Rizal in June. What color is blush?
Frank A. Hilario
June 14, 2009
As a Roman Catholic, as a Filipino, I much value June because it is the Birth Month of the National Hero of the Philippines, 19 June 1861, and he certainly wasn't gay or anything like that. But for lack of law, June would be the Pride Month for the Gentleman, Heterosexual, Virile, Malayan Genius Dr Jose Protacio Mercado Rizal y De Quintos Alonzo Realonda, native of the town of Calamba in the province of Laguna in the Philippines, martyr to the cause of emancipation of his race, not to the cause of frivolity. (Oh, he renounced Catholicism, yes, but more frivolity. And in the end he retracted.)
Austin Craig calls him the 'Greatest Man of the Brown Race' (joserizal.info). As a man, when I visited 03 June 2009 Rizal's ancestral home, that is to say the facsimile, in the City of Calamba, I saw it has been painted gay, I mean green (see my essay 'House of Rizal. I saw it painted green, I saw red,' 03 June 2009, americanchronicle.com). Light green, in fact. I'm embarrassed up to now. What's the color of blush? If Barack Obama blushes, I imagine he will turn purple.
June is much too important to be left to Barack Obama alone! The month of June was very meaningful to the Philippines' National Hero in more ways than one. Let me tell you some of them.
On 30 June 1882, a month after Jose Rizal departs unexpectedly for Madrid, Spain, one of his friends, Vicente Gella intimates in his letter he knows exactly why Rizal has left his country, in these words: 'seeking the welfare that we all desire.' That of course is a translation from the Spanish; it could easily have been 'seeking the good that we all desire.' My guess is that it is higher education that they all are in Europe for, because the Spaniards in the Philippines have been making it extremely difficult for Filipinos to study in the Philippines. What's the matter: The Whites are afraid the Browns will learn that they are better?
On 27 June 1984, 2 years after Rizal's French leave, Mariano Katigbak writes him about Leonor Rivera:
Your fiancée is languishing, the effect undoubtedly of what is worrying her. I believe that it is the first time that she loves. Devoted to the man of her heart, she sees that instead of the happy ending coming near, it is moving away at gigantic steps. What heart will not melt at such a prospect?
It is in this letter on the girlfriend's sadness I discover that Katigbak prophesies his friend's greatness:
At the risk of wounding your modesty, I permit myself to tell you that you are destined to soar, for which reason I pray God for your prosperity and the glory of the Philippines.
A prophecy that will come true. In seeking reforms to remedy the ills of Spanish misrule in the islands, he has found his destiny.
On 09 June 1886, Rizal writes his family from Germany worried and hungry because he has been receiving neither letter nor draft (money) from them:
It is my serious and ardent desire to go home, for it seems to me that I cause too much expense and I wish to help the family in whatever way I can. I'm tired of Europe and I'm afraid to ruin the family, for they say the business is very bad.
The Rizals are into the business of growing sugarcane. The buyers dictate the price of sugar, as they do even today. Sugar seems historically to be always a buyer's market.
On May or June 1887, Enrique Rogers, a friend writes Rizal about the incendiary Noli Me Tangere, which came off the press a few months before (in March): 'It it enough to tell you that it has awakened great enthusiasm among the few who have understood it.' I'm not surprised. The Noli is after all satire that is very well written.
But all is not well in the Filipino colony in Madrid. On 20 June 1887, Eduardo De Lete writes Rizal:
My encouragements are few, though not my good intentions. The best glory for me is that which I may win in working for our country. The inconstancy, incivility, and susceptibility of the fools cost me a good many displeasures; we are many censuring and giving lessons and few working.
Lete is complaining that many members of the colony of Filipinos in Madrid prefer to work with their mouths rather than with their heads and hands for the good of the country. They have the ability to criticize but not the ability to work. (Alas, as it turns out 4-5 years later, Marcelo Hilario y Del Pilar takes over La Solidaridad; Lete divides the colony and attacks Rizal, and Del Pilar publishes that attack. The lion is wounded; he withdraws.)
On 21 June 1887, friend Jose M Cecilio writes Rizal that 'your brother (Paciano) is repenting for having written you to come (back home):
For this reason, I beg you to remain there until a better occasion for you. Your whole family agrees with this opinion, which is that of all who esteem you. ... I repeat, don't come (back), because we shall lose everything good of your brilliant career. Send enough copies to diffuse your idea etc. We shall do everything possible to make your work known, but you must remain there. All who have read it (the Noli) are enthusiastic.
Of course he comes back; on 06 August 1887, he is back in his hometown Calamba. But because of the continuing threat to his life, he leaves for Europe again February 1888.
On 16 June 1888, from London, Rizal writes Mariano Ponce in Barcelona and urges him to write in the name of the country in these words:
Why, having the ability to use the pen, the only weapon left to us, you do not use it for our moral amelioration?
In that same letter, Rizal says, 'I believe that we should be united.' Ponce replies on 22 June:
You are right in saying that we should be solidly united to ward off all the evils in our beloved country. Let us work together, every one of us within his own sphere, towards the same end. Let us have faith.
About writing, Ponce says, 'Not all those who wish to write can write.' But later, he will write for the Propaganda Movement.
On 26 June 1888, Evaristo Aguirre writes Rizal about hurrying political change in the islands:
I was expecting your bitter complaints, your disenchantment, the precursor of terrible discouragement! But no, my friend: Don't ask for the impossible; do not expect expansion within the narrow regime, reckless courage, open fight, imposing clamor amidst the state of things, that special situation, the product of time and the institutions in which an entire people have been educated, without experimenting even. What do I say? Without even a glimpse of the excellence of a better government, of another more advantageous system to substitute for the existing one.
Look at the Philippines today and you see history repeating itself! Let the people first see a better model of government at work, Aguirre seems to be saying, before the people will take notice. (Do I see a parliamentary form of government?) Aguirre continues:
Time alone, and with time the patience and constant work of those called upon to carry out the regeneration of that people, beginning with ideas, enlightening their minds, showing them new horizons, awakening in their hearts and minds the true ideals, can demolish the secular work, change and improve gradually their way of living.
There are no shortcuts to social reformation.
On 27 June 1888, Rizal writes Mariano Ponce that copies of the Noli have not been allowed to enter the country legally. About Ponce's ability to write, Rizal says:
That you have had little success in journalism does not mean that you are not fit to write. Not all of us are born journalists, nor are literary men all journalists. As for me, the question of writing in more or less literary style is secondary; the principal thing is to think and feel rightly, work with a purpose, and the pen will take care of transmitting it.
Do it for a damn good cause – your country. If not demand a damn good writer, what?
The principal thing that should be demanded from a Filipino of our generation is not to be a literary man but to be a good man, a good citizen, who would help his country to progress with his head, his heart, and if need be, with his arms. With the head and the heart we ought to work always; with the arms when the time comes.
I prefer the pen.
Now the principal instrument of the heart and the head is the pen. Others prefer the brush, others the chisel; I prefer the pen. Now it does not seem to us that the instrument is the primordial object. Sometimes with a poor one great works can be produced; let the Philippine bolo speak. Sometimes in poor literature great truths can be said.
On 22 June 1889, Rizal writes Marcelo H Del Pilar from Paris to Madrid:
Be convinced that for every good example a Filipino gives, thousands and thousands in geometrical progression are won, for God or Destiny is on our side, because justice and reason are on our side, and because we are fighting not for selfish reasons but for the sacred love of our country and our compatriots.
If we are. On 04 June 1890, Rizal writes Ponce and asks him:
May you finally take that trip to Madrid. Awaken there the goodwill of the (fellows). Those of Paris have many complaints against our compatriots in Madrid who are devoting their time to gambling.
Rizal has more important things to do than gamble. On 08 June 1890, Marcelo Del Pilar writes Rizal:
I have received your letter of 28 May and your statement in it that you have purposely refrained from sending us any article and that you will stop helping La Solidaridad is worrying me.
On 11 June 1890, Rizal denies that he is leaving La Solidaridad. He is now writing the second volume of the Noli (the Fili actually) and is busy. He ends his letter mentioning about the frivolous young Filipinos in Europe:
May our compatriots there obey the voice of their heart and devote the precious time of their youth to something great, which is worthy of them. We do not have the good luck of other young men who can dispose of their time and their future. We have upon us a duty: To redeem our mother from her captivity; our mother is pawned; we must redeem her before we amuse ourselves.
2 years later, the die is cast. On 20 June 1892, he writes a letter 'To the Filipinos' (he asks that this be published after his death) in which he says among other things, he has decided to go back to the Philippines despite the grave danger he knows awaits him:
I know that at present the future of my country gravitates in some degree towards me, that at my death, many would rejoice, and consequently many are longing for my downfall. But what to do? I have duties of conscience above all else; I have moral obligations toward the families who suffer, toward my aged parents whose sighs pierce my heart; I know that I alone, even with my death, can make them happy by returning them to their native land to the tranquility of their home. My parents are all that I have, but my country has many sons still who can take it to advantage.
If you will notice, that letter is dated 20 June; I believe he makes that fatal decision on his birthday, 19 June 1892. He goes back to the Philippines, and he is going to be executed for the crime of rebellion he does not commit, in a little more than 4 years. The color of blush is pink; the color of extreme heroism is red.
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