The hero of the Filipinos The story of José Rizal, poet, patriot and martyr
structure of the skeleton but not in their physical qualities. The
same passions and pains affect the white, yellow, brown, and black
races; the same motives influence their actions, only the form in
which the emotions are expressed and the way the actions are
directed are different. Neither is this particular form of conduct
and expression constant with any race or people but varies under
the influence of the most diverse factors.
2. Races exist only for the anthropologists. For a student of the
customs of a people there are only social strata, and it is the
task of the ethnologist to separate and identify these strata. And
just as we mark out the lines of stratification in the mountain
ranges of a geological sketch so ought we to mark out the social
strata of the human race. And just as there are mountains whose
summits do not reach to the highest strata of the geological
system, so there are many people that do not reach the highest
social strata, while the lowest strata are common to all of them.
Even in the old established civilizations of France and Germany a
great proportion of the population forms a class which is upon the
same intellectual level with the majority of the Tagal, and is to
be distinguished from them only by the color of the skin, clothing,
and language. But while mountains do not grow higher, peoples do
gradually grow up into the higher strata of civilization, and this
growth does not depend upon the intellectual capacity alone of a
given people, but it is also due to some extent to good fortune and
to other factors, some of which can be explained and others not.
3. Since not only the statesmen who conduct colonial affairs but
scientific men as well maintain that there are races of limited
intelligence that could never attain the height of European
culture, the real explanation must be as follows: The higher
intelligence may be compared to wealth—there are rich and poor
peoples just as there are rich and poor individuals. The rich man
that believes he was born rich deceives himself. He came into the
world as poor and naked as his slave, but he inherits the wealth
that his parents earned. In the same way intelligence is inherited.
Races that formerly found themselves compelled by certain special
conditions to exercise their mental powers to an unusual extent
have naturally developed their intelligence to a higher degree than
others and they have bequeathed this intelligence to their
descendants, who in turn have increased it by further use.
Europeans are rich in intelligence but the present inhabitants of
Europe could not affirm without presumption that their ancestors
were just as rich in intelligence at the start as they themselves
are now. The Europeans have required centuries of strife and
effort, of fortunate conjunctions, of the necessary ability, of
advantageous laws, and of individual leading men to enable them to
bequeath their intellectual wealth to their present
representatives. The people that are so intelligent to-day have
become so through a long process of transmission and struggles.
History shows that the Romans thought no better of the Germans than
the Spaniards think of the Tagalog, and when Tacitus praises the
Germans he does so in the same style of philosophical idealizing
that we see in the followers of Rousseau, who thought that their
political ideal was realized in Tahaiti.
4. The condemnatory criticism of the Filipinos by the Spaniards is
easy to explain but appears not to be justified. Rizal demonstrated
this in the following way: Weaklings do not emigrate to foreign
lands but only men of energy that travel hence already prejudiced
against the colored races and reach their destination with the
conviction, which is usually sanctioned by law, that they are
called to rule the latter. If we remember, what few white men know,
that the Filipinos fear the brutality of the whites, it is easy to
explain why they make such a poor showing in works written by the
white while they themselves cannot reply in print. If we consider
further that the Filipinos with whom the whites had dealings
belong, for the most part, to the lower strata of society, the
opinions of them given by the whites have about the same value as
that of an educated Tagal would have who should travel to Europe
and judge all Germans and French by the dairy-maids, porters,
waiters, and cab-drivers he might meet.
5. The misfortune of the Filipinos is in the color of their skin
and in that alone. In Europe there are a great many persons that
have risen from the lowest dregs of the populace to the highest
offices and honors. Such people may be divided into two classes,
those that accommodate themselves to their new position without
pretensions and whose origin is consequently not imputed to them as
a disgrace, but on the contrary they are respected as self-made
men; and the conventional parvenus, who are ridiculed and detested
universally.
A Filipino would find himself ordinarily in the second of these two
classes no matter how noble his character or how perfect a
gentleman he might be in his manners and conduct, because his
origin is indelibly stamped upon his countenance, visible to all, a
mark that always carries with it painful humiliations for the
unfortunate native since it for ever exposes him to the prejudices
of the whites. Everything he does is minutely examined; a trifling
error in the toilet, which would be overlooked in a shoemaker’s son
that had acquired the title of baron, and might easily happen to a
pure-blooded descendant of the Montmorencys, in his case excites
amusement and you hear the remark: “What else do you expect? He is
only a native.” But even if he does not infringe any of the rules
of etiquette, and is besides an able lawyer or a skilful physician,
his accomplishments are not taken as a matter of course, but he is
regarded with a kind of good-natured surprise, a feeling much like
the astonishment with which one regards a well trained dog in a
circus, but never as a man of the same capabilities as a white man.
Another reason for the mean opinion in which the Filipinos have
been held by the whites is found in the circumstance that in the
tropics all the servants are colored. They have the defects of
their social class and of servants everywhere. Now, when a German
housewife complains of her servants, she does not extend their bad
qualities to the whole German nation; but this is done unblushingly
by Europeans that live in the tropics, and they never apparently
feel any compunctions but sleep the sleep of the just, undisturbed
by conscience.
The merchants also have contributed to the unfavorable judgment of
the Filipinos. Europeans come to the tropics in order to get rich
as soon as possible, which can only be done by buying from the
natives at astoundingly low rates. The latter, however, do not
regard this proceeding as a really commercial one, but they believe
that the whites are trying to cheat them; and they govern
themselves accordingly by trying, on their side, to overreach the
whites while their dealings with one another are far more
honorable. Consequently the Europeans call the natives liars and
cheats, while it never occurs to them that their own exploiting of
the ignorance of the natives is a conscienceless proceeding, or
rather they believe that, as whites, they are morally justified in
dealing immorally with the natives because the latter are colored.
Dr. Rizal finally came to think that he need no longer wonder at the
prejudice of the whites against his people after he saw in Europe what
unjustifiable prejudices European nations entertain against one
another. He himself was always benevolent and moderate in his judgment
of foreign peoples. His active and keen mind, his personal amiability,
his politeness and manner as a man of the world, and his good and noble
heart gained him friends everywhere, and, therefore, the tragic death
of this intellectually distinguished and amiable man aroused general
concern.
Rizal was an artist of delicate perceptions, a draftsman and sculptor
as well as a scholar and ethnologist. Professor Blumentritt possesses
three statues made by him of terra cotta which might aptly serve as
symbols of his life. One represents Prometheus bound. The second
represents the victory of death over life, and this scene is imagined
with peculiar originality: a skeleton in a monk’s cowl bears in its
arms the inanimate body of a young maiden. The third shows us a female
form standing upon a death’s head and holding a torch in her high
uplifted hands. This is the triumph of knowledge of the soul over
death. Rizal, concludes Professor Blumentritt, was undoubtedly the most
distinguished man not only of his own people but of the Malay race in
general. His memory will never die in his fatherland.
APPENDIX E
SPECIMEN PAGES FROM RIZAL’S DIARY
(It was more a series of notes to assist his memory than a daily record
of events. Some of the entries are illegible.)
Saturday, April 28 (1888). We arrived at San Francisco in the morning.
We anchored. It is said that we shall be quarantined. The Custom House
boat visited us: its flag has this look: [American Customs flag drawn].
The sacks or bags of silk were taken away; a sack costing $700. They
are not afraid of the silk; and they were to take their breakfast on
board.
Sunday, April 29. Second day of the quarantine. We are greatly troubled
and impatient aboard. I have not eaten; it gets my nerve.
Monday, 30. The quarantine is continued. I read in the paper a
statement of the Sanitary Doctor against quarantine.
Tuesday, May 1. The quarantine is continued. We signed a petition
against the quarantine; and the Englishmen wrote to their Consul.
Thursday, May 3. Six days of quarantine.
Friday, May 4, at 3 P.M. the quarantine is ended. I stayed at Palace
Hotel: $4 a day with bath and everything. Stockton-Str. 312. I saw the
Golden Gate.... The Custom House. A letter of recommendation. On Sunday
stores were closed. The best St. in San Francisco is Market St. I took
a walk.—Stanford, the rich man.—A street near the China Town. We left
San Francisco on Sunday, the 6th, at 4.30 P.M.—Sailed till
Oakland—Railroad—On board from Port Costa to Benicia—Plantations—Herds
of cattle—No herdsmen—Stores at the camp—Dinner at Sacramento, 75
cents. We slept in the coach. Regular night. We woke up an hour from
Reno, where we took our breakfast at 7.30 of Monday, May 7.... I saw an
Indian [Indio] attired in semi-European suit, and semi-Indian suit,
leaning against a wall. Wide deserts without plants nor trees.
Unpopulated. Lonely place. Bare mountains. Sands. A big extension of
white land, like chalk. Far from this desert can be seen some blue
mountains. It was a fine day. It was warm, and there was still snow on
the top of some mountains.
Tuesday, May 8: This is a beautiful morning. We stop from place to
place. We are near Ogden. I believe with a good system of irrigation
this place could be cultivated. We are at Utah state, the 3rd. state we
crossed over. In approaching Ogden the fields are seen with horses,
oxen, and trees. Some small houses are seen from a distance. From Ogden
to Denver. The clock is set one hour ahead of time. We are now
beginning to see flowers with yellow color on the way. The mountains at