Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
Just before Jose went abroad to study, while engaged to his cousin,
Leonora Rivera, Mrs. Rivera and her daughter visited their relatives in
Kalamba. Naturally the young man wished the guests to have the best of
everything; one day when they visited a bathing place near by he used
the family's newest carriage. Though this had not been forbidden,
his mother spoke rather sharply about it; Jose ventured to remind
her that guests were present and that it would be better to discuss
the matter in private. Angry because one of her children ventured to
dispute her, she replied: "You are an undutiful son. You will never
accomplish anything which you undertake. All your plans will result
in failure." These words could not be forgotten, as succeeding events
seemed to make their prophecy come true, and there is pathos in one of
Rizal's letters in which he reminds his mother that she had foretold
his fate.
His thoughts of an early marriage were overruled because his unmarried
sisters did not desire to have a sister-in-law in their home who
would add to the household cares but was not trained to bear her
share of them, and even Paciano, who was in his favor, thought that
his younger brother would mar his career by marrying early.
So, with fervent promises and high hopes, Rizal had sailed away to make
the fortune which should allow him to marry his cousin Leonora. She
was constantly in his thoughts and his long letters were mailed with
regular frequency during all his first years in Europe; but only a
few of the earliest ever reached her, and as few replies came into
his hands, though she was equally faithful as a correspondent.
Leonora's mother had been told that it was for the good of her
daughter's soul and in the interest of her happiness that she should
not become the wife of a man like Rizal, who was obnoxious to the
Church and in disfavor with the government. So, by advice, Mrs. Rivera
gradually withheld more and more of the correspondence upon both sides,
until finally it ceased. And she constantly suggested to the unhappy
girl that her youthful lover had forgotten her amid the distractions
and gayeties of Europe.
Then the same influence which had advised breaking off the
correspondence found a person whom the mother and others joined in
urging upon her as a husband, till at last, in the belief that she
owed obedience to her mother, she reluctantly consented. Strangely
like the proposed husband of the Maria Clara of "Noli Me Tangere,"
in which book Rizal had prophetically pictured her, this husband was
"one whose children should rule "--an English engineer whose position
had been found for him to make the match more desirable. Their marriage
took place, and when Rizal returned to the Philippines she learned
how she had been deceived. Then she asked for the letters that had
been withheld, and when told that as a wife she might not keep love
letters from any but her husband, she pleaded that they be burned
and the ashes given her. This was done, and the silver box with the
blackened bits of paper upon her dresser seemed to be a consolation
during the few months of life which she knew would remain to her.
Another great disappointment to Rizal was the action of Despujol
when he first arrived in Dapitan, for he still believed in the
Governor-General's good faith and thought in that fertile but sparsely
settled region he might plant his "New Kalamba" without the objection
that had been urged against the British North Borneo project. All
seemed to be going on favorably for the assembling of his relatives and
neighbors in what then would be no longer exile, when most insultingly,
the Governor-General refused the permission which Rizal had had reason
to rely upon his granting. The exile was reminded of his deportation
and taunted with trying to make himself a king. Though he did not know
it, this was part of the plan which was to break his spirit, so that
when he was touched with the sufferings of his family he would yield
to the influences of his youth and make complete political retraction;
thus would be removed the most reasonable, and therefore the most
formidable, opponent of the unnatural conditions Philippines and of
the selfish interests which were profiting by them. But the plotters
failed in their plan; they had mistaken their man.
During all this time Rizal had repeated chances to escape, and persons
high in authority seem to have urged flight upon him. Running away,
however, seemed to him a confession of guilt; the opportunities
of doing so always unsettled him, for each time the battle of
self-sacrifice had to be fought over again; but he remained firm
in his purpose. To meet death bravely is one thing; to seek it is
another and harder thing; but to refuse life and choose death over
and over again during many years is the rarest kind of heroism.
Rizal used to make long trips, sometimes cruising for a week in his
explorations of the Mindanao coast, and some of his friends proposed
to charter a steamer in Singapore and, passing near Dapitan, pick him
up on one of these trips. Another Philippine steamer going to Borneo
suggested taking him on board as a rescue at sea and then landing him
at their destination, where he would be free from Spanish power. Either
of these schemes would have been feasible, but he refused both.
Plans, which materialized, to benefit the fishing industry by improved
nets imported from his Laguna home, and to find a market for the abaka
of Dapitan, were joined with the introduction of American machinery,
for which Rizal acted as agent, among planters of neighboring
islands. It was a busy, useful life, and in the economic advancement
of his country the exile believed he was as patriotic as when he was
working politically.
Rizal personally had been fortunate, for in company with the commandant
and a Spaniard, originally deported for political reasons from the
Peninsula, he had gained one of the richer prizes in the government
lottery. These funds came most opportunely, for the land troubles
and succeeding litigation had almost stripped the family of all its
possessions. The account of the first news in Dapitan of the good
fortune of the three is interestingly told in an official report to the
Governor-General from the commandant. The official saw the infrequent
mail steamer arriving with flying bunting and at once imagined some
high authority was aboard; he hastened to the beach with a band of
music to assist in the welcome, but was agreeably disappointed with
the news of the luck which had befallen his prisoner and himself.
Not all of Dapitan life was profitable and prosperous. Yet in spite
of this Rizal stayed in the town. This was pure self-sacrifice,
for he refused to make any effort for his own release by invoking
influences which could have brought pressure to bear upon the
Spanish home government. He feared to act lest obstacles might be
put in the way of the reforms that were apparently making headway
through Despujol's initiative, and was content to wait rather than
to jeopardize the prospects of others.
A plan for his transfer to the North, in the Ilokano country, had been
deferred and had met with obstacles which Rizal believed were placed in
its way through some of his own countrymen in the Peninsula who feared
his influence upon the revenue with which politics was furnishing them.
Another proposal was to appoint Rizal district health officer for
Dapitan, but this was merely a covert government bribe. While the
exile expressed his willingness to accept the position, he did not
make the "unequivocally Spanish" professions that were needed to
secure this appointment.
Yet the government could have been satisfied of Rizal's innocence of
any treasonable designs against Spain's sovereignty in the Islands
had it known how the exile had declined an opportunity to head the
movement which had been initiated on the eve of his deportation. His
name had been used to gather the members together and his portrait
hung in each Katipunan lodge hall, but all this was without Rizal's
consent or even his knowledge.
The members, who had been paying faithfully for four years, felt that
it was time that something besides collecting money was done. Their
restiveness and suspicions led Andres Bonifacio, its head, to resort
to Rizal, feeling that a word from the exile, who had religiously
held aloof from all politics since his deportation, would give the
Katipunan leaders more time to mature their plans. So he sent a
messenger to Dapitan, Pio Valenzuela, a doctor, who to conceal his
mission took with him a blind man. Thus the doctor and his patient
appeared as on a professional visit to the exiled oculist. But though
the interview was successfully secured in this way, its results were
far from satisfactory.
Far from feeling grateful for the consideration for the possible
consequences to him which Valenzuela pretended had prompted the
visit, Rizal indignantly insisted that the country came first. He
cited the Spanish republics of South America, with their alternating
revolutions and despotisms, as a warning against embarking on a change
of government for which the people were not prepared. Education, he
declared, was first necessary, and in his opinion general enlightenment
was the only road to progress. Valenzuela cut short his trip, glad
to escape without anyone realizing that Rizal and he had quarreled.
Bonifacio called Rizal a coward when he heard his emissary's report,
and enjoined Valenzuela to say nothing of his trip. But the truth
leaked out, and there was a falling away in Katipunan membership.
Doctor Rizal's own statement respecting the rebellion and Valenzuela's
visit may fitly be quoted here:
"I had no notice at all of what was being planned until the first or
second of July, in 1896, when Pio Valenzuela came to see me, saying
that an uprising was being arranged. I told him that it was absurd,
etc., etc., and he answered me that they could bear no more. I advised
him that they should have patience, etc., etc. He added then that
he had been sent because they had compassion on my life and that
probably it would compromise me. I replied that they should have
patience and that if anything happened to me I would then prove my
innocence. 'Besides,' said I, 'don't consider me, but our country,
which is the one that will suffer.' I went on to show how absurd was
the movement.--This, later, Pio Valenzuela testified.--He did not
tell me that my name was being used, neither did he suggest that I
was its chief, or anything of that sort.
"Those who testify that I am the chief (which I do not know, nor do I
know of having ever treated with them), what proofs do they present of
my having accepted this chiefship or that I was in relations with them
or with their society? Either they have made use of my name for their
own purposes or they have been deceived by others who have. Where is
the chief who dictates no order and makes no arrangement, who is not
consulted in anything about so important an enterprise until the last
moment, and then when he decides against it is disobeyed? Since the
seventh of July of 1892 I have entirely ceased political activity. It
seems some have wished to avail themselves of my name for their
own ends."
This was Rizal's second temptation to engage in politics, the first
having been a trap laid by his enemies. A man had come to see Rizal
in his earlier days in Dapitan, claiming to be a relative and seeking
letters to prominent Filipinos. The deceit was too plain and Rizal
denounced the envoy to the commandant, whose investigations speedily
disclosed the source of the plot. Further prosecution, of course,
ceased at once.
The visit of some image vendors from Laguna who never before had