Rizal: The Social Critic

Readings in the Philippine History

Bautista, Ardent B.
Iris, Mark T.
Vega, John Carl
Dolores, Fernalene
Nazareno, Jealyn
BSCE-1C
 contents
01
About the Author
02 03 04
of Rizal The Dr. Jose Rizal's Highlights of Assessment or
Social Critic Works the Reading Evaluation
aBOUT THE AUTHOR
JOSE MARIA SISON
• author behind the article 'Rizal The Social Critic'
• born on February 08, 1939 in Cabugao from a prominent family
• a Filipino writer and activist who founded the Communist Party of
the Philippines
• studied Bachelor of Arts in English literature in University of the
Philippines and became a professor of literature and eventually
Rizal Studies and Political Science
• he applied the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the history
and current circumstances of the Philippines
RIZAL THE SOCIAL CRITIC
• originally titled "Rizal The Subversive"
• firstly published on 1967
• contains 20 paragraphs tackling the ill of Spanish
colonization which inspired Dr. Jose Rizal to write his two
renowned novels: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
DR.JOSE RIZAL'S WORKS
DR. JOSE RIZAL
• born on June 19, 1861
• the national hero of the Philippines known for his full name José
Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
• a nationalist, writer, polymath and ophthalmologist known for his
penname Laong-Laan & Dimasalag

Famous Literary Works

• Noli Me Tangere
• El Filibusterismo
• "Sobre la indolencia de los filipinos" (The Indolence of Filipinos)
• "Filipinas dentro de cien años" (The Philippines a Century Hence)
• "A la juventud filipina" (To the Philippine Youth)
TIMELINE
1869 1887 1896
Jose Rizal wrote Rizal published Rizal was shot to
his poem "Sa the Noli Me death on
Aking mga Tangere in Berlin Bagumbayan by
Kababata" firing squad

1872 1891
Three Filipino
secular priests Rizal published El
Mariano, Gomez, Filibusterismo in
Jose Burgos, and Ghent, Belgium
Jacinto Zamora
were executed
DEFINITION OF TERMS
MIDDLE CLASS

INDIO
ALFEREZ/ALPERES

PRINCIPALIA

GOBERNADORCILLO
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE
READING
01 The marked acceleration of commerce and intellectual contact between the
Philippines and Europe were historical circumstances which gave birth to a
new social class － the middle class where Jose Rizal belonged.
 Rizal easily adopted the liberal point of view and developed his own national

02 “
sentiment and consciousness. What actually made him a progressive and a
radical of his own time was his ultimate recognition that
the liberties of the individual could be realized only if
the nation as a whole, particularly the masses whom
he spontaneously observed would be uplifted and to
enjoy more freedom from an overwhelming system of
“
clerical and authoritarians and antiliberals.
 Rizal was able to produce his anticolonial and anticlerical writings because of
the following factors:

03 a) The martyrdom of Father Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora

b) The humiliation of his mother at the hands of the colonizers
c) The Calamba affair in which both the middle class and peasantry suffered
as a result of their just petition against the increased land rent and other
arbitrary impositions of the friars.
 Rizal manifested his deep sense of nationalism in the following writings:

04
a) Morgas’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas － where he wanted to fight
racial discrimination by asserting that a national culture could develop
without colonial culture.
b) The Indolence of Filipinos － where he debunked the colonial argument
that Filipinos were inherently lazy and exposed the fact that the colonizers
lived gloriously on the labor and blood of his people.
c) The Philippines A Century Hence － where he demonstrted in full the
vicious process used by the colonizers to subjugate the people by
corrupting them and taking advantage of their virtues.
05 When Rizal wrote his master works Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, he
explored the possibility of reform first and, upon exhausting that possibility
within the colonial framework, he also explored the possibility of a revolution.
06
a) Crisostomo Ibarra who was an extremely well-intentioned reformer who
thinks that the solution to the suffering of the motherland would be a new
type of education of her children.
b) Sisa signified the suffering motherland who was a victim of injustices and
lost her consciousness subsequently.
c) Padre Damaso and Padre Salvi who symbolized a friar-dominated
society, the wealthiest and most politically powerful elements of the
society.
d) Maria Clara a symbol of weakling and hybrid Filipino who could not
assert her rights.
06
e) Capitan Tiago, the symbol of the newly-risen corrupt Filipino bourgeoisie, a
cuckold of colonial power.
f) Pilosopong Tasio, the idealist cynic who believed that change will ultimately
come with the coming in of fresh ideas from abroad.
g) Lucas and Bruno who belonged to the Indios but acted as pretty
mercenaries.
h) Cabesang Tales, the peasant victim of feudal oppression who organized a
peasant rebel with a mass following and waged guerrilla warfare after finding
out that the redress of grievances and justice are not possible in the system.
i) Sacristan who himself is an Indio yet served as chief executor of his own
people.
07
a) The bastard Filipino culture signified by Sister Rufa and Sister Pute, whose
thinking consists of a systematization of superstition which includes airy
stocks of plenary indulgences, bundles of candles and sacks of girdles and
scapularies or “ split-level Christianity”
b) The social system dominated by the curate and alferez, assisted by a docile
and stupid gobernadorcillo and principalia, whose main activities are
holding fiestas, and by the corrupt trader, contract-maker, influence-
peddler, and cuckold Capitan Tiago.
c) Colonial mentality depicted by Dona Consolacion, which always manages
to adopt what limps in the alien culture.
 In the Fili, Rizal exposes thoroughly and systematically the decadence of the

08
system as the beginning of a revolutionary situation. He exposes the rotting
body of the corrupt Capitan Tiago, the sham character of Senor Pasta and the
devilish viciousness of Padre Irene and Padre Camorra, Don Costudio, and
many ugly features of the coloial domination, including Don Tiburcio de
Espadaňa’s misery.
 The characters of Rizal’s Noli and Fili come from every stratum of Philippine

09
colonial society. It depicts people from all walks of life － from the educated,
powerful, rich, corrupt, religious, gamblers, businessman, lovers, reformers,
and influential personalities to the poor, ignorant, social-gambling dévotes,
rebels, and religious fanatics, among others.
 Rizal was already a “marked” man only after writing the Noli. His novels was

10
immediately denounced as subversive and heretical. The foreign rulers of his
native land started to slander him and call him an agent of another alien power.
After the more forward novel, Fili, he was practically bound for Bagumbayan
for his execution.
assessment
1. Who wrote the article "Rizal The Social Critic?"
2. What is the original title of the article based on its first publication?
3. What societal class do Jose Rizal belong?
4. What are the events that influenced and inspired Jose Rizal in writing his literary works?
5. In this literary work, Rizal debunked the colonial argument that Filipinos were inherently lazy and
exposed the fact that the colonizers lived gloriously on the labor and blood of his people.
6. Rizal compelled this Morga’s work to fight racial discrimination by asserting that a national culture
could develop without colonial culture. What is the title of this article?
7. Why do Jose Rizal was tagged as a social critic/filibuster/subversive?
8. He is the main character in the two novels of Jose Rizal and who represents his taught and
ideology.
9. How Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo reflects and influences the life of Filipinos and
their sufferings during the Spanish colonization?
10.What organization did Jose Rizal formed when he came back to the country after his study abroad?
REFERENCES
• Sison, J.M.(1967). Rizal the social critic(1st ed.). Progressive Publications.
• Junio, P.(2021). Joze Rizal timeline inforgraphic. Scribd.
https://www.scribd.com/document/489600349/Jose-Rizal-Timeline-Infographic
• Jose Maria Sison. (2022, November 25). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Maria_Sison