Unique Rizal's 150th Birthday Celebration, Oakland Asian Cultural Center

On Dr. José Rizal’s 150^th Birthday Anniversary

Guest Speaker: Dr. Penélope V. Flores

Oakland Asian Cultural Center

June 18, 2011

Special Guest Mr. Tom Consunji, a Rizal Descendant, Philippine Consul General Marciano Paynor, Jr, Ladies and Gentlemen, friends:

Please enjoy the wonderful Dr. José Rizal Exhibit at this Oakland Asian Cultural Center. It opens today free to the public until August 31^st 2011.

San Francisco Bay Area, California is fortunate because Dr. José Rizal came here on our shores in 1888. His steamboat arrived from the Philippines via Yokohama, Japan. His ship anchored and was processed by Immigration officials on Angel Island. He got off at San Francisco's Pier. He billeted himself at the Palace Hotel on Montgomery Street. (Today, there is a historical marker displayed there.) Then, he took a ferry to the train terminal station, right here in Oakland, purchased an overland transcontinental ticket all the way to New York. From New York, he boarded a steamship and sailed across the Atlantic where he landed in England. (See the large World Map of Dr. Jose Rizal’s Travels in the exhibition hall 50 x 60 inches, mixed media.) He stayed in London from 1889 to 1890 and completed his research at the British Museum Library that produced his Annotated Volume of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.

My participation in honoring Dr. José Rizal’s 150^th birth anniversary is not dictated by patriotism. It is more than that. It is personal.

First, let me ask for a show of hands. How many of you read Rizal’s famous novel NOLI ME TÁNGERE? You read it in high school under duress because it was required reading, right? Suppose I tell you that it was almost kept hidden away because Rizal had no money to have it printed? His allowance from home did not come regularly due to many dismal and unexpected economic turns.

It was 1886. Rizal was editing the final NOLI manuscript in Leipzig, Germany, when an old Filipino pal arrived from Barcelona, Spain. Like Rizal, he was a newly minted physician. Rizal showed this friend the manuscript, regretting that printing will have to wait because he had run out of funds. His friend flipped through the pages. It was a glowing piece of work. He was impressed and enthralled.

He asked for the printing cost. “Three hundred pesetas,” was the reply. His wealthy friend said, “Let me give you the money to print this seminal work.” This friend was Dr. Máximo Viola. He was my grand uncle: my grandmother Juliana Viola’s eldest brother.

One would think that Rizal would find this offer providential. But, sad to say,Honorable Senõr Don Tomas Consunji Lopez Rizal, your great, great, grand uncle José Rizal was a real basket case. Why? His Amór propio was as thick as molasses. His heightened sense of pride and hurtful dignity was as high as Mt. Apo--the highest peak in the Philippines.

No, he was not accepting any monetary gift, most especially if he never asked for it.

But my grand uncle knew Rizal better than Rizal knew himself. He insisted. “Peping,” he smoothed it over, “It’s just a loan. Repay me whenever Paciano’s money arrives.”

So the two friends scouted around for the cheapest printing shop. They found a printing press manned (womanned) by widows and orphans called the Guild School of Typesetters: Berlin Book Printing Press. And the presses went rolling and by March 1887 2000 copies were ready for distribution.

There’s always something fishy whenever the Philippine Department of Education textbook division writes Rizal’s biography.  After the statement that Dr. Viola lent Dr. Rizal money, the next sentence that immediately follows is that Rizal paid it off. It's too obvious. Something else was going on. In modern lingo, it raises a flag.

When Rizal’s allowance arrived, history texts tell us he paid Viola back. That's well and done. Clean. Simple. However, persistent Viola family lore exists. The Viola version was that Maximo invited Rizal to join him on his tour of Europe and so he deftly pushed the money back to Rizal, suggesting it's perfect for the trip. And so it was that for three months (April, May and June, 1887), the friends traveled together in European capitals. They met with Ferdinand Blumentritt in Leitmeritz, Austria.

Come to think of it; how could Rizal, who had been too distraught for not having enough money to print the Noli, now could go traipsing all over the grand cities of Europe staying in big hotels and traveling first class? Virtually, Viola deflected the payment of that loan. He was a great travelling companion and friend. (Read Maximo Viola's book "I Travelled with Dr. Jose Rizal." 1913.)

Dr. Maximo Viola was one among the few Rizal friends who never had any political agenda except his enduring friendship with our national hero. He remained private even during the Philippine revolution. That's why you never heard about him.

Now, let's turn to that contestable 300-peseta loan.

I requested my accountant, to compute the amount of this debt if paid today. Mr. Vicente Marquez, CPA, of 1200 Bayhill Drive, San Bruno, California had been bitten hard by my blogspot on Dr. Jose Rizal's Noli me Tangere story. http://penelopevflores.blogspot.com/

First he wrote, "Since I do not know yet how to convert Philippine pesetas during the Spanish time into modern Philippine peso, I can only give you the future value of that 300 pesetas:

"Three hundred (300) pesetas at 3 per cent compounded annually for 125 years will be equivalent to 12,072 pesetas.

Three hundred (300) pesetas at 5 per cent compounded annually for 125 years will be equivalent to 133,593 pesetas."

A week later, Vic Marquez followed it up. Not only did he calculate the annual compounded interest (at 3% and 5% respectively) of Dr. Rizal's debt to Dr. Maximo Viola regarding the printing cost of his novel. Vic went one step further and computed the monetary value at that period in time. He did this ingeniously by pegging it to the Gold Standard.

He explained, "The Spanish currency was used in the Philippines during the 300 years of Spanish colonization. In 1869, Spain joined the Latin Monetary Union; in 1873 only the gold standard applied. According to this standard, one peseta is equal to 0.290322 grams of gold."

Aha! Now we have a stable and absolute measure.  Let's do the math.

In today's dollar, one gram of gold is equal to US$39.90. If Maximo Viola's peseta is equivalent to .290322 grams of gold, then I think we can express your 12,072 pesetas x .290322 x 39.90 =US$139,840.33.

We chose to use the 5% interest compounded annually for 125 years--for we should always calculate to our advantage-- so his 133,593 pesetas x .290322 x 39.90=US$ 1,547,521.11."

So, I say this evening to our special guest, a Rizal descendant sitting among us in this hall: “The Most Honorable and Distinguished Rizal descendant, Señor Don Tomas Consunji Lopez y Mercado Rizal, with all due respect, I have something for you. Here’s a bill for a million and a half whooping dollar debt you owe the Dr. Maximo Viola descendants represented today by Penelope Flores Villarica y Viola.  (Note: I follow the Spanish naming system of indicating my father's (Villarica) mother's maiden name, Viola.)

I bet that of ALL the celebrations occurring simultaneously all over the world on the 150^th anniversary of Rizal’s birthday, this one in Oakland, CA is the MOST unique and compelling event that will be remembered for another 150 years.

I wish to congratulate Jim Espinas of FACES, Herna Cruz Louie of ACPA, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, and Philippine Consul General Mariano Paynor, Jr. of San Francisco, California for making this happen.

Especially to James, I salute you. You are a treasure. Thanks for organizing this event and curating the exhibit. Thanks for providing the opportunity of reliving the Rizal /Viola connection and sharing it with all of you this evening. THANK YOU.

Dr. José Rizal's Descendants: Filipino Family Levels of Consanguinity

Dr. Penélope V. Flores, University professor, Author. Rizal Blogger

ON this Father's Day Week-end let me offer a toast to Dr. José Rizal's descendants who, together with the whole Filipino nation, and the Filipino diaspora communities all over the world, are celebrating the 150th Birthday anniversary of their famous ancestor.

(See penelopevflores.blogspot.com for my reunion of the Rizal/Viola friendship over the years).

Contemporary Rizal descendants call Rizal Lolo José. But we do know Rizal never had a son who would provide a direct Jose Rizal line who could call him Lolo Much that the descendants could claim is a consanguinity line through Rizal's many married sisters: Saturnina Hidalgo, Narcisa Lopez, Olympia Ubaldo, Lucia Herbosa, Maria Cruz, and Soledad Quintero.

Rizal's only brother Paciano never used Rizal as part of his name. He was never legally married. However, Paciano Mercado had a child by his common law-wife. This offspring and his children's children do have a claim to a dircct Mercado Rizal line of descent. Josefa and Trinidad never married and therefore signed themselves Mercado.

While growing up as a youth and since none of Rizal's siblings were surnamed Rizal, he once entertained the ludicrous notion that he was an illegitimate child. In mirth, he wrote of this funny incident in one of his letters to Ferdinand Blumentritt. The explanation offered is that when José enrolled as a student at the Ateneo de Manila, Paciano demed it wise for him to enroll under the name Rizal, which after all was officially assigned to them during the 1846-1848 Surname Decree issued by then Govenor General Claveria.

Paciano Mercado was closely associated with Father José Burgos, one of the priests executed for complications in the Cavity Mutiny of 1872. Thus, free of the cloud of suspicion associated with Paciano Rizal, the nomenclature José Rizal carried a clean slate: no involvement with the political turmoil of the Indios, not even a trace nor of a remote possibility of being a filibustero. Little did they dream. Little did they know.

As a point of curiosity, I had been searching with futility for an article or publication of when and under what circumstances the Mercado sisters signed their surnames as Narcisa Rizal (letter of 27, Nov. 1883), Maria Rizal (27 November, 1883), Josefa Rizal (27 Nov. 1883), Olympia Rizal (27, Nov. 1883) Trinidad Rizal (27 Nov. 1883). In my volume copy, on pages 136- 139, I put a question mark beside each signature. Other letters were not consistent. Sometimes, these letters from the sisters were signed Mercado, sometimes Rizal.

Furthermore, on page 99, Letters Between Rizal and Family Members: 1876-1896 published by the National Historical Institute (1993), Paciano signed his letter "Paciano Rizal". HUH ??? Everytime I look at it, my jaw drops down to the floor in disbelief. I scratch my head in pure surprise. How did this happen? We need to look closely at the actual letters to verify this. The National Historical Society should publish correct translation copies of the original correspondence to remove such onomastic (naming patterns) questions and doubts about the Mercado-Rizal family name use.


Going back to the line of descent, the beauty of tracing family lines in the Philippines is that blood lines of consanguinity can be accounted for bilaterally (meaning lines of descent are made through the father as well as the mother sides). However, today, if you look at the register of appellidos, out of a total population of 84 + million Filipinos, no one has the certified legal and true baptismal surname of RIZAL. The patronym started and ended with Dr José Rizal.

But notwithstanding this fact, we had been enriched, empowered, and have developed much stronger family ties because of this consanguinity pattern of the Rizal family relationships. We continue to be awed and impressed by the collective achievements of the Rizal descendants who had grown in number geometrically.

Kudos to my Rizal family friends: Patti Laurel, Mari and Victoria Vergara, Tom, Christine and Caya Consunji and Gemma Cruz Araneta. My next objective is to trace more and smoke out the other Rizal relatives.

And so, "Happy Lolo José Day" on this special confluence of Father's Day and Dr. José Rizal's 150th birthday on June 19, 2011.

Rizal/Viola Descendants Replicate 150 year-old Friendship

L to R, Jim Espinas, Victoria Vergara, Margarita Vergara, Penelope V. Flores, Patricia Laurel, Caya Consunji, Christine Consunji, Tom Consunji and Edwin Lozada, Picture taken at Olive Garden Restaurant. San Francisco.  Jim is the Curator of the 150th Rizal Birthday Exhibit at Oakland Asian Cultural Center.  Edwin Lozada is the President of the Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc

On June 14, 2011, a century old friendship between Dr. José Rizal  of Calamba and Dr. Maximo Viola of Bulacan was reenacted in San Francisco, California.  The occasion was the arrival of Patricia  Laurel from Manila.  She was invited to be the speciai guest  speaker at the  Los Angeles Philippine Consulate's 150th Birthday Celebration of Dr. José Rizal.

Patricia (Patti)  Laurel is the great granddaughter of  Maria  Rizal Cruz, Dr. Rizal's sister.  Patti's sister Margarita  (Mari) Vergara lives in  Hayward. and is a 4th generation Rizal descendant.  Mari's daughter Victoria belongs to the 5th generation of the Rizal line of descent.

Tom Consunji , another Rizal descendant  who lives  in Foster City  is a Rizal descendant  through Rizal's sister Narcisa.  Narcisa married Antonino Lopez.  Their son, Leoncio Lopez is Tom's grandfather.  Tom's wife is Christine.  Their daughter, Caya is a 5th generation Rizal descendant.

Penelope V, Flores's grandmother, Juliana Viola  is Dr. Maximo Viola's younger sister.  Viola and Rizal were friends when both were medical students in Spain.  When Rizal failed to  receive his allowance on time for the printing of the Noli me Tangere manuscript, Dr. Maximo Viola lent his friend the money to have the Noli printed.

When the two friends completed their medical degrees, Rizal and Viola traveled to several cities in Europe together for 3  months.

Another Rizal descendant by way of Maria Rizal is Gemma Cruz Araneta.  In the picture below is the Rizal/Viola connection re-enacted again.

Seated,  L to R, Penelope Flores (Viola descendant by way of Juliana Viola),  Gemma Cruz Araneta (Rizal descendant by way of Maria Rizal).   Standing: David Jara, Patti Laurel (Rizal descendant through Maria Rizal) Mary Jane Inocencio, and Chiara Inocencio. David and Mary Jane are members of the editorial staff of Art in site Magazine, Patti Laurel's project. 

Picture taken at the Manila Hotel, 2008.

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Discover Dr. José Rizal's Tagalog Regional Accent: His illustration of a folk tale.

Dr. José Rizal loved to entertain his young nephews and nieces by telling them stories and drawing sketches. For example, he translated from German to Tagalog, some of the folk tales of  the Grimm Brothers (Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Pine Tree and the Little Match Girl.) He included pen and ink sketches. 

I read all his Tagalog translations of the folk tales including the story of William Tell,  and I was chuckling to myself because I could hear his regional Tagalog dialect as he wrote his translation. 

I discovered to my utter delight that he had a Southern Tagalog “puntó” or regional accent.  I grew up in Mindoro, a Southern Tagalog region and our Tagalog punto is influenced by the Batangas accent. José Rizal, who is from Laguna,  similarly had a regional accent very close to Batangas.  For example, in his translations, he used the verb word “bagá” instead of the Northern Tagalog “ba”. (Magliliparan kaya baga ang mga maya?  Will the birds fly around?  In another example, he makes his statements of affirmation or empathic declaration with the Southern Tagalog word “mandin.” (Hindi mandin ako matanda.  I am not aged.)   He used the comparative verbs  "like" (not parang,  Usok na parang alapaap, while in Southern Tagalog a comparison word is  anaki) Usok na anaki'y alapaap. (Smoke like clouds).

When José Rizal went to Paris in 1886 to train as an eye specialist with Dr. Louis De Wecker, he used to visit with the Pardo de Taveras (Felix and Trinidad, were both physicians).  There he enjoyed the company of sweet and lovely Paz, the  Pardo de Tavera sister (who later became Mrs. Juan Luna.)

In those times, young ladies kept a souvenir book or album where they requested their friends to inscribe small poems, prose dedications or some remarks or sayings.  I recall that I did the same when I was in high school. I have a little notebook (which we call Autograph book) where I ask my friends to write a short dedication. I got one who wrote” Roses are red, violets are blue….”

Paz Pardo de Tavera asked Rizal to write something in her Album. The album pages were almost full, so on the last remaining 8 pages Dr. José Rizal retold a familiar and famous Filipino folk tale of  “The Monkey and the Tortoise”  and illustrated each scene as in a  picture book! 

First of all, it was an extraordinary concept of writing a folk tale in a young girl’s autograph book, instead of writing some sweet and syrupy lines.  Secondly and grandiosely, he rendered all the scenes using pen and ink sketches right on the spot.  Thirdly, with just a few strokes of his pen, the emotive aspect of the characters in the folk tale amazingly came out alive.

Now, as you re-read this Rizal entry in Paz Pardo de Tavera’s Album keep in mind that this story of the trickster monkey and of the resilient turtle  continue to enrich and enlighten many readers.


Here is the plot of the tale of the Turtle and the Monkey, illustrated by Dr. José Rizal.


"The turtle and the monkey found a banana tree floating in the river. It was a fine tree with large green leaves and healthy roots.  They took it ashore and divided it in two.  The monkey, being the stronger one, took the upper portion with the green leaves, while the small turtle was left with the ugly stump with roots. They planted their respective banana plant, but unfortunately, the monkey's leaves withered and died, while the stump with the roots grew into a tall plant and bore some banana fruits. The turtle could not climb the tree for its fruits, so the monkey volunteered to climb the tree  But he devoured all the fruits.  The turtle begged "Give me some too!" but the monkey took no notice of her. The tortoise went to the river and picked some sharp pointed snails and stuck them around the banana plant, and hid herself under a coconut shell. When the monkey went down, the prickly periwinkles tore into his flesh.  The monkey searched and found the turtle.  The monkey said,  " Aha, found you. You must pay for your wickedness, but since I'm very generous I'll leave you to choose your manner of death.  Do you want me to pound you to pieces with a mortar, or shall I throw you into the water?" The turtle cried, "The mortar, I'm so afraid of drowning in the river."  "Ho, indeed, you are afraid of the water. Now, I will drown you," said the monkey and he threw the turtle into the river.  But the turtle's head bobbed out of the water and laughed hard at the monkey.   He had outwitted the clever monkey. Rizal added a Filipino proverb at the end by his signature. It read:

Matalas man dao ang matching, Ay napapagdayaan din.  (No matter how artful a monkey is, he can always be outwitted.)


Signed: Paris, 1885.          Rizal




See Rizal's illustrations of the Philippine Folk Tale below:

I was at Dr. José Rizal's Execution: 30 Dec. 1896. Bagumbayan, Manila, by Señor Don Perro

Dr. José Rizal's execution by firing squad, Bagumbayan Field, Manila, 30 December, 1896. 

I was at Dr. José Rizal’s Execution, Bagumbayan, Manila, 30 December 1896.

Hola! Me llamo Perro.

Call me Señor Don Perro.  Yes, I’m a dog.

Take a look at the official photo of Dr. José Rizal’s execution on 30 December 1896.  Zero in between the two white poles in the foreground.  Do you see me?  I’m the dog sitting right in front of a government official wearing white.

I’m the mascot of the firing squad commanded by my Master, Artillery Commander Señor Manuel Gomez Escalante.  Under his command were the following: two companies from the 7^th Battalion of Expeditionary Forces, one company from the 8^th Hunters Battalion, a company from the 70^th Line Regiment (composed of native soldiers)  and another from the Battalion of Volunteers.  All in all, there were more than 400 men who formed the military escort (because rumors were rife of revolutionarios swooping down to rescue the prisoner.) The government soldiers formed a three-sided square around Bagumbayan Field, as you can see from the photograph.

At six thirty in the morning of 30 December, the city musicians and the army drum and bugle corps sounded the start of Dr. José Rizal's march from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan.  Elbows tied behind him, he was accompanied by priests, and there followed a lengthy procession of solemn church ecclesiastics, high government dignitaries, officers of the cavalry and almost the entire Spanish population of Manila and suburbs. At the execution site, a viewing entablado or stage was erected for the Governor General and high government and church officials. The roof tops of chaises or calesas  served as a makeshift entablado used by the friars.  

Look at the picture again.  Do you see what appear to be white clouds in the background?  Those are the white billowing soutanas of the  Agustinian, Dominican, Franciscan, and Recoleto friars standing atop the calesa tops cheering on.

The atmosphere was surreal.  On one hand, the natives were cowed, melancholy, gazing through hopeless eyes, solemn and hushed.  On the other hand, the Spaniards were in an anticipating mood, dressed in fancy clothes and in attendance of an elaborate espectaculo or an auto da fé.

In Spain, the Spanish Inquisition established auto da fé as a public ceremony during which the sentences upon those heretics brought before a Spanish Inquisition tribunal were executed.  The heretics are burned on a stake in an auto da fé.  But since 1835, burning at the stake was banned.

As expected in an auto da fé  men and women were required by the Archbishops of the Inquisition to attend under pain of severe punishments and penalties.  Similarly, this condition had also been preached by the Archbishop of Manila, hence the presence of many Spaniards in holiday garbs and ready for an execution of  Rizal, the prisoner, as if attending an auto da fé.

I heard my master give orders for the firing squad formation.  Eight pre-selected marksmen from the 70^th Line Regiment were to be in the first row.  The second line would be eight soldiers:  four from the 7^th Battalion and four from the 8th Hunters Battalion.  They had their guns trained on the first row of native soldiers, in case they failed to execute their orders.

Drum roll.

My master approached the prisoner.  I trotted by my master’s heels and heard him tell Rizal that he will soon give the orders to shoot.  Rizal asked not to be blindfolded.  My master agreed.  "Not necessary," he explained. 

Rizal asked if he could face the firing squad.  My master answered, “That’s not possible, I have orders to shoot you in the back.” 

"In that case then,"  Rizal said  “spare my head.”  My master paused, and I whimpered,  “Master, say yes.”    “Yes,” he agreed. 

Rizal informed my master that he’d point with his elbow and hitch his shoulder to indicate where the soldiers should aim to hit his heart.

"Thanks," my master said and asked, “Do you prefer to kneel?”

Rizal said, “No, I'll stand.”

It was 7:02 am.

A muffled drum roll was sounded.

A  minute later I heard my master give the order:  MARK.  Another second later:  FIRE! The impact of eight bullets found their mark.  Rizal fell  down face upwards.

My heart raced. I ran to Dr. Rizal.  For a minute I thought the body seemed to be fixed on the spot.  Then I saw the body crumple, as in a slow motion, to the ground.  I circled his body.  It was lying in blood.  My master approached and gave  him the final honors--the firing at close range with a pistol-- the shot of grace, which ended his life.  In proper protocol as well as in fact, Rizal did not die a traitor’s death by a firing squad but by a tiro al gracia.

I continued circling round and round the lifeless body as I whined uncontrollably; “You shot an innocent man,”  I wailed. 

My master heard me whimper and whine loudly and soothed my feelings by pulling the handkerchief from Rizal’s pocket and covered the dead man's face. Crimson satin soon marked the whiteness of the hankie’s edges and the taint of the blue sky was mirrored in the pool of blood.  Red, White, Blue.  An emblematic symbol of the tricolor flag.

The music played the national Cadiz March and the Spaniards cried out “Viva España!"  Applause from the Spanish crowd was heard for it was a social event of the day with breakfasting parties on the Intramuros walls.

It was 7:03 am.  The golden sliver of dawn was fingering Manila Bay's skies and touched Bagumbayan Field. I stood beside the lifeless body of the martyred hero as the soldiers filed out of the killing field.  As maskot of the firing squad, this was what I was trained to do--to sit on guard.

Then, head up, I gave out a sharp bark followed by long and sustained howl that pierced the morning mist. It gave a shiver to the Filipino crowd that augured something sinister.  My continued high piercing ululating howl proclaimed the beginning of the end of Spanish colonial rule in the islands.

Nota bene.

1. Have you often wondered how Rizal could fall with his face upward? When he indicated the side where to shoot him, the body action of involuntarily raising of the right shoulder because of the twisting of his elbow to point at the heart (it was the hand which pointed, according to Austin Craig: p 248) ensured that his body would fall face up when he was shot, (Wenceslao Emilio Retana y Gamboa.  (1905) . Vida y escrito del Dr. José Rizal, in Elizabeth Medina's "Rizal According to Retana" 1997.  

2. The  Artillery Commander Manuel Gomez Escalante was a person who was, according Spaniards at that time,  called a Filipino:  meaning a Spaniard of Spanish heritage, born in the Philippines.  His father, the noted trial lawyer, Señor Juan Gomez was also a Filipino,  also born in the Philippines of Spanish parents from the Iberian peninsula (Medina, p 219).

3.The eight soldiers who formed the firing squad  first row formation were natives  (Indios) or what we now call Filipinos.

4.  Strange as it may sound, Rizal was shot by Filipinos!

How Rizal toned down his tirades against the friars as he finished the Noli.

Pastor Karl Ullmer's vicarage, Wilhelmsfeld, Germany

This is the house where Dr. Jose Rizal finally wrote FINIS to his novel Noli me tángere,
Wilhelmsfeld, near Heidelberg, Germany,

This is the historical marker on Wilhemsfeld Park where Rizal's statue stands.  

Pastor Karl Ullmer, with  whose family Rizal lodged, had a friend, Father Heinrich Bardorf, the Catholic priest of the neighboring town of Schriesheimer.  He was a regular visitor and over the best German beer at Schriesheimer Hof, the three  would discuss, in very friendly and rational manner, issues of differing theological beliefs between Protestants and Catholics.

Dr. José Rizal corrected his  Noli manuscript in Germany, making many revisions and shortening it considerably.  However,  because of his discussions with Father Bardorf and Pastor Ullmer, he tempered his Noli outbursts and toned down his language.  

We get some insights into the result of those discussions.  While exiled in Dapitan, Rizal's  former professor at Ateneo de Manila  and Superior of the Jesuits in Manila, wrote and reproached him for leaving the Catholic faith and attributed this fact to bad Protestant influences he received in Germany.  He replied to Father  Pablo Pastells: 

"Distance  (at Wilhelmsfeld) provided me a wider perspective, and my imagination cooled off  in the atmosphere of calm peculiar to the country."  

Rizal adds to his letter to Father Pastells:  "Your reverence should have listened to my discussions with a Protestant pastor in the long twilights of summer in the solitude of Odenwald.  There conversing slowly and calmly, with freedom to speak, we exchanged views concerning the moral values of peoples and the influence of their respective faiths on their lives. " 

This is the inn, Schreisheimer Hof,  near Wilhelmsfeld,  where Pastor Karl Ullmer, Father Heinrich Bardof and Dr. José Rizal  met regularly and discussed moral issues pertaining to religion.  These sessions  imbued Rizal with religious tolerance.   

As he wrote the final last chapters (he finished the last fourth portion of the novel in Wilhelmsfeld) we can only imagine what Noli would be like today had Rizal not benefited from those three-way interfaith  exchanges and open discussions between the disparate views of a devout Catholic, a devout Protestant, and a devout Free-thinker, enjoying  long walks  deep in the forest hills of  Odenwald  leading up to the hill top town of Wilhelmsfeld, Germany in 1886.

Wilhelmsfeld 2008 - Rizal

Wilhelmsfeld 2008 - Rizal,
originally uploaded by let².

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.

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