Rizal: Knowing the Ideologies behind the Man

Studies relating to Jose Rizal are always ideologically interpolated. Most Rizal-scholars always try to give him unjustified labels. People seldom remember that Rizal and the ideas he entrenched in his being should be properly contextualized in his time, the 19^th century. In doing so, can one only understand the reality of the ideologies Rizal espoused in his struggle to raise part of the veil that hides the evil that had beset Philippine society during that era. Rizal’s journey to Europe was a result of a carefully premeditated steps intended by Rizal to put himself on a level with the best educated persons in Europe so as to show the intellectual capacity of the Filipinos. He wrote his first novel with the whole intention of doing what nobody has dared to do. The Noli described the deplorable social conditions, the life, our beliefs our hopes, our desires, our grievances, our griefs. The Noli not only exposed the hypocrisy under the guise of religion, but also showed the deceit and defects of the Spanish government.

One should remember that all instances depicted in the Noli, as Rizal said in a letter to Bluementritt, are true and based on true events in Rizal’s life. Much of the misfortunes that have befallen Rizal’s family affected him when he returned to Europe in 1891. The Fili showed the injustice of the friars taking over his family’s land, the abuses suffered by his town-mates, and the forceful eviction of farmers from their lands. Restlessness and homesickness would eventually engulf Rizal. He urged his fellow propagandistas that the battle should be fought in the Philippines and no longer in their La Solaridad. Rizal already abandoned any hopes for the assimilation of the Philippines under Spain. His losing faith for any significant progress in reforms eventually fuelled his falling out with Marcelo H. del Pilar; he even said in a letter addressed to del Pilar that the Filipinos are wrong for disliking assimilation from Spain and that Spain should be the one to ask for assimilation from the Philippines. He added that he would decline any offer for a seed of representation for he is no longer interested in assimilation.

In his correspondences with Bluementritt in 1887, Rizal stressed that the reforms he was fighting for were only political tactics and are part only of a longer strategy of separatism. Rizal was also losing hope on a peaceful struggle for liberation and even likened a peaceful struggle to that only of a dream. Rizal must have been a great seer. When he left Hong Kong in 1891, he left his last will and testament that imbibed the spirit of his Amor Patrio. Rizal was well aware of the great perils of his decision to return to the Philippines, but in the end, he knew deep down that the battle should be fought in the country and not in Spain. He knew that where he was going he can no longer back. He knew that his life would be a necessary sacrifice for his life-long battle against the tyranny that had beset his countrymen for three centuries. Such was his dedication to his country that he was willingly submitting himself to persecution. In the end, Rizal eagerly surrendered his sad and gloomy life. (03/10/2011)