea of having
to earn enough money to help the father sustain the family’s needs

February 1899, Europe

“No longer does the Filipina stand with her head bowed nor does she spend her time on her knees,
because she is quickened by hope in the future; no longer will the mother contribute to
keeping her daughter in darkness and bring her up in contempt and moral annihilation”.

The father who gave each of his sons a torch to light their way in the darkness, bidding them keep its light
bright and take care of it, and not put, it out and trust to the light of the others, but to help and advice each
other to find the right path saying, "Did I not give each of you his own torch”.

Awaken and prepare the will of your children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to
all that is sincere and firm of purpose, clear judgment, clean procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for
the fellowman and respect for God; this is what you must
teach your children
 All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor did he
endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have him deceived by
others. It is not fatuous to refuse to worship one's equal, to cultivate one's intellect, and to make use of
reason in all things.
If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more children, let her merely
give birth to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home, otherwise she will unconsciously betray
husband, child, native land, and all.
Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you are the first to
influence the consciousness of man.
Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you are the first to
influence the consciousness of man.
The mother who can only teach her child how to kneel and kiss hands must not expect sons with
blood other than that of vile slaves. God cannot be everywhere, and so He created mothers.

The Indolence of the Filipino by jose rizal

CHAPTER 1: ADMITTING THE EXISTENCE OF INDOLENCE

Rizal admits that indolence does exist among the Filipinos, but it cannot be attributed to the troubles and
backwardness of the country; rather it is the effect of the backwardness and troubles experienced by the
country. Past writings on indolence revolve only on either denying or affirming, and never studying its
causes in depth. One must study the causes of indolence, Rizal says, before curing it.

He therefore enumerates the causes of indolence and elaborates on the circumstances that have led to it.
The hot climate, he points out, is a reasonable predisposition for indolence. Filipinos
cannot be compared to Europeans, who live in cold countries and who must exert much more effort at
work. An hour ' s work under the Philippine sun, he says, is equivalent to a day ' s work in temperate
regions.

 An evil that increases in direct proportion to the periods of time, and effect of misgovernment and
of backwardness and troubles experience in the Philippines
 Encourage the natives to be more indolent, discourage the motivation to work
 The Spanish superiority and Filipino –inferiority

CHAPTER 2: INDOLENCE OF CHRONIC ILLNESS

- Rizal says that an illness will worsen if the wrong treatment is given. The same applies to indolence.
People, however, should not lose hope in fighting indolence. Even before the Spaniards arrived, Rizal
argues, the early Filipinos were already carrying out trade within provinces and with other neighboring
countries; they were also engaged in agriculture and mining; some natives even spoke Spanish. All this
disproves the notion that Filipinos are by nature indolent. Rizal ends by asking what then would have
caused Filipinos to forget their past.
 Indolence in the Philippines is a chronic malady, but not a hereditary one
 Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Malayan Filipinos carried on an active trade, no only
among themselves but also with all the neighboring countries.
 The products which they in exchange exported from the islands were crude wax, cotton, pearls,
tortoise shell, betel-nuts, dry goods, etc.
 Pre-colonial: Honest, Hardworking, Courteous, Kind
 Modern: Creative, Resourceful, Hardworking, Adaptableff

CHAPTER 3: WARS, INSURRECTIONS, EXPEDITIONS AND INVASION

MI ULTIMO A DIOS
What is the message of the Mi Ultimo Adios?
Mi Ultimo Adios is a poem that tells us how beautiful the Philippines is and how Rizal wants
us to learn from our past and to see the truth about how the world view us.
Interpretation: Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell)
Farewell, my adored Land, region of the sun caressed,
Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost,
With gladness I give you my Life, sad and repressed;
And were it more brilliant, more fresh and at its best,
I would still give it to you for your welfare at most.
These are the words of one about to die for his country. He expresses no regret but only
gladness, knowing that in giving his life, he is giving his country the greatest gift any citizen
could offer.
On the fields of battle, in the fury of fight,
Others give you their lives without pain or hesitancy,
The place does not matter: cypress laurel, lily white,
Scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom's site,
It is the same if asked by home and Country.
Here Rizal says that it does not matter where one dies, but why one dies and to what purpose.
Whether it’s “scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom’s site,” all death hold the same honor
if given for home and Country.
I die as I see tints on the sky b'gin to show
And at last announce the day, after a gloomy night;
If you need a hue to dye your matutinal glow,
Pour my blood and at the right moment spread it so,
And gild it with a reflection of your nascent light!
Rizal’s execution was set at sunrise, thus the meaning of the first and second lines. He employs
the visual senses in his poetic use of color, and then in the third and fourth lines, adds the
bright red tint of his blood to the scene, and gilds it with golden sunlight. The use of these
devices ignites passion in the reader, as it is felt – a hundred times more so – in the writer, even
without explicit use of words signifying feeling.
My dreams, when scarcely a lad adolescent,
My dreams when already a youth, full of vigor to attain,
Were to see you, gem of the sea of the Orient,
Your dark eyes dry, smooth brow held to a high plane
Without frown, without wrinkles and of shame without stain.
Since his childhood, even as other children dreamed of childish things, Rizal dreamed of seeing
his country free, esteemed, and with head held high.
My life's fancy, my ardent, passionate desire,
Hail! Cries out the soul to you, that will soon part from thee;
Hail! How sweet 'tis to fall that fullness you may acquire;
To die to give you life, 'neath your skies to expire,
And in your mystic land to sleep through eternity!
Here, he showers her with praise. He is his life’s fancy, his ardent and passionate desire. He
shouts “Hail!” as many would to their God. He says in the third line that it is sweet to fall so that
his country may acquire fullness, and then continues on in the succeeding lines, “to die to give
you life.” But his joy does not end in the act of dying, but continues beyond the grave, where he
shall sleep in his country’s mystic land through eternity. As one dies for God, Rizal dies for
country. And as one looks forward to heaven, Rizal’s heaven – in these lines, at least – lies in
being buried in the land of his ancestors.
If over my tomb some day, you would see blow,
A simple humble flow'r amidst thick grasses,
Bring it up to your lips and kiss my soul so,
And under the cold tomb, I may feel on my brow,
Warmth of your breath, a whiff of your tenderness.
In this stanza, Rizal likens his soul to that of “a simple humble flower amidst thick grasses.” The
use of this comparison says a lot about how Rizal sees himself – timid, simple, humble,
surrounded by the unrelenting forces of society. He imagines that after his death, he will live on
in the bosom of his motherland, and never cease to enjoy her love, which he begs her to
express with a kiss.
Let the moon with soft, gentle light me descry,
Let the dawn send forth its fleeting, brilliant light,
In murmurs grave allow the wind to sigh,
And should a bird descend on my cross and alight,
Let the bird intone a song of peace o'er my site.
Rizal’s love for nature is again depicted in these next four lines. It is interesting that he
enumerates the moon, the dawn, the wind, and a bird to pay homage to his grave, yet does not
mention close friends or specific people. Perhaps it is a simple image of his reunion with nature
that he wants to bring to mind; perhaps it is also an expression of the loneliness and isolation
that he has felt and continues to feel in his fight for freedom.
Let the burning sun the raindrops vaporize
And with my clamor behind return pure to the sky;
Let a friend shed tears over my early demise;
And on quiet afternoons when one prays for me on high,
Pray too, oh, my Motherland, that in God may rest I.
The mention here, of a friend, is the closest he gets to company. And the mention of God in the
fourth line is the closest he gets to praying for a spiritual heaven. That Rizal beseeches his
country to pray that his soul may rest in God is in line with the Roman Catholic belief that all
men are sinners and that salvation is to be earned and cannot be determined before the grave.
Pray thee for all the hapless who have died,
For all those who unequalled torments have undergone;
For our poor mothers who in bitterness have cried;
For orphans, widows and captives to tortures were shied,
And pray too that you may see your own redemption.
In these four lines he gives his motherland a list of the things he wishes her to pray for. He
remembers all of the martyrs who have suffered the same fate as he will, who have died for
their country; the mothers, wives, and children they have left behind who suffer no less for
being abandoned. He also, in a hopeful closing note, asks her to pray for herself.
And when the dark night wraps the cemet'ry
And only the dead to vigil there are left alone,
Don't disturb their repose, don't disturb the mystery:
If you hear the sounds of cittern or psaltery,
It is I, dear Country, who, a song t'you intone.
Clearly Rizal has not imagined that a monument would eventually be built over his grave and
has pictured his final resting place as a humble cemetery where he shall, even after death, sing
a song of devotion for his motherland.
And when my grave by all is no more remembered,
With neither cross nor stone to mark its place,
Let it be plowed by man, with spade let it be scattered
And my ashes ere to nothingness are restored,
Let them turn to dust to cover your earthly space.
In this next stanza, Rizal wishes to then be “plowed by man” when his grave is no longer
remembered and be scattered as he returns to be part of the dust that covers the land he had
died for. What actually happens in real life, though, is an uncanny parallel. On December 30,
1896, on the day of his execution, Rizal’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave in the Paco
Cemetery. Years later, however, his remains were exhumed and on December 30, 1912, they
were brought to their final resting place in the base of the monument at Luneta.
Then it doesn't matter that you should forget me:
Your atmosphere, your skies, your vales I'll sweep;
Vibrant and clear note to your ears I shall be:
Aroma, light, hues, murmur, song, moanings deep,
Constantly repeating the essence of the faith I keep.
The first line in this stanza begins following the assumption that our hero’s ashes have now
been spread over the land. Rizal envisions that once he has returned to her in this manner, it
will no longer matter if the country forgets him because he will be with her, everywhere, as
dust in the atmosphere, blowing in the skies, in the wind, and still singing songs and murmuring
words of devotion.
My idolized Country, for whom I most gravely pine,
Dear Philippines, to my last goodbye, oh, hearken
There I leave all: my parents, loves of mine,
I'll go where there are no slaves, tyrants or hangmen
Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.
Here we come to a more submissive yet hopeful tone. Rizal bids farewell to his one great love –
his country – and yet looks forward to being with God, where there are no slaves, tyrants or
hangmen.
Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me,
Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed;
Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day;
Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way;
Farewell, to all I love. To die is to rest.
To close, Rizal now finally mentions specific people: parents, brothers, friends of his childhood.
In other translations, the fourth line reads, “Adios sweet-tender foreigner—my friend, my
happiness,” which historians have interpreted to allude to Josephine Bracken, the daughter of
an Anglo-Saxon father and a Chinese mother, whom many believe – although it is frequently
challenged – he secretly married an hour before his death.