LESSON 1: MESSAGE TO THE YOUNG WOMEN OF MALOLOS

LESSON 2: THE PHILIPPINES WITHIN A CENTUREY

LESSON 3: ON THE INDOLENCE OF THE FILIPINOS

LESSON 4: FILIPINO FARMERS

LESSON 5: HOMAGE TO JUAN LUNA AND FELIX RESURRECCION HIDALGO

REPORT BY: IBRAHIM, AHMED ALI, JOHN ANGLE, ANJI

INSTRUCTOR BY: SIR. CARLITIO S. PAR

Social Science 2

To the Young Women of Malolos

Jose Rizal’s legacy to Filipino women is embodied in his famous essay entitled. “To the Young Women of Malolos,” where he addresses all kinds of women – mothers, wives the unmarried, etc.

“To the Women of Malolos” was originally written in Tagalog. Rizal penned this writing when he was in London, the request of Marcelo H. Del Pilar.

1. The rejection of the spiritual authority of the friars – not all of the priests in the country embodied the true spirit of Christ and His Church.

2. The defense of private judgment.3. Qualities Filipino mothers need to possess – Rizal is greatly concerned

of the welfare of the Filipino children and the homes they grow up in.

4. Duties and responsibilities of Filipino mothers to their children.

5. Duties and responsibilities of a wife to her husband – Filipino women are submissive, tender, and loving.

6. Counsel to young women on their choice of a lifetime partner.

Jose Rizal was greatly impressed by the fighting spirit that the young women of Malolos had shown. During those days young girls were not sent to school because of the universal notion that they would soon only be taken as wives and stay at home with the children. Rizal, emphasizes on freedom of thought and the right to education, must be granted to both boys and girls alike.

Rizal enumerates the qualities Filipino mothers have to possess:

1. Be a noble wife.

2. Rear her children in the service of the state.

3. Set standards of behavior for men around her.

Jose Rizal points out to unmarried women that they should not be easily taken by appearances and looks, because these can be very deceiving. Take heed of men’s firmness of character and lofty ideas. A young women must look for a man she intends to be her husband:

1. A noble and honored name2. A manly heart3. A high spirit incapable of being satisfied with

engendering slaves.

1. Filipino mothers should teach their children love of God, country and fellowmen.

2. Filipino mothers should be glad and honored, like Spartan mothers, to offer their sons in defense of their country.

3. Filipino women should know how to protect their dignity and honor.4. Filipino women should educate themselves aside from retaining their good

racial values.5. Faith is not merely reciting prayers and wearing religious pictures. It is living

the real Christian way with good morals and manners.

In recent times, it seems that these qualities are gradually lost in the way Filipino women conduct themselves.

A group of twenty young women of Malolos presented a petition to Governor-General Valeriano Weyler requesting permission to open a night school so that they could study the Spanish language.

Governor-General Valeriano Weyler

Effect of the NewsHowever, now that the news of what occurred in your town of Malolos arrived

here, I realized that I was wrong, and my joy was beyond bounds...A new breed of women

The Filipino woman no longer bows her head and bends her knees, her hope in the future is revived.

What you have discoveredYou have found out that God’s command is different form that of the priest,

that piety does not consist in prolonged kneeling, long prayers, large rosaries, scapulars, but in good conduct, clean conscience and uprising thinking.

Use your gift of reason The official or the friar cannot claim that be alone will be responsible for his

wrong order because God gave to each one his own mind and his own conscience so that he can distinguish between right and wrong.

Bringing up children Young womanhood, the nursery of fruitful flowers, ought to accumulate riches

to bequeath to its descendants.Meaning of true piety True piety is obedience to what is right, happen what may. “Deeds and not

words are what I ask of you,” said Christ. “He is not the son of my father who repeatedly say, my father, but he who lives according to the will of my father.”...

Women open the minds of men Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you

are the ones who open the minds of men.Prepare the child’s mind Awaken and prepare the mind of the child for child for every good and

desirable idea – love of honor, sincere and firm character, clear mind, clean conduct, noble action, love for one’s fellow men, respect for God – teach this to your children.

Because life is full of sorrows and perils, fortify their character against any difficulty; strengthen their hearts against any danger.

Women power and prudence Important are the duties that women must perform in order to relieve the country

of its sufferings, but they will not be beyond the strength and character of the Filipino women.

What Filipino women lack We know you instructive books; we know that nothing is added to your knowledge

from day to day, except that which is intended to darken you natural light.Our cherished dream This is our constant thought, our cherished dream – to restore the honor of the

Filipino women, who is the partner of our heart, who shares our happiness and our misfortune.

A woman must ask for a manly heart Why does not a young woman ask of the man she is going to love for a noble and

honorable name, a manly heart that can protect her weakness, a noble mind that will not permit him to be the father of slaves?

Duties of a Wife When she becomes a wife, she should help her husband in every difficulty,

encourage him, share with him all perils, console him, and drive away his woes, always bearing in mind that a heroic heart can endure any suffering and that no legacy is as the legacy of infamy and slavery.

What I asked of the women I do not expect to be believed because only I say it. What I ask is for all to think, to reflect and meditate, investigate and shift in the

name of reason the following that I am going to state.

First and foremost. Some become treacherous because of the cowardice and negligence of others.

Second. Lack of self-respect and Third. Ignorance is bondage, because as the mind is, so is man.

Fourth. Once who wants to help himself should help others, because if he neglects others he too will be neglected by them.

Fifty. If the Filipino woman will not change, she should not be entrusted with the education of her children.

Sixth. Men are born equal, naked and without chains. Seventh. Analyze carefully the kind of religion taught you. Tubo ko’y dakila sa puhunang pagod (My pains shall have their great reward), and I

shall welcome whatever may happen, the usual reward for any one who dares to tell the truth in our country. This is the sincere wish of your compatriot Jose Rizal

Looking BackMalolos and the women of MalolosBy Ambeth R. OcampoPhilippine Daily Inquirer• Malolos Yousafzai is a 14-year-old blogger from Pakistan who dared defy the

taliban by simply going to school and publicly asserting her right to an education. At 11, she began a blog for the BBC that focused attention to life in her corner of the world. First January 2009.

La Solidaridad

Graciano Lopez Jaena Marcelo H. Del Pilar

• Two days after Graciano Lopez Jaena commented on the incident in La Solidaridad on Feb. 15,1889. Marcelo H. Del Pilar requested Rizal to write an encouraging letter to the young women of Malolos, resulting in the famous “Sa mgakababayang dataga sa Malolos.” (By their own countrymen dataga in Malolos.)

• The school was allowed to operate in February 1889 on the following conditions.

Thus Malala of Pakistan should remind us of thewomen of Malolos:

Elisea Tantoco Reyes

(1873-1969)

Juana Tantoco Reyes

(1874-1900)

Leoncia Santos Reyes

(1864-1948)

Olympia San Agustin Reyes

(1876-1910)

Eugenia Mendoza Tanchangco

(1871-1969Aurea Mendoza

Tanchangco(1872-1958)

Teresa TiongsonTantoco

(1867-1942)

Maria TiongsonTantoco

(1869-1912)

Anastacia MaclangTiongson

(1874-1940)

Agapita Reyes Tiongson(1872-1937)

Mercedes Reyes Tiongson

(1870-1928)

Filomena OliverosTiongson

(1867-1934)

Feliciana Oliveros Tiongson(1869-1939)

Alberta Santos Uitangcoy(1865-1953)

Lesson 2: THE PHILIPPINES WITHIN A CENTUREY

Lesson 2: THE PHILIPPINES WITHIN A CENTUREY

“The Philippines a Century Hence” is an essay written by Philippines national

hero Jose Rizal to forecast the future of the country within a hundred years.

Rizal felt that it was time to remind Spain that the circumstances that ushered

in the French Revolution could have a telling effect for her in the Philippines.

Published in La Solidaridad starts by analyzing the various causes of the miseries

suffered by the Filipino people.

Spain’s implementation of her military policies – the Philippine population

decreased dramatically. Poverty became more rampant than ever, and farmlands

were left to wither.

The family as a unit of society was neglected, and overall, every aspect of the life of the Filipino was retarded.

Deterioration and disappearance of Filipino indigenous culture – Spain came with sword and the cross, it began the gradual destruction of the native Philippines culture.

The Filipinos started losing confidence in their past and their heritage became doubtful of their present lifestyle, and eventually lost hope in the future and the preservation of their race.

Passivity and submissiveness to the Spanish colonizers – one of the most powerful forces that influenced a culture of silence among the natives were the Spanish friars.

Because of the use of force, the Filipinos learned to submit themselves to the will of the foreigners.

Arises as to what had awakened the hearts and opened the minds of the Filipino people with regards to their

Eventually the natives realized that such oppression in their society by foreign colonizers must no longer be tolerated.

In 1898, the Americans wrestled with Spain to win the Philippines, and eventually took over the country.

Five decades after Rizal’s death, the Philippines gained her long-awaited independence.

“Filipinas dentro de cien años” was published serially from 30 September 1889 to 1 February 1890 in La Solidaridad, organ of the Propaganda Movement of the Filipinos residing in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

Rizal’s many talents – A historian, the professional historians and analyzed, interpreted the past.

He went beyond the confines of the past and foretold the future of the Philippines on the basis of he experience as a colony of Spain.

The English translation by Dr. Encarnacion Alzona revised for pedagogical purposes. Long sentences and paragraphs, the style in Rizal’s time shortened and difficult words have been added as study aids.

1. Prophecies of Rizal have become true and, more important

2. Ideas appear to have relevancy to Filipinos of today.

Encounter and crisis. Soon after its colonization by the Crown of Spain, the Philippines had to support with the blood and the vigor of her sons the wars and imperialistic ambitions of the Spanish nations.

Terrible crisis of the people when they changed their government, laws, usage, customs, religion and beliefs, the Philippines became depopulated, impoverished, retarded, shocked by her transformation, with no more confidence in the past, without faith in the present, and without any flattering hope in the future.

The people’s ruin. A new period for the Filipinos began.

Gradually they lost their old tradition, the mementos of their past.

They gave up their writing, song, poems.

Aesthetics different from those inspired by their climate and their way of thinking.

They declined, degrading themselves in their own eyes.

They began to admire and praise, without understanding, whatever was foreign, their spirit was dismayed and surrendered.

The death blow. Having reached this low ebb of moral degradation, this dismay, this disgust of themselves, the inhabitants of these islands were ready for the coup de grace (death blow) calculated to destroy totally their will power and their dormant minds.

The race was openly insulted by denying them the possession of any virtue any human quality.

Writes and priests who went further alleging that the people of the country had no capacity not only for virtue but also for vice…

Unbreakable spirit. The spirit if the people refused to be intimidated.

Thought it had been awakened in a few hearts only.

Its flame was however spreading surely and fiercely, thanks to the abuses and stupid tricks of certain classes to destroy noble and generous sentiments.

Differing viewpoints. The Spanish liberals the moral condition of the Philippines remains same that the Filipino Indios have not advanced.

The friars and henchmen the people have been redeemed from savagery.

Filipinos their moral, spirit and customs have degenerated as all the good qualities of a people degenerate when they fall into slavery.

Apparent bright picture. The present situation(referring to the 1880’s and 1890’s) seems to be rosy and golden.

Now the material forces of the Spanish government have trebled.

The civil and military branches are better organized.

Communication with the Metropolis(Madrid) faster and more dependable.

Spain no longer has foreign enemies, territorial possession is assured

and the subject country has less willpower.

Less aspiration for independence a word that is almost unknown to her.

At first glance everything predicts another three centuries at least of

peaceful domination and tranquil reign.

• Fine sensibility. The people of the Orient in general and the Malayans in particular are noted for their sensitiveness.

The Malayan Filipinos sacrifice everything - liberty, comfort, welfare, honor – alter of an aspiration, of a vanity, be it religious, scientific, or of any other character whatsoever.

Slightest injury to his self-love, he forgets all his sacrifices and never forgives the offense he believer he had received.

Consequences. Three centuries of brutalization and obscurantism must have exerted some influence on us.

The mocking laughter, like deadly poison, penetrates the heart of the Indio who pays and suffers; and it is more offensive when it is under protection.

The same sore, the general outrage perpetrated against the entire race has erased the ancient enmities between the different provinces.

The people no longer have confidence in their former protectors, who are now their exploiters and executioners.

Shock of recognition. The masks have fallen off.

The people have realized they have seen that their oppressors not only do not nourish him so that he would grown but they poison him to prevent his growth

Old semblance of justice, the holy residencies. Abandoned, duties, taxes, and contributions

increase without any corresponding increase in rights, privileges, and liberties or an assurance of the continuance of the few existing ones.

A regime of continuous terrorism and anguish stirs up the minds of men.

The country is poor; it is undergoing a great financial crisis.

Charging the batteries. The storage batteries are charging little by little.

in going to the extreme in its rigorous repression of the classes that suffer and think.

They will succeed in making them gamble away the miseries of an insecure life.

Full of privations and bitterness for the hope of obtaining uncertain.

Prospect of people power. Therefore if the prudence and wise reforms of our ministers do not find competent and determined interpreters among the rulers (of colonies) beyond the seas and faithful continuators among those called upon by the frequent crises.

The Filipino people are to be answered eternally with “the petition is denied,” inspired by the classes that thrive on the backwardness if the subject.

Claims are ignored and considered subversive activities.

Denying to the country representation in the (Spanish) Cortes and the right to protest against all kinds of abuses which escape the snare of the laws.

Nascent nationalism. Today there is a factor which did not exist before.

The national spirit has awakened a common misfortune and a common abasement have united all the inhabitants of the Islands.

Counts on a large enlightened class within and outside the Archipelago.

This class whose number is increasing progressively is in constant communication with the rest of the Islands.

Wealth and poverty. Perhaps but it is a very dangerous measure. Experience in the Philippines that the well-to-do classes have

always been the partisans of peace and order. Wealth brings with it refinement and the spirit of preservation. Less discontent, there are less complaints, and the government,

richer has also more means to support itself.

Durable Filipino race. Neither is it possible to destroy gradually the entire population.

The Filipino race like all the Malayans, dose not succumb to the foreigner as do the aborigines of Australia, the Polynesians and Indians of the New World.

The Malayans of Java and the Moluccas.

Factors of unity. There remains the fostering of hostility between the provinces themselves.

When there were no steamships or telegraph. The different provinces had their own

regiments. It is true that their union is not yet complete

but the measures of good government. The mobility of government officials, the

scarcity of schools. The trips to Europe contribute not a little

towards unity.

Political transformation necessary. If the Philippines has to remain under Spanish rule.

We also said that the transformation has to be violent if it should originate from the masses peaceful and rich in results if from the upper classes.

All reforms of a palliative character are not only useless but even injurious when the government is confronted with evils that need a radical remedy.

Freedom of the press and representation. The minister who would wish reforms to be real should begin by declaring freedom of the press in the Philippines and creating Filipino deputies.

If well interpreted and implemented can dispel all the clouds, attest the affection of Spain, and make fruitful all subsequent ones.

The alternatives. In short the Philippines will remain Spanish if she enters the path of rightful and civilized life.

The liberal policy of the government is carried out without shackles or meanness, without subterfuges or false interpretations.

The noble Spanish people so devoted to their liberties and rights cannot tell the Filipino people to renounce theirs.

Lessons of history. History does not record in its annals any enduring rule of one people over another.

The existence of a foreign body in another endowed with strength and activity is against all natural and moral laws.

The Philippines obtain her independence at the end of heroic and tenacious struggles.

She can be sure that neither England nor France and less Holland.

Contagious and greed and ambition are the vices of the strong and Harrison (William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States 1841)

His father’s farmland so long devastated and abandoned due to the negligence of those who had alienated.

The mine – gold, iron, copper, lead, coal, and other –will be worked again.

Philippines will recover her good old qualities which she is losing little by little and again become a lover of peace, gay, lively, smiling, hospitable, and fearless.

Lesson 3: ON THE INDOLENCE OF THE FILIPINOS

Lesson 3: ON THE INDOLENCE OF THE FILIPINOS

La Indolencia de los Filipinos more popularly know in its English version “The Indolence of the Filipinos” is an exploratory essay written by Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.

The Indolence of the Filipinos is a study of the causes why the people did not as was said work hard during the Spanish regime.

First – the establishment of the Galleon Trade cut off all previous associations of the Philippines with other countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Seconds – because of the wars between Spain and other countries in Europe as well as the Muslim in Mindanao the Filipino were compelled to work in shipyards, roads, and other public works, abandoning, agriculture, industry, and commerce.

Third – Spain did not protect the people against foreign invaders and pirate.

Fourth – there was a crooked system of education if it was to be considered an education.

Fifth – The officials reported to work at noon and left early all the while doing nothing in line with their duties.

Sixth – gambling was established and widely propagated during those times.

Cockfights and during feast days, the government officials and friars were first to engage all sort and gamble.

Seventh – there was a crooked system of religion.

Friars taught the naïve Filipinos that it was easier for a poor man to enter heaven.

Lastly – taxes were extremely high so much so that a huge portion of what they earned went to the government or to the friars.

Spaniards arrived on these lands, the natives were industriously conducting business with China, Japan, Arabia, Malaysia and other countries in the Middle East.

Furnished by authorities in the Spanish Peninsula, Dr. Gregorio Sanciano y Gozun in Manila lawyer.

El Progreso de Filipinas 1881

Has demonstrated in his book El Progreso de Filipinas 1881. that indolence does not exist in the Philippines.

Rizal joins the discussion in order to show calmly and impassively that indolence actually and positively exist in the islands.

The warm climate. Requires quiet and rest for the individual just as cold incites him to work and to action.

Spaniard is more indolent than the French and more so than the German.

How the Europeans live. Europeans who accuse the people of the colonies of indolence(I am no longer referring to the Spaniards alone but also to the Germans and Englishmen).

Abuse of alcohol. A mistake! Man can live under any climate if he will only adapt himself to its requirements and conditions.

Severe work injurious. Fact is that in tropical countries severe work is not a good things as in cold countries for there work is annihilation, it is death, it is destruction.

An hour’s work under that burning sun and in the midst of harmful influences coming out of an active nature is equivalent to a day’s work in a temperate climate.

Lifestyle of Europeans. Moreover don’t we see the active European who has gained strength during winter.

Who feels the fresh blood of spring boil in his veins. Where the work after all is not hard for many consisting of

talking and gesticulating in the shade beside a desk- turn to watering, places, sit down at the cafes, stroll about etc?

Man’s objects. We find then the tendency to indolence very natural.

Man is not a brute, he is not a machine. His aim is not merely to produce despite the claim of some

white Christians who wish to make of the colored Christian a kind of motive power somewhat more intelligent and less costly than steam.

Identifying the evil. The evil is not that a more or less dormant indolence exists, but that is fostered and magnified.

Indolence in the Philippines is a magnified indolence a snow-ball indolence.

Rizal cites authorities to show that “the Malayan Filipinos before the coming of the European carried on an active trade, not only among themselves but also with all their neighboring countries.”

He mentions an old Chinese manuscript, Pigafetta’s chronicle of the voyage of Magellanin Philippine waters in 1521.

Pigafetta’s Chronicle Voyage of Magellan

Gaspar de San Agustin Dr. Antonio de Morga

Colin Argesola

Chirino

The Legaspi expedition in 1565 and the accounts of Gaspar de San Agustin, Dr. Antonio de Morga, Chirino, Colin, Argesola, and other.

Predisposing causes. A fatal combination of circumstances.

Some independent of the will despite the efforts of men.

Strange advice of the friars.

What is strange when we see the pious but important friars of that time advise their poor parishioners.

Man works for a purpose remove the purpose you reduce him to inaction.

It seems that this thought never crossed the minds of those who cry out against the indolence of the Filipinos.

Sufficient to breed indolence even in the bosom of a beehive.

Thus is explained why after thirty-two years of Spanish rule.

THOSE EMANATING FROM THE GOVERNMENT (15)

1) The constantly decreasing encouragement to labor in the Philippines.

2) The coastwise trade, so flourishing formerly, that disappeared on account of the piracy of the Malayans of the South and the trade in the interior of the Islands which almost disappeared owing to restrictions, passport, and other administrative requirements.

3) The impediments and obstacles which since the very beginning have been laid in the way of the farmer by the rulers who were influenced by childish fear and saw everywhere signs of conspiracies and uprising.

4) The miserly returns that the Filipino gets from his labor would in the end discourage him.

5) Self-aggrandizement of government officials. The Alcalde Mayor, the highest functionary of the district, is so busy with enriching himself that he has no time to tyrannize his docile subjects.

6) The great difficulty that every enterprise encounters with the administration also contributed not a little to kill off every commercial or industrial movement.

7) And above all much patience, a great knowledge of how to get along, plenty of money, much politics, many bows, complete resignation.

8) Trading with China the whole occupation of the colonies was prejudicial not only to Spain but also to her colonies.

9) The harmful influence of the rulers, that of surrounding themselves with servants and despising physical or manual labor as unworthy of the nobility and aristocratic pride of the heroes of so many centuries.

10) Moreover why work? Many Filipino said to themselves, the rich man on earth is exposed to all kinds of vexation, to all kinds of trouble: to be appointed cabeza de barangay.

FILIBUSTER

11) Add to this the introduction of gambling.

12) Consider that lack of capital lack of means paralyzes all activity and you will see why the Indio must perforce be indolent.

13) The facility with which individual liberty is curtailed the endless worry of all people knowing that they are liable to a secret report, an administrative action, a charge of being a filibuster(rebel)

14) The apathy of the government itself toward everything pertaining to commerce or agriculture contributes not a little to foster indolence.

15) One of the reason why many towns do not progress despite the efforts of their inhabitants is the fact that the best estates.

16) Add to this lack of material inducement the absence of moral support, and you will see that in country (the Philippines) one who is not lazy must be a fool or at least an imbecile.

17) The education of the Filipino from birth until the grave is brutalizing, depressing, and anti-human (the word inhuman is not expressive enough.

For five year or ten the youth comes in contact with books.

Chosen by very same priests who boldly declare that it is an evil for the Filipinos to know Castilian.

Not even perhaps the teachers contend with the daily teaching that lowers human dignity, gradually or brutally killing their self-respect.

The eternal, tenacious, persistent efforts to humble the native, to make him accept the yoke, to reduce him to the level of a beast, an effort supported by some individuals, writers or not.

Deprive a ma of his dignity, and you not only deprive him of his moral strength but also you render him useless even to those who want to make use of him.

Why the Filipinos of today are no longer the same as those of the time of discovery of the Philippines, either morally or physically.

Relation of people and government. People and government are Correlated and complementary.

A stupid government is an anomaly among a righteous people, just as a corrupt people cannot exist under just rulers and wise laws.

Defects of Education. The very limited home education the tyrannical and sterile education in the dew education centers.

The blind subjection of the youth to his elders, influence the mind not to aspire to excel those who preceded him and merely to be content to follow or walk behind them.

Lack of national sentiment. Even more lamentable and more transcendental is the absence of national sentiment.

Convinced through insinuation of his inferiority, the Filipino allows himself to be guided by his fancy and self-love in the exchange of usages and idea among different nations.

Lesson 4: FILIPINO FARMERS

Lesson 4: FILIPINO FARMERS

We applaud the minister of colonies for his efforts to foster agriculture in the Philippines as evidenced by the boards, commission, committees and projects.

Not only must he not be forgotten his hands must not be tied disabling them for work as unfortunately it happen.

The farmer’s problem. The Filipino farmer has to struggle not only with plagues and public calamities but also with petty tyrants and robbers.

The tyranny of petty power. After the floods locusts bad harvests and the like the farmer capitalist has to deal with the constable who takes away from him his laborers for personal service some public work repair of read bridges and other with the civil guard (the guardia civil is the police in charge of maintaining law and order) who arrest them for various reason sometimes for not carrying with them their personal cedulas for not saluting properly for being suspicious or for no reason whatsoever and they manacle them to clean the barracks and thus compel the capitalist to live on better terms with the chief otherwise they take away his carabaos oxen in spite of violence are almost always unjustified and not within the competence of the civil guard.

Abuses of officials. At times it is not the constable or the constable or the civil guard who opposes so indirectly the minister of colonies An official of the court or of the provincial government dissatisfied with the farmer urgently summons this or that laborer if not two or three.

Sometimes rare fortunately a companies volante( flying squad)sweeps the province. Woe to those who have enemiesl It is enough to be in the list of suspects for the head of the squad to pick him up and take him to another place without trial or filing of a complaint.

• The way out. But if the capitalist knows how to grease and through offerings to appease the gods and render them act favorably, he has already accomplished much.

• Other tyrants. But still there remain other deities the talismans orbandits.

• The end of the sun. all this is very good What is not so good is that despite the good reports despite the peace in the province despite the abundance of bandits the good conduct of the farmer tax-payer and the danger to which he and his farms are exposed they deny him not only the use of his firearm or the renewal of the license but also confiscate the firearm which he bought at a fabulous price only to be left to rot to become oxidized in a corner of the barracks or the town hall useless to all except to the bandits who in this way are the most favored.( in the succeeding paragraph Rizal cites the case of captain Francisco de San Juan citizen of the province of Laguna owner of extensive lands planted to sugar cane coffee and abaca located far from the town who was denied renewal of his license in spite of all the good reports and had his firearm confiscated eventually forcing him to abandon his farms).

• We are convinced that the Minister of Colonies and the good Spaniards who love the prestige of Spain hand have an affection for those Islands do not know these details.

• Need to correct It would be desirable to correct this Mr. Minister of Colonies lest some mischievous men say that the government there in the Philippines being impotent might crone to an understanding with the bandits and deliver to them the unarmed inhabitants that it wants the land to be cultivated with speeches projects and boards and for this reason it binds the hands of the farmer and puts a thousand obstacles on his path so that he may plant according to the new system.

• Agriculture is not improved only in that way It is necessary to aid those who practice it Those who from their comfortable chairs think otherwise and see the inefficaoyof the royal decrees throw the blame for its backwardness to the indolence of the Indio.

These abuses ruin the country and impair the prestige of the government This system of prevention of unfounded fears of unjust suspicions not only irritates and awakaensmen but exposes the weakness of the government.

Telling the truth is best policy. The behavior of the government there in the Philippines hurts the real interests of Spain.

We shall conclude by proposing to the Minister a reform concerning the granting of licenses for the use of firearms.

Inasmuch as they are not granted without the report of the people of the chief of the civil guard (European) and of the parish priest (almost always European) instead of being issued in Manila they should be issued by the court of every town.

5 Lesson: HOMEAGE TO JUAN LUNA AND FELIX RESURRECCION HIDALGO

But before we see him leave for abroad, let us present him under a new light: as a public speaker. “Today I pronounced my first toast,” is read in one of the entries in his diary, on June 25,1884. Upon the occasion of the llocano painter D. Juan Luna’s triumph with his famous Spoliarium, D. Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, another son of [the Philippines].

Retana used as a reference an article published in El Imparcial of Madrid, June 26,1884 to name some of the guest.

From La Independencia, September 25, 1898, Retana included this description of Rizal.

A young Filipino doctor rose to pronounce the first toast, Sr. D. Jose Rizal…RIZAL was a speaker with a brief and easy manner; when he spoke he seemed to meditate on everything he said, and his pleasant appearance, with his thinking man’s face, attracted people immediately.

Juan Luna Felix ResurreccionHidago

La Independencia

• June 25, 1884 was a memorable date in more ways than one. In the morning of that day Rizal took his examination in Greek (on an empty stomach because his pension from home was delayed) which he passed winning a prize. In the evening of the same day he attended a banquet in honor of two Filipino painters, Juan Luna’s Spolarium,winning one of the three first prize gold medals and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s Christian Virgin Exposed to the Populace, second prize from the National Exposition of Fine Arts in Madrid.

Won first prize

Juan Luna’s Spolarium

Won second prize

Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s Christian Virgin Exposed to the Populace

GENTLEMEN

• In speaking before you, I am not scared by fear that you may listen to me with lukewarmness.

• As men of goodwill you seek only goodwill, and form that height where noble sentiments reside, you do not perceive petty trifles, you see the whole and you judge the case, and you extend your hand to one who, like me, desires to join you in one single though, in one single aspiration – the glory of genius, the splendor of the Motherland.

(Good, Very Good! Applause.)

• Here is, in fact, the reason why we are gathered. In the history of nations there are names that by themselves signify an achievement, that recall passion and greatness, names that, like magic formulae, evoke pleasant and smiling thoughts, names that become a pact, a symbol of peace, a bond of love between that nations. They were born in the Philippines but they could have been born in Spain, because genius knows no country, genius sprouts everywhere, genius is like light, air, the patrimony of everybody, cosmopolitan, like space, like life, like God. (Applause, Emphasis added).

• The patriarchal era is the Philippines is waning.

• You know this well and you exult in it.

(Bravos!)

• They imbibed over there the poetry of nature – a nature grandloseand terrible in its cataclysms, in its evolution, in its dynamism, a nature, sweet, tranquil, and melancholy in its manifestation, constant, static, a nature that stamps its seal on all that it creates and produces.

• It is not possible not to reflect on what one’s self feels, it is not possible to be one thing and do something else. In El Spolarium,through that canvas that is not mute, can be heard the tumult of the multitude, the shouting of the slaves, the metallic creaking of the armor of the corposes, the sobs of the bereaved, the murmurs of prayer, with such vigor and realism as one hears the din of thunder in the midst of the crash of the cataracts or the impressive and dreadful tremor of the earthquake.

• For that reason in Luna’s are the shadows, the contrasts, the moribund light, mystery, and the terrible, like the reverberation of the dark tempests of the tropies, the lightning and the roaring eruptions of their volcanoes.