Jose Rizal

Alvin D. Cabalquinto
Graduate Assistant, Department of History, ADMU-LS
August 25, 2016

Discussion Outline

Why is Rizal given highest honor among several heroes in the

Philippine revolution in Philippine society?

Who is Jose Rizal?

How has Rizal influenced the Filipino psyche today?

Outline
Why is Rizal given highest honor
among several heroes in the Philippine
revolution?
Who is Jose Rizal?
How has Rizal influenced the Filipino
psyche today?

Jose Rizal (2000,

Marilou Diaz-Abaya,
director)
In this scene, Jose Rizal meets his
counsel for his trial before the
Spanish colonial government
tribunal.

Why is Rizal given highest honor

among several heroes in the Philippine
revolution in Philippine society?

Benedict Andersons theory of

Nationalism

Imagined
Limited
Sovereign
Community

Characteristics of a nation

Who is Rizal?
Scholar. Writer. Catalyst.

Rizals upbringing set against the backdrop

on the rise of nationalism and the need of
reform in the Philippine society shaped his
scholarly background. His scholarship is a
response to what is happening around him.

Rizal as a Scholar

Their regular daily food is rice, crushed by wooden pilons or

pounders, which is cooked and is then called morisqueta,25 and
this constitutes the daily mainstay for the entire country, together
with boiled fish of which there is an abundance, and pork or
venison, likewise meat of wild buffalo or carabao. They prefer
meat, fish, saltfish, which begin to decompose and smell. 26

25

pp. 247-8, Antonio de Morga. Historical Events of the Philippines. Annotated by Jose Rizal, 1889, Manila:
Jose Rizal Centennial Commission, 1962

Morisqueta to the Spaniards but the Tagalogs call it kanin

This is another preoccupation of the Spanairds who, like any other nation, in the matter of food,
loathe what they are not accustomed or what is unknown to them. The English, for example, is
horrified on seeing a Spaniard eating snails; to the Spaniard beef steak is repugnant and he cant
understand how raw beefsteak can be eaten; the Chinese who ear tahuri and shark cannot stand
Roquefort cheese, etc., etc. The fish that Morga mentions does not taste better when it is beginning to
rot; all on the contrary: it is bagoong and all those who have eaten it and tasted it know what it is not
or ought not to be rotten.
26

In the annals of human adversity, there is etched a cancer of

breed so malignant that the least contact exacerbates it and
stirs in it the sharpest of pains. And thus, many times amidst
modern cultures I have wanted to evoke you, sometimes for
memories of you to keep me company, other times, to
compare you with other nations many times your beloved
image appears to me afflicted with a social cancer of similar
malignancy.
Desiring your well-being, which is our own, and
searching for the best cure, I will do with you as the
ancients of old did with their afflicted: expose them on the
steps of the temple so that each one who would come to
invoke the Divine, would propose a cure for them.
And to this end, I will attempt to faithfully reproduce your
condition without much ado. I will lift part of the shroud that
conceals your illnessm sacrificing to the truth everything,
the own
Motherland
Jose Rizal. Nolifor,
Me Tangere.
Translated
Soledad
LacsonevenTomy
self-respect,
as your
son, byinMa.
your
defects
Locsin. Edited by Raul L. Locsin. Makati: Bookmark, 1996
and failing.

So often have we been haunted by the spectre of subversion which,

with some fostering, has come to be a positive and real being, whose
very name steals our serenity and make us commit the greatest
blunders. Setting aside, therefore, the old custom of respecting myths
in order not to encounter the dreaded reality, we look at it face to face
instead of fleeing, and with assertive though inexpert hand, we raise
the shroud in order to uncover before the multitude the structure of
skeleton.
If at the sight, our country and her government reflect, we would
consider ourselves happy. It matters not if they censure our audacity; it
matters not if we must pay for our boldness as did the young student in
Sais who wished to penetrate the secret of priestly deceit.
On the other hand, if before the reality, instead of changing, the fear
of one is increased, and the confusion of the other exacerbated, then
they may have to be left in the hands of time, which teaches the
children, and in the hands of fate, which weaves the destinies of
the Filipino
People and their
Government
Rizal. El Filibusterismo.
by
peoplesTo
and
governments
with
their Jose
defiencies
and theTranslated
mistakes
which
Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin. Edited by Raul L. Locsin. Makati: Bookmark, 1996
they commit each day.

A study on Rizals works, in both literary

and non-fiction, shows Rizals ideals, which
shows that he has his own ideals on
nationalism.

Rizal as a Writer

Rizals role as a social catalyst and the

events leading to his death propelled
further movement in the Philippine
revolution.

Rizal as a Social Catalyst

How has Rizal influenced

the Filipino psyche today?

Discussion

Guide Questions
Why is Rizal given highest honor
among several heroes in the Philippine
revolution?
Who is Jose Rizal?
How has Rizal influenced the Filipino
psyche today?

Synthesis

Salamat po sa pakikinig!