We Have The Wrong Jose Rizal!

MANILA: Today, Friday, Rizal Day, to celebrate his martyr's death by firing squad on 30 December 1896, I am celebrating his life, especially pointing out those things that we have all wrong that together give us the wrong Jose Rizal, The National Hero of the Philippines. Firing squads from government have always been anti-hero, even up to this day.

If you believe that Andres Bonifacio should be The National Hero of this country, I won't dissuade you from your belief; I'll simply stick to mine. The above image is from Wendell Bacud's "Rizal Clan, "Pinterest, pinterest.com, which he borrowed from somebody else – it's the right Rizal, if mischievous-looking.

I know we know many things wrong about Jose Rizal. Now then, let us consider 5 concerns about him:

(1)     Young Rizal's Poem

(2)     Rizal's Nationalism

(3)     Rizal's Full Name

(4)     Rizal's Loves

(5)     Rizal's Ideas.

(1)   His Poem "Sa Aking Mga Kabata" Is Not About Language.

My favorite Jose Rizal topic is the poem he wrote when he was only 8 years old, "Sa Aking Mga Kabata" (my translation is 9 years old, "To Kids Of My Own Time"). Even if, as some historians claim, the boy could not have written such a poem, Kabata is the most cited "proof" that Rizal loved Tagalog (now called Filipino) as a language and said so in this stanza (with my translation; for the full translation, see my essay, "A Dangerous Peace," 19 June 2007, Frank A Hilario, wordpress.com):

Rizal's original:

Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika
mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda;
kaya ang marapat pagyamaning kusa
na tulad sa inang tunay na nagpala.

Hilario's translation:

His native tongue who does not treasure
is worse than a beast or smelly fish;
’tis right that on our own we nourish
like a mother who bestows favor.

Whether it was written by the boy Jose Rizal or not, I think this is the most misunderstood poem in the world! A great many nationalists among Filipinos claim that in Kabata, this poem, at 8 years of age, Rizal already knew that love of the Tagalog language is necessary; otherwise, those who do not love Tagalog were "worse than a beast or smelly fish."

That is a misreading of the poem, and shows that those nationalists, or Tagalistas, or lovers of the Tagalog language, either have not read the whole poem; or, if having read, have not understood it correctly, their prejudice towards Tagalog (today also referred to as Filipino) getting in the way.

Here is the last stanza, with my translation:

Rizal's original:

Ang salita nati’y tulad din sa iba
na may alfabeto at sariling letra,
na kaya nawala’y dinatnan ng sigwa
ang lunday sa lawa noong dakong una.

Hilario's translation:

Our own language, like any other,
had alphabet and letters, its own,
now vanished since by waves overthrown
like bancas in the lake long before.

Wrongly, the Tagalistas do not connect, but you must understand that the line "Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika" (His native tongue who does not treasure) in the first stanza is defined by all the words in the last stanza, which says "Our own language... vanished... long before." That stanza reveals that when the poet says "language" he in fact does not mean "language," because that "language" had vanished "long before."

In other words, those Tagalistas have been reading the boy Rizal's poem literally. So, what did the boy poet mean by "language" really? That innocent-looking boy planted it right there in the very first stanza!

Rizal's original:

Kapagka ang baya’y sadyang umiibig
sa kanyang salitang kaloob ng langit,
sanlang kalayaan nasa ring masapit
katulad ng ibong nasa himpapawid.

Hilario's translation:

If the people naturally love
its tongue that is a gift from Heaven,
pawned freedom too it will seek to gain
as the bird that flies the sky above.

As it turns out, "wika" is "freedom" – of course, you don't take a poem literally. Those nationalists have been missing the boy Rizal's metaphor for more than 100 years now!

(2)   Rizal Was Not A Nationalist.

So, from the above, Rizal's Kabata poem is not a plea for nationalism. In fact, it is a plea for internationalism, to think like the other countries in the world, their peoples enjoying their freedom.

Note that in the last stanza – which begins with "Our own language, like any other" – the boy Rizal is already thinking internationally. It is an intellectual mistake, if an honest one, to claim that Kabata is a nationalist poem; in fact, it is an internationalist rhyme, properly appreciated.

Don't just take my word for it. After this, you should read and reread the boy Rizal's Kabata poem in the original and in translation (for my latest Tagalog-English side-by-side rendering, read my essay, "Jose Rizal Bashers Lack The K," 30 December 2015, Common Cause, blogspot.com).

(3)   He Is Not Jose Rizal Mercado.

Except Frank A Hilario, historians and everybody else are saying his full name is Jose Rizal Mercado Y Alonso Realonda, and that is not correct. Before the family became notorious to the Spanish authorities because of the activism of his brother Paciano, Jose and 9 girls were members of the family Mercado. When family notoriety became a danger, to provide anonymity, their father Francisco changed his family name, so he became Francisco Rizal. Properly therefore, we should write the father's full name as Francisco Mercado Rizal and not Francisco Rizal Mercado.

With his mother's full name therefore, the full name of our hero is Jose Protasio Mercado Rizal y Alonso Realonda. You cannot switch to Rizal Mercado from Mercado Rizal because the Rizal happened after Mercado. Historically and legally, "Jose Rizal Mercado" is not the same person as "Jose Mercado Rizal."

(4)   Rizal Did Not Love More Than One Girl.

The Commission on Higher Education, or CHEd, has a special website, joserizal.ph, which among other things presents "Rizal, The Romantic" and says (joserizal.ph):

There were at least nine women linked with Rizal, namely Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, Leonor Rivera, Consuelo Ortiga, O-Sei San, Gertrude (Beckett), Nelly Boustead, Suzanne Jacoby and Josephine Bracken. These women might have been beguiled by his intelligence, charm and wit.

All those girls were romantically linked with him; in fact, he cried when his childhood sweetheart married another man. But everything considered, he loved only one woman truly and forever, and he even died for her. Her name is Filipinas.

(5)   Rizal's 2 Books Do Not Present His Basic Ideas About Change.

Bert M Drona writes that it was the idea of Senator Claro M Recto to cultivate nationalism among the youth and "economic independence from American interests" (The Filipino Mind (07 May 2009, thefilipinomind.com):

Recto sponsored the Rizal Bill together with fellow Senator Jose Laurel. The bill would require all high schools and colleges to include in their curricula a course in the study of Rizal's literary works, mainly the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, to provide an in-depth study of nationalism and the shaping of national character invoked in these two novels. Although it met strong opposition from a contingent of Catholic groups because of the books' virulent attack on the Church and their perceived anti-clericalism, the bill was passed and approved on December 6, 1956 and became RA 1425 known as Rizal Law. Today there are many, especially among college and university students, who are calling for a repeal or revision of this law, questioning its essentiality to a high school and college diploma and its relevance to modern-day Filipino life.

I say the literary works of Rizal, mainly the Noli and Fili, do not provide materials for "an in-depth study of nationalism and the shaping of national character" – Recto and Laurel were wrong in their assessment of those books. Perhaps they did not read those books themselves! The Noli and Fili are mainly conversations, Rizal talking to his alter ego and, in the end, deciding against waging a revolution.

It must be emphasized that the Noli and Fili are virulently anti-Catholic. It is fiction, but if you want readers to take notice of your work, you have to dramatize it much. The Filipinos in the Noli are all religious fanatics, good for the story, bad for history.

Indeed, the Rizal Law is more than irrelevant today; it is anti-intellectual, as it is based on a wrong judgment of Rizal's ideas about nationalism and "the shaping of national character" – the Noli merely mentions a school being planned by Ibarra, that's all. It is not and was not meant to be a systematic study of education for social change.

Today, Recto is passé, for all his erudition, just as Andres Bonifacio is, for all his bravery. In contrast, with his respect for knowledge if not religion, and his internationalism, Jose Rizal is relevant more than ever. My hero!

If you want to study the thoughts of Jose Rizal yourself, also read his voluminous correspondence with his fellow propagandists, members of his family and friends, as well as his articles in La Solidaridad. From the correspondence, you will learn for instance that Rizal initially supported the idea of a Revolution, not a Reformation; but his bosom friend Ferdinand Blumentritt dissuaded him. But they executed him anyway, for fighting the Spanish authorities. For his heroism, dying for me, I give thanks. To the families and friends of those who have written against Rizal, I give my condolence. @

30 December 2016. Essay word count, excluding this line. 1571