Jose Rizal: Veneration Without Understanding

Limitations of Rizal

We are living in an age of anti-colonial revolutions different in content from those of Rizal’s period. Rizal could not have anticipated the problems of today. He was not conversant with economic tools of analysis that would unravel the intricate techniques that today are being used by outside forces to consign us to a state of continued poverty. The revolutions of today would be beyond the understanding of Rizal whose Castilian orientation necessarily limited his horizon even for that period. He was capable of unraveling the myths that were woven by the oppressors of his time, but he would have been at a loss to see through the more sophisticated myths and to recognize the subtle techniques of present-day colonialists, given the state of his knowledge and experience at that time. This is not to say that were he alive today and subject to modern experiences, he would not understand the means of our times. But it is useless speculation to try to divine what he would now advocate.

Unless we have an ulterior motive, there is really no need to extend Rizal’s meaning so that he may have contemporary value. Many of his social criticisms are still valid today because certain aspects of our life are still carry-overs of the feudal and colonial society of his time. A true appreciation of Rizal would require that we study these social criticisms and take steps to eradicate the evils he decried.

Part and parcel of the attempt to use Rizal as an authority to defend the status quo is the desire of some quarters to expunge from the Rizalist legacy the so-called controversial aspects of his writings, particularly his views on the friars and on religion. We have but to recall the resistance to the Rizal bill, [p. 144] the use of expurgated versions of the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo, and objections to the readings of his other writings to realize that while many would have us venerate Rizal, they would want us to venerate a homogenized version.

In his time, the reformist Rizal was undoubtedly a progressive force. In many areas of our life today, his ideas could still be a force for salutary change. Yet the nature of the Rizal cult is such that he is being transformed into an authority to sanction the status quo by a confluence of blind adoration and widespread ignorance of his most telling ideas.

We have magnified Rizal’s significance for too long. It is time to examine his limitations and profit from his weaknesses just as we have learned from the strength of his character and his virtues. His weaknesses were the weaknesses of his society. His wavering and his repudiation of mass action should be studied as a product of the society that nurtured him.

The Negation of Rizal

Today, we need new heroes who can help us solve our pressing problems. We cannot rely on Rizal alone. We must discard the belief that we are incapable of producing the heroes of our epoch, that heroes are exceptional beings, accidents of history who stand above the masses and apart from them. The true hero is one with the masses: he does not exist above them. In fact, a whole people can be heroes given the proper motivation and articulation of their dreams.

Today we see the unfolding of the creative energies of a people who are beginning to grasp the possibilities of human development and who are trying to formulate a theoretical framework upon which they may base their practice. The inarticulate are now making history while the the articulate may be headed for historical anonymity, if not ignominy. When the goals of the people are finally achieved, Rizal the first Filipino, will be negated by the true Filipino by whom he will be remembered as a great catalyzer in the metamorphosis of the de-colonized indio. [p. 145]

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* Third National Rizal Lecture, December 30, 1969.

1 The full text of the manifesto may be found in Jose Rizal, Political and Historical Writings. Vol VII (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964), p. 348.

2 Theodore Friend, Between Two Empires (New Haven and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928), p. 15.

3 W. Cameron Forbes. The Philippine Islands (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928), p. 55

4 Ibid. p. 53

5 See Robert R. Reed, Hispanic Urbanism in the Philippines: A Study of the Impact of Church and State (Manila: The University of Manila, 1967), Chapter VIII.

6 Ibid, p. 125

7 For a discussion of cultural and social context of the period, see Edgar Wickberg, The Chinese in Philippine Life, 1850-1898 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1965), pp. 131-134

8 A fuller discussion of the developing concept of the true Filipino may be found in my book, The Making of a Filipino (Quezon city: Malaya Books, 1969), Chapter 1. [p. 190]

9 Ibid., see also my essay, “The Filipino Elite,” found in part two of this book.

10 Graciano Lopez-Jaena. “Letter to Rizal, March 16, 1887,” Rizal’s Correspondence with Fellow Reformists, Vol. II, Book II (Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1963), p. 103.

11 The Rizal-Blumentritt Correspondence, Part 1: 1886-1889, Vol. II, January 26, 1887, p. 44.

12 Rizal, “Data for my Defense,” Political and Historical Writings, p. 340

13 Rizal, The Reign of Greed, translated by Charles Derbyshire (Manila: Philippine Education Company, 1956), p. 360.

14 Rizal, “Manifesto, December 15, 1896,” Political and Historical Writings, p. 348.

15 Hernandez, Ella, Ocampo. Rizal, Educator and Economist, (Manila, 1949), p. 94 [p. 191]