Find Dr. José Rizal in the Picture

Spoliarium,   Juan Luna, Madrid 1884
Philippine National Museum

One day, in 1885  at his atelier in Paris, Juan Luna prepared a big format canvas for a mannerist (wide  large open) style scene for which he is most famous.

Earlier in 1884,  in a blind jury competition, he  won the prestigious National Exposition of Fine Arts competition in Madrid .  He was awarded the First Prize for his rendering of slain gladiators being dragged to a back room deep down within the bowels of the ancient Roman Colliseum.  Here Juan Luna depicted the victims' corpses  being dragged for despoiling (spoliarium) their garments and other belongings.  The painting was titled Spoliarium.   (Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo's painting,  Christian virgins exposed to the mob garnered the second prize in the same art competition.)   Rizal gave the celebratory toast honoriing these two gentlemen at a dinner held in Hotel Inglés, Madrid.  In his toast he pointed out that these two Filipinos's artistic talent and individual genius bested  their Spanish competitors in a fair and blind contest. 


Heady with success, Luna received many art commissions.  One was for a mannerist painting of a Philippine historical scene.  

History recalls that in 1565, when the Spanish conquistador, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi landed in Cebu, he began to explore the neighboring islands of  Bohol, Negros, and Mindanao.  In each island with a friendly chief, he was obliged to perform the friendship or brotherhood ritual of Sandugo  or blood compact.  Luna chose this particular event  El Pacto de Sangre-- The Blood Compact  to paint.  

Juan Luna, this greatest of Filipino painters,  primed his canvas with rabbit resin glue. He ragged his brushes for painting hair, beards, mustaches and fine strokes. He ground his colors into pigments: lapis lazuli for blues, cochneal  shells for purples,  mineral cinnabar for reds, cobalt with oxide for greens, ochre italian for yellows.  (I'm sure his mixing of pigments with solvents tinted with lead had gradually poisoned his blood stream and affected his disposition because he was known to often fly into wild rages of anger at the smallest slight.)   

On his canvas, he sketched that historic moment.  Each representative chief, facing each other, nicks his arm,  drips  blood  into a glass of local wine, pours the mixed drink into his own glass and drinks a toast to the effect that:  No Spaniard were to enter the local villages without the chief's  presence.  And in the true spirit of brotherhood, to use only legally approved measures in trade.   

Luna needed several models to sit for this Still Life.  His choice for Legazpi was clear.  The physician, Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera,  Philippine-born (Insular) of Spanish parents, fit the bill perfectly.  But who must model Chief Sikatuna of Bohol?

Luna carefully studied the profiles and contours of the Filipino compatriots who constantly milled around his studio.  Valentin Ventura won't do: he's too  lanky and skinny.  Baldomero Roxas' head is disproportionate to his neck.  Pedro Paterno, with too many social engagements, will be disruptive to the whole project.  Aguillera can't sit still.  Rizal had a squarish broad back and bulging biceps.  (Rizal's consistent visits to the gym paid well.)  But of course!  ¡Claro que sí!   Luna got his model for Sikatuna.  

The Blood Compact, Juan Luna
 Malacañang Palace, Manila

Do you see Dr. José Rizal in this painting?

After sittings,  Juan Luna's models would be full of themselves and horse around.  Once, they got Luna's props and donned exotic costumes for a  photo tableau.  Guess where José Rizal can be found in this photo?

The Death of Cleopatra, a photo tableau

Rizal is the scribe wearing a dark Egyptian headdress,  sphinx-like in the foreground.

Valentin Ventura is the person sitting behind Cleopatra's body in the background.

Juan Luna, draped in Roman toga, is Marc Anthony standing by Cleopatra's feet.

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How Good was Dr. José Rizal's English?

Jose Rizal,oil Juan LunaImage via Wikipedia

Dr. José Rizal's Spanish is pure beauty.  Just read his Noli me tangere novel.   It is idiomatic, smooth, funny, nuanced, contextually apppropriate and as all Castilian language standards go, very  metaphorical and literary.   To us,  writing in straightforward contemporary style, we can say he was quite flowery.



In his personal letters to his family he sometimes changed from Tagalog, to Spanish.  To Paciano, it was always in Spanish.  To his sisters, he occasionally wrote in Tagalog.

To Blumentritt, he wrote first in Spanish but later mostly in German, occasionally in French and once in English (he explains so that he won't forget the language.) We know that José Rizal went to London, first to learn English and second, †o study about pre-colonial Philippines through the historical report of Antonio Morga's  Sucessos.

His French greatly improved when he visited with the Indios Bravos, among them Filipino students in Paris, i.e. Baldomero Roxas, Gregorio Aguilera, Guillermo Puato and Lauro Dimayuga.  So were his friends Juan Luna, Valentin Ventura,  the Paterno brothers and the Pardo de Taveras .  I sent my friend Colin, a Parisian,  a specimen of his written French.   He declared, "His French is passable."  When Rizal was a resident in the British colony of Hongkong, he wrote  Blumentritt a letter which contained one page  in English.

So,  how was Dr. José Rizal's English?


 I found a letter he wrote in English to Blumentritt  from Dapitan, Zamboanga, Philippines, dated  31, July 1898.  He wrote:  (original;  copied from a handwritten facsimile)

"You would certainly oblige me my dear, if you send me a copy of that interesting account of the Chinese about my country.  Do you remember that Mr Hirsch's translation?

My grammar about the Tagal I long ago finished.  I intend to published  it as soon as I shall be set at liberty.  It will bring to light so many things that I believe nobody thought of.  I make references to Bisaya, Malay and Madecassi's, according to Dr. Grandstetter.  Greet him, if you ever write to him.  


My life now is quiet, peaceful, retired and without glory, but I think it is useful too. I teach here the poor but intelligent boys, reading, Spanish, English! Mathematics and Geometry, moreover I teach them to behave like men.  I taught the men here how to get a better way of earning their living and they think I am right.  We have begun and the success crowned our trials.

PS.  I got operated my Mother of cataract.  Thank God she is perfectly well now and can write and read with easy.  She and my young sister send you their best friendship and to your dear family too.

RIZAL

I gave a copy of Rizal's letter to an English teacher at a  San Francisco high school.  I told Marc that the writer was a Filipino novelist who wrote in Spanish and had no formal lessons in English.  Marc gave Rizal's letter a grade of B +.  How this English teacher arrived at this grade are the following points:

• Rizal  expressed himself very well in the language with  90% grammatical correctness, 
• He wrote with clarity of thought. 
• There are absolutely no spelling errors. 
• His noun and  verb agreements were at a high proficiency level. 
• As a beginning English learner he knew how to use transitions: i.e. but, moreover, 
• Rizal used correct forms of linguistic politeness and decorum, i.e.  certainly oblige me my dear...Greet him if you ever write...(they) send their best friendship...

Marc, who teaches a bilingual Latino Sophomore class,  noted Rizal's few Spanishmos-- dangling modifiers, adjectives after the subject or noun phrase.  For example Rizal wrote:

           My grammar (Rizal is referring to his Tagalog grammar book) I long ago finished.

Again Rizal used the same Spanish sentence structure:  I got operated, my mother...

One error occurred, this was when Rizal wrote,  "I intend to published..." In the original script, Rizal attached the "ed" in small letters at the end of the word publish as if he was not too sure of his grammar.   Understandably, this is an error many beginning English learners make .


It was however, very good English;  better than many college graduates  I know in our many public colleges here and abroad. 

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Dr. José Rizal and the coup d' état of 1882, Egypt: Then and Now.

A Look at Dr. José Rizal's Diary:  The Timeless Tragedy of the Suez Canal, Egypt, then and now.  


On  2nd June 1882, Dr. José Rizal  was aboard the steam ship Djemnah on his way to Marseilles, France via the Suez Canal.  

Aden, Yemen on the Red Sea

 Rizal wrote down his observations of Aden complete with a pen and ink sketch of the port of call.  From Aden, his ship navigated the Red Sea and then entered the Suez Canal. Suez  Canal was then recently opened.  It was known as The Highway to India.  Its passage shortened  by more than half, the distance from the European capitals of commerce to India and South East Asia where the plentiful supply of spices is found. 

Image via Wikipedia

Rizal described the lakes on the Suez Canal.

When Rizal arrived at Suez Canal, (while their ship was quarantined and docked on port), the Egyptian ruler was deposed through a coup de état. He learned about this political event through the physician who boarded the ship.  It appears that a young army officer  (a colonel, sounds familiar ?) by the name of Arabi Bey Pasha led a revolt against the ruler who served as an ally to the British in Egypt.  (sounds familiar?).  The anti-government agitation began in Alexandria and spread throughout Egypt under the slogan "Egypt for the Egyptian people."  (Sounds similar to people power ?). The British consequently interfered with armed force to keep the canal open to foreign passage. 


Looking at a satellite map today, we can clearly see what Rizal was writing about when he wrote: "The Canal, which opened in the middle of a dessert of sand and stone,  is 85 kilometers long and perhaps 80 varas wide."  I believe in the reliability of Rizal's land estimates and measure.  While a student at the Ateneo Municipal in Manila, in 1881, he studied and earned a Land Surveyor's license.  Apparently Paciano had asked him to survey the parcel of land belonging to the family.. 


Rizal continues with his description of the Canal. "It is not straight throughout its length; it has curves but small ones; sometimes it flows into a lake; where it is  narrowest it is believed Moses passed  though while wandering in the desert.  It crosses three lakes in its course. On both banks. which are all yellow and white; where it is a real jewel to find grass, are erected some telephone stations at regular intervals." 


From Suez Canal, Dr. José Rizal  embarks and lands in Port Said, a cosmopolitan city that straddles Africa and Europe.  He noted with interest  the various members  of several nationalities who lived in that city.


Today, I hope that the Egyptian contemporary political situation stabilizes because in July of this year, 2011, I will be tracing the footsteps of Dr. José Rizal as he entered through the Suez Canal to Port Said.  I already booked my flight and I'll be sure to get a fairly good grasp of what Dr. José Rizal  saw then in the 19th century (1882) and what he would have observed had he arrived now in the 21st century (2011).  

Dr. José Rizal's pen and ink sketch of Aden, Yemen, 1882.

José Rizal's pen & ink sketch of Aden, Yemen,  28 May,1882 

In 1882, Jose Rizal was on his way to Spain. It was his first trip abroad, and being such a keen and interested observer, he brought his sketch book along and made pen and ink sketches of most ports his ship visited.

What caught my attention is José Rizal's sketch of Aden, Yemen.  Today, Yemen is currently in turmoil and is presently in our daily world news headlines due of the demonstrations sweeping the Middle East. In 1992, the USS Cole was bombed  in Aden by Al Qaeda terrorists.  This week, Yemen's president,  Saleh,  is under pressure for reform though people power.

The port of Aden, Yemen is  important for the US Navy fleet.  It was an important port of call in the 1880's.  Steamers coming from Asia load coal from this port before proceeding on to the Suez Canal on the way to Europe.

In Rizal's letter to his family he notes the heat:  "The ground, like the sun, is hot and hard, the wind, loaded with burning sand, disturbs now and then the quietness of its well made and deserted streets."
He said that only men can live there because "everywhere else is death, neither a root nor a leaf" can exist in Aden's environment.

Note how Rizal shows the attributes of a great writer.  He  doesn't tell us  directly that the land is a desert.  He shows us with metaphors and descriptions. Rizal described the landscape thus: "...limp and rickety trees...there's nothing but complete aridity...."   He went to the bazaar and noted the displayed goods:  "skins of lion, tiger, panther, and leopard, ostrich eggs and feathers...."

What intrigued Rizal was the method and special effect of conserving the water in such a dry place:  "There are the cisterns or reservoirs.  These are some large cavities, whitened with stucco formed by the mountain and a wall which, with the rock, form a receptacle." He was astounded by its size comparing the length to five times the size of a dam "like that we have there." He depicted the huge reservoir in his sketch.

In the course of a brief stop over in Aden, Yemen, Rizal was able to study the topography of the bay;  he likened it to a tunnel. The surrounding mountains,  he deftly sketched in soft black and white shades.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Filipino Book Festival: Penelope Flores's Rizal Lecture, SF Public Library, Slideshow

Filipino Book Festival: Penelope Flores's Rizal Lecture, SF Public Library, Slideshow

Where did Dr. José Rizal write his famous novel: Noli me tángere?

Cover via Amazonwhere did Dr. jose rizal write the Noli me

Where did Jose Rizal sit down to physically write the Noli me tangere?

Dr. José Rizal started writing his novel Noli me tangere in Spain and finished up the last chapters in Germany.

When did he have the time to write?  It was 1885.  He just successfully completed his Philosophy and Letters course work at the Universidad Central de Madrid.  He was also completing his medical degree  at the Medical College of San Marcos.  He had a very busy schedule, but Rizal always always prioritized his hours.  He made sure that he attended events of interest at the Ateneo de Madrid.   Rizal's thoughts were already venturing into writing a novel about the Philippine condition.  The idea was just  percolating in his mind.  With his enriched exposure at the Ateneo de Madrid  his writing plans like  a bottle of Champagne, begin to bubble to the surface with particular excitement as he met and interacted with several authors of the period.

We have a different view of Ateneo.  We are blindsided by the fact that the Jesuits in the Philippines founded their college (later elevated to a university) as the Ateneo de Manila.  The Ateneo de Madrid is not a degree-granting university but  a venue for scholars, writers, students, and artists. In effect it was and still is, a social and academic community that polished a person's views and exposed one to a multifaceted high culture of scholarship and research. 

At the Ateneo, de Madrid he was exposed to celebrated  scholars, authors, literary celebrities, as well as political figures (where he met Prince Bismarck of Bavaria) through lectures, interviews, tertulias, drinking bouts, fabulous dinners,  and theater and cultural performances.


Just to give readers a sense of my visit at Ateneo de Madrid in July 2007, I attended the following events: 

Madrid's Ateneo-- Rizal's favorite

• A sculpture exhibit by Paraula
• A lecture on writing the historical novel:  Laura Lopez and Mar Tomas
• The Short Story,  Rolando Sanchez Mejias
• The Classics:  Melcion Mateu
• Initiation into poetry: Marta Salinas
• Cinema,  I saw a Barcelona movie
• Culture, I attended a fashion show.  OK. not really high culture, I admit.

Where (in what apartment or residence) did he pen this famous novel which is read by ALL contemporary students in ALL Philippine schools?   It was at Calle Pizarro, numero 13, 2nd piso derecho.

 Calle Pizarro 15, formerly Pizarro 13, 2nd floor. (I know I took a picture of this place.  I have to dig up my files and attach it later.)

He lived here from August of 1883 to  September 1885.  The flat was convenient because of its proximity to the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras.  He was rooming with Ceferino de Leon and Julio Llorente.  However, on 30 July, 1885,  Rizal wrote his parents that Julio got married and moved out, while Ceferino left for Galicia in Northern Spain.  So Jose Rizal, for the very first time had the flat all to himself. This is where he finally and seriously sat down to write the Noli.

At certain intervals, he would invite his friends over and they would gather around Rizal for a  reading.   Once, he read his draft chapter on Sisa.  Not a single eye was dry.  Felix Pardo de Tavera, a medical student and a younger  brother of Trinidad, incredulously asked: "Is this true?"   Rizal  replied: "All I had written here actually happened."

Soon after Rizal got his medical degree he proceeded to Heidelberg Germany to train in Opthalmology with the noted eye specialist, Dr. Becker.  However, he chose to stay with a German family several miles away in the village of Wilhelmsfeld.  In the vicarage house of Pastor Karl Ullmer, he wrote the last final chapters of Noli me tangere.   

Schreisheimer Hof  is an inn near Pastor Karl Ullmer's vicarage house, Wilhelmsfeld, Heidelberg, Germany.  It was at this inn where Rizal and Pastor Ullmer met with a Catholic priest.  They spent the afternoon discussing about their respective Catholic and Protestant religions. Rizal learned a lot about regligious tolerance during their discussions.

Schreisheimer Hof,  an inn near Pastor Karl Ullmer's vicarage house,
Wilhelmsfeld, Heidelberg, Germany

The Noli me tangere  was printed in Berlin in 1887.  (See my blog on how Maximo Viola, my dad's uncle lent Rizal 300 pesetas to  have this printed.)

Rizal sent the first copy to Blumentritt.  The second was to Pastor Ullmer.  Ullmer's great grandsons, Fritz and Hans Hack donated their family copy to the Philippine Government in 1961 at Rizal's Centenary Birthday celebration.

Leoncio Lopez Rizal standing between Fritz Hack and Hans Hack of Wilhelmsfeld, Germany. 1961.

penelopevflores.blogspot.comFilipino Book Festival.blogspot.com

Filipino Book Festival: Targeted: Five Million-Strong Filipino American Community in the US

Filipino Book Festival: Targeted: Five Million-Strong Filipino American Community in the US

Filipino Book Festival: Targeted: Five Million-Strong Filipino American Community in the US

Filipino Book Festival: Targeted: Five Million-Strong Filipino American Community in the US

Filipino Book Festival: PenelopeVFlores: José Rizal's Books: Personal Library

Filipino Book Festival: PenelopeVFlores: José Rizal's Books: Personal Library

Tracing the Footsteps of Dr. José Rizal in London

PenelopeVFlores: Dr. José Rizal's annotation of Antonio Morga's "Historical Events of the Philippines".1609.

Dr. José Rizal's annotation of Antonio Morga's "Historical Events of the Philippines".1609.

In 1889-1890, Dr. José Rizal spent several months in London first, to do his historical research on pre-colonial Philippines and second, to improve his English language skills.

He lived  as a boarder with the Beckett family on 37 Chalcot Crescent,  Primrose Hill, Camden town, Greater London.  Today, if you visit London, you will see a Rizal plaque on this building's façade.  It announces proudly:  Dr. Jose Rizal. 1861-1896, Writer, and National Hero of the Philippines lived here.

 Rizal had a burning desire to know exactly the conditions of the Philippines when the Spaniards came ashore to the islands.   His theory was the country was economically self-sufficient and prosperous.  Rizal entertained the idea that it had a lively and vigorous community enriched with the  collective and sensitive art and culture of the native population.  He believed the conquest of the Spaniards contributed in part to the decline of the Philippine's rich tradition and culture.

In order to support this argument, he had to find out a credible account of the Philippines before and at the initial Spanish encounter.  According to Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, the noted Filipinologist, and Rizal's friend,  the Spanish historian Dr. Antonio Morga  wrote  Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas which was  published in Mexico in 1609.  Many scholars considered this history of the Philippines a much better and honest description of  the conditions in the country pertaining to the Spanish conquest.

Morga writes on his dedication page:  ....this small book ....is a faithful narrative, devoid of any artifice and ornament....regarding the discovery, conquest and conversion of the Philippine Islands, together with the various events in which they have taken part...specifically describing their original condition...

Rizal spent his entire stay in that fog-draped city of London at the British Museum's reading room.  He laboriously sifted, weighed, evaluated, each and every proof he could find in books, manuscripts, documents and other records from the vast  British Museum's Filipiniana Collection.  Having found Morga's book, he laboriously hand-copied the whole 351 pages of the  Sucesos.   Of course he  had to.  The Xerox copier and digital scanner were about 150 years yet toward  the future.

Rizal proceeded to annotate every chapter of the Sucesos.  It's a highly interesting and informative volume.   In Chapter One alone, I note Rizal's footnotes ran over three-fourths up the pages  (pp 4, 5).  Like a brain surgeon examining a monitor, it's as if we are privy to an image of Rizal's brain and how it worked.  Nothing but nada escaped his beagle eyes.  He annotated even Morga's typographical errors.  He commented on every statement that could be nuanced in Filipino cultural practices.  For example, on page 248 Morga describes the culinary art of the ancient Filipinos by recording: ...They prefer to eat salt fish which begin to decompose and smell.   Rizal's  footnotes reads:  This is another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like any other nation in the matter of food, loathe that to which they are not accustomed or is unknown to them...... The fish that Morga mentions does not taste better when it is beginning to rot; all on the contrary:  it is bagoong, and all those who have eaten it and tasted it know that it is not or ought not to be rotten.

The value of this work is immeasurable because Rizal provided the readers with such an array of rich societal and cultural footnotes with complete scholarly referenced resources and full citations.  Each chapter is sufficiently and authentically annotated regarding the Philippines in ancient times. Sad to say,  many students of Philippine history are unfamiliar with Rizal's annotated  Historical Events of the Philippine Islands by Antonio Morga.   This book is available in English published by the National Historical Institute, Manila, 1990.


I say to the serious Rizal scholar:  Get thee to the "Sucesos annotated by Rizal." Your literary appetite will be whetted with juicy cultural episodes in italics penned by our national hero.


I  suggest to the organizers of the forthcoming San Francisco  Filipino American International Book Festival, scheduled to be held on the 1st and 2nd of October, 2011,  that this precious volume  be made available among the book exhibits.

José Rizal's Books: Personal Library

The Philippine national hero, Dr. José Rizal had such a great attachment to his personal books.  He resented the fact that while a student in Madrid, he learned from Paciano that one book in his Calamba collection was borrowed by a civil servant.  He of course knew that when someone borrows a book, that item will never find its way back again on his sagging library shelves.  

Let's take a peek at his personal library.  among them are:

• The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas, Spanish version.

•  Travels in the Philippines, Fedor Jagor

• Guilliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift,  in English.

• Lives of the Presidents of the United States-from Washington to Johnson.  Deluxe, Morocco bound leather, gilt edge and illustrated copy.

• A History of the US Presidents, from Washington to Cleveland (used copy). 

• A History of the English Revolution: A Comparison of the Romans and the Teutons.

• The Wandering Jew.  Eugene Sue (used copy).

• Florante at Laura by Francisco Balagtas.  He carried this volume in his breast pocket everywhere he went.

Image via Wikipedia

Francisco Balagtas, author: Florante at Laura, a Philippine epic.

Contextual Analysis: José Rizal's last letters to Blumentritt and to his family

wnadwrittenImage via Wikipedia

                                 Dr. José Rizal, age 35, prior to his execution in 1896

José Rizal,  17, Ateneo de ManilaImage via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

                                     José Rizal, 18, University of Santo Tomas, Manila

José Rizal, 20, Madrid, by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, oil  on canvas, 1883

My Dear Blog Reader:

You must read my (31st December, 2010) previous  blog to make sense of what follows in this blog.

In this blog, I analyze the trigger words in the letters José Rizal wrote on 29th and 30th  December, 1896,  (see previous blog)  that made him  face his Maker peacefully, resignedly, and in tranquillity on his last two days on earth.  I also included in the analysis his last thoughts  (poem) written on the eve of the 30th, while waiting for the hour of his dawn execution,  now known as the famous poem, Last Farewell.

I use the sociological research method  called  Contextual Ethnography where in one section, I tally  a count:  the number of times a word is used.   On the second section,  I gather the contextual meaning.  The first section is what I will call the "Id" or  the "personalized "I.  This is Rizal's own frame of mind at that point in time. The second section is what I call the "Receiver."  This is how his words are received and its meaning socially constructed by the circumstances and events of the time.

Caveat:  I analyzed only the trigger words that bring out Rizal's sorrowful mood in braving his anxiety and impending doom. In other words, I could have analyzed separately the happy words that manifested joy and happiness, but that will be contrary to my present objective.

                
Analysis of Trigger Word Count: Contextual Ethnography of Rizal's Letters.


I.  Trigger words/ number of times used

• DIE/28
• FAREWELL/7
• PEACE, HARMONY/6

        
 Id. (Personal).  As we can clearly discern, Rizal's frame of mind is fixated on his premature dying, as evidenced by the unusually high number count  (28 times) of the following words:  die, shot, death, martyrdom, sleep eternal, eternal rest, final rest, last, in my memory,  premature end.  Rizal reiterates his Farewell seven times:  Twice in a letter to his father. To his brothers and sisters he talked of peace and harmony; he anticipated the severe burden his death will bring to Paciano.

(Receiver's Contextual Clue). The impending doom of his execution is felt strongly by the family, sympathizers,  supporters, and friends.  There is deep apprehension  and resentment because the political time was wrought with danger and rebellion.  There clearly was no sense of justice during his mock trial. But the message of the colonial government was-- Rizal will serve as an example to this rebellious colony.  Blumentritt was visibly affected. When he received the farewell  letter and his friend's book,  he broke down crying.  The book was an anthology of German poems which Blumentritt himself in the past had sent to his friend in Dapitan, and which Rizal had provided with comments and marginal notes.


II.   Trigger words/ number of times used

• FORGIVE/4
• GRAVE/4
• PAIN/4
• REGRET/4
• WEEP/4

Id. (Personal).  Rizal forgave his transgressors.  He talked about the graveyard and the pain he brought to his family and friends,  He  regretted the pain suffered and brought against those close to him and those he loved.  He enjoined them not to weep for him, but to weep  instead for the poor country. He made a  particular memorable metaphor in his letter to Paciano: the fruit is bitter because of the conditions, not because of the nature of the fruit.  He was still thinking that the end of his life was bitter, but the bitterness was caused by the conditions of the colonial society.  Rizal  envisioned a people with dignity and pride with no regrets.  He goes to his grave with no regrets for championing human dignity ( in today's lingo--of championing human rights).

(Receiver's Contextual Clue).  Rizal will be shot in the morning, he will be gone, but his relatives and friends will still be there, a colonized oppressed people stripped of their human dignity while the friars were still dominating and controlling the government, the economy, the society, and the lives and deaths of the people.  Rizal gave specific last dying instructions: no anniversary celebrations of his death. However, Philippine society and custom developed a different idea.  In the Philippines we give bigger celebrations of  the Pagkamatay  (death anniversary: 30 December)  instead of his birthday (19 June).




III. Trigger words/ number of times used

• BATTLEFIELD/3
  BREATH/3
  CONSCIENCE/3
  STRUGGLE/3

Id. (Personal).  In his last farewell poem, he envisions struggles in battlefields thirce.  This shows the conditions of his immediate environs at the time of writing: a virtual battlefield where he takes a full breath, and with his conscience  remain clear as he struggles though the din.

(Receiver's Contextual Clue)
When the receivers read the battlefield metaphor, we must remember that in 1896, the Spanish Inquisition was still an immediate threat.  During the execution, on the 30th of December, the atmosphere of the Bagumbayan crowd was likened to a battlefield.  At another battlefield level, I introduce in context, an Auto da Fé:  the execution procession for Catholic heretics  (a circus-like event attended by all) to the Puerta del Sol,   right on Plaza Mayor, Madrid led by the monarchy.   This is why on the 30th of December 1896, the whole Spanish colonial administration, Spanish officials, and lay community came.  Not watching the Auto da Fé was suspect.  Hence, omission  to witness Rizal's execution at Bagumbayan meant danger.   While the Filipinos saw the execution in enraged silence, the Spanish ladies waved their handkerchief, as if witnessing a corrida, and the men applauded, shouting Viva España!


IV.  Trigger words/ number of times used

• CONSOLE, PITY/2
• DREAM/2
• GLOOMY/2
• LAST/ IN MY MEMORY/2
• LONELY, FORLORN/2
• REDEMPTION/2
• SACRIFICE/2

 Id. (Personal).  Rizal  consoles his family;  he recalls his childhood dreams; and asked them to pity  the lonely and forlorn  Josephine Bracken.  In his last moments. He used the word last twice. We feel his agony.  Did he feel crucified?  We don't know for sure, but I would hazard a guess he was feeling Messianic (my Catholic family will disown me for this blasphemy) since he used the word  redemption and sacrifice twice.  (I'll come to this later.  See my Post Script at the bottom).

(Receiver's Contextual Clue)

His family clearly sees the end of his short life closing in as they contemplate the stirring emotions welling in their hearts. 

V.  Trigger words/ number of times used

• RESIGNED/1
• REST/1
• REGARDS/1
• THANKS/1

Id. (Personal).  Finally Rizal is resigned to his death sentence.  Now he is rested and calm.  He sends his final regards to parents, brothers and sisters and to his bosom friend Blumentritt.  Never think ill of me he writes. He feels eternal rest is sufferable and gives thanks that he has endured. He begins to write farewell to his very beloved mother: Doña Teodora Alonso, but words fail him.  He just signed the letter and wrote the date and time at that very moment in Fort Santiago. To sister Trinidad, he hands over an alcohol lamp as a remembrance whispering in English:  There's something inside.".  In that alcohol lamp was found rolled pieces of paper containing 14 handwritten stanza's of his Ultimo Adios, Last Farewell.

(Receiver's Contextual Clue)
Rizal  on 29th of December, 1896 was found guilty of establishing illegal organizations and of supporting and inciting the crime of rebellion, and is condemned to death. When he was shot, he turned his body up so that falling on his death he falls on his back, with his face to the sun.

That shot was the prelude to the collapse of the Spanish colonial empire in the 7,000 islands.



POST SCRIPT: (Now, I come back to this part.)  On Nov. 14, 2010 I hopped on a train from Florence to attend Mass in St. Peter's Square, Rome.  Afterwards, while waiting for a train back to Florence, a Born-Again Filipina- Italian showed me my platform and we talked.  I said,  I study Rizal.  She perked up.  She asked:  Why did Rizal face up when he was shot?  I was stumped.  Was it because Rizal knew traitors were shot in the back, and he knew he wasn't a traitor?,  I asked.     She replied  emphatically"  'NO.  that's not the real reason. "The real reason was that Rizal at his last breath became a Born-Again Christian,  he died facing God. 

• Stay with me.  In my next blog, I scan original engraved pictures of Manila during Rizal's time. I scoured Madrid's antique underworld  (Calle Huertas)  to get engravings of early Manila pictures never shown before.

How to face a firing squad execution with a normal heart beat: Rizal, 30 December 1896

[


 Every time I visit my primary physician at University of California, San Francisco, I always register numbers above my normal blood pressure.  Why?  Because the anxiety that I will get caught up with my transgressions  (lack of exercise,  eating sloppy junk food) will verily pump up my blood pressure.  Suppose I have to face a firing squad at dawn even if I'm convinced I'm innocent of a rebellion against the colonial government,  will my blood pressure spurt up?  Surely, who won't?

José Rizal didn't.

How?  By letting go.  

Execution,  Dr. José Rizal,  Bagumbayan, Manila, 30 Dec. 1896.

When?  His last 24 hours.  He wrote several letters on 29. December,  the day before his execution.   I highlight and underline trigger words that maintain quietude and equilibrium in terms of letting go and thus lowering his blood pressure.  The day before his execution, he used words about peace, tranquility and of dying with a clear conscience.  He was preparing himself for the inevitable by talking about it. 

  

29. December 1896. 

His first letter was to his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, followed by his letters addressed to his family, his brother Paciano, and to his parents, brothers and sisters.

Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt

My dear brother:

When you receive this letter I shall be dead .  Tommorow at seven, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion. I shall die with a tranquil conscience. Farewell, my best and dearest friend, and never think ill of me.

Fort Santiago, 29 December, 1896.

José Rizal

PS.

Regards to the entire family, to Sra. Rosa, Loleng, Conradito, and Federico. I leave a book for you in remembrance of me. 

[WOW! I'm totally intrigued with this letter.  True to form, he writes:  "Farewell,   I'll be dead. "  Then as an afterthought, he adds a Post Script (PS)  sending his regards to the members of the Blumentritt family.]  

[In all his earlier correspondence to Blumentritt, he always end his letters with special mention to the members of the family. Now, in his final good-bye, he ends his letter with "Never think ill of me," and signs his name.  But wait, he forgets the special mention to the kids and the wife.   So he adds a CODICIL to his LAST letter.  My personal lawyer, Rodel Rodis, Esq. will love this. ] 

[The book he sends Blumentritt is actually an earlier book sent to him by Blumentritt on which José Rizal annotated and wrote some marginal comments.]

To My Family:

I ask your forgiveness for the pain I cause(d) you, but some day, I shall have to die and it is better that I die now in the plenitude of my conscience.

José Rizal

Mr. P. R.

My dear brother, 

It has been four years and a half that we have not seen each other or have we addressed one another in writing or orally.  I do not believe this is due to lack of affection whether on my part or yours but because knowing each other too well, we had no need of words to understand each other.

Now that I am going to die, it is to you I dedicate my last words to tell you how much I regret to leave you alone in life bearing all the weight of the family and of our old parents!

I think of how you have worked to enable me to have a career.  I  believe that I have tried not to waste my time. My bother: If the fruit has been bitter, it is not my fault, it is the fault of circumstances. I know that you have suffered much because of me. I am sorry.

I assure you, brother, that I die innocent of this crime of rebellion.  If my former writings had been able to contribute towards it,  I should not deny absolutely, but then I believe I expiated my past with my exile.

Tell our father that I remember him, but how? I remember my whole childhood, his tenderness and his love.  Ask him to forgive me for the pain I cause(d) him unwillingly.

Your brother,  

José Rizal.

Dear Parents, brothers and sisters:

Give thanks to God that I may preserve my tranquility before my death.  I die resigned hoping that with my death you will be left in peace.  Ah, It is better to die than to live suffering.  Console yourselves.

I enjoin you to forgive one another the little meannesses of life and try to live united in peace and good harmony.  Treat your old parents as you would like to be treated by your children later.  Love them very much in my memory.

Bury me in the ground. Place a stone and a cross over it.  My name, the date of my birth and of my death.  Nothing more.  If later you wish to surround my grave with a fence, you can do it.  No anniversaries. I prefer Paang Bundok.

Have pity on poor Josephine.

José Rizal

[WHOA:  Hold it!   Did we miss something here?  In Rizal's  last instructions, be said,  No anniversaries. I take this to mean he did not want to celebrate the anniversary of his execution.  Hear that?  He wants us to celebrate his birthday, not his death anniversary.  Let's make sure we remind people and the government this last dying instruction.]

[He preferred to be buried in the humble  municipal cemetery, Paang Bundok (at the foot of the mountain)  between  the North Cemetery  and the Chinese Cemetery.  But, it was not to be.  He was buried in Paco Cemetery.  However, on 30 December, 1912,  his remains were transferred to the base of the Rizal Monument erected in Luneta, very near the place where he was shot.]

At 6:00 am. 30 December, before marching off to Bagumbayan,  (now Luneta Park)  Rizal wrote:

My most Beloved Father:

Forgive me for the pain with which I repay you for your struggles and toils in order to give me an education.  I did not want this nor did I expect it.

Farewell, Father, Farewell.

José Rizal

Then he took another piece of paper and wrote the exact hour of the day and addressed it thus:

                         

                    6:00 o'clock, morning, 30  December, 1896.

To MY very beloved Mother, Dña Teodora Alonso.  

José Rizal.

[This final letter, addressed to his mother, was pregnant with un words...  only the hour and date were registered.  Imagine what a calming effect this must have had on him.   

To his very beloved mother, he emotionally left his beating heart.  Words could only serve unworthy of that sacred silence--that special channel where a mother and son  can communicate at a supreme higher level. That empty page was symbolically full and finally he did let go.

When the military physician took his pulse before his execution, he had a normal heart beat.

José Rizal greets you a "Merry Christmas" in a letter dated, 10 Dec. 1891.

I had religiously read and re-read José Rizal's letters to his parents, brothers and sisters in the Philippines and to his good friend Ferdinand Blumentritt of Lietmeritz, Austria. It is a daunting experience. Taken in current contemporary times, it's like Rizal was blogging and I was a blog follower. There are several volumes printed in 1961 by the National Historical Institute, National José Rizal Centennial Edition.

At that time, the mail boat schedule was announced and posted in all municipal offices. If one wanted a letter to be posted for abroad, it had to make the deadline. It took forty to forty-five days for the steam boat to and from the Philippines. Fortunately, a mail boat left every week.

Since he started writing his letters to his family, these letters had taken on a life of a travelogue. He wrote about his observations and his thoughts and even his dreams while aboard the ship through Suez Canal, stopping in Naples, Italy, then docking and weighing anchor at Marseilles, France, From there he took the express train to Barcelona, Spain. He wrote about the difference between the courteousness and politeness of the French border patrols and the coarse bullying of the Spanish border guards.

Rizal instructed his sisters that they should save his letters addressed to "My dear parents, brothers and sisters," because he planned to compile all these letters when he got home from studies abroad.  I'm so glad that the Rizal family saved all his letters.  Others had pages missing but in spite of that I can get a glimpse of the José's  unique characteristics and persona as a young adult being acculturated to Madrid's social life.  I particularly like the fact that he goes to theaters and occasionally to "bailes".  Pero na mimintas siya.

Once, he wrote about going to Alhambra, a dance hall. It was a masquerade ball and he went with friends. Of course, they oogled the girls. Soon three young girls floated by. What attracted Rizal was the fact that they were wearing the Filipino dress. Let's read what his observations were.

"11 January 1883.

There we saw (and they attracted the attention of everybody in the theatre), three young women wearing very elegant Filipino dresses, one with tapis and the others without it. Although I suppose they didn't know how to wear it (namintas pa--he makes some criticism. pvf.) as well as the true daughters of Malate, Ermita, Sta. Cruz and Binondo, for only two of them were Filipino women; nevertheless, they seemed to us, divine and elegant. They walked about dragging along their shirts of bright red and white, yellow and white, violet and white, topped with jusi blouses, piña neckpieces that everybody stared at them."

In the spirit of Christmas and the New Year, I tried to find out if he greeted anybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  He actually did, in a letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt written in German and dated 10 December, 1891 Hongkong.  See facsimile of his letter below: On top of the page, he writes, "Merry Christmas."

What a lovely and charming way to greet you all a Merry Christmas  *Weihnacht*  straight from Rizal's own holiday greeting, and to top it all, in his own penmanship.

"