The Making of a Nation: Essays on the Nineteenth-Century Filipino Nationalism John Robert N. Schumacher, Schumacher, S.J. Introduction •
Collection of essays forming an organic unity to represent his understanding of that nationalist movement and the dynamics of its development.
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From archival sources in Europe: “I found much more positive nationalism in the Propaganda Movement than a mere struggle for reform of friar abuses by means of their expulsion.”
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Study of Rizal and M.H. Del Pilar: Roots of Rizal’s cultural nationalism and those of both men’s opposition to the friars traced back to the priests belonging to the generation of 1872 who had influence them. Protonationalism: Fr. Pedro Pelaez → Fr. Jose Burgos Gives the development of a sense of national community among Filipinos (i.e., the creation of Benedict Anderson’s “imagined community”) Imagined community comes into being, when people who will never know, meet, or even hear of, most of their fellow members, have alive in their m inds the image of their communion. The initiative in creating that image came from above and progressively evolved from one generation to the next: partial transmission + transformation
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History “from above” is complementary with a history “from below” Refocus nationalist thought in the light of other aspirations to freedom. Indicate how the ordinary Filipino’s perceptions of the struggle for freedom may have been articulated with the “imagined community” of ilustrado nationalism.
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Multifaceted composition of the nineteenth-century nineteenth-century Filipino nationalism Two major lines of interpretation—that based on socioeconomic class, and that based on religion
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Argument: Argument: The mainstream mainstream of national nationalism, ism, whose whose principal principal articulator articulator was Rizal, Rizal, reached reached directly or indirectly all socioeconomic classes, even if, with quite different perceptions and emphases. Before the emergence of modern nationalism, the only basis for a Filipino national community was the common bond of Catholicism; but this could not serve as the basis for a distinct Filipino community. The first attempt to change change the basis was that represented represented by Burgos Burgos who attempted attempted to substitute Filipino for Spanish priests as the interpreters of communal aspirations. It was inevitable that Masonry should become a major, though not the only, vehicle for the articulation of the liberal ideas of the envisaged community. It was Rizal who sought to form a new—fundamentally secular—basis for the Filipino political community, community, whose first exemplification exemplification was the Liga Filipina. Filipina. During the Revolution, the religious matrix of Filipino nationalism was reinforced not only by the active role of the Filipino priests, but also by the fundamentally religious perception of the struggle for freedom held by most ordinary Filipinos, whether under the influence of the clergy or of their own aspirations.
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The Historian’s Task in the Philippines Understand Rizal and his role in Philippine history by going back to his letters, novels, and other • writings → sharing of Rizal’s convictions on the centrality of historical perspective for a real understanding of the problems of the present. Rizal’s insistence on the need for Filipinos to understand their own past if they were effectively to shape the future. Rizal: most historically minded of all Filipinos of his, and perhaps even of our time. The knowledge of our past nurtured a consciousness of being a people with a common origin and a common experience constituting the national identity around which the future nation could arise. Rizal had succeeded in taking a new look at that Filipino past and uncovering the roots of what was good and bad in contemporary Filipino society. Above all, he was able to share with his people a sense of national identity, which, as he once wrote Blumentritt, “impels nations to do great deeds.” •
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Every Filipino historian can share the basic goals Rizal thought capable of achievement by history—1) understanding of our past; 2) cultivation of our national identity; and 3) inspiration for the future. Recovering the Past Past Rizal had shown that Spanish chronicles could be mined to get beneath the Hispanocentric outlook of these sources. W.H. Scott’s “Cracks in the Parchment Curtain,”: much can be learned about Filipino life and society by reading between the lines of Spanish documents. Those unintended references are often much more enlightening to us than any number of explicit analyses of Filipino society. The Formative Century A real history of the Revolution, including including the war against the Americans, is still to be written—one that will study the Revolution not just as it took place in Cavite, Malolos, or Luzon, but in all the regions of the Philippines. Such a history will show the different degrees and kinds kinds of national nationalist ist response in different different regions. regions. It will explore the variation variationss in different different socioeconomic classes of regional societies and the political, economic, religious, cultural reasons for these differences. But, such a history of the Revolution will not be possible until further research on a regional basis has been done on the century before the Revolution. Nationalist History History A true “people’s history,” must see the Filipino people as the primary agents in their history—not just as objects repressed by theocracy or oppressed by exploitative colonial policies. It will refuse to treat the people as an abstraction manipulated by deterministic forces. It will try to understand all aspects of the experience of all the Filipino people, as they themselves understood it. It will acknowledge what is valuable as well as what is harmful in the Filipino past. Historical research provides justice and participation not only to the elites of power, but to every Filipino. Though not the task of history alone or even principally, history’s contribution is to present the Filipino past that really was, in all its variety. Not all of that past will provide inspiration for a better and more just society. But by depicting the whole of reality, history will make it possible to reform and reshape that society toward a better future.
Rizal in the Context of Nineteenth-Century Philippines Rizal’s evolving nationalist thought must be studied within the context of his times.
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Economic Development After about 1830: The growth of an export economy in those years brought increasing prosperity to the Filipino middle and upper classes. Philippine exports in this burgeoning economy were agricultural products, and a rapidly growing population needed increased amounts of rice. Thus, those who controlled large rice-, sugar-, and abaca- growing lands in Central Luzon, Batangas, parts of Bicol region, Negros, and Panay profited the most. On the friar haciendas, rising prosperity had also brought friction between inquilinos and haciendas as lands grew in value and rents were raised. A combination of traditional methods and modernizing efficiency led to disputes, ultimately over who should reap the larger part of the fruits of the economic boom. Eventually, this would lead to a questioning of the friar’s rights to the haciendas. Political Developments Instability of governments in Spain m ade it impossible to develop any consistent policy for the overseas colonies. Filipinos were deprived of those few positions they had formerly held in bureaucracy while in the vast majority of Spanish bureaucrats had no interest in, or even knowledge of the country they were supposed to be governing. Governments’ inability to provide for basic needs of public works, schools, peace and order, and other prerequisites to even a semimodern economy. The antiquated system of taxation in effect actually penalized modernization, and the taxes never found their way into the roads, bridges, and other public works needed for agricultural progress. Highly protective tariffs forced Filipinos to buy expensive Spanish textiles and other products instead of the traditional cheaper British ones. In the face of a system that was both exploitative and incapable of producing benefits for the colony, liberal nationalists and even conservative upper-class Filipinos increasingly no longer found any compelling motive for maintaining the Spanish colonial regime, as it became more and more clear that reforms would not be forthcoming. To a nationalist like Rizal the decision to separate had been made long since. Cultural Development A key factor in the emergence of nationalism in the late 19 th century was the cultural development consequent on the rapid spread of education from about 1860. The spread of higher education among middle- and lower-middle-class Filipinos who could not afford to go abroad was more important for propagating the liberal and progressive ideas written about from Europe by Rizal or Del Pilar. The creation of a limited but substantial number of Filipinos in all parts of the country who could communicate in Spanish made possible for the first time in history a movement that was both regional and national in scope. Return of the Jesuits in 1859 to take charge of the evangelization of Mindanao. They returned with ideas and methods new to the Philippine educational system. Asked by the Ayuntamiento to take over the municipal primary school, they renamed it Ateneo Municipal and opened it to Filipino students as well as the Spaniards for whom it had been founded. By 1865 it had been transformed into a secondary school that offered a level of instruction beyond the official requirements and more approximated today’s college than high school. Aside from Latin and Spanish, Greek, French and English were studied. Under the direction of the Jesuits too was that other new educational institution, the Escuela Normal de Maestros. It was opened in 1865 to provide Spanish-speaking teachers for the projected new primary school system.
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More than in primary schools, it was in the secondary schools that the ideas of nationalism were to awake, even among those who had never gone to Europe. While still a university student in Manila, Rizal would write in his Memorias that through his studies of literature, science and philosophy, “the eyes of my intelligence opened a little, and my heart began to cherish nobler sentiments.” Speaking of his fifth year at the Ateneo, through these studies “my patriotic sentiments greatly developed.” The eyes of these Filipinos had been opened to a much wider perspective than their narrow Philippine experience before they ever set foot in Europe, and they no longer would accept the established order. As early as 1843, the Spanish official Juan de la Matta had proposed the closing of these institutions as being “nurseries . . . of subversive ideas.” It is clear that the university was communicating something that stirred up the sparks of nationalism. Nonetheless, a major factor in giving nationalism the form it actually took was the experience of Filipino students in Spain. Many who came to Europe still in hope of reform and modernization in the Philippines came to realize that this could never be achieved under the Spanish rule and that the Filipinos must look to themselves. (Rizal: “Umasa [Filipinas] sa sariling lakas”) One final factor involved in the rise of nationalism was the interest in the Filipino past, largely inspired by the European, especially the German, preoccupation with history and ethnology. Rizal was the principal, though by no means the only, Filipino to see the importance of such historical investigation for the creation of a national consciousness among his countrymen: e.g., Rizal’s annotation on Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. In this most important historical work of Rizal, he outlines the process by which he had come to seek nationalism in the historical past and emphasizes the importance of history to the national task. I n his annotations, Rizal seeks out all the evidence of a Filipino civilization before the coming of the Spaniards and tries to show how the intervening three centuries have meant decline rather than progress. He did lay a historical foundation in his Morga and other essays for a national consciousness and pride in the race. •
Religious Developments As Spain become less and less willing or able to promote the happiness and prosperity of the Philippines, the Spanish colonial government leaned more heavily on what had always been a mainstay of Spanish rule—the devotion of Filipinos to their Catholic faith. For this reason, even the most anti-clerical Spanish governors maintained that it was necessary to support the friars by every means. Friars inevitably became the main target of Filipino nationalists, and of Rizal in particular: although the Rizals had a land dispute with the Dominican hacienda of Calamba, the real issue was something bigger—to be able to show that the Filipino was the equal of the Spaniard, even if the Spaniards be friars. For Filipinos to win a lawsuit against a powerful friar order meant eventually to nullify that influence of the friars which the Spanish government so emphasized as a means to control the indios. Paradox of Philippine Catholicism at the end of 19 th century: - the ordinary Filipino who had not gone to Manila or abroad fro higher education remained in the traditional religious practices and beliefs of his forefathers and continued to look up to his friar parish priest as father of his people and protector against oppressive government officials - the Filipino ilustrado educated in Europe found the Catholic practice of his day childish and incompatible with modern ideas For the nationalists religion had come to signify a means to perpetuate the status quo, to maintain Spanish power in the Philippines
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Filipino clergy in the picture: Rizal and his fellow Propagandists were partly heirs of the conflict between secular priests and Spanish friars that had led to the martyrdom of Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora in 1872. It was also in this conflict that the seeds of nationalism, which were to come to full flower among the Propagandists, had first been sowed. (e.g., Burgos → Rizal → Bonifacio). Rizal prolonged the incipient national consciousness, of which Burgos was the most articulate spokesman, into the full-blown nationalism which led to the Revolution. Burgos’ heritage: He transformed the century-old dispute between the Spanish friars and the Filipino secular clergy from an intramural ecclesiastical controversy into a clear assertion of Filipino equality with the Spaniard, into a demand for justice to the Filipino. With Burgos we see the first articulation of national feeling, of sense of national identity. His was the first step to nationalism, the expression of a sense of those born in the Philippines being one people , with a national identity and national rights, even under the sovereignty of Spain. •
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Filipino Clergy Movement & Liberal Reformists Movement → Propaganda Movement Liberal reformists of the 1860s—the “modernizers,” men who desired to bring to the Philippines economic progress, a modern legal system and, “modern liberties” – freedom of the press, of association, of speech, and worship. Most of them were criollos, Spaniards born in the Philippines. They wished to see the liberties that had been introduced into the Peninsula also extended to Spanish Philippines. Generally antifriar, these reformists saw in the friars obstacles to progressive reforms and modern liberties. 1869- arrival of Gov. Carlos Ma. De la Torre in Manila. Burgos saw in the liberal government, with its proclaimed respect for liberty and equality, the hope of gaining recognition for the justice of the Filipino priests’ cause. Both the clergy and the reformists were deceived. The two groups were both put under secret police surveillance. Carlos Ma. De la Torre was replaced by new governor Gen. Rafael Izquierdo. For him, liberal reforms were for the Peninsula, not the colonies. Cavite Mutiny → GomBurZa execution: manifested Izquierdo’s conviction that the friars were a necessary political instrument for maintaining the loyalty of the Filipinos to Spain. Therefore, by the same token, the Filipino priests who might replace them in the parishes must be eliminated. With the death of its leaders and the exile of their followers, the movement of the Filipino priests was indeed crushed. Main Currents of the Nationalist Movement Catchwords such as “the secularization movement,” “the reform movement,” “the revolt of the masses,” and “the betrayal of the ilustrados,” obscure more than clarify the character of Filipino nationalism. The same might be said of attempts to describe the Revolution as a proletarian or lower-middle class movement captured by the bourgeois ilustrado reformists, and other such explanations that come from ideological constructs than from an examination of historical realities. Distinguish the several different currents that went into movement; at least five can be considered—the reformist, the liberal, the anticlerical, the modernizing, and the strictly nationalist. Each individual need not be placed under one of these categories, for they certainly overlapped. It is important to understand what was really most important for individuals or groups in order to understand what they aimed at in supporting the Revolution, and why they did or did not do so when certain ends had been achieved. Probably most Filipinos, certainly all thinking ones, and even Spaniards with any interest on the country, can be called reformists in some sense in the late nineteenth century; the Spanish colonial regime obviously failed any longer to satisfy basic needs and desires of the Filipino people.
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Though by no means all reformists were liberals, liberals were almost by definition reformists as well. For the safeguards of personal liberty—freedom of speech and of the press, freedom of association, freedom of religion, and especially freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention and exile or imprisonment without trial—could only be obtained with major reforms in the existing colonial government. With the partial exception of freedom of religion, those liberties were the aspiration of all the activist Filipinos who participated in the Propaganda Movement. Rizal to Blumetritt: “these liberties were an essential component of any progress worth the name.” In the circumstances of the time, to be a liberal very often meant to be anticlerical or at least antifriar. Such anticlericalism was not so much due to obscurantism, which certainly existed in some sectors of the clergy, as it was to the well-justified fear that ecclesiastical power would be used to suppress liberal progress. Modernization was a desire of all liberals, as it would be of nationalists in general. But the converse was by no means true. Modernization was primarily an economic goal. Many of these men were conservative politically; they had no desire to create a new nation. When the Spanish regime fell under the onslaught of the Revolution, conservative modernizers had no regrets, for they realized how little hope there was of Spain ever doing away with all the archaic obstacles to economic progress. Nationalists: e.g., leaders like Rizal who had seen the struggle primarily as a movement aimed at the creation of a national consciousness, the making of the Revolution. Rizal of course favored reforms in Philippine society, not only by Spaniards, but by the Filipinos themselves. He opposed the influence of the friars on that same society, for he saw them as an obstacle to freedom and to progress. He was devoted to the modernization of his country, so that, as he put it, she might take her place among the proud nations of Europe. But what he sought above all was that his country should be free, free from tyrants from abroad or at home, a country where there would not be any tyrants because Filipinos would not allow themselves to be slaves. It was the growth of a free people, proud of its past, working for its future, united in a common set of ideals. This vision it was which made him the center of the nationalist movement of his day and the principal inspiration of the Revolution. Higher Education and the Origins of Nationalism Role of the University in society: to be an agent of progress, to be a source of ideas, to enable its students not only to achieve the technical competence to act as doctors, businessmen, and scientists to serve the needs of the society, but also to have an understanding and vision to direct that society toward its national goals.
Education and National Consciousness The national consciousness, and the Propaganda Movement which was its catalyst, came into being chiefly as the fruit of Philippine institutions of higher education. The sense of national identity and purpose was already present before any significant number of Filipino students set foot in Europe. Rather than nationalism being merely the fruit of their European experiences, it was the ideas and desires they had conceived as students in Manila that led them to Europe to be able to pursue their goals further. Best documented example: Rizal. Practically all the priests executed or exiled in 1872 for their activity in defense of Filipino rights, were alumni of the university. •
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Purpose of Religious Educators Only in the Philippines was the colonial power so “impractical” as to allow higher
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education. This was almost wholly the work of the religious orders. This impracticality makes clear why there was a truly national revolution in the Philippines a half century before in any other European colony in Asia. Though the accusation of obscurantism could be brought against not a few of the religious of the time, their official policy of promoting higher education among Filipinos never wavered, in spite of the criticisms of those more concerned with preserving Spanish sovereignty than with furthering the education of Filipinos. Source of Nationalism Philippine higher education was instrumental in the evolution of Filipino nationalism in the 19 th century, and it did provide competent leaders in that time of radical transition in Philippine society. The truly humanistic core of the education received by Rizal and his companions, in literature, science, and philosophy, communicated to them a perspective far wider than the narrow Philippine world, even before they ever stepped on foreign soil. This humanistic perspective created a breadth of mind under which a sense of national goals, at least inchoative, could come into existence and grow. “A nation can be free, only when in addition to liberal laws, the people possess, at least in considerable proportion of the individuals who make it up, moral freedom. This moral freedom of the individual is the fruit of a solid intellectual and moral education, which provides a man with a broad and independent outlook.” – an anonymous writer in the Revolutionary paper La Republica Filipina. Failure as Catholic Schools Ironically, 19 th century Manila university institutions failed to a considerable degree in their role as Catholic institutions of learning. The letters of Spanish Jesuits in the Philippines in this period often manifest a pathetic perplexity at the frequency with which so many of their better pupils joined Masonry or otherwise gave up the practice of their faith shortly after finishing their studies. It is paradoxical that Philippine higher education in of the late 19 th century, wholly under Catholic auspices, as well as being directed by those committed to the continuance of Spanish colonial rule, should have been more effective in preparing the way for a triumphant Filipino nationalism than in integrating this vision of an emergent Filipino nation with its Catholic heritage.
The Noli Me Tangere as Catalyst of Revolution - to speak of Rizal’s purpose of writing the Noli: to provide a catalyst for a revolution, to start the process that would lead to the emancipation of the Philippines. - by the time Rizal completed his novel in late 1886, Rizal had already concluded to the futility of the goals sought by many of his fellow-Filipinos, who hoped to obtain from Spain reforms for the Philippines by which Filipinos would enjoy the full rights of Spanish citizens and continue as equals within the Spanish empire. - Since Spain would never voluntarily grant independence to the Filipinos, he had concluded, there remained no choice except a revolution, and the Noli was the first step toward that goal. - contrary to views of many writers (e.g., T.A. Agoncillo, Renato Constantino), Rizal, as early as 1886, had already determined that there was no future for the Philippines in union with Spain, that the only course to be pursued was the complete separation from Spain as an independent nation. - Rizal’s Noli, the annotated edition of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, and the Filibusterismo, form a unity, a carefully calibrated effort to point the way to the future independence of the Philippines.
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Noli as Charter of Nationalism Rizal originally intended to write the novel in French, then the universal language of educated Europe, so as to depict Philippine society for them. But as he would tell his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt in 1888, he had later decided that other writers could understand that task —it was instead for his fellow Filipinos that he must write. For, he continued, “I must wake from its slumber the spirit of my country… I must first propose to my countrymen an example with which they can struggle against their bad qualities, and afterwards, when they have reformed, many writers will rise up who can present my country proud to Europe.” In his Noli he does seek for reforms, demands them even, but from Filipinos rather than from Spaniards. The Filipinos must bring about reforms themselves. The novel is not primarily an attack on the abuses of Spain and the friars. More than that, it is a charter of nationalism for Filipinos. It was first of all that the Filipinos should be aware of what was wrong with Philippine society, not only Spanish abuses, but Filipino failures as well. In Rizal’s to Blumentritt in early 1887, he registers a glimmer of hope that the separation of the Philippines from Spain might come about by a peaceful and gradual development, a vain hope he now believes, but still the ideal. But in any case the separation must come; that is clear in his mind. It is, however, not something for which the Philippines, at the moment, is ready—“ in the present circumstances we want no separation from Spain”—but the eventual goal is already determined. Though Rizal does from time to time highlight the virtues and good qualities of the unspoiled Filipino, the Noli does not have as its goal the glorification of the race any more than it does the mere condemnation of Spanish oppression. A sound nationalism had to be based on an accurate and unsparing analysis and understanding of the contemporary situation, not on a selfcongratulatory, and therefore self-deceptive, adulation of all things Filipino. Before beginning the struggle, the foundation must be well and surely laid.
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Noli and Fili: Action with Vision For the Noli was not meant to stand alone. Rizal already had in mind a sequel, another novel, which would be based on history. Though the planned historical novel never saw the light as such, the role it would have played may be conjectured with good probability from his annotated edition of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas . As the Noli had shown the Filipinos their present condition under Spain, the Morga would show them their roots as a nation—“the last moments of our ancient nationality,” as Rizal put it. The foundation having thus been laid in these two books, Rizal would chart the Filipino course for the future in El Filibusterismo. Here we find the fulfillment of the promise contained in the Noli. He shows two possible courses remaining: the solution of Simoun and that of Padre Florentino—that of armed violence and that of active nonviolent resistance. Rizal explores the way of Simoun- Ibarra in detail and rejects it; he has Pader Florentino give only the outlines of the second course, just enough to show that it is the only way to follow. Because the implementation of Padre Florentino’s vision lies in the future, Rizal cannot give detailed instructions. Rather, he gives the vision and makes his act of faith in the Filipino and in the God of history; action in accord with that vision will prove its genuinity and open the paths to its fulfillment. The obvious answer to Elias’s objection tat the people were not yet ready and that, by embarking on revolution, Ibarra was only preparing a bloodbath for the innocent, was the course that Ibarra attempted to implement in his new role as Simoun—to rouse up the Filipinos to a revolutionary consciousness by stimulating Spanish injustice and abuses while organizing the people of all classes to resist that oppression. But Rizal the novelist shows Simoun’s path to be wrong one by leading him to failure and death. Moreover, he passes judgment on this path in the words of Padre Florentino.
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Padre Florentino to Simoun: “Because you chose the means of which He could not approve… Hate only creates monsters; crime, criminals; only love can work wonders, only virtue redeem. If our country is one day to be free, it will not be through vice and crime, it will not be through the corruption of its sons, some deceived, others bribed; redemption presupposes virtue; virtue, sacrifice; and sacrifice, love.” The Filipino people, he says, in the face of oppression must “endure and work.” It is not, however, a passive endurance, but an active resistance to evil and refusal to accept the deprivation of their freedom. He adds: “I do not mean that our freedom is to be won at the point of the sword; the sword counts for little in the destinies of modern times. But it is true that we must win it by deserving it, exalting reason and the dignity of the individual, loving what is just, what is good, what is great, even to the point of dying for it. When the people rises to this height, God provides the weapon, and the idols fall, the tyrants fall like a house of cards, and freedom shines in the first dawn.” He places the responsibility on the Filipinos themselves: “Our misfortunes are our own fault, let us blame nobody else for them. If Spain were to see us less tolerant of tyranny and readier to fight and suffer for our rights, Spain would be the first to give us freedom… But as long as the Filipino people do not have the sufficient vigor to proclaim, head held high and chest bared, their right to a life of their own in human society, and to guarantee it with their sacrifices, with their very blood… why give them independence? With or without Spain they would be the same, and perhaps, perhaps worse. What is the use of the independence if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And no doubt they will, because whoever submits to tyranny loves it!” •
Rizal: Reformist or Revolutionary ? Rizal had a consistent view of the Filipino task that dated back to his Noli; he had been a separatist from early in his career, but one who understood quite clearly the preconditions by which that independence from Spain would mean true freedom and justice. Rizal’s philosophy of revolution has considerable relevance for today. Ironically those who have tried in our country to develop a philosophy of active nonviolent resistance to injustice, though they have of course based themselves primarily on the Gospels, have looked for modern inspiration to figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King for the most part. Yet, in a way even more striking than these men, there is a consistence in Rizal between thought and life. On the split between Rizal and Del Pilar in 1891: By the end of the year 1891 Rizal was in Hong Kong, ready to go back to the Philippines, for the work of writing was now over. From the beginning he had insisted with Del Pilar that La Solidaridad should direct its articles to the Filipinos, not the Spaniards. But it was not enough to have his ideals proposed to his countrymen in writing; it was necessary to put them into action there in the Philippines: “If our countrymen hope in us here in Europe, they are certainly mistaken… The help we can give them is our lives in our country. Had I not been unwilling to shorten the lives of my parents, I would not have left the Philippines no matter what happened. Those five moths I stayed there were a life of example, a book even better than the Noli me tangere. The field of battle is the Philippines; there is where we should be found… There we will help each other, there we will suffer united, and perhaps even triumph.” La Liga Filipina: On the one, the statutes of the Liga called for national unity, dedication to economic, educational, and other reforms—not begging them from the Spaniards, but Filipinos undertaking them themselves; on the other, the Filipinos must defend one another against all violence and injustice, must be of recognized moral character, and perhaps most significantly, they must not submit to any humiliation nor treat others in such a way as to humiliate them.
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Essentially, it is what Rizal had demanded of Filipinos in the Noli as well as the Fili — that Filipinos should act as free men and women, and demand that their dignity as such be recognized by other. When Filipinos are so united into what Rizal calls a “compact, vigorous, and homogenous body,” then, “the idols and the tyrants will fall like a house of cards.” To give an example, Rizal returned to his homeland, well aware that he was taking his liberty, and perhaps even his life, into his hands. Propagandists’ Reconstruction of the Philippine Past Though by the 19 th century the era of chronicles had largely died out, the Spanish disdain for preHispanic Filipino culture reappeared in a much more offensive form, precisely as Filipinos began to assert themselves as equal to Spaniards and to ask for their rights. Against the background of then contemporary European racism, a nationalist historiography would come into being. •
Beginnings of the Search for the Filipino Past An indigenous Filipino historiography became possible through the Western higher education implanted by the missionaries in the country shortly after their arrival. Though originally founded for Spaniards, native Filipinos were found in the secondary schools of Manila by the end of the 17 th century, and in the universities in the 18 th. However, it was only toward mid-19th century that relatively large numbers of Filipinos sought higher education, first in Manila and then in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. The relatively widespread access of Filipinos to higher education coincided with the beginnings of a consciously articulated nationalism. The awakening of such nationalism can be dated roughly between the years 1880 and 1895. 1880-1895 on Philippine historiography: the “Propaganda Movement,” from the sponsorship given by a Manila organization called the Comité de Propaganda to the political lobbying and journalism centered in the Filipino newspaper La Solidaridad . The “Propagandists” dealt with here refer simply to all the activist ilustrados, those Filipinos possessing higher education, particularly from the universities of Europe. Imbue with the ideas of 19th century liberalism, their writings prepared the way for the Revolution of 1896. Though they were often divided over many issues, and not all belonged to a single organization, all shared in common campaign for Filipino rights that helped prepare the minds of Filipinos for the Revolution. The Propagandists shared a common program of reforms and assimilation; these represented those of the majority in the beginning and remained the professed program of the program of the movement right up to the Revolution. Increasingly, however, these aspirations became a front behind which a growing number of nationalists prepared the way for more or less proximate independence. Chief among these was Jose Rizal, and it was he above all who sought in the Filipino past the pattern for the future. The search for the Filipino past was both a product of, and a stimulus to, nationalism. The first systematic attempt by Filipinos to explore their historical past seems to have been occasioned by the general European interest in history in the late 19 th century, as filtered into Manila through Spaniards resident there. Among the Filipinos, the impulse seems to have come from a more general interest in Philippine folklore and history that began manifest itself in Manila in the late 1880s. Wenceslao E. Retana began to publish articles on provincial customs and folklore in Manila newspapers. Unpublished chronicles from earlier centuries were resurrected and began to be published in serial form in the same newspapers, like the Historia by Juan Delgado, an 18 thcentury Spanish Jesuit. Soon a group of subscribers initiated the series Biblioteca Histórica Filipina , which in the early 1890s published several other old chronicles as well. Though the project was Spanish, intended as
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a “national monument erected to the glories of Spain,” the list of subscribers shows a substantial Filipino participation. •
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National Identity and Racial Equality Historical and ethnographical studies of Isabelo delos Reyes: his books make little overt attempt to glorify the Filipino precolonial past. Nonetheless, he was an ardent nationalist, and his purpose may be seen in the preface to one of his early works, El Folk-Lore Filipino: “Each one serves his people according to his own way of thinking, and I, with the Folk Lore Ilocano believe that I am contributing to establishing the past of my people.” This desire to know the Filipino past, to establish a Filipino identity, runs through the writings of De Los Reyes. The Filipino past is a source of identity, not a golden age; nor is it clearly presented as a motive for seeking independence from Spain. Pedro Paterno: In a series of books published between 1887 and 1892, Paterno concentrates on the condition of the Filipinos prior to the Spanish contact. He aims at providing the equality of Filipino to Spaniard by extolling and magnifying the pre-Hispanic civilization. He employs his ingenuity in extracting from his sources a demonstration of the high level of Filipino culture at the Spanish contact. Paterno accepts Spanish culture as the norm—only to claim that it had all really existed in the Philippines before the coming of the Spaniards. In his La Antigua civilización tagálog , he attempted to parallel the stages of development of European civilization. In his El cristianismo an la antigua civilización tagálog , he also attempted to show that the ancient Filipinos had been Christians in all but name long before the coming of the Spanish Catholic missionaries. (e.g., Bathalismo). The moral teachings of Bathalismo expounded in La familia tagálog en la historia universal turned out to be remarkably coincident with Christian teaching on family and marital morality. Similarly in El Barangay the pre-Hispanic organization of government under the barangay system displays “Tagalog kingdom,” which, though monarchical, was democratic in organization—thus providentially uniting all the best features of contemporary Spain! Legitimation of the Nationalist Struggle Jose Rizal: For Rizal history is at the very heart of nationalism. It served as a weapon to combat the pretensions to beneficence of the colonial power. It provided an explanation of the contemporary situation of the Philippines as well as a picture of the glorious past destroyed by Spanish intrusion. It offered a key to national identity and corresponding orientations for future national development, as well as examples to emulate in the nationalist struggle. Finally, it provided a legitimation of struggle for freedom and the destruction of colonial rule. Rizal accepted Western historical research with its rigorous methodology, and wished his work to be judged by those standards. But at the same time he wrote as a Filipino and an Asian, and worked intensely to read once more through Asian eyes the accounts that had come from European pens. Rizal’s edition of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas was to serve a more pragmatic purpose—to form the foundation for the new Filipino society. It would complete the critique and point the direction to be taken for the redemption of the race from the corrupting influence of colonialism. In his preface Rizal makes clear its place in his master plan. The Noli revealed “the present state of our fatherland”; his Morga now attempts to awaken in Filipinos “the consciousness of our past” in order to be able to “dedicate ourselves to studying the future.” The twofold purpose implied in this program is implemented by copius annotations, depicting the advanced state of pre-Hispanic Filipino society and portraying the destructive effects of colonization on that society. Each point Morga makes concerning the accomplishments of the pre-Hispanic Filipinos, Rizal contrasts with their subsequent decline.
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The reason for all the decadence is that the natives, “seeing that they were molested and exploited by their encomenderos for the sake of the products of their industry…began to break their looms, abandon their gold mines, their fields, etc., imagining that their conquerors would leave them alone on seeing them poor, wretched, and unexploitable.” The moral level of Filipino society “was for that age very advanced”; indeed, in many respects it was superior to that of Christian Europe. The Spanish conquest had then been largely a calamity for the Filipinos; the Spanish pretensions to pacify a province and to entrust (encomendar) it to an encomendero for its government were cruel sarcasms. Pacification meant in reality to make war or sow enmities between groups of Filipinos. Rizal saw the conquest itself partly as the result the disunion of the Filipinos themselves. He also viewed it as partly a result of force, where the persuasive powers of the missionaries proved inefficacious. Finally, it represented an acquiescence of the Filipinos to alliance with the Spaniards, deceived by the colonizers’ promises of friendship and loyalty, or won by Christianity. In the end, the submission to Spanish rule did not come by means of conquest in the major islands. Rather, it was effected “by means of agreements, treaties of friendship, and mutual alliances.” Unfortunately, the Spaniards have not kept their part on the contractual relationship they entered into. This theme of the pacto de sangre would recur frequently in the thought of the Filipino nationalists of this period. For them it symbolized the historical fact that for the most part Spanish sovereignty over the Philippines had been accepted with little bloodshed—not even a conquest properly so called, as Rizal notes, but an agreement freely entered into, by which Spain had committed herself to bring the Filipinos along the path of progress and higher civilization. History now serves as the moral legitimation of the coming anticolonial struggle. Rizal felt deeply that it was in understanding the pre-Hispanic Philippines that the Filipinos would understand themselves, would find the identity on which a new nation could rise. Rizal’s concern, is not solely to downgrade the Spanish contribution, but to make Filipinos realize what had been their own, which in ill-conceived moment they had abandoned. He showed concern not only for a Filipino point of view but for an Asian one. He not only refuted Spanish pretensions to superiority over Filipinos, but asserted Asian rights and an Asian point of view against that of “Europe, so satisfied with its own morality.” Though no contacts of Rizal with other Asian nationalists are known, he was conscious of Filipino links with other Asian, he spent time in Japan studying Japanese culture and ways, and he increasingly showed signs of his consciousness of Filipino solidarity with other Malay peoples. In his “Filipinas dentro de cien años,” he sketches the same themes of how the people had abandoned their tyrannical native rulers and accepted Spanish sovereignty, hoping to alleviate their lot. But in the process they had lost their culture, their ethics, and their customs, though in their debasement they were now beginning to awake anew. More especially in “Sobre la indolencia del Filipino,” he draws on the themes he had emphasized in his edition of Morga to explain the indolence that was the favorite reproach of Spanish colonialists. What must be sought out is why it exists among Filipinos. For “the Filipinos have not always been what they are, witnesses whereto are all the historians of the first years after the discovery of the Islands.” Drawing not only from Morga but from the religious chroniclers, he traces the decay of Filipino mining, agriculture and commerce that were flourishing before the conquest but were gradually destroyed by Spanish oppression, on the one hand, and Dutch and Moro wars that devastated the disarmed Filipinos as a result of colonization, on the other. •
Lineage from Propagandists to Revolutionaries One area of undeniable continuity is the role of the Propagandists’ historiography
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in supplying the legitimation for the actual protagonists of the people’s revolution. The first manifesto to the public by Bonifacio, founder of the revolutionary Katipunan, in his newspaper Kalayaan reads like a summary of Rizal’s historiography: In the early times when the Spaniards had not yet set foot in this land, under the government of our true compatriots, the Filipinos were living in great abundance and prosperity. They lived in harmony with neighboring countries, especially with the Japanese, with whom they carried on commerce and trade, and their industry produced extraordinarily abundant fruits. As a result everyone lived in the fashion of the wealthy. Young and old, and even women knew how to read and write in their own native writing.” Then came the Spaniards, whom the Filipinos received in peace and friendship with the blood compact, and ever since it has been the Filipinos who have supported the Spaniards with their wealth and their blood. In exchange the Filipinos have received only treachery and cruelty; the time has come to recognize the source of all their misfortunes and unite to restore the happiness and prosperity of their native land. The language is the Tagalog of the people rather than the Spanish of the ilustrados, and the tone is one of an impassioned cry to action rather than that of scholarly investigation, but the lineage from Rizal to Bonifacio is unmistakable. The Spanish historiography mandating Filipino loyalty that had provided a rational and moral legitimation for the new nation. Such legitimation was nit merely for the intellectuals, but more important, for the ordinary people, indoctrinated with notions of obligation to Spain. •
American Appropriation of Propagandist Views It would be under the American regime, which Rizal never knew, that his and his fellow Propagandists’ historical views would be influential, but in a direction Rizal would never have envisaged. American-sponsored ideology: that the Filipino people, stunted abruptly in its development by Spanish misrule, could eventually become a great nation under American tutelage, if only they embraced American ideals, values, and practices. So complete was this American appropriation of the Propaganda’s reconstruction of the Filipino past that post-independence nationalist historiography in its own reconstruction of that past and search for national identity has tended to underplay or ignore, paradoxically, both the period Rizal saw as the destruction of Filipino culture, and the work of Rizal himself—the former as a Spanish period, the latter as an American view.
The Propaganda Movement, Literature and the Arts 19th- century Filipino nationalism was in many ways close related to the nationalist movements that sprang out of the romantic movement of early 19 th century Europe. Not least of these connections is the prominent place of cultural interests in the live of many of the leading nationalists. Men of the Propaganda Movement are characterized as the “creators of national consciousness,” a national consciousness that was to make possible a revolution and not just a revolt in 1896. A major part of this creation of a national consciousness was the effort to delineate a culture that was recognizably peculiarly Filipino. Particularly significant was the inspiration of the German Herder to whose influence in himself Rizal paid such fulsome tribute in one of his letters to Ferdinand Blumentritt. Main concern: that cultural dimension of the nationalist movement given expression in creative literature and the fine arts, and the role these played in the creation of a Filipino national consciousness. Poetry, the novel, painting, engraving, literary essays, sculpture, music—all were prominent among the interests of the expatriate Filipinos, and most of them were put to the service of the nationalist cause in one way or another. Two principal overlapping phases of the creation of a national consciousness: 1) The insistence on the equality of Filipinos with Spaniards; and 2) one which tried to develop a specifically Filipino
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national culture, one peculiarly theirs. These men thought of themselves first as Filipinos and insisted on a distinct Filipino character, culture, and national identity. •
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Securing a Place in Spanish Culture The literary and artistic accomplishments of the Filipinos in Spain correspond to these two phases in the development of nationalism. The initial step was represented by Pedro Paterno’s slight book of verses, Sampaguitas, published in 1881. They are not great literature nor even good; their significance is in the fact that this was the first conscious attempt to create a Filipino literature. For Paterno presented his Sampaguitas as the first volume of a projected series called Biblioteca Filipina, intended to present to the public, as he asserted, the mature fruits of young Filipino talent. If the attempt must be judged a failure by artistic norms, it is significant for showing the direction of thinking on the part of the Filipinos in Spain; to show their ability to participate in Spanish literature culture. Early Filipino achievements in painting: the paintings awarded medals at the Exposición de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1884. Juan Luna’s Spolarium and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s Virgenes cristianas expuestas al populacho are certainly achievements far superior to Paterno’s Sampaguitas. Filipinos who celebrated their triumph with a splendid banquet in Madrid saw this triumph essentially as a proof that the Philippines too shared in the normative culture of Europe. Graciano Lopez Jaena’s toast to the two painters: “The brush of Luna and the palette of Hidalgo have given one more irrefutable proof that ability and genius are not the exclusive patrimony of those races who call themselves superior and who make a boast of being the depositories of intellectual capacities, and of their cultural development and civilization.” Rizal’s toast, addressing the Spaniards present at the banquet: “To you is due the beauty of the diamonds which the Philippines wears in her crown; she has given the precious stones, Europe has provided the polish to them. And all of us contemplate with pride—you, your work; we, the flame, the spirit, the materials which we have supplied.” Themes of the two paintings: taken from classical Rome → meant as an assertion of the ability of Filipinos to compete with Europeans on their own ground. Creating a Filipino Literature and Art Towards the second phase: some of the Filipino nationalists would attempt to create art and literature distinctively Filipino. The first hint of the new outlook is once again Pedro Paterno, with the first attempt at the Filipino novel, Ninay. It is not much of a novel, but is the precursor of other literary works that would be more truly Filipino essays and Filipino novels, growing out of Filipino experience and concerns. The Noli distinctively marked the new direction in Filipino art and literature in relation to nationalism. Rizal proclaims in it subtitle, “Novela tagala,” even if it be written in Spanish. In it we find Filipino life—its joys and sufferings, its virtues and vices, its noble heroes and its contemptible villains, the silly pretensions of the colonial-minded, and the profound philosophy enshrined in its folk wisdom, especially the literature of Balagtas. It is Filipino life at its best and at its worst, but written unmistakably by a Filipino and directed to the Filipinos. All the subsequent major writings of Rizal, be they novels, essays historical and political, poetry, even sculptures, are expressions of the ideal he cherished of creating among his people a free modern nation, developing to the full its natural capacities. Rizal’s novels are of course political novels, but they are also works of literature whose art can be appreciated and enjoyed even when the political situation against which they were directed is long gone. They, the Noli, in particular, have a quality that will make them rank high
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in the appreciation of those who have known and understood Filipino society of that period. For they look deep into that society and draw their power from this insight into the life and aspirations of the Filipino people: “I have tried to do what no one else has been willing to do. I have had to reply to the calumnies which for centuries have been heaped upon us and our people I have described the state of our society, our life, our beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our complaints, our laments.” Another sign of the consciousness of a specifically Filipino literature may be found in the literary section, “Artes y Letras,” of the Filipino newspaper España en Filipinas, which appeared in 1887. A sonnet by Evaristo Aguirre in memory of the Muslim woman Basalia, a victim of pneumonia at the Madrid Exposición de Filipinas in 1887, caused the downfall of the newspaper. The sonnet’s apostrophe to this “daughter of an unconquered race” was enough to frighten off conservative Filipino support for the newspaper and bring about its financial collapse. It showed that even creative literature could be nationalist, depending on one’s point of view. La Solidaridad too featured a section entitled “Artes y Letras.” Though a large proportion of the contributions here were likewise of little nationalist significance, its character changed with the appearance of a series of vignettes by Antonio Luna. He wrote his own descriptions and vignettes of life in Madrid, under the title Impresiones madrilènes. He satirized and poked fun at the pretensions and foibles of Madrid life in a series of pen-pictures. His real purpose, was revealed in his letter to Rizal where he predicted that he would be attacked for his book “because it has the wicked presumptuousness to ovethrow the idol, smashing its pedestal to pieces.” Juan Luna was deeply involved emotionally in the campaign for Filipino rights. The one painting that deals with a theme much argued by the Propagandists was his El Pacto de sangre , now to be found in Malacañang. For Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar, Bonifacio and Aguinaldo, the blood compact of Legazpi and Katunaw was a symbol of the alliance freely entered into by Filipinos with the Spaniards in the 16 th century, a compact now seen to be perjured by Spain through her failure to bring progress and prosperity to the Filipinos. Economic Factors in the Revolution Prosperity as a Precondition for Nationalist Development • The growth of the agricultural export economy not only made it possible for an ever-increasing number of young Filipinos to go abroad for higher education, but allowed them to live on in Europe for years. This, however, was minor in comparison with the very large sums of money spent in Spain on the campaign of the Propaganda Movement. This movement was not simply an affair of nationalistic Filipino students writing occasional articles for a newspaper devoting itself to Philippine concerns. The early phases of the movement did begin that way, with the financial help of wealthy Philippine Spaniards in Madrid. But once it turned from a reformist direction toward even a hint of nationalism, the majority of Spanish support was immediately withdrawn, and the first two Filipino newspapers in Madrid, Revista del Círculo Hispano-Filipino (1882) and España en Filipinas (1887), collapsed. By this time it had become clear to even those Filipinos who were mere assimilationists and not separatists that they had to depend on substantial support from Filipinos at home. Both Rizal and Del Pilar came from upper-middle-class families; however, they did not possess the economic resources of Spanish mestizos and criollos like Pedro Roxas, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, or the wealthier hacenderos of Negros and Iloilo. Yet Rizal supported himself and his work abroad, including two trips to Spain and back, for ten years from the resources of his family. Only in his last two years of freedom did he receive some irregular money from the Comité de Propaganda in Manila, and only in his short months in Hong Kong and in the Philippines was he able to use his medical skills to support himself.
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The financing of the Propaganda Movement in the narrower sense, the political and journalistic campaign carried on under direction of Marcelo del Pilar from 1888 to 1895, is even more indicative of the support available from the Philippines. Large sums of money for the campaign was being regularly sent to Spain. Even then Del Pilar, personally supported by his relatives and friends in Malolos, often lived in great penury in his later years. From the beginning La Solidaridad and the pamphlets published by Del Pilar in Tagalog and in Spanish, such as La soberanía monacal, were pure liabilities from a financial point of view. Other major expenses were incurred in Madrid to arrange large banquets to which Spanish politicians might be invited—most probably at fee—to speak, and to subsidize Spanish journalists to report the speeches at length in newspapers of Madrid and Barcelona. Similarly, public protest meetings were held on the occasion of such events as the eviction of the Calamba hacienda tenants, in which theaters were rented and speakers arranged. Most important, and probably most expensive, was getting members of the Spanish Cortes to raise in the parliament issues of interest to the Filipinos, and to lobby for the passing of laws such as one authorizing the election of representatives to the Cortes from the Philippines. The sample factors on the expenses mentioned shows that economic prosperity in Manila and the Tagalog region—from which most of the support came—must have been considerable. Nor did the campaign in Spain come to an end simply because it could no longer be supported from Manila. Rather, the approach being pursued by Del Pilar in Spain had by now be seen by many, and not only by Katipuneros, as futile. The decision of Del Pilar’s chief supporters to turn their further efforts toward obtaining help from Japan, where they wanted him to join the Filipinos already there in securing aid, arms, or intervention from the Japanese, brought their financial support for the Propaganda Movement to an end. If the movement had been a failure in terms of its original professed purposes, and perhaps in the mind of Del Pilar himself, it had nonetheless prepared the minds of the many for a nationalist revolution. The economic prosperity that had made it possible was a necessary precondition to any real revolution that would not be merely one more ineffective revolt against colonial oppression. But it was only a precondition. The same kind of prosperity that provided the undergirding for the nationalist movement in the Tagalog provinces served conversely to keep the hacenderos of Negros far from any revolutionary activity. The difference between Negros prosperity and that of the Tagalog-Pampanga provinces is the existence of a nationalist ideology in the latter, dating from the time of Burgos or even earlier, to which Rizal, Del Pilar, Bonifacio and Jacinto, and hence the Revolution, were heirs. •
The Land Factor The decades preceding the Revolution had seen a great growth in the value of land around Manila, especially land to be used for the export crop of sugar. Given the problems of transportation to the capital, the land nearest Manila commanded the highest price. But even more distant lands now became proportionately valuable, so that the small plots of land cleared by pioneer Ilocanos in Tarlac and Nueva Ecija a few decades earlier were appropriated or swallowed up by landlords moving up from Bulacan or Pampanga. The poor were being despoiled of their land by the rich in all parts of Luzon under pretext of the Revolution. Here was indeed agrarian unrest, but it was not directed against the friars. In the light of this formation of haciendas, it should not be surprising that those who sought to take over the friar lands were not the kasamá but the middle-class inquilinos . The latter rented lands from friar orders and farmed these through their kasamá. Calamba case—because of the involvement of Rizal, has created the impression of widespread antifriar agrarian unrest. Nature of the dispute: 1) it was not a revolt of the kasamá,
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but of the well-to-do inquilinos; 2) though there were economic factors involved, the dispute was primarily political; 3) though the extent of the Dominican holdings was challenged, the ownership of the hacienda was not. The friar lands should be seen as a factor in the Revolution not because of any agrarian unrest existing prior to the Revolution, bur because of their attractiveness to the inquilinos, who alone were in a position to profit from them. The friar lands did not bring about the Revolution, but they did offer a powerful incentive to encourage some adherents. Filipino Masonry The Masonic lodges served as centers for many of the Liberal conspiracies in Spain against clerical and reactionary governments during the first three-quarters of the 19 th century. It might be expected, that in a society theocratic in nature—as was the 19 th- century Philippines— Masonry would play a significant part. This was because of its anticlerical orientation and because of the opportunity its secrecy allowed for clandestine activity. •
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Early Masonry in the Philippines The first lodges set up in Manila seem to date from the mid-1850s, formed among Spanish officers in the Philippines, followed by other among foreign merchants. It is claimed also that sometime before 1872, some Filipinos were admitted to a lodge in those exiled in the aftermath of the insurrection of 1872.. If any Filipinos did remain in the lodges, they were eliminated in the reorganization that took place under the auspices of the Gran Oriente de España in 1874. The Philippine Masonic lodges remained completely European in their membership until Filipino lodges were introduced in 1891 by Filipino Masons returning from Spain after being initiated there. In the extant list of lodge members from 1884, the only one identifiable as a Filipino is Jose A. Ramos, affiliated with the lodge Luz de Oriente. In 1887 Ramos again appears as one of the founders of the lodge Constancia, likewise in Manila, in which all members are explicitly noted as Europeans, wit the exception of Ramos, denominated “Philippine Spaniard.” Early Filipino Masons in Spain Filipino students in Europe were ready to join the Masonic lodges there where the race barrier did not prevent them. First clear evidence : membership of Rafael Del Pan, a criollo, whose father—José Felipe del Pan—was a long-time prominent Spanish resident of the Philippines and publisher of the Manila newspaper La Oceanía Española. In April 1886, Del Pan appears as one of the founders of a lodge called Solidaridad. Shortly after its foundation, two other Filipinos—Evaristo Aguirre and Julio Llorente—also joined Solidaridad. There are several indications that this lodge, largely made up of students from Spain’s overseas provinces, was the work of Miguel Morayta. The surviving records of the lodge indicate that it led a rather languid life. In general, there had been a large turnover of members in 1886. Apparently already initiated a Mason in 1882 in the lodge Porvenir but long inactive, Graciano Lopez Jaena affiliated with Solidaridad in April 1887. Majority of the members of the lodge voted to join with certain other lodges to form a new lodge: Luz de Mantua, no. 1. Among them, the only Filipino was Lopez Jaena. Although the Filipinos never formed more than a handful in the early lodge Solidaridad, the importance of the episode is the introduction of Masonry among the Filipino colony in Madrid; and the contacts established under the aegis of Miguel Morayta.
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•
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The Lodge Revolución The first predominantly Filipino lodge, was to be founded in Barcelona in April 1889, under the title “Revolución.” The initiative seems to have come from a former Spanish officer, Celso Mir Deas, who, while in the Philippines, had married a Filipina. Original members: Mir Deas, Lopez Jaena, M.H. Del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Jose Ma. Panganiban, Juan Jose Cañarte and Justo Argudin. Immediately upon its organization, the lodge addressed Morayta, who had founded a new federation—Gran Oriente Español—a few months earlier, recognizing the Masonic legality of Morayta’s federation and petitioning affiliation for itself. Just two weeks later, Morayta made a trip from Madrid to Barcelona, where he was honored by the Filipino colony with a banquet. It was at this time that Del Pilar made his first contacts with Morayta, from which would spring a close association and friendship between the two men. Del Pilar would eventually hold a high position in Spanish Masonry; Morayta would collaborate with the Filipino campaign. The surviving records of Revolución for the year 1889 show that most of the Filipinos in Barcelona soon joined the lodge, and that these Filipinos rapidly ascended to the higher degrees of Masonry. Other Filipinos who joined in 1889: Santiago Icasiano, Ariston Bautista, Galicano Apacible, Damaso Ponce, Ramon Imperial, Agustin Blanco, Domingo Marcelo Cortes, and Teodoro Sandico. It would seem to be the desire of the Filipinos, particularly Del Pilar, to rise to positions in Masonry where they could make use of their Masonic relationships more effectively for their political purposes in the Philippines. Certainly, he intended to make use of Masonry in his campaign to destroy the power of the friars in the Philippines. Masonry and the Filipino Antifriar Campaign Giving an insight into the strategy he proposed in his campaign for Europe, two instances of this use of Masonic influence by Del Pilar may be cited: 1)
the sponsorship by Del Pilar and his associate of Manrique Alonso Lallave, a renegade friar from the Philippines who had turned Protestant, and in 1889 returned to Manila to open a Protestant chapel there. (Despite Lallave being anti-friar, he was racist against Filipinos)
2)
Del Pilar now proposed in his campaign to destroy the influence of the friars in the Philippines, to cooperate with Lallave and other elements in Spanish political life who were sponsoring him, notably the ex-revolutionary, former Grand Master of the Gran Oriente de España, Manuel Becerra, now Overseas Minister in the Liberal Cabinet of Sagasta. (threat to the Church in the Philippines)
In an early circular to the governor general, Becerra ostentatiously called on the latter to favor the work of the religious orders in the Philippines, but went on to say that he must not forget “that in the territory of that jurisdiction there are Europeans, Asiatics, and Americans who profess different religions. All these should be respected in their beliefs and in their worship, as they have been ever since the wise Laws of the Indies were first laid down.” Del Pilar, in a letter to Pedro Serrano Laktaw, pointed out that he considered this to be
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“the gravest threat that can be made under current legislation against the theocratic power. Becerra cannot descent to details. The question is whether we know how to develop its potentialities.” Under the protection of that circular, you have coming to you there in person, in body and soul, your Manrique Lallave, now a Protestant pastor. The government will not be able to prosecute him, since he is protected by the circular. If he succeeds in making proselytes, an exposition will be presented to the government with 300,000 signatures in demand of greater tolerance and even of freedom of worship. This latter is still a remote possibility, but even toleration is already a great step against the monastic power. As to their expulsion, you know already that we cannot hope for this from the government; we have to do it ourselves.” Del Pilar counsels Serrano to aid Lallave clandestinely with the assistance of Doroteo Cortes and Jose Ramos. But the plan did not prosper, since Lallave contracted a fever a few weeks after his arrival in Manila, and after two weeks of sickness, died. The planned support of Lallave is one being Masonic, specifically, from the Gran Oriente Español, headed by Morayta. Lallave had been a very active Mason for many years, had published a number of Masonic works, and was editor of the Masonic journal Taller from its foundation. Morayta showed himself active in behalf of the Filipinos, and Del Pilar seems to have taken his final decision to go to Madrid and centralize his organization there in conjunction with the former. Del Pilar wrote to Rizal, who seems to have joined Masonry sometime earlier: “If you can take advantage of the support of the “Gran Familia,” now is the time. For Becerra belongs to it, and besides, this oppressive measure [administrative deportation] affects its prestige and good name, since it is its own members and its friends who are subject to this prosecution.” Rizal, however, was unwilling to make use of Masonic influence, since he declared that he did not want “to owe the tranquility of the Philippines to anyone except the forces of the country itself…” By February 1890, the Revolución ceased to exist as a predominantly Filipino lodge. However, the association of the nationalist movement with Spanish Masonry under the leadership of Del Pilar had only begun. •
The New Lodge “Solidaridad” The revived Solidaridad was almost entirely Filipino in its membership, unlike earlier lodges in which the Filipinos had participated. Perhaps it was the suspicion aroused by the all-Filipino character of the lodge that accounts for its not actually receiving its charter until May 1890. The lodge continued to absorb Filipinos who came to Madrid, and who showed interest in working actively in the nationalist movement. The original membership included: Julio Llorente, M.H. Del Pilar, Damaso Ponce, Dominador Gomez, Teodoro Sandiko, Antonio Luna, Telesforo Sukgang, Ariston Bautista, Jose Yzama, Jose Alejandrino, and Francisco Sunico. By the following year, the original group had been joined by new arrivals in Madrid, including Pedro Serano, Baldomero Roxas, Galicano Apacible, Mariano Kunanan, Lauro Dimayuga, Jose Abreu, Gregorio Aguilera, Pablo Rianzares, Melencio Figueroa, Moises Salvador, and Jose Rizal. However, by no means were all of these active members. Several members dropped after a time for failure to attend meetings, while numerous others like Rizal, Alejandrino, Bautista and Cunanan, had to withdraw from the lodge on leaving Madrid for the Philippines or elsewhere. Two principal functions of the lodge:
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1) the education or indoctrination of the members with Masonic ideals, particularly with regard to the Philippines. Lectures: Damaso Ponce on Filipino representation in the Cortes; Pedro Serrano Laktaw on the teaching of Spanish in the Philippines; Rizal on the concept of virtue as the habitual fulfillment of daily duties; and by M. H. Del Pilar on the specific duty of Filipino Masons to carry the message of Masonry to their country as the means of counteracting the evil influence of Catholicism in the Philippines. 2) The enlisting of political support for Filipino nationalist aspirations. Del Pilar’s threefold structure: La Solidaridad + Asociación Hispano-Filipino + lodge Solidaridad (affiliated with Gran Oriente Español) Masonic Ties and the Nationalist Campaign Del Pilar’s use of the Masonic connections made possible by the lodge Solidaridad is best illustrated in the campaign he waged for representation of the Philippines in the Cortes. At a meeting of the Asociación Hispano-Filipina on 4 June 1891, an exposition to the Cortes was approved that outlined the unjust situation of the Philippines, supposedly an integral part of Spain, yet deprived of any representative of its interests in the Cortes. This exposition was shortly thereafter presented to both houses of the Cortes. At the same time, Solidaridad circularized other Masonic lodges all over the country, asking for support of all their members in petitioning the Cortes in favor of Philippine representation as requested in the exposition. As a result, signatures began to come from different parts of Spain, supporting the petition. In April 1892 Solidaridad addressed a new circular addressed a new circular to the lodges, reinforcing the previous arguments, with an appeal to the preamble to the constitution of the Gran Oriente Español, which had pledged the federation to work for the liberation of the Filipinos from the crushing yoke of the clericalism. In view of the pledge, Solidaridad asked the cooperation of all the lodges in securing more signatures for the Filipino petition. Though the maneuver itself of trying to get action from the Cortes through petition was unsuccessful, the success in obtaining signatures for the petition shows clearly the efficacy of the Masonic ties forged by Del Pilar through the lodge Solidaridad. As early as 1891 there appear to have been plans to extend Masonry to the Philippines. It is said that a plan to organize Filipino lodges in the Philippines under the auspices of the Gran Oriente Español was drawn up at this time by Antonio Luna and Pedro Serrano. Pedro Serrano, Moises Salvador, Timoteo Paez, and Jose Ramos joined in setting up the first Filipino lodge, Nilad, on 6 January 1892. From this “Mother Lodge” other lodges quickly sprang up both around Manila and in the provinces, with Nilad acting as intermediary between these lodges and the Gran Oriente Español. Under the direction of Serrano, each of the lodges in the Philippines contributed financially to the support of Solidaridad and of the Asociación Hispano-Filipina and the Propaganda in Madrid. At the time of the quarrels between Serrano and the other lodges, however, the system seems to have broken down, and the autonomous Grand Regional Council was set up in 1893. Neither the Asociación Hispano-Filipina nor Solidaridad any longer functioned much after 1894. Though the headquarters continued to exist with the title Asociación Hispano-Filipina over its door until 1896, these headquarters for the previous two years had served no other purpose than a place where the “Sección recreativa” of the Asociación occasionally held dances for the Filipinos in Madrid. After Marcelo Del Pilar and Mariano Ponce had been finally forced to suspend indefinitely the publication of La Solidaridad in November 1895. They had eventually gone to
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Barcelona, where they were preparing to take ship for Hong Kong and Japan when Del Pilar died in July 1896. The Making of a Nation: In the continued struggle for a national unity that will afford freedom and equality to every Filipino, a return to the vision that found its most thoughtful articulation in Rizal will repay the effort.
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