RIZAL & the REVOLUTION

A Nation Aborted: Rizal, American Hegemony, and Philippine

Nationalism by Floro Quibuyen

RIZAL as a HERO.
Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
Born on June 19, 1861
Died on December 30, 1896
Considered as an Illustrados
Wrote the famous Noli Me Tangere
& El Filibusterismo
A doctor, a writer & a scientist

RIZAL as a HERO?
Rizal was for ASSIMILATION and repudiated the
REVOLUTION.

DID RIZAL SUPPORT THE

REVOLUTION?

YES! RIZAL
SUPPORTED THE
REVOLUTION!

Galicano Apacible
Jose Alejandrino
Dr. Gregorio Zaide
Dr. Pio Valenzuela

GALICANO
APACIBLE
Rizals COUSIN & Fellow Expatriate
Co-founder of La Solidaridad & Nacionalista
Party
Known for his piece, To the American
People, an Appeal

GALICANO
APACIBLE
He wrote this letter claiming that Rizal was not a separatist nor a
lover of Spain.
I wish to touch on some opinions attributed to Rizal erroneously by
some writers who had not associated closely with him in the last years
of his life. Among them was the infamous Retana in his book about our
National Hero [Vida y Escritos]. These writers have affirmed that Rizal
was not a separatist and that he was a lover of Spain. Perhaps so,
before he had been in Spain , before he had discovered the true
situation obtaining in that country, he was not too much of a separatist,
though I have my doubts about this, because even when he was here, he
was truly a nationalist Filipino in his acts and opinions

GALICANO
APACIBLE
Cont.
But in Spain , when I joined him there, I found him a complete,
unwavering separatist. I remember that in our first conversation
alone, one of the first things he told me was that he was entirely
disillusioned at our then called Motherland. At that time the Spanish
atmosphere and the predominant Spanish opinions were such,
according to him, that the Philippines, our country, could not and
ought not to expect anything good under Spanish rule and that only
after separation from Spain could we achieve our social, civil, and
political aspirations.

JOSE
ALEJANDRINO
Rizals roommate in Germany
Became a General during the Revolution and
during the Philippine American War
Member of the Propaganda Movement
Contributor to the La Solidaridad
Helped Rizal in correcting errors in the El
Filibusterismo
He also helped Rizal in the distribution of
the novel

JOSE ALEJANDRINO
That some of his biographers have presented Rizal as
completely opposed to the revolution of 1896

RIZAL as the
INSPIRATION OF
THE KATIPUNAN
The Katipuneros have venerated RIZAL as the symbol
& inspiration of the Revolution.
Rizals name was the password used among the
higher ranking members
Photos of Rizal hung in every Katipunan meeting hall
The speeches given by Katipunero leaders usually
ended with three cheers:
1. For the PHILIPPINES
2. For LIBERTY
3. For DR. JOSE RIZAL

RIZAL as the
INSPIRATION OF
THE KATIPUNAN
The Aguinaldo-led Philippine Republic issued a pamphlet that invoked the martyrs name as:

The word named Jose Rizal, sent down by heaven to the

land of Filipinas, in order to spend his whole life, from
childhood, striving to spread throughout this vast
Archipelago, the notion that righteousness must be fought for
wholeheartedly.

VENERATION
OF RIZAL
Ricarte, one of the illustrado
revolutionary who refused to
concede the defeat of he revolution
to the American forces, was inspired
to change the name of the country.
From LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS to
RIZALINE REPUBLIC
The citizens will be called
RIZALINOS instead of Filipinos.

VENERATION
OF RIZAL
Lleto (1982) wrote:
In almost every report of disturbances during the
first decade of American rule, there is mention of Rizal
as reincarnated in fanatical leaders in general, as
literally the :spirit behind the unrest. In the 1920
Lantayug proclaimed himself a reincarnation of Rizal
and won a wide following in the Eastern Visayas and
Northern Mindanao Other peasant leaders who
challenged the colonial order in the 1920s and the 1930s
claimed to be in communication with Rizal.

 Renato Constantino
NO! RIZAL IS A
COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY!

Trinidad Pardo De Tavera

Wenceslao E. Retana

RENATO
CONSTANTINO
According to Constantino, Rizal is a
counterrevolutionary hero. Which means
that Rizal did not support the Revolution.
Constantinos opinion, during Rizals
time, were considered extraordinary, if
not absurd.

COUNTERREVOLUTIONARIES
Dr. Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera

Spanish creole medical doctor

Sanskrit scholar
Ethnohistorian
One of the 1st illustrados to offer their
services to the Americans as soon as the
Spanish regime collapsed.

COUNTERREVOLUTIONARIES
Wenceslao E. Retana

An anti-Rizal
Profriar journalist who had a change of
heart after the fall of Spain
Wrote the 1st documented full-length
biography of Rizal,
Vida y Escritos del Dr. Rizal (Life and
Writings of Dr. Rizal)

COUNTERREVOLUTIONARIES
Tavera & Retana shared a common view of
Rizal as the multitalented, liberal, and
reformist intellectual who opposed Bonifacios
uprising, but who was, nonetheless, the most
revered of all Filipino patriots.
The Americans found it most
congenial to their colonial agenda.

Pardo De Tavera
He declared in an interview with American authorities, that when the
Katipunan asked for Rizals counsel regarding the planned revolution,
Rizal opposed the plan and said it would not be suitable and
advised that what was good for the country was the improvement
and education of the people.
However, Bonifacio, instead of telling the truth, told the
Filipino people that Rizal, instead of advising peace, had
advised the revolution.

RETANA
He fully explicated the now taken for granted interpretation that Rizal was an
antirevolutionary reformist and a deeply loyal subject of Spain.
He also provided the primary documentary evidence for Rizals supposed assimilationist
reformism.
His interpretation of Rizals politics were seconded by the first American translator of
Rizals novels, Charles Derbyshire, who reiterated Retanas assimilationist thesis in his
translators introduction to The Social Cancer.
This thesis was picked up and popularized by the second biographer of Rizal, Austin
Craig, an American Historian who set the official American version of Rizal.

BUT
But the question is:

On what documentary sources were these

readings based?
How valid are these sources?

RETANA
Retanas erroneous identification of Rizal with
Ibarra can be easily disposed of, for Rizal
himself had unequivocably belied this
interpretation twice:
First in his La Solidaridad

Second, in his conversation

polemic with Barrantes, where

with Jose Alejandrino, Rizal

Rizal declared emphatically that

revealed that his hero was

he does not share Ibarras view.

not Ibarra but Elias.

Declaration of Rizal:
As quoted by Alejandrino:
"I regret having killed Elias instead of Crisostomo Ibarra; but
when I wrote Noli me Tangere, my health was so shaken, I never
thought I could write its continuation and talk of a revolution.
Otherwise, I would have let Elias live, who was a noble, patriotic,
unselfish and disinterested character, Ibarra was an egoist, who
only decided to provoke a rebellion when his interests, his person,
his loves, and all that he held most sacred were touched. With
such men, one can not expect success in their undertakings"

ZAIDE versus MANUEL