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Aug 27, 2009 11:40 PM
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 WARNING: VERY LONG!!!! José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda[1] (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896, Bagumbayan), was a Filipino polymath, nationalist and the pre-eminent advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. Rizal's 1896 military trial and execution made him a martyr of the Philippine Revolution. He is widely considered the greatest Filipino hero[2] and a de facto[2] national hero. The anniversary of Rizal's death is commemorated as a holiday. The seventh of eleven children born to a wealthy family, Rizal attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts. He enrolled in Medicine and Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas and then traveled to Madrid, Spain, where he continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid, earning the degree of Licentiate in Medicine. He attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. Rizal was a polyglot conversant in at least ten languages.[3][4][5][6] He was a poet, essayist and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El filibusterismo.[7] These are social commentaries on the Philippines that formed the nucleus of literature that inspired dissent among peaceful reformists and spurred the militancy of armed revolutionaries against the Spanish regime. As a political figure, Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization calling for reforms in Spanish colonial rule. A founding member, Andres Bonifacio, set up the secret society Katipunan, which instead worked for the independence of the Philippines through armed revolt. While Rizal was definitely a proponent of institutional reforms by peaceful means, the extent to which he was in favor of violent means is debated by Rizal scholars.[8] The general consensus, however, considers his political activities and execution by the government as major inspirations of the Philippine Revolution, led by Bonifacio and later Emilio Aguinaldo. José Rizal's parents, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandra II (1818–1898)[9] and Teodora Morales Alonso Realonda y Quintos (1827–1911),[9] were prosperous farmers who were granted lease of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Rizal was the seventh child of their eleven children, namely: Saturnina (1850–1913), Paciano (1851–1930), Narcisa (1852–1939), Olympia (1855–1887), Lucia (1857–1919), Maria (1859–1945), José Protasio (1861–1896), Concepcion (1862–1865), Josefa (1865–1945), Trinidad (1868–1951) and Soledad (1870–1929). Rizal was a 6th-generation patrilineal descendant of Domingo Lam-co (Chinese: 柯仪南; pinyin: Ke Yinan), a Chinese entrepreneur who sailed to the Philippines from Jinjiang, Quanzhou in the mid-17th century.[10] Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa, a Sangley native of Luzon. To free his descendants from the Sinophobic animosity of Spanish authorities, Lam-co changed the surname to Spanish. He chose Mercado (market) to indicate their Chinese merchant roots. In 1849, Governor-General Narciso Claveria ordered all Filipino families to choose new surnames from a list of Spanish family names. José's father Francisco[9] adopted the surname "Rizal" (originally Ricial, "the green of young growth" or "green fields"), suggested to him by a provincial governor and friend of the family. The name change caused confusion in his business affairs, most of which were begun under his old name. After a few years, he settled on using "Rizal Mercado" as a compromise, but often went by the original "Mercado". When the son José Rizal Mercado enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he dropped the last three surnames at the advice of his family. From then he used "José Protasio Rizal". Rizal refers to this when he writes: "My family never paid much attention (to our second surname Rizal), but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate child!"[11] This enabled him to travel freely and disassociated him from his brother Paciano, who had gained notoriety by his ties to Filipino priests sentenced to death as subversives. From early childhood, José and Paciano advanced ideas of freedom and individual rights which infuriated the authorities.[12][13] As Rizal, José won distinction in poetry contests, due to his facility with Spanish and other foreign languages. He began to write essays critical of the Spanish historical accounts of pre-colonial Philippine societies. By 1891, the year he finished his El filibusterismo, his surname of Rizal had become so well known that, as he wrote to a friend, "All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family name."[11] José Rizal's activism brought his family unwelcome attention by colonial authorities. Rizal, 11 years old, a student at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila Genealogical research has found that Rizal had maternal Spanish, Japanese and Indio ancestry in addition to Chinese. His maternal great-great-grandfather (Teodora's great-grandfather) was Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers. He married a Filipina named Benigna (surname unknown). Their daughter Regina Ursua married Atty. Manuel de Quintos, a Tagalog sangley mestizo from Pangasinán. Their daughter Brígida de Quintos married a Spanish mestizo named Lorenzo Alberto Alonso. They were the parents of his mother, Teodora. Rizal's first teacher was Celestino Aquino Cruz of Biñan, Laguna. In 1872, Rizal went to Manila to study at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He was one of nine students in his class declared sobresaliente (outstanding). He continued his education at the Ateneo to obtain a land surveyor and assessor's degree. He also studied at the University of Santo Tomas in Philosophy and Letters. Upon learning that his mother was going blind, he enrolled at the university's medical school to specialize in ophthalmology. He did not complete the program, and claimed Spanish Dominican friars discriminated against Filipino students.[14] Without his parents' knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother Paciano, Rizal traveled to Europe for graduate education. By May 1882 he was studying at the Universidad Central de Madrid, where he and earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine. His education continued at the University of Paris and the University of Heidelberg, where he earned a second doctorate. In Berlin, based on his work, Rizal was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological Society under the patronage of pathologist Rudolf Virchow. In April 1887 he delivered an address in German before the group on the orthography and structure of the Tagalog language. He wrote Heidelberg a poem, A las flores del Heidelberg (To the Flowers of Heidelberg), which expressed his hope for better understanding between East and West. At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal completed his eye specialization under the renowned Otto Becker. While later exiled in Dapitan, he performed cataract surgery on her and other patients. From Heidelberg, Rizal wrote his parents: "I spend half of the day in the study of German and the other half, in the diseases of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the bierbrauerie, or beerhall, to speak German with my student friends."[15] He lived in a Karlstraße boarding house, then moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he met Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld. He stayed at Ullmer's home, where he wrote the last few chapters of Noli Me Tangere. Rizal's multiple skills were described by his German friend Adolf Meyer as "stupendous."[16][17] Rizal was a polymath with a wide variety of skills in different areas.[3][4][18] He was an ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright and journalist. Besides writing poetry and fiction, Rizal practiced, with varying degrees of expertise, in architecture, cartography, economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting. He joined the Freemasons during his time in Spain and became a Master Mason in 1884.[19] As a regular diarist and prolific letter writer, Rizal recorded many of the details of his life. [20] His biographers, however, have faced the difficulty of translating his writings because of Rizal's habit of switching from one language to another. They drew largely from his travel diaries which included his later trips, home and back again to Europe through Japan and the United States, and finally, through his self-imposed exile in Hong Kong. This period of his education and travel included liaisons with those whom historians refer to as Rizal's "dozen women", even if only nine have been identified. They were Gertrude Becket of Chalcot Crescent (London), wealthy Nelly Boustead of the English and Iberian merchant family, last descendant of a noble Japanese family Usui Seiko, Segunda Katigbak and Rizal's first cousin, Leonor Rivera, with whom he had an eight-year romantic relationship. The others were: Leonor Valenzuela (Filipino), Consuelo Ortiga (Spanish), Suzanna Jacoby (Belgian), and Josephine Bracken (Irish). His European friends kept even doodlings on pieces of paper. In London, during his research on Morga's writings, Rizal became a regular guest in the home of Reinhold Rost of the British Museum.[20][21] The Ullmer family and the Blumentritts claimed they saved buttonholes and napkins with sketches and notes which they ultimately bequeathed to the Rizal family, who made them part of his memorabilia. In 1890, Rizal, 29, left Paris for Brussels, as he was preparing for the publication of his annotations of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. There he lived in the boarding house of the two Jacoby sisters, Catherina and Suzanna. They had a 16-year-old niece, ce also named Suzanna ("Thill"). Historian Gregorio F. Zaide states that Rizal had "his romance with Suzanne Jacoby, 45, the petite niece of his landladies." Belgian Prof. Slachmuylders, however, believed that Rizal had a romantic involvement with the younger woman, Suzanna Thill, instead of the elder, Suzanna Jacoby. Rizal's Brussels' stay was short-lived, as he moved to Madrid, leaving the young girl a box of chocolates. She wrote to him in French: "After your departure, I did not take the chocolate. The box is still intact as on the day of your parting. Don’t delay too long writing us because I wear out the soles of my shoes for running to the mailbox to see if there is a letter from you. There will never be any home in which you are so loved as in that in Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come back." (Oct. 1, 1890 letter).[citation needed] Slachmuylders’ group on 2007 unveiled a historical marker commemorating Rizal’s stay in Brussels in 1890.[22] osé Rizal's most famous works were his two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El filibusterismo. Due to their symbolism and criticism of Spanish friars and the Catholic Church, the two novels angered both the Spaniards and the hispanicized Filipinos. Ferdinand Blumentritt, a Sudeten German professor and historian, was one of Rizal's first critics, reacting to his work with misgiving. Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade him, however, from writing the preface of El filibusterismo after he had translated Noli me Tangere into German. Rizal finished Noli Me Tangere in Berlin, on March 29, 1887. Rizal had no money to publish his book and was trying to survive by eating one meal a day, consisting mainly of bread and coffee. When later he told his old friend Fernando Canon about this "dark period", he said: "I did not believe that Noli would ever be published. I was in Berlin, heartbroken, weakened, and discouraged from hunger and deprivation. I was on the point of throwing my work into the fire as a thing accursed and fit only to die; "Man's extremity," says an ancient proverb, "is God's opportunity."[citation needed]A telegram came from Maximo Viola, a rich young Filipino whom Rizal had known in Madrid, saying he was on his way to visit Berlin. "It revived me," said Rizal. "It gave me new hope. I went to the station to receive him and spoke to him about my work. He said he might be able to help me. I reflected and then decided to shorten the book, and eliminated whole chapters...but these will have a place in the continuation...I plan to publish seven volumes about Philippine conditions." [citation needed] With Viola's funding, Rizal was able to get Noli printed a few weeks later. He sent one of the first copies to Blumentritt. In the accompanying letter, Rizal said: "I have not wept over our misfortunes, but rather laughed at them. No one would want to read a book full of tears...The incidents which I have related are all true and have actually occurred. I can prove this statement..."[citation needed] He had bound copies boxed and sent to friends in Barcelona and Madrid. Using a ruse to disguise the books as merchandise, Rizal sent them to friends in the Philippines. Also written in Spanish, El filibusterismo is the sequel to Noli. Rizal began the novel in October 1887 while practicing medicine in Calamba. In London (1888), he made several changes to the plot and revised a number of chapters. Rizal continued to work on his manuscript while in Paris, Madrid, and Brussels, finally completing it on March 29, 1891 in Biarritz. It was published the same year in Ghent. A compatriot, Valentin Ventura, learned of Rizal’s predicament and offered him financial assistance. Even then Rizal was forced to shorten the novel quite drastically, leaving only thirty eight out of the sixty four chapters of the original. Inspired by what the word filibustero connotes in relation to the circumstances in his time, and with spirits dampened by the execution of the three priests, Rizal aptly titled the second part of the Noli, El filibusterismo. To honor the trio, he dedicated the book to them: "To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jose Burgos (30 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old). Executed in the Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of February, 1872." As Blumentritt had warned, this dedication led to Rizal's prosecution as the inciter of revolution and eventually, to a military trial and execution. The government's attempt to suppress dissent did not work, however, and Rizal's execution fueled resistance. As the leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, Rizal contributed essays, allegories, poems, and editorials under the pen names Dimasalang and Laong Laan to the Spanish newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona. His writings expressed liberal and progressive ideas, and were an appeal for equal rights for Filipinos. He shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: that the Philippines was battling, in Rizal's own words, "a double-faced Goliath--corrupt friars and bad government." His real interest, however, was in writing historical articles based on ancient Spanish sources, to show the Filipinos the high level of their culture at the time of the Spanish contact. As he began to publish under his own name, he urged the same on del Pilar, so they would show the Spaniards that they were not afraid to defend their positions. However, the vigilance of the Spanish authorities in the Philippines, the indifference of Spain towards the Philippine demands, and the apathy among the Filipinos themselves in Barcelona and Madrid, made it difficult for the movement to pursue their goals. Del Pilar, on the other hand, wanted Rizal to refute some of the racist and demeaning articles appearing in Spanish newspapers. The Spanish academician Vicente Barrante, in his study of Tagalog theater, attributed everything of value in Tagalog culture to Spanish influence, and put down the idea that anything of value could come out of the Tagalog race.[citation needed] Although Rizal often accommodated del Pilar's requests to refute Spanish detractors, he did not care what Spaniards thought or said about the Philippines.[citation needed] He had seen enough of Spanish culture and manners to compare them unfavorably not only with those of other European countries but especially with those of his people. Rizal urged del Pilar to make sure that the newspaper reached the Philippines. His commentaries reiterate the following agenda:[23] Leaders of the reform movement in Spain: L-R: Rizal, del Pilar, and Ponce * That the Philippines be a province of Spain; * Representation in the Cortes; * Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars—Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans—in parishes and remote sitios; * Freedom of assembly and speech; and * Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs). The colonial authorities did not favor such reforms, even though they were supported by Spanish intellectuals like Morayta, Unamuno, Margall and others. After his break with del Pilar, Rizal decided to leave Madrid. Although he was elected responsable or president of the student group, he declined and left immediately in January 1891. Upon his return to Manila in 1892, Rizal formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina. The league advocated moderate social reforms through legal means but was disbanded by the governor. At that time, Rizal had already been declared an enemy of the state because of the publication of his novels. Wenceslao Retana, a political commentator in Spain, had slighted Rizal by a reference to his parents and promptly apologized after being challenged to a duel. Aware that Rizal was a better swordsman, he issued an apology, became an admirer, and wrote Rizal's first European biography.[24] The painful memories of his mother's treatment (when he was ten) at the hands of the civil authorities explain his reaction to Retana. The incident stemmed from an accusation that Rizal's mother, Teodora, tried to poison the wife of a cousin when she claimed she only intervened to help. With the approval of the Church prelates, and without a hearing, she was ordered to prison in Santa Cruz in 1871. She was made to walk the ten miles (16 km) from Calamba. She was released after two-and-a-half years of appeals to the highest court.[3] In 1887 Rizal wrote a petition on behalf of the tenants of Calamba, and later that year led them to speak out against friars' attempts to raise rent. They initiated a litigation which resulted in the Dominicans evicting them from their homes, including the Rizal family. General Valeriano Weyler had the buildings on their farm torn down. In 1896 while Rizal was in prison in Fort Santiago, his brother Paciano was tortured by Spaniards trying to extract evidence of Jose's complicity in the revolution. Two officers took turns applying pins under Paciano's fingernails; with his hands bound behind him and raised several feet, he was dropped repeatedly until he lost consciousness. In July 1892, days after he founded La Liga Filipina, Rizal was arrested and deported to Dapitan in the province of Zamboanga (a peninsula of Mindanao).[25] He was implicated in the simmering rebellion because of his association with Bonifacio and his men, who founded the militant group Katipunan. In Dapitan Rizal supervised the building of a small hospital and a water supply system. He opened a small school in his house, where he taught boys to engage in farming and horticulture, including the planting of abaca in the thousands. The students learned English, an uncommon practice when Spanish was the medium of instruction. Among the students were boys who grew up to become farmers and government officials.[26] One, a Muslim, became a datu, and Jose Aseniero, who was with Rizal throughout the life of the school, became Governor of Zamboanga.[27] In Dapitan, the Jesuits tried to convince Rizal to return to the fold, led by his former professor Sanchez. As others joined, Rizal responded in a letter to Pastells:[28] We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I doubt his when I am convinced of mine. Who so recognizes the effect recognizes the cause. To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for? Now then, my faith in God, if the result of a ratiocination may be called faith, is blind, blind in the sense of knowing nothing. I neither believe nor disbelieve the qualities which many attribute to him; before theologians' and philosophers' definitions and lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable being I find myself smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the supreme Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I cannot but reply: 'It could be; but the God that I foreknow is far more grand, far more good: Plus Supra!... I believe in (revelation); but not in revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to possess. Examining them impartially, comparing them and scrutinizing them, one cannot avoid discerning the human 'fingernail' and the stamp of the time in which they were written ... No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However, brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I believe in revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every side, in that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. What books can better reveal to us the goodness of God, his love, his providence, his eternity, his glory, his wisdom? 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork'."[20] As a gift to his mother on her birthday, he wrote "Mi Retiro", with a description of a calm night overlaid with a million stars.[18] [29] ... the breeze idly cools, the firmament glows, the waves tell in sighs to the docile wind timeless stories beneath the shroud of night. Say that they tell of the world, the first dawn of the sun, the first kiss that his bosom inflamed, when thousands of beings surged out of nothing, and peopled the depths, and to the heights mounted, to wherever his fecund kiss was implanted.[30] Rizal's pencil sketch of Blumentritt His best friend, professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, kept him in touch with European friends and fellow-scientists. Their stream of letters, arriving in Dutch, French, German and English, baffled the censors and delayed their delivery. The four years of exile coincided with the development of the Philippine Revolution. The Court that tried Rizal believed this coincidence suggested his complicity in the Revolution.[20] Rizal condemned the uprising, although the members of the Katipunan made him honorary president and used his name as a war-cry.[20] Near the end of his exile, Rizal met and courted an Irishwoman named Josephine Bracken, the stepdaughter of a patient. He was unable to obtain an ecclesiastical marriage because he would not return to Catholicism and was not known to be clearly against revolution.[citation needed] The Church, however, claimed that Rizal eventually signed a retraction and married Josephine on the eve of his execution. Josephine is the only person Rizal names in the poem Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, my joy...[31] By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become a full blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising and leading to the first proclamation of a democratic republic in Asia. To dissociate himself, Rizal volunteered and was given leave by the Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever. Blanco later presented his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an apology. Before leaving Dapitan, Rizal issued a manifesto disavowing the revolution and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom. Rizal was arrested en route, imprisoned in Barcelona, and sent back to Manila to stand trial. He was implicated in the revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan. He was to be tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy. During the entire passage, he was unchained and no Spaniard laid a hand on him; he had many opportunities to escape but refused to do so. A court-martial was convened for Rizal's trial in the Cuartel de España. No trained counsel was allowed to defend him but a list of young army officers was presented from which he might select a nominal defender. He picked a familiar name, Luis Taviel de Andrade, brother of Jose Taviel de Andrade, Rizal's traveling companion during his visit to the Philippines in 1887-88. The judge advocate charged Rizal with founding an illegal society, alleging that La Liga Filipina's sole object was to commit the crime of rebellion. The second charge was Rizal's alleged involvement in the existing rebellion. The penalty of death was asked of the court, and in the event of pardon being granted by the crown, the prisoner was to remain under surveillance for the rest of his life and pay 20,000 pesos for damages. Governor General Ramon Blanco, who was sympathetic to Rizal, had been forced out of office, and the friars had placed General Camilo de Polavieja in his stead. To Polavieja, pardon was not an option. The parallel proceedings in the military trial and execution of Francisco Ferret in Barcelona in 1909 caused worldwide indignation and was shown in numerous articles in the European and American press. Rizal's case, however, was not as widely known because Manila was too remote and the news was carefully censored. His poem, undated and believed to be written on the day before his execution, was hidden in an alcohol stove and later handed to his family with his few remaining possessions, including the final letters and his last bequests. Within hearing of the Spanish guards he reminded his sisters in English, "There is something inside it", referring to the alcohol stove given by the Pardo de Taveras which was to be returned after his execution, thereby emphasizing the importance of the poem. This instruction was followed by another, "Look in my shoes," in which another item was secreted. Exhumation of his remains in August, 1898, under American rule, revealed he was buried without a coffin and not in the ground for the "confessed" faithful, and whatever was in his shoes had disintegrated.[3] In his letter to his family he wrote: "Treat our aged parents as you would wish to be treated ... Love them greatly in memory of me ... December 30, 1896."[20] In his final letter, to Blumentritt: "Tomorrow at 7, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience."[20] He reassured him that he had not turned revolutionary and still shared his ideals to the very end. He also bequeathed a book personally bound by him in Dapitan to his 'best and dearest friend.' When Blumentritt received it in his hometown of Litoměřice (Leitmeritz), he broke down and wept. Rizal had to walk from Fort Santiago to the place of execution, then Bagumbayan Field, now called Luneta. His arms were tied tightly behind his back, and he was surrounded by a heavy guard. The Jesuits accompanied him and some of his Dapitan schoolboys were in the crowd, while one friendly voice, that of a Scotch merchant, a resident of Manila, called out in English, "Good-bye, Rizal." His request to be allowed to face his executioners was denied which was beyond the power of the commanding officer to grant. Rizal reasoned that he did not deserve such a death for he was not a traitor to Spain. It was promised, however, that his head would be respected, and unblindfolded and erect Rizal turned his back to receive their bullets. He twisted a hand to indicate under the shoulder where the soldiers should aim so as to reach his heart. As the volley came, he turned and fell, face upwards, thus receiving the subsequent shots which ended his life. Moments before his execution, with a backup force of Spanish troops, the Spanish surgeon general requested to take his pulse: it was normal. Aware of this, the Spanish sergeant hushed his men to silence when they began raising "¡vivas!" with the partisan crowd. His last words were: "consummatum est" (it is finished).[4][32][33] He was secretly buried in Paco Cemetery in Manila with no identification on his grave. His sister Narcisa toured all possible gravesites and found freshly turned earth at the cemetery with civil guards posted at the gate. Assuming this could be the most likely spot, there being ever no ground burials there, she made a gift to the caretaker to mark the site "RPJ", Rizal's initials in reverse. That his burial was not on holy ground led to doubts about his retraction, which the Church has been vigorously defending ever since. Some believe that Rizal neither married his sweetheart Josephine Bracken in Roman Catholic rites hours before his execution nor ever recanted those parts of his writings that were anti-Roman Catholic.[35][36] Those who deny the retraction point out to this line in "Adiós": "I go where there are no slaves, no hangmen or oppressors, where faith does not kill".[37] Whether this stanza was his final comment on the Catholic Church is a subject of dispute. Much of the Church's case rests on claims of a signed retraction, a copy of which has never been found. On the other side of the debate, however, were the Jesuit priests Balaguer and Pio Vidal who in their signed documents stated that they were eyewitnesses to Rizal's signing of the papers of retraction on December 29, 1896[38] and that they included two significant points: (1) Rizal's rejection of Masonry, and (2) the repudiation of "anything in my words, writings, publications and conduct that have been contrary to my character as a son of the Catholic Church ..." [19] . The documents included Balaguer's performance of a marriage ceremony between Rizal and Josephine, and Rizal's participation in the Holy Communion before his "hour of supreme sacrifice." This controversy is still ongoing and unresolved. The late Senator Jose Diokno acknowledges this: "Surely whether Rizal died as a Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts nothing from his greatness as a Filipino. It is because of what he did and what he was that we revere Rizal ... Catholic or Mason, Rizal is still Rizal: the hero who courted death 'to prove to those who deny our patriotism that we know how to die for our duty and our beliefs'." [39] [edit] "Mi último adiós" Main article: Mi último adiós To follow literary tradition, the title should be "Adiós, Patria Adorada" (literally "Farewell, Beloved Country"), the first line of the poem. It first appeared in print not in Manila but in Hong Kong in 1897, when a copy of the poem and an accompanying photograph came to J. P. Braga who decided to publish it in a monthly journal he edited. There was a delay when Braga, a Rizal admirer, wanted a good reproduction of the photograph and sent it to be engraved in London, a process that took over two months. It finally appeared under 'Mi último pensamiento,' a caption he supplied and by which it was known for a few years. If Rizal wrote "Adios" on the eve of his execution, Balaguer's account would have been too elaborate that Rizal would have had no time to write it. The exact date when the poem was written has never been determined. Six years after his death, when the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 was being debated in the United States Congress, Representative Henry Cooper of Wisconsin recited an English translation of Rizal's valedictory poem and at the end asked the question, "Under what clime or what skies has tyranny claimed a nobler victim?"[40] The final version of the bill was signed into law in 1916. Full autonomy was granted in 1946—fifty years after Rizal's death. [edit] Josephine Bracken Josephine Bracken promptly joined the revolutionary forces in Cavite province, making her way through thicket and mud and helped operate a reloading jig for Mauser cartridges at the arsenal at Imus. The short-lived arsenal under the revolutionary general Pantaleon Garcia had been reloading spent cartridges again and again and the jig was in continuous use, but Imus was under threat of recapture that the operation had to move, with Josephine, to Maragondon, the mountain redoubt in Cavite. She witnessed the Tejeros Convention prior to returning to Manila and was summoned by the Governor-General, but owing to her stepfather's American citizenship she could not be forcibly deported. She left voluntarily, returning to Hong Kong. She later married another Filipino, Vicente Abad, a mestizo acting as agent for the Philippine firm of Tabacalera. She died in Hong Kong in 1902, a pauper's death, buried in an unknown grave, and never knew how a line of verse had made her immortal[41]. Polavieja faced condemnation by his countrymen. Years after his return to Spain, while visiting Giron in Cataluña, circulars were distributed among the crowd bearing Rizal's last verses, his portrait, and the charge that Polavieja caused the loss of the Philippines to Spain. [edit] Criticism Attempts to debunk legends surrounding Rizal, and the tug of war between free thinker and Catholic, have kept Rizal a controversial figure. In one recorded "fall from grace" he succumbed to the temptation of a "lady of the camelias". The writer, Maximo Viola, a friend of Rizal's, was alluding to Dumas's 1848 novel, La dame aux camelias, about a man who fell in love with a courtesan. While the affair was on record, there was no account in Viola's letter whether it was more than a one-night event and if it was more of a business transaction than an amorous affair[42] [edit] Views on revolution Others present Rizal as a man of contradictions. Miguel de Unamuno in "Rizal: the Tagalog Hamlet", describes him as "a soul that dreads the revolution although deep down desires it. He pivots between fear and hope, between faith and despair."[43] His critics assert this character flaw is translated into his two novels where he opposes violence in the Noli and appears to advocate it in the Fili. His defenders insist this ambivalence is trounced when Simoun is struck down in the sequel's final chapters, reaffirming the author's resolute stance, Pure and spotless must the victim be if the sacrifice is to be acceptable.[44] While Rizal always favored reforms by peaceful means, it is debated whether he approved of non-peaceful means as well. In Fili Rizal has Father Florentino say: "... our liberty will (not) be secured at the sword's point ... we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when a people reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will crumble like a house of cards and liberty will shine out like the first dawn."[44] The Katipunan member Pio Valenzuela was sent to Dapitan by Andres Bonifacio to seek Rizal's opinion on an armed revolution. Valenzuela subsequently gave differing accounts of Rizal's opinion, which has proved problematic for Filipino historians. In his earliest testimony, given to the Spanish authorities after he took advantage of an amnesty shortly after the outbreak of revolt, Valenzuela claimed Rizal had condemned an armed uprising outright.[8] However, in later years Valenzuela retracted this and claimed Rizal had only disapproved of a premature armed revolution, because the Katipunan was ill-prepared and ill-equipped to wage war on the Spanish authorities. Valenzuela claimed Rizal had recommended that the Katipunan get the support of rich and influential people, including his friend Antonio Luna who was educated in military science and tactics. Valenzuela also said Rizal was in favor of even a premature armed uprising as a last resort if the Katipunan was discovered by the authorities. Historian Teodoro Agoncillo reasoned Valenzuela had lied to save Rizal from the charges he was eventually convicted for. Before his execution Rizal issued a statement condemning the uprising as ridiculous and barbarous, and called for the ending of hostilities. While this has been interpreted as his final stance by some, Mi último adiós has been proposed as his final word on the issue. Therein he wrote (as translated by Austin Coates): How it takes place is not important. Cypress, laurel or lily, Scaffold or battlefield, in combat or cruel martyrdom, It is the same when what is asked of you is for your country and your home.[8] |
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Aug 28, 2009 1:20 AM
#2
| he is known for his works like "El Felibusterismo" ( i don't know if THAT is the spelling:P) |
Aug 28, 2009 10:24 PM
#4
| he has done so many good things for the philippines!! |
| -minami chan- |
Aug 31, 2009 3:12 AM
#5
mLba09 said: he is known for his works like "El Felibusterismo" ( i don't know if THAT is the spelling:P) It's "Filibusterismo" from the word filibuster. Although Rizal and all the other heroes have done a lot for our country, sa ngayon, konti na lang ang nakakaalala sa mga ginawa nila. Kadalasan inaanticipate na lang ang celebration ng kanilang kabayanihan kasi walang pasok. Paunti na ng paunti ang mga pumupunta sa kanilang monumento para magbigay pugay. |
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Aug 31, 2009 3:19 AM
#6
kuroineko said: Although Rizal and all the other heroes have done a lot for our country, sa ngayon, konti na lang ang nakakaalala sa mga ginawa nila. Kadalasan inaanticipate na lang ang celebration ng kanilang kabayanihan kasi walang pasok. Paunti na ng paunti ang mga pumupunta sa kanilang monumento para magbigay pugay. so ibig mong sabihin ay makaklimutan rin si Rizal?? |
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Aug 31, 2009 7:09 AM
#7
Charlene-Herrera said: kuroineko said: Although Rizal and all the other heroes have done a lot for our country, sa ngayon, konti na lang ang nakakaalala sa mga ginawa nila. Kadalasan inaanticipate na lang ang celebration ng kanilang kabayanihan kasi walang pasok. Paunti na ng paunti ang mga pumupunta sa kanilang monumento para magbigay pugay. so ibig mong sabihin ay makaklimutan rin si Rizal?? its a possibility. lalo na pag ilang taon na ang lumipas. especially since hindi naman natin naranasan ang mga naranasan nila noon. hindi natin naramdaman ang hirap na dinanas nila. di ba ang hirap makisympathize minsan lalo na pag di ikaw mismo ang nakaranas ng isang bagay? you can understand them but will never truly feel in the same level as they do unless you're in their shoes. |
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Aug 31, 2009 7:54 AM
#8
kuroineko said: Charlene-Herrera said: kuroineko said: Although Rizal and all the other heroes have done a lot for our country, sa ngayon, konti na lang ang nakakaalala sa mga ginawa nila. Kadalasan inaanticipate na lang ang celebration ng kanilang kabayanihan kasi walang pasok. Paunti na ng paunti ang mga pumupunta sa kanilang monumento para magbigay pugay. so ibig mong sabihin ay makaklimutan rin si Rizal?? its a possibility. lalo na pag ilang taon na ang lumipas. especially since hindi naman natin naranasan ang mga naranasan nila noon. hindi natin naramdaman ang hirap na dinanas nila. di ba ang hirap makisympathize minsan lalo na pag di ikaw mismo ang nakaranas ng isang bagay? you can understand them but will never truly feel in the same level as they do unless you're in their shoes. I see....so much for the heroes of the country, makakalimutan rin sila.... |
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Aug 31, 2009 5:21 PM
#9
| kaya nga dapat i-treasure natin sila para di makalimutan. though i admit, i don't really celebrate their days. di ako pumupunta sa rizal park pag rizal day |
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Aug 31, 2009 7:36 PM
#10
kuroineko said: kaya nga dapat i-treasure natin sila para di makalimutan. though i admit, i don't really celebrate their days. di ako pumupunta sa rizal park pag rizal day ako rin....eh..... |
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Dec 14, 2009 3:04 AM
#11
| Totoo poh iyan mga guys!!! pero akuh I still researching for the national heroes who saved our country.. halos makabisado ang Noli Me Tangere eh.. (Huwag Mo Akong Salingin) hehe |
私の名前はシャーリーン、日本語に訳すと「ちゃーりん」です。 |
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