Proof:

Essay:

Ever since it was made known to me that Rizal never actually desired a national

revolution but an equal standing with Spaniards and the knowledge that maybe he was an

“American-sponsored” hero, I wondered whether he really deserved the title of national hero.

My visit to Intramuros was nostalgic, as I remembered the time I first visited Fort Santiago

during my childhood. I didn’t understand what was going on then; I was mainly interested in the

statues of Rizal and the cannons around the place. Upon revisiting the Museo ni Rizal, I had in

the back of my mind the goal of picking an artifact and interpreting its importance to my

understanding of Rizal. Surprisingly, yet also unsurprisingly, I was met with more artifacts that

correlated to Rizal’s death than his life and ideals. However, that did not stop me from gaining

insights from the visit.

There was one artifact that caught my attention more than the others while I was looking

through the museum. This was the last poem of Rizal: “My Last Farewell” or “Mi Ultimo

Adios.” This poem was displayed alongside an alcohol stove that Rizal gave to his sister before
his execution, and it was said that the poem was hidden inside the stove. Upon inspection, I

noticed that the poem was written in Spanish. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised about that, but since it

caught my attention, I decided to google a translation of it. In my interpretation, the poem was

able to show Rizal’s courage and patriotism during his final hours.

One of the stanzas in the poem struck me as he implied that his dreams, beliefs, and

actions from his adolescent years up to that point were for the good of the Philippines. In another

stanza that I was struck by, he compared his execution to being killed on a battlefield because

you choose to die for your country in both cases. He also implies in the next stanza that his dying

would give the country life or fullness. It was as if he knew that his death would start something

or that he was aware of the coming outrage from the Filipinos.

I couldn’t help but be fascinated by his courageousness during that time, as even in the

face of death, he still thought about his country. This reminded me of the time he wrote his first

novel, Noli me Tangere. There had already been some outrage about his ideals during that time,

and yet “in the face of his father’s prohibition to write on politics, he was going to write a

political novel; in the face of the reasons his father’s prohibition to return home for the time

being, he was going to craft a work that would make his critics brand him all the more as

dangerous” (Dumol & Camposano, 2018). Contemplating all this, I asked myself: If Rizal did

not want a revolution but rather a reformation, why did he have seemingly no regrets during his

last hour, knowing what his death may imply?

The goal of the Noli was to do something that nobody was willing to do, which was to

“[describe] the state of our society, our life, our beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our laments and

our grievances” (Schumacher, 1973). Through this, he had hoped to urge a reform within the
Spanish government to give the Filipinos a better standing in their society. However, going by

the words of his last poem, I think that Rizal was aware that this was not the case. I believe that

during his last hours, perhaps he was well aware of the impending revolution upon his death due

to the amount of effects his works had on his life and his family. Yet, oddly enough, there was no

regret seen or implied within his poem, despite him knowing the potential bloodshed that his

death would cause. Maybe it’s because in the end, he realized that even if it wasn’t the way that

he had hoped, the end goal was still going to be achieved, and that goal was to change Philippine

society for the better.

Overall, I cannot help but be amazed at the level of poetry displayed by Rizal during his

final hours and be moved by its message. Studying the way he was able to capture his own

feelings with such finesse in his words was so fun, and I was glad that I was able to see and

appreciate such a work of history and art as this one work was able to show me so much about

Rizal’s character.

Sources:

Dumol, P. A., & Camposano, C. C. (2018). The Nation as Project: A new reading of Jose

Rizal’s life and works. Vibal Group, Inc.

Schumacher, J. N. (1973). The Propaganda Movement, 1880-1895: The creators of a

Filipino consciousness, the makers of revolution. Solidaridad Pub. House.