Module 6 Packet SSci 7 (The Life and Works of Jose Rizal)

Module 6: Overview
This module studies the ideology in Rizal’s Prose. It guides students discover the ideals of Jose
Rizal and its significance today.

Consultation hours:
9-10 AM Tuesday & Friday
Virtual time: 9-10 AM every Wednesday

Module 6: Course Content: Ideology in Rizal’s Prose

Below is a schedule for Module 6

Activity Description Time to

Complete
20 min.
1. Warm-up Activity Editorial Cartoon
120 min.
2. Readings Readings:
Prose
•The Philippines: A Century Hence
•The Indolence of the Filipinos
•To the Young Women of Malolos

3. Lecture Lecture: Messages in the essays that Rizal would 40 min.

like to convey to the readers.

Application
4. Application 60 min.
Revisit policies and identify the gaps on government
programs on women empowerment and gender
equality.

5. Assessment Assessment
Conduct a survey on technology dependency 90 min

Identify the advantages and disadvantages of

technology dependency.
5. Assignment
Read Rizal’s Blueprint for Nation-building
30 min.
6 Hours
Total: (360 minutes)

LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successfully completing the lesson, students will be able to:

a. state the reason/s of Rizal’s purpose in writing these essays;

b. critically analyze the messages in the essays that Rizal would like to convey to the
readers; and

c. evaluate Rizal’s observation of the situation during his time and of today that can be
inferred from his writings.

WARM-UP ACTIVITY

Activity 1: Editorial Cartoon

Instruction: Share the messages from the editorial cartoon with your classmates.

Editorial Cartoon

Link: [Link]
 Activity 2: Readings
Instruction: Read the following essays of Rizal:
1. The Philippines: A Century Hence
2. The Indolence of the Filipinos
3. To the Young Women of Malolos

CONTENT

To the Young Women of Malolos

by José Rizal

When I wrote Noli Me Tangere, I asked myself whether bravery was a common thing in the
young women of our people. I brought back to my recollection and reviewed those I had known
since my infancy, but there were only few who seem to come up to my ideal. There was, it is
true, an abundance of girls with agreeable manners, beautiful ways, and modest demeanor, but
there was in all an admixture of servitude and deference to the words or whims of their so-called
"spiritual fathers" (as if the spirit or soul had any father other than God), due to excessive
kindness, modesty, or perhaps ignorance. They seemed faced plants sown and reared in
darkness, having flowers without perfume and fruits without sap.

However, when the news of what happened at Malolos reached us, I saw my error, and great
was my rejoicing. After all, who is to blame me? I did not know Malolos nor its young women,
except one called Emila [Emilia Tiongson, whom Rizal met in 1887], and her I knew by name
only.

Now that you have responded to our first appeal in the interest of the welfare of the people; now
that you have set an example to those who, like you, long to have their eyes opened and be
delivered from servitude, new hopes are awakened in us and we now even dare to face
adversity, because we have you for our allies and are confident of victory. No longer does the
Filipina stand with her head bowed nor does she spend her time on her knees, because she is
quickened by hope in the future; no longer will the mother contribute to keeping her daughter in
darkness and bring her up in contempt and moral annihilation. And no longer will the science of
all sciences consist in blind submission to any unjust order, or in extreme complacency, nor will
a courteous smile be deemed the only weapon against insult or humble tears the ineffable
panacea for all tribulations. You know that the will of God is different from that of the priest; that
religiousness does not consist of long periods spent on your knees, nor in endless prayers, big
rosarios, and grimy scapularies [religious garment showing devotion], but in a spotless conduct,
firm intention and upright judgment. You also know that prudence does not consist in blindly
obeying any whim of the little tin god, but in obeying only that which is reasonable and just,
because blind obedience is itself the cause and origin of those whims, and those guilty of it are
really to be blamed. The official or friar can no longer assert that they alone are responsible for
their unjust orders, because God gave each individual reason and a will of his or her own to
distinguish the just from the unjust; all were born without shackles and free, and nobody has a
right to subjugate the will and the spirit of another your thoughts. And, why should you submit to
another your thoughts, seeing that thought is noble and free?

It is cowardice and erroneous to believe that saintliness consists in blind obedience and that
prudence and the habit of thinking are presumptuous. Ignorance has ever been ignorance, and
never prudence and honor. God, the primal source of all wisdom, does not demand that man,
created in his image and likeness, allow himself to be deceived and hoodwinked, but wants us
to use and let shine the light of reason with which He has so mercifully endowed us. He may be
compared to the father who gave each of his sons a torch to light their way in the darkness
bidding them to keep its light bright and take care of it, and not put it out and trust to the light of
the others, but to help and advise each other to find the right path. They would be madman
were they to follow the light of another, only to come to a fall, and the father could unbraid them
and say to them: "Did I not give each of you his torch," but he could not say so if the fall were
due to the light of the torch of him who fell, as the light might have been dim and the road very
bad.

The deceiver is fond of using the saying that "It is presumptuous to rely on one's own judgment,"
but, in my opinion, it is more presumptuous for a person to put his judgment above that of the
others and try to make it prevail over theirs. It is more presumptuous for a man to constitute
himself into an idol and pretend to be in communication of thought with God; and it is more than
presumptuous and even blasphemous for a person to attribute every movement of his lips to
God, to represent every whim of his as the will of God, and to brand his own enemy as an
enemy of God. Of course, we should not consult our own judgment alone, but hear the opinion
of others before doing what may seem most reasonable to us. The wild man from the hills, if
clad in a priest's robe, remains a hillman and can only deceive the weak and ignorant. And, to
make my argument more conclusive, just buy a priest's robe as the Franciscans wear it and put
it on a carabao [domestic water buffalo], and you will be lucky if the carabao does not become
lazy on account of the robe. But I will leave this subject to speak of something else.

Youth is a flowerbed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants.
What offspring will be that of a woman whose kindness of character is expressed by mumbled
prayers; who knows nothing by heart but awits [hymns], novenas, and the alleged miracles;
whose amusement consists in playing panguingue [a card game] or in the frequent confession
of the same sins? What sons will she have but acolytes, priest's servants, or cockfighters? It is
the mothers who are responsible for the present servitude of our compatriots, owing to the
unlimited trustfulness of their loving hearts, to their ardent desire to elevate their sons, Maturity
is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of its mother. The mother who can only
teach her child how to kneel and kiss hands must not expect sons with blood other than that of
vile slaves. A tree that grows in the mud is unsubstantial and good only for firewood. If her son
should have a bold mind, his boldness will be deceitful and will be like the bat that cannot show
itself until the ringing of vespers. They say that prudence is sanctity. But, what sanctity have
they shown us? To pray and kneel a lot, kiss the hand of the priests, throw money away on
churches, and believe all the friar sees fit to tell us; gossip, callous rubbing of noses. . . .

As to the mites and gifts of God, is there anything in the world that does not belong to God?
What would you say of a servant making his master a present of a cloth borrowed from that very
master? Who is so vain, so insane that he will give alms to God and believe that the miserable
thing he has given will serve to clothe the Creator of all things? Blessed be they who succor
their fellow men, aid the poor and feed the hungry; but cursed be they who turn a dead ear to
supplications of the poor, who only give to him who has plenty and spend their money lavishly
on silver altar hangings for the thanksgiving, or in serenades and fireworks. The money ground
out of the poor is bequeathed to the master so that he can provide for chains to subjugate, and
hire thugs and executioners. Oh, what blindness, what lack of understanding.

Saintliness consists in the first place in obeying the dictates of reason, happen what may. "It is
acts and not words that I want of you," said Christ. "Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord,
Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
Heaven." Saintliness does not consist in abjectness, nor is the successor of Christ to be
recognized by the fact that he gives his hand to be kissed. Christ did not give the kiss of peace
to the Pharisees and never gave his hand to be kissed. He did not cater to the rich and vain; He
did not mention scapularies, nor did He make rosaries, or solicit offerings for the sacrifice of the
Mass or exact payments for His prayers. Saint John did not demand a fee on the River Jordan,
nor did Christ teach for gain. Why, then, do the friars now refuse to stir a foot unless paid in
advance? And, as if they were starving, they sell scapularies, rosaries, bits, and other things
which are nothing but schemes for making money and a detriment to the soul; because even if
all the rags on earth were converted into scapularies and all the trees in the forest into rosaries,
and if the skins of all the beasts were made into belts, and if all the priests of the earth mumbled
prayers over all this and sprinkled oceans of holy water over it, this would not purify a rogue or
condone sin where there is no repentance. Thus, also, through cupidity and love of money,
they will, for a price, revoke the numerous prohibitions such as those against eating meat,
marrying close relatives, etc. You can do almost anything if you but grease their palms. Why
that? Can God be bribed and bought off, and blinded by money, nothing more nor less than a
friar? The brigand who has obtained a bull of compromise can live calmly on the proceeds of
his robbery, because he will be forgiven. God, then, will sit at a table where theft provides the
viands? Has the Omnipotent become a pauper that He must assume the role of the excise man
or gendarme? If that is the God whom the friar adores, then I turn my back upon that God.

Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you are the first to
influence the consciousness of man. Remember that a good mother does not resemble the
mother that the friar has created; she must bring up her child to be the image of the true God,
not of a blackmailing, a grasping God, but of a God who is the father of us all, who is just; who
does not suck the life-blood of the poor like a vampire, nor scoffs at the agony of the sorely
beset, nor makes a crooked path of the path of justice. Awaken and prepare the will of our
children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all that is sincere and firm
of purpose, clear judgment, clear procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for the fellowman
and respect for God; this is what you must teach your children. And, seeing that life is full of
thorns and thistles, you must fortify their minds against any stroke of adversity and accustom
them to danger. The people cannot expect honor nor prosperity so long as they will educate
their children in a wrong way, so long as the woman who guides the child in his steps is slavish
and ignorant. No good water comes from a turbid, bitter spring; no savory fruit comes from
acrid seed.

The duties that woman has to perform in order to deliver the people from suffering are of no little
importance, but be they as they may, they will not be beyond the strength and stamina of the
Filipino people. The power and good judgment of the women of the Philippines are well known,
and it is because of this that she has been hoodwinked, and tied, and rendered pusillanimous,
and now her enslavers rest at ease, because so long as they can keep the Filipina mother a
slave, so long will they be able to make slaves of her children. The cause of the backwardness
of Asia lies in the fact that there the women are ignorant, are slaves; while Europe and America
are powerful because there the women are free and well-educated and endowed with lucid
intellect and a strong will.

We know that you lack instructive books; we know that nothing is added to your intellect, day by
day, save that which is intended to dim its natural brightness; all this we know, hence our desire
to bring you the light that illuminates your equals here in Europe. If that which I tell you does not
provoke your anger, and if you will pay a little attention to it then, however dense the mist may
be that befogs our people, I will make the utmost efforts to have it dissipated by the bright rays
of the sun, which will give light, thought they be dimmed. We shall not feel any fatigue if you
help us: God, too, will help to scatter the mist, because He is the God of truth: He will restore to
its pristine condition the fame of the Filipina in whom we now miss only a criterion of her own,
because good qualities she has enough and to spare. This is our dream; this is the desire we
cherish in our hearts; to restore the honor of woman, who is half of our heart, our companion in
the joys and tribulations of life. If she is a maiden, the young man should love her not only
because of her beauty and her amiable character, but also on account of her fortitude of mind
and loftiness of purpose, which quicken and elevate the feeble and timid and ward off all vain
thoughts. Let the maiden be the pride of her country and command respect, because it is a
common practice on the part of Spaniards and friars here who have returned from the Islands to
speak of the Filipina as complaisant and ignorant, as if all should be thrown into the same class
because of the missteps of a few, and as if women of weak character did not exist in other
lands. As to purity what could the Filipina not hold up to others!
Nevertheless, the returning Spaniards and friars, talkative and fond of gossip, can hardly find
time enough to brag and bawl, amidst guffaws and insulting remarks, that a certain woman was
thus; that she behaved thus at the convent and conducted herself thus with the Spaniards who
on the occasion was her guest, and other things that set your teeth on edge when you think of
them which, in the majority of cases, were faults due to candor, excessive kindness, meekness,
or perhaps ignorance and were all the work of the defamer himself. There is a Spaniard now in
high office, who has sat at our table and enjoyed our hospitality in his wanderings through the
Philippines and who, upon his return to Spain, rushed forthwith into print and related that on one
occasion in Pampanga he demanded hospitality and ate, and slept at a house and the lady of
the house conducted herself in such and such a manner with him; this is how he repaid the lady
for her supreme hospitality! Similar insinuations are made by the friars to the chance visitor
from Spain concerning their very obedient confesandas, hand-kissers, etc., accompanied by
smiles and very significant winkings of the eye. In a book published by D. Sinibaldo de Mas and
in other friar sketches sins are related of which women accused themselves in the confessional
and of which the friars made no secret in talking to their Spanish visitors seasoning them, at the
best, with idiotic and shameless tales not worthy of credence. I cannot repeat here the
shameless stories that a friar told Mas and to which Mas attributed no value whatever. Every
time we hear or read anything of this kind, we ask each other: Are the Spanish women all cut
after the pattern of the Holy Virgin Mary, and the Filipinas all reprobates? I believe that if we are
to balance accounts in this delicate question, perhaps, . . . But I must drop the subject because
I am neither a confessor nor a Spanish traveler and have no business to take away anybody's
good name. I shall let this go and speak of the duties of women instead.

A people that respects women, like the Filipino people, must know the truth of the situation in
order to be able to do what is expected of it. It seems a fact that when a young student falls in
love, he throws everything to the dogs -- knowledge, honor, and money as if a girl could not do
anything but sow misfortune. The bravest youth becomes a coward when he marries, and the
born coward becomes shameless as if he had been waiting to get married to show his
cowardice. The son, to hide his pusillanimity, remembers his mother, swallows his wrath,
suffers his ears to be boxed, obeys the most foolish order, and becomes an accomplice to his
own dishonor. It should be remembered that where nobody flees there is no pursuer; when
there is no little fish, there cannot be a big one. Why does the girl not require of her lover a
noble and honored name, a manly heart offering protection to her weakness, and a high spirit
incapable of being satisfied with engendering slaves? Let her discard all fear, let her behave
nobly, and not deliver her youth to the weak and faint-hearted. When she is married, she must
aid her husband, inspire him with courage, share his perils, refrain from causing him to worry,
and sweeten his moments of affection, always remembering that there is no grief that a brave
heart cannot bear and there is no bitterer inheritance than that of infamy and slavery. Open
your children's eyes so that they may jealously guard their honor, love their fellowmen and their
native land, and do their duty. Always impress upon them that they must prefer dying in honor
to living in dishonor. The women of Sparta should serve you as an example should serve you
as an example in this; I shall give some of their characteristics.

When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching to battle, she said nothing to
him but this: "Return with it, or on it," which meant, come back victorious or dead, because it
was customary with the routed warrior to throw away his shield, while the dead warrior was
carried home on his shield. A mother received word that her son had been killed in battle and
the army routed. She did not say a word but expressed her thankfulness that her son had been
saved from disgrace. However, when her son returned alive, the mother put on mourning. One
of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning from battle was told by one that her
three sons had fallen. I do not ask you that, said the mother, but whether we have been
victorious or not. We have been victorious -- answered the warrior. If that is so, then let us
thank God, that she went to the temple.

Once upon a time a king of theirs, who had been defeated, hid in the temple because he feared
their popular wrath. The Spartans resolved to shut him up there and starve him to death. When
they were blocking the door, the mother was the first to bring stones. These things were in
accordance with the custom there, and all Greece admired the Spartan woman. Of all women --
a woman said jestingly -- only your Spartans have power over the men. Quite natural -- they
replied -- of all women only we give birth to men. Man, the Spartan women said, was not born
to life for himself alone but for his native land. So long as this way of thinking prevailed and they
had that kind of woman in Sparta, no enemy was able to put his foot upon her soil, nor was
there a woman in Sparta who ever saw a hostile army.

I do not expect to be believed simply because it is I who am saying this; there are many people
who do not listen to reason, but will listen only to those who wear the cassock or have gray hair
or no teeth; but while it is true that the aged should be venerated, because of their travails and
experience, yet the life I have lived, consecrated to the happiness of the people, adds some
years, though not many of my age. I do not pretend to be looked upon as an idol or fetish and
to be believed and listened to with the eyes closed, the head bowed, and the arms crossed over
the breast; what I ask of all is to reflect on what I tell him, think it over and shift it carefully
through the sieve of reasons.

First of all. That the tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice and negligence on the
part of others.

Second. What makes one contemptible is a lack of dignity and abject fear of him who holds one
in contempt.

Third. Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for
himself and allows himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a
halter.

Fourth. He who loves his independence must first aid his fellowman, because he who refuses
protection to others will find himself without it; the isolated rib in the buri is easily broken, but not
so the broom made of the ribs of the palm bound together.

Fifth. If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more children, let her
merely give birth to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home, otherwise she will
unconsciously betray husband, child, native land, and all.

Sixth. All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor
did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have
him deceived by others. It is not fatuous to refuse to worship one's equal, to cultivate one's
intellect, and to make use of reason in all things. Fatuous is he who makes a god of him, who
makes brutes of others, and who strives to submit to his whims all that is reasonable and just.

Seventh. Consider well what kind of religion they are teaching you. See whether it is the will of
God or according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be succored and those who suffer
alleviated. Consider what they preaching to you, the object of the sermon, what is behind the
masses, novenas, rosaries, scapularies, images, miracles, candles, belts, etc. etc; which they
daily keep before your minds; ears and eyes; jostling, shouting, and coaxing; investigate
whence they came and whiter they go and then compare that religion with the pure religion of
Christ and see whether the pretended observance of the life of Christ does not remind you of
the fat milch cow or the fattened pig, which is encouraged to grow fat nor through love of the
animal, but for grossly mercenary motives.

Let us, therefore, reflect; let us consider our situation and see how we stand. May these poorly
written lines aid you in your good purpose and help you to pursue the plan you have initiated.
"May your profit be greater than the capital invested;" and I shall gladly accept the usual reward
of all who dare tell your people the truth. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned with
success; may you in the garden of learning gather not bitter, but choice fruit, looking well before
you eat because on the surface of the globe all is deceit, and the enemy sows weeds in your
seedling plot.

All this is the ardent desire of your compatriot.

JOSÉ RIZAL

The Philippines A Century Hence

I.
Following our usual custom of facing squarely the most difficult and delicate questions relating
to the Philippines, without weighing the consequences that our frankness may bring upon us,
we shall in the present article treat of their future.

In order to read the destiny of a people, it is necessary to open the book of its past, and this, for
the Philippines, may be reduced in general terms to what follows.

Scarcely had they been attached to the Spanish crown than they had to sustain with their blood
and the efforts of their sons the wars and ambitions of the conquest of the Spanish people, and
in these struggles, in that terrible [32]crisis when a people change its form of government, its
laws, usages, customs, religion and beliefs the Philippines were depopulated, impoverished and
retarded—caught in their metamorphosis, without confidence in their past, without faith in their
present and with no fond hope for the years to come. The former rulers who had merely
endeavored to secure the fear and submission of their subjects, habituated by them to
servitude, fell like leaves from a dead tree, and the people, who had no love for them nor knew
what liberty was, easily changed masters, perhaps hoping to gain something by the innovation.

Then began a new era for the Filipinos. They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their
recollections—they forgot their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws, to learn by heart
other doctrines, which they did not understand, other ethics, other tastes, different from those
inspired in their race by their ]climate and their way of thinking. Then there was a falling-off, they
were lowered in their own eyes, and they became ashamed of what was distinctively their own,
to admire and praise what was foreign and incomprehensible: their spirit was broken and they
acquiesced.

Thus, years and centuries rolled on. Religious shows, rites that caught the eye, songs, lights,
images arrayed with gold, worship in a strange language, legends, miracles, and sermons,
hypnotized the already naturally superstitious spirit of the country but did not succeed in
destroying it altogether, despite the whole system afterward developed and operated with
unyielding tenacity.

When the ethical abasement of the inhabitants had reached this stage when they had become
disheartened and disgusted with themselves, an effort was made to add the final stroke for
reducing so many dormant wills and intellects to nothingness, to make of the individual [34]a
sort of toiler, a brute, a beast of burden, and to develop a race without mind or heart. Then the
end sought was revealed, it was taken for granted, the race was insulted, an effort was made to
deny it every virtue, every human characteristic, and there were even writers and priests who
pushed the movement still further by trying to deny to the natives of the country not only
capacity for virtue but also even the tendency to vice.

Then this which they had thought would be death was sure salvation. Some dying persons are
restored to health by a heroic remedy.
So great endurance reached its climax with the insults, and the lethargic spirit woke to life. His
sensitiveness, the chief trait of the native, was touched, and while he had had the forbearance
to suffer and die under a foreign flag, he had it not when they whom he served repaid his
sacrifices with insults and jests. Then he began to study himself and to realize his misfortune.
Those who had not expected this result, like all despotic masters, regarded as a wrong every
complaint, and every protest, and punished it with death, endeavoring thus to stifle every cry of
sorrow with blood, and they made mistake after mistake.

The spirit of the people was not thereby cowed, and even though it had been awakened in only
a few hearts, its flame nevertheless was surely and consumingly propagated, thanks to abuses
and the stupid endeavors of certain classes to stifle noble and generous sentiments. Thus,
when a flame catches a garment, fear, and confusion propagate it more and more, and each
shake, each blow, is a blast from the bellows to fan it into life.

Undoubtedly during all this time, there were no lacking generous and noble spirits among the
dominant race that tried to struggle for the rights of humanity and justice, or sordid and cowardly
ones among the dominated that aided the debasement of their own country. But both were
exceptions and we are speaking in general terms.

Such is an outline of their past. We know their present. Now, what will their future be?
Will the Philippine Islands continue to be a Spanish colony, and if so, what kind of colony? Will
they become a province of Spain, with or without autonomy? And to reach this stage, what kind
of sacrifices will have to be made?

Will they be separated from the mother country to live independently, to fall into the hands of
other nations, or to ally themselves with neighboring powers?
It is impossible to reply to these questions, for all of the
m both yes and no may be answered, according to the time desired to be covered. When there
is in nature no fixed condition, how much less must there be in the life of a people, beings
endowed with mobility and movement! So it is that to deal with these questions, it is necessary
to presume an unlimited period of time, and in accordance therewith try to forecast future
events.[41]

[Contents]

II.
What will become of the Philippines within a century? Will they continue to be a Spanish
colony?
Had this question been asked three centuries ago, when at Legazpi’s death the Malayan
Filipinos began to be gradually undeceived and, finding the yoke heavy, tried in vain to shake it
off, without any doubt whatsoever the reply would have been easy. To a spirit enthusiastic over
the liberty of the country, to those unconquerable Kagayanes who nourished within themselves
the spirit of the Magalats, and to the descendants of the heroic Gat Pulintang and Gat Salakab
of the Province of Batangas, independence was assured, it was merely a question of getting
together and making a determined effort. But for him who, disillusioned by sad experience, saw
everywhere discord and disorder, apathy and brutalization in the lower classes, discouragement
and disunion in the upper, only one answer presented itself, and it was: extend his hands to the
chains, bow his neck beneath the yoke and accept the future with the resignation of an invalid
who watches the leaves fall and foresees a long winter amid whose snows he discerns the
outlines of his grave. At that time discord justified pessimism—but three centuries passed, the
neck had become accustomed to the yoke, and each new generation, begotten in chains, was
constantly better adapted to the new order of things.

Now, then, are the Philippines in the same condition they were three centuries ago?
For the liberal Spaniards the ethical condition of the people remains the same, that is, the native
Filipinos have not advanced; for the friars and their followers the people have been redeemed
from savagery, that is, they have progressed; for many Filipinos ethics, spirit and customs have
decayed, as decay all the good qualities of a people that fall into slavery that is, they have
retrograded.

Laying aside these considerations, so as not to get away from our subject, let us draw a brief
parallel between the political situation then and the situation at present, in order to see if what
was not possible at that time can be so now, or vice versa.

Let us pass over the loyalty the Filipinos may feel for Spain; let us suppose for a moment, along
with Spanish writers, that there exist only motives for hatred and jealousy between the two
races; let us admit the assertions flaunted by many that three centuries of domination have not
awakened in the sensitive heart of the native a single spark of affection or gratitude; and we
may see whether or not the Spanish cause has gained ground in the Islands.

Formerly the Spanish authority was upheld among the natives by a handful of soldiers, three to
five hundred at most, many of whom were engaged in trade and were scattered about not only
in the Islands but also among the neighboring nations, occupied in long wars against the
Mohammedans in the south, against the British and Dutch, and ceaselessly harassed by
Japanese, Chinese, or some tribe in the interior. Then communication with Mexico and Spain
was slow, rare, and difficult; frequent and violent disturbances among the ruling powers in the
Islands, the treasury nearly always empty, and the life of the colonists dependent upon one frail
ship that handled the Chinese trade. Then the seas in those regions were infested with pirates,
all enemies of the Spanish name, which was defended by an improvised fleet, generally
manned by rude adventurers, when not by foreigners and enemies, as happened in the
expedition of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, which was checked and frustrated by the mutiny of the
Chinese rowers, who killed him and thwarted all his plans and schemes. Yet despite so many
adverse circumstances, the Spanish authority has been upheld for more than three centuries
and, though it has been curtailed, continues to rule the destinies of the Philippine group.

On the other hand, the present situation seems to be gilded and rosy—as we might say, a
beautiful morning compared to the vexed and stormy night of the past. The material forces at
the disposal of the Spanish sovereign have now been trebled; the fleet relatively improved;
there is more organization in both civil and military affairs; communication with the sovereign
country is swifter and surer; she has no enemies abroad; her possession is assured; and the
country dominated seems to have less spirit, less aspiration for independence, a word that is to
it almost incomprehensible. Everything then at first glance presages another three centuries, at
least, of peaceful domination and tranquil suzerainty.
But above the material considerations are arising others, invisible, of an ethical nature, far more
powerful and transcendental.

Orientals, and the Malays in particular, are sensitive people: delicacy of sentiment is
predominant with them. Even now, despite contact with the occidental nations, who have ideals
different from his, we see the Malayan Filipino sacrifice everything—liberty, ease, welfare,
name, for the sake of an aspiration or a conceit, sometimes scientific, or of some other nature,
but at the least word which wounds his self-love, he forgets all his sacrifices, the labor
expended, to treasure in his memory and never forget the slight he thinks he has received.

So the Philippine people have remained faithful for three centuries, giving up their liberty and
their independence, sometimes dazzled by the hope of the Paradise promised, sometimes
cajoled by the friendship offered them by a noble and generous people like the Spanish,
sometimes also compelled by superiority of arms of which they were ignorant and which timid
spirits invested with a mysterious character, or sometimes because the invading foreigner took
advantage of intestine feuds to step in as the peacemaker in discord and thus later to dominate
both parties and subject them to his authority.
Spanish domination once established, was firmly maintained, thanks to the attachment of the
people, to their mutual dissensions, and to the fact that the sensitive self-love of the native had
not yet been wounded. Then the people saw their own countrymen in the higher ranks of the
army, their general officers fighting beside the heroes of Spain and sharing their laurels,
begrudged neither character, reputation nor consideration; then fidelity and attachment to Spain,
love of the fatherland, made of the native, encomendero1 and even general, as during the
English invasion; then there had not yet been invented the insulting and ridiculous epithets with
which recently the most laborious and painful achievements of the native leaders have been
stigmatized; not then had it become the fashion to insult and slander in stereotyped phrase, in
newspapers and books published with governmental and superior ecclesiastical approval, the
people that paid, fought and poured out its blood for the Spanish name, nor was it considered
either noble or witty to offend a whole race, which was forbidden to reply or defend itself; and if
there were religious hypochondriacs who in the leisure of their cloisters dared to write against it,
as did the Augustinian Gaspar de San Agustin and the Jesuit Velarde, their loathsome abortions
never saw the light, and still less were they themselves rewarded with miters and raised to high
offices. True it is that neither were the natives of that time such as we are now: three centuries
of brutalization and obscurantism have necessarily had some influence upon us, the most
beautiful work of divinity in the hands of certain artisans may finally be converted into a
caricature.

The priests of that epoch, wishing to establish their domination over the people, got in touch
with it and made common cause with it against the oppressive encomenderos. Naturally, the
people saw in them greater learning and some prestige and placed their confidence in them,
followed their advice, and listened to them even in the darkest hours. If they wrote, they did so
in defense of the rights of the native and made his cry reach even to the distant steps of the
Throne. And not a few priests, both secular and regular, undertook dangerous journeys, as
representatives of the country, and this, along with the strict and public residencia, then required
of the governing powers, from the captain-general to the most insignificant official, rather
consoled and pacified the wounded spirits, satisfying, even though it were only in form, all the
malcontents.

All this has passed away. The derisive laughter penetrates like mortal poison into the heart of
the native who pays and suffers and it becomes more offensive the more immunity it enjoys. A
common sore, the general affront offered to a whole race, has wiped away the old feuds among
different provinces. The people no longer have confidence in its former protectors, now its
exploiters and executioners. The masks have fallen. It has seen that the love and piety of the
past have come to resemble the devotion of a nurse who, unable to live elsewhere, desires
eternal infancy, eternal weakness, for the child to go on drawing her wages and existing at its
expense; it has seen not only that she does not nourish it to make it grow but that she poisons it
to stunt its growth, and at the slightest protest she flies into a rage! The ancient show of justice,
the holy residencia, has disappeared; confusion of ideas begins to prevail; the regard shown for
a governor-general, like La Torre, becomes a crime in the government of his successor,
sufficient to cause the citizen to lose his liberty and his home; if he obeys the order of one
official, as in the recent matter of admitting corpses into the church, it is enough to have the
obedient subject later harassed and persecuted in every possible way; obligations and taxes
increase without thereby increasing rights, privileges, and liberties or assuring the few in
existence; a régime of continual terror and uncertainty disturbs the minds, a régime worse than
a period of disorder, for the fears that the imagination conjures up is generally greater than the
reality; the country is poor; the financial crisis through which it is passing is acute, and everyone
points out with the finger the persons who are causing the trouble, yet no one dares lay hands
upon them!

True it is that the Penal Code has come like a drop of balm to such bitterness.3 But of what use
are all the codes in the world, if using confidential reports, if for trifling reasons, if through
anonymous traitors any honest citizen may be exiled or banished without a hearing, without a
trial? Of what use is that Penal Code, of what use is life, if there is no security in the home, no
faith in justice and confidence in tranquility of conscience? Of what use is all that array of terms,
all that collection of articles, when the cowardly accusation of a traitor has more influence in the
timorous ears of the supreme autocrat than all the cries for justice?

If this state of affairs should continue, what will become of the Philippines within a century?
The batteries are gradually becoming charged and if the prudence of the government does not
provide an outlet for the currents that are accumulating, someday the spark will be generated.
This is not the place to speak of what outcome such a deplorable conflict might have, for it
depends upon chance, upon the weapons, and upon a thousand circumstances which man can
not foresee. But even though all the advantages should be on the government’s side and
therefore the probability of success, it would be a Pyrrhic victory, and no government ought to
desire such.

If those who guide the destinies of the Philippines remain obstinate, and instead of introducing
reforms try to make the condition of the country retrograde, to push their severity and repression
to extremes against the classes that suffer and think, they are going to force the latter to venture
and put into play the wretchedness of an unquiet life, filled with privation and bitterness, against
the hope of securing something indefinite. What would be lost in the struggle? Almost nothing:
the life of the numerous discontented classes has no such great attraction that it should be
preferred to a glorious death. It may indeed be a suicidal attempt—but then, what? Would not a
bloody chasm yawn between victors and vanquished, and might not the latter with time and
experience become equal in strength, since they are superior in numbers, to their dominators?
Who disputes this? All the petty insurrections that have occurred in the Philippines were the
work of a few fanatics or discontented soldiers, who had to deceive and humbug the people or
avail themselves of their power over their subordinates to gain their ends. So, they all failed. No
insurrection had a popular character or was based on a need of the whole race or fought for
human rights or justice, so it left no ineffaceable impressions, but rather when they saw that
they had been duped the people bound up their wounds and applauded the overthrow of the
disturbers of their peace! But what if the movement springs from the people themselves and
bases its cause upon their woes?

So then, if the prudence and wise reforms of our ministers do not find capable and determined
interpreters among the colonial governors and faithful perpetrators among those whom the
frequent political changes send to fill such a delicate post; if met with the eternal it is out of
order, proffered by the elements who see their livelihood in the backwardness of their subjects;
[56]if just claims are to go unheeded, as being of a subversive tendency; if the country is denied
representation in the Cortes and an authorized voice to cry out against all kinds of abuses,
which escape through the complexity of the laws; if, in short, the system, prolific in results of
alienating the goodwill of the natives, is to continue, pricking his apathetic mind with insults and
charges of ingratitude, we can assert that in a few years, the present state of affairs will have
been modified completely—and inevitably. There now exists a factor which was formerly lacking
—the spirit of the nation has been aroused, and a common misfortune, a common debasement,
has united all the inhabitants of the Islands. A numerous enlightened class now exists within
and without the Islands, a class created and continually augmented by the stupidity of certain
governing powers, which forces the inhabitants to leave the country, to secure education
abroad, and it is maintained and struggles thanks to the provocations and the system of
espionage in vogue. This class, whose number is cumulatively increasing, is in constant
communication with the rest of the Islands, and if today it constitutes only the brain of the
country in a few years it will form the whole nervous system and manifest its existence in all its
acts.

Now, statecraft has various means at its disposal for checking a people on the road to progress:
the brutalization of the masses through a caste addicted to the government, aristocratic, as in
the Dutch colonies, or theocratic, as in the Philippines; the impoverishment of the country; the
gradual extermination of the inhabitants; and the fostering of feuds among the races.

The brutalization of the Malayan Filipino has been demonstrated to be impossible. Despite the
dark horde of friars, in whose hands rests the instruction of youth, which miserably wastes years
and years in the colleges, issuing therefrom [58]tired, weary and disgusted with books; despite
the censorship, which tries to close every avenue to progress; despite all the pulpits,
confessionals, books and missals that inculcate hatred toward not only all scientific knowledge
but even toward the Spanish language itself; despite this whole elaborate system perfected and
tenaciously operated by those who wish to keep the Islands in holy ignorance, there exist
writers, freethinkers, historians, philosophers, chemists, physicians, artists and jurists.
Enlightenment is spreading and the persecution it suffers quickens it. No, the divine flame of
thought is inextinguishable in the Filipino people, and somehow or other it will shine forth and
compel recognition. It is impossible to brutalize the inhabitants of the Philippines!

May poverty arrest their development?

Perhaps, but it is a very dangerous means. Experience has everywhere shown us especially in
the Philippines, that the classes that are better off have always been addicted to peace and
order because they live comparatively better and may be the losers in civil disturbances. Wealth
brings with it refinement, and the spirit of conservation, while poverty inspires adventurous
ideas, the desire to change things, and has little care for life. Machiavelli himself held this
means of subjecting a people to be perilous, observing that loss of welfare stirs up more
obdurate enemies than loss of life. Moreover, when there are wealth and abundance, there is
less discontent and less complaint, and the government, itself wealthier, has more means for
sustaining itself. On the other hand, what occurs in a poor country what happens in a house
where bread is wanting? And further, of what use to the mother country would a poor and lean
colony be?

Neither is it possible gradually to exterminate the inhabitants. The Philippine races, like all the
Malays, do not succumb before the foreigners, like the Australians, the Polynesians, and the
Indians of the New World. Despite the numerous wars the Filipinos have had to carry on,
despite the epidemics that have periodically visited them, their number has trebled, as has that
of the Malays of Java and the Moluccas. The Filipino embraces civilization and lives and thrives
in every clime, in contact with every person. Rum, that poison which exterminated the natives of
the Pacific islands, has no power in the Philippines, but, rather, comparison of their present
condition with that described by the early historians, makes it appear that the Filipinos have
grown soberer. The petty wars with the inhabitants of the South consume only the soldiers,
people who by their fidelity to the Spanish flag, far from being a menace, are surely one of its
solidest supports.

There remains the fostering of intestine feuds among the provinces.

This was formerly possible, when communication from one island to another was rare and
difficult, when there were no steamers or telegraph lines, when the regiments were formed
according to the various provinces, when some provinces were cajoled by awards of privileges
and honors and others were protected from the strongest. But now that the privileges have
disappeared, that through a spirit of distrust, the regiments have been reorganized, that the
inhabitants move from one island to another, communication and exchange of impressions
naturally increase, and as all see themselves threatened by the same peril and wounded in the
same feelings, they clasp hands and make common cause. Indeed, the union is not yet wholly
perfected, but to this end tend the measures of good government, the vexations to which the
townspeople are subjected, the frequent changes of officials, and the scarcity of centers of
learning, which forces the youth of all the Islands to come together and begin to get acquainted.
The journeys to Europe contribute not a little to tightening the bonds, for abroad the inhabitants
of the most widely separated provinces are impressed by their patriotic feelings, from sailors
even to the wealthiest merchants, and at the sight of modern liberty and the memory of the
misfortunes of their country, they embrace and call one another brothers.
In short, then, the advancement and ethical progress of the Philippines are inevitable and are
decreed by fate.

The Islands cannot remain in the condition they are without requiring from the sovereign country
more liberty Mutatis mutandis. For new men, a new social order.

To wish that the alleged child remains in its swaddling clothes is to risk that it may turn against
its nurse and flee, tearing away the old rags that bind it.
The Philippines, then, will remain under Spanish domination, but with more law and greater
liberty, or they will declare themselves independent, after steeping themselves and the mother
country in blood.

As no one should desire or hope for such an unfortunate rupture, which would be evil for all and
only the final argument in the most desperate predicament, let us see by what forms of peaceful
evolution the Islands may remain subject to the Spanish authority with the very least detriment
to the rights, interests, and dignity of both parties.[67]

[Contents]

III.
If the Philippines must remain under the control of Spain, they will necessarily have to be
transformed in a political sense, for the course of their history and the needs of their inhabitants
so require. This we demonstrated in the preceding article.

We also said that this transformation will be violent and fatal if it proceeds from the ranks of the
people, but peaceful and fruitful if it emanates from the upper classes.

Some governors have realized this truth, and, impelled by their patriotism, have been trying to
introduce needed reforms to forestall events. But notwithstanding all that have been ordered up
to the present time, they have produced scanty results, for the government as well as for the
country. Even those that promised only a happy issue have at times caused injury, for the
simple reason that they have been based upon unstable grounds.

We said, and once more we repeat, and will ever assert, that reforms which have a palliative
character are not only ineffectual but even prejudicial, when the government is confronted with
evils that must be cured radically. And were we not convinced of the honesty and rectitude of
some governors, we would be tempted to say that all the partial reforms are only plasters and
salves of a physician who, not knowing how to cure the cancer, and not daring to root it out,
tries in this way to alleviate the patient’s sufferings or to temporize with the cowardice of the
timid and ignorant.

All the reforms of our liberal ministers were, have been, are, and will be good—when carried
out.
When we think of them, we are reminded of the dieting of Sancho Panza on his Barataria
Island. He took his seat at a sumptuous and well-appointed table “covered with fruit and many
varieties of food differently prepared,” but between the wretch’s mouth and each dish the
physician Pedro Rezio interposed his wand, saying, “Take it away!” The dish was removed,
Sancho was as hungry as ever. True it is that the despotic Pedro Rezio gave reasons, which
seem to have been written by Cervantes, especially for the colonial administrations: “You must
not eat, Mr. Governor, except according to the usage and custom of other islands where there
are governors.” Something was found to be wrong with each dish: one was too hot, another too
moist, and so on, just like our Pedro Rezios on both sides of the sea. Great good did his cook’s
skill do Sancho!4

In the case of our country, the reforms take the place of the dishes, the Philippines are Sancho,
while the part of the quack physician is played by many persons, interested in not having the
dishes touched, perhaps that they may themselves get the benefit of them.

The result is that the long-suffering Sancho, or the Philippines, misses his liberty, rejects all
government, and ends up rebelling against his quack physician.

In like manner, so long as the Philippines have no liberty of the press, have no voice in the
Cortes to make known to the government and the nation whether or not their decrees have
been duly obeyed, whether or not these benefit the country, all the able efforts of the colonial
ministers will meet the fate of the dishes in Barataria island.

The minister, then, who wants his reforms to be reforms, must begin by declaring the press in
the Philippines free and by instituting Filipino delegates.

The press is free in the Philippines because their complaints rarely ever reach the Peninsula,
very rarely, and if they do they are so secret, so mysterious, that no newspaper dares to publish
them, or if it does reproduce them, it does so tardily and badly.

A government that rules a country from a great distance is the one that has the most need for a
free press, more so even than the government of the home country, if it wishes to rule rightly
and fitly. The government that governs in a country may even dispense with the press (if it can),
because it is on the ground, because it has eyes and ears, and because it directly observes
what it rules and administers. But the government that governs from afar absolutely requires
that the truth and the facts reach its knowledge by every possible channel, so that it may weigh
and estimate them better, and this need increases when a country like the Philippines is
concerned, where the inhabitants speak and complain in a language unknown to the authorities.
To govern in any other way may also be called governing, but it is to govern badly. It amounts to
pronouncing judgment after hearing only one of the parties; it is steering a ship without
reckoning its conditions, the state of the sea, the reefs and shoals, and the direction of the
winds and currents. It is managing a house by endeavoring merely to give it polish and a fine
appearance without watching the money chest, without looking after the servants and the
members of the family.

But routine is a declivity down which many governments slide and routinely says that freedom of
the press is dangerous. Let us see what History says: uprisings and revolutions have always
occurred in countries tyrannized over, in countries where human thought and the human heart
have been forced to remain silent.

If the great Napoleon had not tyrannized over the press, perhaps it would have warned him of
the peril into which he was hurled and have made him understand that the people were weary
and the earth wanted peace. Perhaps his genius, instead of being dissipated in foreign
aggrandizement, would have become intensive in laboring to strengthen his position and thus
have assured it. Spain herself records in her history more revolutions when the press was
gagged. What colonies have become independent while they have had a free press and
enjoyed liberty? Is it preferable to govern blindly or to govern with ample knowledge?

Someone will answer that in colonies with a free press, the prestige of the rulers, that prop of
false governments, will be greatly imperiled. We answer that the prestige of the nation is
preferable to that of a few individuals. A nation acquires respect, not by abetting and concealing
abuses, but by rebuking and punishing them. Moreover, this prestige applies to what Napoleon
said about great men and their valets. We, who endure and know all the false pretensions and
petty persecutions of those sham gods, do not need a free press to recognize them; they have
long ago lost their prestige. The free press is needed by the government, the government which
still dreams of the prestige that it builds upon mined ground.

We say the same about the Filipino representatives.

What risks does the government see in them? One of three things: either they will prove unruly,
become political trimmers, or act properly.

Supposing that we should yield to the most absurd pessimism and admit the insult, great for the
Philippines, but still greater for Spain, that all the representatives would be separatists and that
in all their contentions they would advocate separatist ideas: does not a patriotic Spanish
majority exist there, is there not present there the vigilance of the governing powers to combat
and oppose such intentions? And would not this be better than the discontent that ferments and
expands in the secrecy of the home, in the huts, and the fields? Certainly, the Spanish people
do not spare their blood where patriotism is concerned, but would not a struggle of principles in
parliament is preferable to the exchange of shot in swampy lands, three thousand leagues from
home, in impenetrable forests, under a burning sun or amid torrential rains? These pacific
struggles of ideas, besides being a thermometer for the government, have the advantage of
being cheap and glorious, because the Spanish parliament especially abounds in oratorical
paladins, invincible in debate. Moreover, it is said that the Filipinos are indolent and peaceful—
then what need the government fear? Hasn’t it had any influence in the elections? Frankly, it is
a great compliment to the separatists to fear them amid the Cortes of the nation.

If they become political trimmers, as is to be expected and as they probably will be, so much the
better for the government and so much the worse for their constituents. There would be a few
more favorable votes, and the government could laugh openly at the separatists if any there be.
If they become what they should be, worthy, honest, and faithful to their trust, they will
undoubtedly annoy an ignorant or incapable minister with their questions, but they will help him
to govern and will be some more honorable figures among the representatives of the nation.

Now then, if the real objection to the Filipino delegates is that they smell like Igorots, which so
disturbed in open Senate the doughty General Salamanca, then Don Sinibaldo de Mas, who
saw the Igorots in person and wanted to live with them, can affirm that they will smell at worst
like powder, and Señor Salamanca undoubtedly has no fear of that odor. And if this were all, the
Filipinos, who there in their own country are accustomed to bathing every day, when they
become representatives may give up such a dirty custom, at least during the legislative session,
so as not to offend the delicate nostrils of the Salamancas with the odor of the bath.

It is useless to answer certain objections of some fine writers regarding the rather brown skins
and faces with somewhat wide nostrils. Questions of taste are peculiar to each race. China, for
example, which has four hundred million inhabitants and a very ancient civilization, considers all
Europeans ugly and calls them “fan-kwai,” or red devils. Its taste has a hundred million more
adherents than the European. Moreover, if this is the question, we would have to admit the
inferiority of the Latins, especially the Spaniards, to the Saxons, who are much whiter.

And so long as it is not asserted that the Spanish parliament is an assemblage of Adonises,
Antinouses, pretty boys, and other like paragons; so long as the purpose of resorting thither is to
legislate and not to philosophize or to wander through imaginary spheres, we maintain that the
government ought not to pause at these objections. Law has no skin, nor reason nostrils.
So, we see no serious reason why the Philippines may not have representatives. By their
institution, many malcontents would be silenced, and instead of blaming its troubles upon the
government, as now happens, the country would bear them better, for it could at least complain
and with its sons among its legislators would in a way become responsible for their actions.

We are not sure that we serve the true interests of our country by asking for representatives.
We know that the lack of enlightenment, the indolence, the egotism of our fellow countrymen,
and the boldness, the cunning, and the powerful methods of those who wish their obscurantism,
may convert reform into a harmful instrument. But we wish to be loyal to the government and we
are pointing out to it the road that appears best to us so that its efforts may not come to grief, so
that discontent may disappear. If after so just, as well as necessary, a measure has been
introduced, the Filipino people are so stupid and weak that they are treacherous to their own
interests, then let the responsibility fall upon them, let them suffer all the consequences. Every
country gets the fate it deserves, and the government can say that it has done its duty.

These are the two fundamental reforms, which, properly interpreted and applied, will dissipate
all clouds, assure affection toward Spain, and make all succeeding reforms fruitful. These are
the reforms sine quibus non.

It is puerile to fear that independence may come through them. The free press will keep the
government in touch with public opinion, and the representatives, if they are, as they ought to
be, the best from among the sons of the Philippines, will be their hostages. With no cause for
discontent, how then attempt to stir up the masses of the people?

Likewise inadmissible is the objection offered by some regarding the imperfect culture of the
majority of the inhabitants. Aside from the fact that it is not so imperfect as is averred, there is
no plausible reason why the ignorant and the defective (whether through their own or another’s
fault) should be denied representation to look after them and see that they are not abused. They
are the very ones who most need it. No one ceases to be a man, no one forfeits his rights to
civilization merely by being more or less uncultured, and since the Filipino is regarded as a fit
citizen when he is asked to pay taxes or shed his blood to defend the fatherland, why must this
fitness be denied him when the question arises of granting him some right? Moreover, how is he
to be held responsible for his ignorance, when it is acknowledged by all, friends and enemies,
that his zeal for learning is so great that even before the coming of the Spaniards, one could
read and write, and that we now see the humblest families make enormous sacrifices so that
their children may become a little enlightened, even to the extent of working as servants to learn
Spanish? How can the country be expected to become enlightened under present conditions
when we see all the decrees issued by the government in favor of education meet with Pedro
Rezios who prevent execution thereof, because they have in their hands what they call
education? If the Filipino, then, is sufficiently intelligent to pay taxes, he must also be able to
choose and retain the one who looks after him and his interests, with the product whereof he
serves the government of his nation. To reason otherwise is to reason stupidly.

When the laws and the acts of officials are kept under surveillance, the word justice may cease
to be a colonial jest. The thing that makes the English most respected in their possessions is
their strict and speedy justice so that the inhabitants repose their entire confidence in the
judges. Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It subdues the barbarous nations,
while injustice arouses the weakest.
Offices and trusts should be awarded by competition, publishing the work and the judgment
thereon, so that there may be a stimulus and that discontent may not be bred. Then, if the
native does not shake off his indolence he cannot complain when he sees all the offices filled by
Castilas.

We presume that it will not be the Spaniard who fears to enter into this contest, for thus will he
be able to prove his superiority by the superiority of intelligence. Although this is not the custom
in the sovereign country, it should be practiced in the colonies, for the reason that genuine
prestige should be sought using moral qualities, because the colonizers ought to be, or at least
to seem, upright, honest, and intelligent, just as a man simulates virtues when he deals with
strangers. The offices and trusts so earned will do away with arbitrary dismissal and develop
employees and officials capable and cognizant of their duties. The offices held by natives,
instead of endangering the Spanish domination, will merely serve to assure it, for what interest
would they have in converting the sure and stable into the uncertain and problematical? The
native is, moreover, very fond of peace and prefers a humble present to a brilliant future. Let the
various Filipinos still holding office speak in this matter; they are the most unshaken
conservatives.

We could add other minor reforms touching commerce, agriculture, security of the individual of
property, education, and so on, but these are points with which we shall deal in other articles.
For the present, we are satisfied with the outlines, and no one can say that we ask too much.
There will not be lacking critics to accuse us of Utopianism: but what is Utopia? Utopia was a
country imagined by Thomas Moore, wherein universal suffrage, religious toleration, almost
complete abolition of the death penalty, and so on. When the book was published these things
were looked upon as dreams, impossibilities, that is, Utopianism. Yet civilization has left the
country of Utopia far behind, the human will and conscience have worked greater miracles, and
have abolished slavery and the death penalty for adultery—things impossible for even Utopia
itself!
The French colonies have their representatives. The question has also been raised in the
English parliament of giving representation to the Crown colonies, for the others already enjoy
some autonomy. The press there also is free. Only Spain, which in the sixteenth century was
the model nation in civilization, lags far behind. Cuba and Porto Rico, whose inhabitants do not
number a third of those of the Philippines, and who have not made such sacrifices for Spain,
have numerous representatives. The Philippines in the early days had theirs, who conferred
with the King and the Pope on the needs of the country. They had them in Spain’s critical
moments when she groaned under the Napoleonic yoke, and they did not take advantage of the
sovereign country’s misfortune like other colonies, but tightened more firmly the bonds that
united them to the nation, giving proof of their loyalty; and they continued until many years later.
What crime have the Islands committed that they are deprived of their rights?
To recapitulate: the Philippines will remain Spanish if they enter upon the life of law and
civilization, if the rights of their inhabitants are respected, if the other rights due them are
granted, if the liberal policy of the government is carried out without trickery or meanness,
without subterfuges or false interpretations.

Otherwise, if an attempt is made to see in the Islands a lode to be exploited, a resource to

satisfy ambitions, thus to relieve the sovereign country of taxes, killing the goose that lays the
golden eggs and shutting its ears to all cries of reason, then, however great may be the loyalty
of the Filipinos, it will be impossible to hinder the operations of the inexorable laws of history.
Colonies established to subserve the policy and the commerce of the sovereign country, all
eventually become independent, said Bachelet, and before Bachelet all the Phœnecian,
Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, English, Portuguese, and Spanish colonies had said it.

Close indeed are the bonds that unite us to Spain. Two peoples do not live for three centuries in
continual contact, sharing the same lot, shedding their blood on the same fields, holding the
same beliefs, worshipping the same God, and interchanging the same ideas, but ties are formed
between them stronger than those fashioned by arms or fear. Mutual sacrifices and benefits
have engendered affection. Machiavelli, the great reader of the human heart, said: la natura
degli hominin, é cosi obligarsi per li beneficii che essi fanno, come per quelli che essi ricevono
(it is human nature to be bound as much by benefits conferred as by those received). All this,
and more, is true, but it is pure sentimentality, and in the arena of politics stern necessity and
interests prevail. Howsoever much the Filipinos owe Spain, they cannot be required to forego
their redemption, to have their liberal and enlightened sons wander about in exile from their
native land, the rudest aspirations stifled in its atmosphere, the peaceful inhabitant living in
constant alarm, with the fortune of the two peoples dependent upon the whim of one man. Spain
cannot claim, not even in the name of God himself, that six million people should be brutalized,
exploited, and oppressed, denied light and the rights inherent to a human being, and then heap
upon them slights and insults. No claim of gratitude can excuse, there is not enough powder in
the world to justify, the offenses against the liberty of the individual, against the sanctity of the
home, against the laws, against peace and honor, offenses that are committed there daily. No
divinity can proclaim the sacrifice of our dearest affections, the sacrifice of the family, the
sacrileges and wrongs that are committed by persons who have the name of God on their lips.
No one can require an impossibility of the Filipino people. The noble Spanish people, so jealous
of its rights and liberties, cannot bid the Filipinos renounce theirs. A people that prides itself on
the glories of its past cannot ask another, trained by it, to accept abjection and dishonor its
name!

We who today are struggling by the legal and peaceful means of debate so understand it, and
with our gaze fixed upon our ideals, shall not cease to plead our cause, without going beyond
the pale of the law, but if violence first silences us or we have the misfortune to fall (which is
possible, for we are mortal), then we do not know what course will be taken by the numerous
tendencies that will rush in to occupy the places that we leave vacant.

If what we desire is not realized...

In contemplating such an unfortunate eventuality, we must not turn away in horror, and so
instead of closing our eyes we will face what the future may bring. For this purpose, after
throwing the handful of dust due to Cerberus, let us frankly descend into the abyss and sound
its terrible mysteries.

[Contents]

IV.
History does not record in its annals any lasting domination exercised by one people over
another, of different races, of diverse usages and customs, of opposite and divergent ideals.

One of the two had to yield and succumb. Either the foreigner was driven out, as happened in
the case of the Carthaginians, the Moors, and the French in Spain, or else these autochthons
had to give way and perish, as was the case with the inhabitants of the New World, Australia,
and New Zealand.

One of the longest dominations was that of the Moors in Spain, which lasted seven centuries.
But, even though the conquerors lived in the country conquered, even though the Peninsula
was broken up into small states, which gradually emerged like little islands amid the great
Saracen inundation, and despite the chivalrous spirit, the gallantry and the religious toleration of
the califs, they were finally driven out after bloody and stubborn conflicts, which formed the
Spanish nation and created the Spain of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The existence of a foreign body within another endowed with strength and activity is contrary to
all natural and ethical laws. Science teaches us that it is either assimilated, destroys the
organism, is eliminated or becomes encysted.

Encystment of a conquering people is impossible, for it signifies complete isolation, absolute

inertia, and debility in the conquering element. Encystment thus means the tomb of the foreign
invader.

Now, applying these considerations to the Philippines, we must conclude, as a deduction from
all we have said, that if their population is not assimilated to the Spanish nation, if the
dominators do not enter into the spirit of their inhabitants, if equable laws and free and liberal
reforms do not make each forget that they belong to different races, or if both peoples be not
amalgamated to constitute one mass, socially and politically homogeneous, that is, not
harassed by opposing tendencies and antagonistic ideas and interests, someday the Philippines
will fatally and infallibly declare themselves independent. To this law of destiny can be opposed
neither Spanish patriotism, nor the love of all the Filipinos for Spain, nor the doubtful future of
dismemberment and intestine strife in the Islands themselves. Necessity is the most powerful
divinity the world knows, and necessity is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical
forces.

We have said and statistics prove that it is impossible to exterminate the Filipino people. And
even were it possible, what interest would Spain have in the destruction of the inhabitants of a
country she cannot populate or cultivate, whose climate is to a certain extent disastrous to her?
What good would the Philippines be without the Filipinos? Quite otherwise, under her colonial
system and the transitory character of the Spaniards who go to the colonies, a colony is so
much more useful and productive to her as it possesses inhabitants and wealth. Moreover, to
destroy the six million Malays, even supposing them to be in their infancy and that they had
never learned to fight and defend themselves, Spain would have to sacrifice at least a fourth of
her population. This we commend to the notice of the partizans of colonial exploitation.

But nothing of this kind can happen. The menace is that when the education and liberty
necessary to human existence are denied by Spain to the Filipinos, then they will seek
enlightenment abroad, behind the mother country’s back, or they will secure by hook or by crook
some advantages in their own country, with the result that the opposition of purblind and paretic
politicians will not only be futile but even prejudicial because it will convert motives for love and
gratitude into resentment and hatred.
Hatred and resentment on one side, mistrust and anger on the other, will finally result in a
violent and terrible collision, especially when there exist elements interested in having
disturbances, so that they may get something in the excitement, demonstrate their mighty
power, foster lamentations and recriminations, or employ violent measures. It is to be expected
that the government will triumph and be generally (as is the custom) severe in punishment,
either to teach a stern lesson to vaunt its strength or even to revenge upon the vanquished
spells of excitement and terror that the danger caused it. An unavoidable concomitant of those
catastrophes is the accumulation of acts of injustice committed against the innocent and
peaceful inhabitants. Private reprisals, denunciations, despicable accusations, resentments,
covetousness, the opportune moment for calumny, the haste and hurried procedure of the
courts-martial, the pretext of the integrity of the fatherland and the safety of the state, which
cloaks and justifies everything, even for scrupulous minds, which unfortunately are still rare, and
above all the panic-stricken timidity, the cowardice that battens upon the conquered—all these
things augment the severe measures and the number of the victims. The result is that a chasm
of blood is then opened between the two peoples, that the wounded and the afflicted, instead of
becoming fewer, are increased, for to the families and friends of the guilty, who always think the
punishment excessive and the judge unjust, must be added the families and friends of the
innocent, who see no advantage in living and working submissively and peacefully. Note, too,
that if severe measures are dangerous in a nation made up of a homogeneous population, the
peril is increased a hundred-fold when the government is formed of a race different from the
governed. In the former, an injustice may still be ascribed to one man alone, to a governor
actuated by personal malice, and with the death of the tyrant the victim is reconciled to the
government of his nation. But in a country dominated by a foreign race, even the justest act of
severity is construed as injustice and oppression, because it is ordered by a foreigner, who is
unsympathetic or is an enemy of the country, and the offense hurts not only the victim but his
entire race, because it is not usually regarded as personal, and so the resentment naturally
spreads to the whole governing race and does not die out with the offender.[100]

Hence the great prudence and fine tact that should be exercised by colonizing countries, and
the fact that the government regards the colonies in general, and our colonial office in particular,
as training schools, contributes notably to the fulfillment of the great law that the colonies sooner
or later declare themselves independent.

Such is the descent down which the peoples are precipitated. In proportion as they are bathed
in blood and drenched in tears and gall, the colony, if it has any vitality, learns how to struggle
and perfect itself in fighting, while the mother country, whose colonial life depends upon peace
and the submission of the subjects, is constantly weakened, and, even though she makes
heroic efforts, as her number is less and she has only a fictitious existence, she finally perishes.
She is like the rich voluptuary accustomed to being waited upon by a crowd of servants toiling
and planting for him, and who, on the day his slaves refuse him obedience, as he does not live
by his efforts, must die.

Reprisals, wrongs, and suspicions on one part and the other the sentiment of patriotism and
liberty, which is aroused in these incessant conflicts, insurrections, and uprisings, operate to
generalize the movement and one of the two peoples must succumb. The struggle will be brief,
for it will amount to slavery much more cruel than death for the people and to a dishonorable
loss of prestige for the dominator. One of the people must succumb.

Spain, from the number of her inhabitants, from the condition of her army and navy, from the
distance she is situated from the Islands, from her scanty knowledge of them, and from
struggling against a people whose love and goodwill she has alienated, will necessarily have to
give way, if she does not wish to risk not only her other possessions and her future in Africa but
also her very independence in Europe. All this at the cost of bloodshed and crime, after mortal
conflicts, murders, conflagrations, military executions, famine, and misery.
The Spaniard is gallant and patriotic, and sacrifices everything, in favorable moments, for his
country’s good. He has the intrepidity of his bull. The Filipino loves his country no less, and
although he is quieter, more peaceful, and with difficulty stirred up, when he is once aroused he
does not hesitate and for him, the struggle means death to one or the other combatant. He has
all the meekness and all the tenacity and ferocity of his carabao. Climate affects bipeds in the
same way that it does quadrupeds.

The terrible lessons and the hard teachings that these conflicts have afforded the Filipinos will
operate to improve and strengthen their ethical nature. The Spain of the fifteenth century was
not the Spain of the eighth. With their bitter experience, instead of intestine conflicts of some
islands against others, as is generally feared, they will extend mutual support, like shipwrecked
persons when they reach an island after a fearful night of the storm. Nor may it be said that we
shall partake of the fate of the small American republics. They achieved their independence
easily, and their inhabitants were animated by a different spirit from what the Filipinos are.
Besides, the danger of falling again into other hands, English or German, for example, will force
the Filipinos to be sensible and prudent. The absence of any great preponderance of one race
over the others will free their imagination from all mad ambitions of domination, and as the
tendency of countries that have been tyrannized over, when they once shake off the yoke, is to
adopt the freest government, like a boy leaving school, like the beat of the pendulum, by a law
of reaction the Islands will probably declare themselves a federal republic.

If the Philippines secure their independence after heroic and stubborn conflicts, they can rest
assured that neither England, Germany, France, and still less Holland, will dare to take up what
Spain has been unable to hold. Within a few years, Africa will completely absorb the attention of
the Europeans, and there is no sensible nation that, to secure a group of poor and hostile
islands, will neglect the immense territory offered by the Dark Continent, untouched,
undeveloped, and almost undefended. England has enough colonies in the Orient and is not
going to risk losing her balance. She is not going to sacrifice her Indian Empire for the poor
Philippine Islands—if she had entertained such an intention she would not have restored Manila
in 1763, but would have kept some point in the Philippines, whence she might gradually expand.
Moreover, what need has John Bull the trader to exhaust himself for the Philippines, when he is
already lord of the Orient, when he has there Singapore, Hongkong, and Shanghai? England
will probably look favorably upon the independence of the Philippines, for it will open their ports
to her and afford greater freedom to her commerce. Furthermore, there exist in the United
Kingdom tendencies and opinions to the effect that she already has too many colonies, that they
are harmful, and that they greatly weaken the sovereign country.

For the same reasons Germany will not care to run any risk, and because a scattering of her
forces and a war in distant countries will endanger her existence on the continent. Thus, we see
her attitude, as much in the Pacific as in Africa, is confined to conquering easy territory that
belongs to nobody. Germany avoids any foreign complications.

France has enough to do and sees more of a future in Tongking and China, besides the fact
that the French spirit does not shine in zeal for colonization. France loves glory, but the glory
and laurels that grow on the battlefields of Europe. The echo from battlefields in the Far East
hardly satisfies her craving for renown, for it reaches her quite faintly. She has also other
obligations, both internally and on the continent.

Holland is sensible and will be content to keep the Moluccas and Java. Sumatra offers her a
greater future than the Philippines, whose seas and coasts have a sinister omen for Dutch
expeditions. Holland proceeds with great caution in Sumatra and Borneo, from fear of losing
everything.

China will consider herself fortunate if she succeeds in keeping herself intact and is not
dismembered or partitioned among the European powers that are colonizing the continent of
Asia.
The same is true of Japan. On the north she has Russia, who envies and watches her; on the
south England, with whom she is in accord even with her official language. She is, moreover,
under such diplomatic pressure from Europe that she cannot think of outside affairs until she is
freed from it, which will not be an easy matter. True it is that she has an excess of population,
but Korea attracts her more than the Philippines and is, also, easier to seize.

Perhaps the great American Republic, whose interests lie in the Pacific and who has no hand in
the spoliation of Africa, may someday dream of foreign possession. This is not impossible, for
the example is contagious, covetousness and ambition are among the strongest vices, and
Harrison manifested something of this sort in the Samoan question. But the Panama Canal is
not opened nor the territory of the States congested with inhabitants, and in case she should
openly attempt it the European powers would not allow her to proceed, for they know very well
that the appetite is sharpened by the first bites. North America would be quite a troublesome
rival, if she should once get into the business. Furthermore, this is contrary to her traditions.

Very likely the Philippines will defend with inexpressible valor the liberty secured at the price of
so much blood and sacrifice. With the new men that will spring from their soil and with the
recollection of their past, they will perhaps strive to enter freely upon the wide road of progress,
and all will labor together to strengthen their fatherland, both internally and externally, with the
same enthusiasm with which a youth falls again to tilling the land of his ancestors, so long
wasted and abandoned through the neglect of those who have withheld it from him. Then the
mines will be made to give up their gold for relieving distress, iron for weapons, copper, lead,
and coal. Perhaps the country will revive the maritime and mercantile life for which the islanders
are fitted by their nature, ability, and instincts, and once more free, like the bird that leaves its
cage, like the flower that unfolds to the air, will recover the pristine virtues that are gradually
dying out and will again become addicted to peace—cheerful, happy, joyous, hospitable and
daring.

These and many other things may come to pass within something like a hundred years. But the
most logical prognostication, the prophecy based on the best probabilities, may err through
remote and insignificant causes. An octopus that seized Mark Antony’s ship altered the face of
the world; a cross on Cavalry and a just man nailed thereon changed the ethics of half the
human race, and yet before Christ, how many just men wrongfully perished and how many
crosses were raised on that hill! The death of the just sanctified his work and made his teaching
unanswerable. A sunken road at the battle of Waterloo buried all the glories of two brilliant
decades, the whole Napoleonic world, and freed Europe. Upon what chance accidents will the
destiny of the Philippines depend?

Nevertheless, it is not well to trust to accident, for there is sometimes an imperceptible and
incomprehensible logic in the workings of history. Fortunately, people as well as governments
are subject to it.

Therefore, we repeat, and we will ever repeat, while there is time, that it is better to keep pace
with the desires of a people than to give way before them: the former begets sympathy and
love, the latter contempt and anger. Since it is necessary to grant six million Filipinos their
rights, so that they may be Spaniards, let the government grant these rights freely and
spontaneously, without damaging reservations, without irritating mistrust. We shall never tire of
repeating this while a ray of hope is left us, for we prefer this unpleasant task to the need of
someday saying to the mother country: “Spain, we have spent our youth in serving thy interests
in the interests of our country; we have looked to thee, we have expended the whole light of our
intellects, all the fervor and enthusiasm of our hearts in working for the good of what was thine,
to draw from thee a glance of love, a liberal policy that would assure us the peace of our native
land and thy sway over loyal but unfortunate islands! Spain, thou hast remained deaf, and,
wrapped up in thy pride, hast pursued thy fatal course and accused us of being traitors, merely
because we love our country, because we tell thee the truth and hate all kinds of injustice. What
dost thou wish us to tell our wretched country when it asks about the result of our efforts? Must
we say to it that, since for it we have lost everything—youth, future, hope, peace, family; since in
its service we have exhausted all the resources of hope, all the disillusions of desire, it also
takes the residue which we cannot use, the blood from our veins and the strength left in our
arms? Spain, must we someday tell Filipinas that thou hast no ear for her woes and that if she
wishes to be saved she must redeem herself?”
________________________________________
1An encomendero was a Spanish soldier who as a reward for faithful service was set over a
district with power to collect tribute and the duty of providing the people with legal protection and
religious instruction. This arrangement is memorable in early Philippine annals chiefly for the
flagrant abuses that appear to have characterized it. No official was allowed to leave the Islands
at the expiration of his term of office until his successor or a council appointed by the sovereign
inquired into all the acts of his administration and approved them. (This residencia was a fertile
source of recrimination and retaliation, so the author quite aptly refers to it a little further on as
“the ancient show of justice.”The penal code was promulgated in the Islands by Royal Order of
September 4, [Link]’ “Don Quijote,” Part II, chapter 47.

To the Young Women of Malolos

by José Rizal

When I wrote Noli Me Tangere, I asked myself whether bravery was a common thing in the
young women of our people. I brought back to my recollection and reviewed those I had known
since my infancy, but there were only a few who seemed to come up to my ideal. There was, it
is true, an abundance of girls with agreeable manners, beautiful ways, and modest demeanor,
but there was in all an admixture of servitude and deference to the words or whims of their so-
called "spiritual fathers" (as if the spirit or soul had any father other than God), due to excessive
kindness, modesty, or perhaps ignorance. They seemed faced with plants sown and reared in
darkness, having flowers without perfume and fruits without sap.

However, when the news of what happened at Malolos reached us, I saw my error, and great
was my rejoicing. After all, who is to blame me? I did not know Malolos nor its young women,
except one called Emila [Emilia Tiongson, whom Rizal met in 1887], and here I knew by name
only.

Now that you have responded to our first appeal in the interest of the welfare of the people; now
that you have set an example to those who, like you, long to have their eyes opened and be
delivered from servitude, new hopes are awakened in us and we now even dare to face
adversity, because we have you for our allies and are confident of victory. No longer does the
Filipina stand with her head bowed nor does she spend her time on her knees, because she is
quickened by hope in the future; no longer will the mother contribute to keeping her daughter in
darkness and bring her up in contempt and moral annihilation. And no longer will the science of
all sciences consist in blind submission to any unjust order, or in extreme complacency, nor will
a courteous smile be deemed the only weapon against insult or humble tears the ineffable
panacea for all tribulations. You know that the will of God is different from that of the priest; that
religiousness does not consist of long periods spent on your knees, nor in endless prayers, big
rosarios, and grimy scapularies [religious garment showing devotion], but in spotless conduct,
firm intention and upright judgment. You also know that prudence does not consist in blindly
obeying any whim of the little tin god, but in obeying only that which is reasonable and just,
because blind obedience is itself the cause and origin of those whims, and those guilty of it are
really to be blamed. The official or friar can no longer assert that they alone are responsible for
their unjust orders because God gave each individual reason and a will of his or her own to
distinguish the just from the unjust; all were born without shackles and free, and nobody has a
right to subjugate the will and the spirit of another your thoughts. And, why should you submit to
another your thoughts, seeing that thought is noble and free?

It is cowardice and erroneous to believe that saintliness consists in blind obedience and that
prudence and the habit of thinking are presumptuous. Ignorance has ever been ignorance, and
never prudence and honor. God, the primal source of all wisdom, does not demand that man,
created in his image and likeness, allow himself to be deceived and hoodwinked, but wants us
to use and let shine the light of reason with which He has so mercifully endowed us. He may be
compared to the father who gave each of his sons a torch to light their way in the darkness
bidding them to keep its light bright and take care of it, and not put it out and trust to the light of
the others, but to help and advise each other to find the right path. They would be madman
were they to follow the light of another, only to come to a fall, and the father could unbraid them
and say to them: "Did I not give each of you his own torch," but he could not say so if the fall
were due to the light of the torch of him who fell, as the light might have been dim and the road
very bad.

The deceiver is fond of using the saying "It is presumptuous to rely on one's own judgment," but,
in my opinion, it is more presumptuous for a person to put his judgment above that of the others
and try to make it prevail over theirs. It is more presumptuous for a man to constitute himself
into an idol and pretend to be in communication of thought with God; and it is more than
presumptuous and even blasphemous for a person to attribute every movement of his lips to
God, to represent every whim of his as the will of God, and to brand his own enemy as an
enemy of God. Of course, we should not consult our own judgment alone, but hear the opinion
of others before doing what may seem most reasonable to us. The wild man from the hills, if
clad in a priest's robe, remains a hillman and can only deceive the weak and ignorant. And, to
make my argument more conclusive, just buy a priest's robe as the Franciscans wear it, and put
it on a carabao [domestic water buffalo], and you will be lucky if the carabao does not become
lazy on account of the robe. But I will leave this subject to speak of something else.

Youth is a flowerbed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants.
What offspring will be that of a woman whose kindness of character is expressed by mumbled
prayers; who knows nothing by heart but awits [hymns], novenas, and the alleged miracles;
whose amusement consists in playing panguingue [a card game] or in the frequent confession
of the same sins? What sons will she have but acolytes, priest's servants, or cockfighters? It is
the mothers who are responsible for the present servitude of our compatriots, owing to the
unlimited trustfulness of their loving hearts, to their ardent desire to elevate their sons. Maturity
is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of its mother. The mother who can only
teach her child how to kneel and kiss hands must not expect sons with blood other than that of
vile slaves. A tree that grows in the mud is unsubstantial and good only for firewood. If her son
should have a bold mind, his boldness will be deceitful and will be like the bat that cannot show
itself until the ringing of vespers. They say that prudence is sanctity. But, what sanctity have
they shown us? To pray and kneel a lot, kiss the hand of the priests, throw money away on
churches, and believe all the friar sees fit to tell us; gossip, callous rubbing of noses. . . .

As to the mites and gifts of God, is there anything in the world that does not belong to God?
What would you say of a servant making his master a present of a cloth borrowed from that very
master? Who is so vain, so insane that he will give alms to God and believe that the miserable
thing he has given will serve to clothe the Creator of all things? Blessed be they who succor
their fellow men, aid the poor, and feed the hungry; but cursed be they who turn a dead ear to
supplications of the poor, who only give to him who has plenty and spend their money lavishly
on silver altar hangings for the thanksgiving, or in serenades and fireworks. The money ground
out of the poor is bequeathed to the master so that he can provide for chains to subjugate, and
hire thugs and executioners. Oh, what blindness, what lack of understanding.

Saintliness consists in the first place in obeying the dictates of reason, happen what may. "It is
acts and not words that I want of you," said Christ. "Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord,
Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
Heaven." Saintliness does not consist in abjectness, nor is the successor of Christ to be
recognized by the fact that he gives his hand to be kissed. Christ did not give the kiss of peace
to the Pharisees and never gave his hand to be kissed. He did not cater to the rich and vain; He
did not mention scapularies, nor did He make rosaries, or solicit offerings for the sacrifice of the
Mass or exact payments for His prayers. Saint John did not demand a fee on the River Jordan,
nor did Christ teach for gain. Why, then, do the friars now refuse to stir a foot unless paid in
advance? And, as if they were starving, they sell scapularies, rosaries, bits, and other things
which are nothing but schemes for making money and a detriment to the soul; because even if
all the rags on earth were converted into scapularies and all the trees in the forest into rosaries,
and if the skins of all the beasts were made into belts, and if all the priests of the earth mumbled
prayers over all this and sprinkled oceans of holy water over it, this would not purify a rogue or
condone sin where there is no repentance. Thus, also, through cupidity and love of money,
they will, for a price, revoke the numerous prohibitions such as those against eating meat,
marrying close relatives, etc. You can do almost anything if you put grease on their palms.
Why that? Can God be bribed and bought off, and blinded by money, nothing more nor less
than a friar? The brigand who has obtained a bull of compromise can live calmly on the
proceeds of his robbery because he will be forgiven. God, then, will sit at a table where theft
provides the viands? Has the Omnipotent become a pauper that He must assume the role of
the excise man or gendarme? If that is the God whom the friar adores, then I turn my back
upon that God.

Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women because you are the first to
influence the consciousness of men. Remember that a good mother does not resemble the
mother that the friar has created; she must bring up her child to be the image of the true God,
not of blackmailing, a grasping God, but of a God who is the father of us all, who is just; who
does not suck the life-blood of the poor like a vampire, nor scoffs at the agony of the sorely
beset, nor makes a crooked path of the path of justice. Awaken and prepare the will of our
children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all that is sincere and firm
of purpose, clear judgment, clear procedure, honest in act and deed, love for the fellowman, and
respect for God; this is what you must teach your children. And, seeing that life is full of thorns
and thistles, you must fortify their minds against any stroke of adversity and accustom them to
danger. The people cannot expect honor nor prosperity so long as they will educate their
children in a wrong way, so long as the woman who guides the child in his steps is slavish and
ignorant. No good water comes from a turbid, bitter spring; no savory fruit comes from acrid
seed.

The duties that woman has to perform to deliver the people from suffering are of no little
importance, but be they as they may, they will not be beyond the strength and stamina of the
Filipino people. The power and good judgment of the women of the Philippines are well known,
and it is because of this that she has been hoodwinked, tied, and rendered pusillanimous, and
now her enslavers rest at ease, because so long as they can keep the Filipina mother a slave,
so long will they be able to make slaves of her children. The cause of the backwardness of Asia
lies in the fact that the women are ignorant, and are slaves; while Europe and America are
powerful because there the women are free and well-educated and endowed with lucid intellect
and a strong will.

We know that you lack instructive books; we know that nothing is added to your intellect, day by
day, save that which is intended to dim its natural brightness; all this we know, hence our desire
to bring you the light that illuminates your equals here in Europe. If that which I tell you does not
provoke your anger, and if you will pay a little attention to it then, however dense the mist may
be that befogs our people, I will make the utmost efforts to have it dissipated by the bright rays
of the sun, which will give light, thought they are dimmed. We shall not feel any fatigue if you
help us: God, too, will help to scatter the mist, because He is the God of truth: He will restore to
its pristine condition the fame of the Filipina in whom we now miss only a criterion of her own,
because good qualities she has enough and to spare. This is our dream; this is the desire we
cherish in our hearts; to restore the honor of woman, who is half of our heart, our companion in
the joys and tribulations of life. If she is a maiden, the young man should love her not only
because of her beauty and her amiable character, but also on account of her fortitude of mind
and loftiness of purpose, which quicken and elevate the feeble and timid and ward off all vain
thoughts. Let the maiden be the pride of her country and command respect, because it is a
common practice on the part of Spaniards and friars here who have returned from the Islands to
speak of the Filipina as complaisant and ignorant, as if all should be thrown into the same class
because of the missteps of a few, and as if women of weak character did not exist in other
lands. As to purity what could the Filipina not hold up to others!

Nevertheless, the returning Spaniards and friars, talkative and fond of gossip, can hardly find
time enough to brag and bawl, amidst guffaws and insulting remarks, that a certain woman was
thus; that she behaved thus at the convent and conducted herself thus with the Spaniards who
on the occasion was her guest and other things that set your teeth on edge when you think of
them which, in the majority of cases, were faults due to candor, excessive kindness, meekness,
or perhaps ignorance and were all the work of the defamer himself. There is a Spaniard now in
high office, who has sat at our table and enjoyed our hospitality in his wanderings through the
Philippines and who, upon his return to Spain, rushed forthwith into print and related that on one
occasion in Pampanga he demanded hospitality and ate, and slept at a house and the lady of
the house conducted herself in such and such a manner with him; this is how he repaid the lady
for her supreme hospitality! Similar insinuations are made by the friars to the chance visitor
from Spain concerning their very obedient confesandas, hand-kissers, etc., accompanied by
smiles and very significant winkings of the eye. In a book published by D. Sinibaldo de Mas and
in other friar sketches sins are related of which women accused themselves in the confessional
and of which the friars made no secret in talking to their Spanish visitors seasoning them, at the
best, with idiotic and shameless tales not worthy of credence. I cannot repeat here the
shameless stories that a friar told Mas and to which Mas attributed no value whatever. Every
time we hear or read anything of this kind, we ask each other: Are the Spanish women all cut
after the pattern of the Holy Virgin Mary, and the Filipinas all reprobates? I believe that if we are
to balance accounts in this delicate question, perhaps, . . . But I must drop the subject because
I am neither a confessor nor a Spanish traveler and have no business to take away anybody's
good name. I shall let this go and speak of the duties of women instead.

A people who respects women, like the Filipino people, must know the truth of the situation to
be able to do what is expected of it. It seems a fact that when a young student falls in love, he
throws everything to the dogs -- knowledge, honor, and money as if a girl could not do anything
but sow misfortune. The bravest youth becomes a coward when he marries, and the born
coward becomes shameless as if he had been waiting to get married to show his cowardice.
The son, to hide his pusillanimity, remembers his mother, swallows his wrath, suffers his ears to
be boxed, obeys the most foolish order, and becomes an accomplice to his dishonor. It should
be remembered that where nobody flees there is no pursuer; when there is no little fish, there
cannot be a big one. Why does the girl not require of her lover a noble and honored name, a
manly heart offering protection to her weakness, and a high spirit incapable of being satisfied
with engendering slaves? Let her discard all fear, let her behave nobly, and not deliver her
youth to the weak and faint-hearted. When she is married, she must aid her husband, inspire
him with courage, share his perils, refrain from causing him to worry, and sweeten his moments
of affection, always remembering that there is no grief that a brave heart can not bear and there
is no bitterer inheritance than that of infamy and slavery. Open your children's eyes so that they
may jealously guard their honor, love their fellowmen and their native land, and do their duty.
Always impress upon them that they must prefer dying in honor to living in dishonor. The
women of Sparta should serve you as an example should serve you as an example in this; I
shall give some of their characteristics.

When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching to battle, she said nothing to
him but this: "Return with it, or on it," which meant, come back victorious or dead, because it
was customary with the routed warrior to throw away his shield, while the dead warrior was
carried home on his shield. A mother received word that her son had been killed in battle and
the army routed. She did not say a word but expressed her thankfulness that her son had been
saved from disgrace. However, when her son returned alive, the mother went on mourning.
One of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning from battle was told by one that
her three sons had fallen. I do not ask you that, said the mother, but whether we have been
victorious or not. We have been victorious -- answered the warrior. If that is so, then let us
thank God, that she went to the temple.
Once upon a time a king of theirs, who had been defeated, hid in the temple because he feared
their popular wrath. The Spartans resolved to shut him up there and starve him to death. When
they were blocking the door, the mother was the first to bring stones. These things were in
accordance with the custom there, and all Greece admired the Spartan woman. Of all women --
a woman said jestingly -- only your Spartans have power over the men. Quite natural -- they
replied -- of all women only we give birth to men. Man, the Spartan women said, was not born
to live for himself alone but for his native land. So long as this way of thinking prevailed and
they had that kind of woman in Sparta, no enemy was able to put his foot upon her soil, nor was
there a woman in Sparta who ever saw a hostile army.

I do not expect to be believed simply because it is I who am saying this; many people do not
listen to reason, but will listen only to those who wear the cassock or have gray hair or no teeth;
but while it is true that the aged should be venerated, because of their travails and experience,
yet the life I have lived, consecrated to the happiness of the people, adds some years, though
not many of my age. I do not pretend to be looked upon as an idol or fetish and to be believed
and listened to with the eyes closed, the head bowed, and the arms crossed over the breast;
what I ask of all is to reflect on what I tell him, think it over and shift it carefully through the sieve
of reasons.

First of all. That the tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice and negligence on the
part of others.

Second. What makes one contemptible is a lack of dignity and abject fear of him who holds one
in contempt.

Third. Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for
himself and allows himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a
halter.

Fourth. He who loves his independence must first aid his fellowman because he who refuses
protection to others will find himself without it; the isolated rib in the buri is easily broken, but not
so the broom made of the ribs of the palm bound together.

Fifth. If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more children, let her
merely give birth to them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home, otherwise, she will
unconsciously betray husband, child, native land, and all.

Sixth. All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to be a slave; nor
did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn him with reason to have
him deceived by others. It is not fatuous to refuse to worship one's equal, to cultivate one's
intellect, and to make use of reason in all things. Fatuous is he who makes a god of him, who
makes brutes of others, and who strives to submit to his whims all that is reasonable and just.

Seventh. Consider well what kind of religion they are teaching you. See whether it is the will of
God or according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be succored and those who suffer
alleviated. Consider what they preaching to you, the object of the sermon, what is behind the
masses, novenas, rosaries, scapularies, images, miracles, candles, belts, etc. ; which they daily
keep before your minds; ears, and eyes; jostling, shouting, and coaxing; investigate whence
they came and whiter they go and then compare that religion with the pure religion of Christ and
see whether the pretended observance of the life of Christ does not remind you of the fat milch
cow or the fattened pig, which is encouraged to grow fat nor through love of the animal, but for
grossly mercenary motives.

Let us, therefore, reflect; let us consider our situation and see how we stand. May these poorly
written lines aid you in your good purpose and help you to pursue the plan you have initiated.
"May your profit be greater than the capital invested;" and I shall gladly accept the usual reward
of all who dare tell your people the truth. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned with
success; may you in the garden of learning gather not bitter, but choice fruit, looking well before
you eat because on the surface of the globe all is deceit, and the enemy sows weeds in your
seedling plot.

All this is the ardent desire of your compatriot.

JOSÉ RIZAL

In this section, the learners are invited to look at the brief historical development of how the
concept of globalization came into being. It will also present the various waves, schema, and
dimensions or forms of globalization.

Activity 3: Lecture

Instruction: Discuss the messages conveyed by Rizal in the essays to the readers.

APPLICATION

Activity 4: Gap Identification

Instruction: Revisit policies and identify the gaps in government programs for women
empowerment and gender equality.

ASSESSMENT

Activity 5: Survey

ASSIGNMENT
Activity 6: Readings
Instruction: Read Rizal’s Blueprint for Nation-Building

REFERENCES

Romero, Sta. Romana, Santos (1978). Rizal and the Development of National Consciousness.
Quezon City: JMC Press

Zaide, G. and Zaide, S. 2014. José Rizal: Life, Works, and Writings of a Genius, Writer,
Scientist, and National Hero. Metro Manila, Philippines: Anvil Publishing, Inc.

The Philippines: A Century Hence [Link]

The Indolence of Filipinos [Link]

Letter to the Young Women of Malolos [Link]

rizals-letter-to-the-20-young-women-of-malolos-translation-from-tagalog