RIZAL -

INTRODUCTION

Veneration Without Understanding

Renato Constantino
 DOES RIZAL
DESERVE TO BE
OUR NATIONAL
HERO?
 Rizal: • National Revolutions
Veneration –Represents the peak of
without
achievement to which
Understanding
the minds of man return
time and time again
 Rizal: • Rizal – not the leader of the
Veneration revolution
without • Was against Bonifacio and
Understanding the revolution
• Was a reformist – wanted
the Philippines to
assimilate (be a province of
Spain)
 Rizal & the • Need to analyze WHY Rizal
Revolution took no part in the revolution
Contradiction • The significance of this action
and the significance of the
revolution itself
• Role in national development
 An • “with other American colonial
American- officials and some
conservative Filipinos, chose
Sponsored Rizal as a model hero over
Hero other contestants –
• Aguinaldo too militant
• Bonifacio too radical
• Mabini unregenerate”
• Governor William Howard Taft, 1901
 An • During the American
American- colonization:
Sponsored • Act No. 137 – re-named Morong

Hero province “Rizal”

• Act No. 243 – erection of a
monument in honor of Rizal at the
Luneta
• Act No. 346 – anniversary of Rizal’s
death as a day of observance
 An • Reasons for the enthusiastic
American- American attitude toward Rizal:
• “Rizal never advocated
Sponsored independence, nor did he advocate
Hero armed resistance, to the
government…
• He urged reform from within by
publicity, by public education and
appeal to public conscience”
• William W. Cameron Forbes; Governor
Man & His •Rizal’s Realizations:
Times
• Enlightenment = class
consciousness
• Equality with the
Spaniard = equality of
opportunity
 • Demands:
Rizal: The
Reformist – Human Liberty
– Human dignity
• Evident in his writings: social
commenter, an exposer of
oppression
• Rizal’s contribution → recognition
of the people as one, elevation of
the Indio into FILIPINO
 • Filipino Nationhood → Rizal helped
The Concept developed
of Filipino • “Filipino” →originally referred to the
Nationhood creoles (Spanish born in the
Philippines) or the Espanoles-Filipinos
(Filipinos for short)
• Rizal → began to use the term “indio
bravos”
– Transformed “indio” to a badge of honor
 • Though Rizal was able to win for his
The Limited countrymen the name Filipino → it
Filipino was still as an Ilustrado that he
conceived the term
• Ilustrado orientation manifests itself
in his novels:
– Hero, Ibarra, was Spanish mestizo
– Characters: Spaniards, Creole, the mestizo
and the wealthy Chinese
The Limited • Rizal – was an ilustrado hero
whose life’s mission correspond in
Filipino a general way to the wishes and
aspirations of his class.
• Class Perspective → limited
understanding of his countrymen
• NO CONTRADITION → died for
his people YET rejected revolution
– WHY? Rizal was acting from patriotic
motives in both cases
The Limited • Why Reject the Revolution?
Filipino – As an Ilustrado he instinctively
underestimated the power and
talents of the people
– Did not equate liberty with
independence
– Did not consider political
independence as prerequisite for
freedom
Ilustrados • Rizal and others chose
& Indios Spain as the arena of their
struggle instead of working
among their people
• Ilustrado → Hispanized
sector of our population
Ilustrados • Contrast to the Ilustrado
& Indios approach → Bonifacio’s
Katipunan
– Katipunan → revolutionary
consciousness and revolutionary
practice
• Ilustrados → purveyor of ideas
which when seized upon by the
indios become real weapons.