A Panoramic Survey of:

19th Century
The 19th Century stands out as an extremely dynamic and creative age especially in Europe and
US. During this period such concepts as industrialism, democracy, and nationalism gained
ascendancy and triggered revolutionary changes in science, technology, economics, and politics.
These changes enabled man to achieve the heights of prosperity and dignity.

The Philippines in the 19th Century

Social Structure Philippine society was predominantly feudalistic the results of the Spanish
land holding system imposed upon the country with the arrival of the conquistadores. An elite
class exploited the masses fostered by the master-slave relationship between the Spaniards and
the Filipinos. The Spaniards exacted all forms of taxes and tributes, and drafted the natives for
manual labor. Consequently, the poor became poorer and the rich wealthier.
Political System Spain governed the Philippines through the Ministro de Ultramar (Ministry of
the Colonies) established in Madrid in 1863. This body helped the Spanish monarchs manage the
affairs of the colonies and govern the Philippines through a centralized machinery exercising
executive, legislative, judicial and religious powers.
Sources of Abuses in the Administrative System The main cause of the weakness of the
administrative system was the appointment of officials with inferior qualifications, and without
dedication to duty, and moral strength to resist corruption for material advancement. These
officials were assigned manifold duties and given many powers and privileges. The functions of

the central administrative officials overlapped and inevitable resulted in confusion and friction.
Complication the situation was the union of church and state. The checks adopted by Spain to
minimize abuses either proved ineffective or discouraged the well-meaning officials from
diligently doing their duties.
Educational System - The Philippines in the 19th century in terms of educational system has a
low quality of education because there was no systematic supervision of school, very poor
classroom facilitates. Lack of tables, chairs, classrooms. Also absence of teaching materials such
as books, visual aid, etc. So students not really focused to their studies because of this kind of
system in education. Therefore it should have training schools for the teachers to develop their
teaching strategies, enhanced their skills the way they explain the lessons. It should have a
supervision of school in order for the teachers to be guided and also the students. In political
system the officials are being appointed.

The Spain in the 19th Century

The Price of Political Instability Spain was reluctant to accept scientific and technological
advancements while her neighbors, England and France became industrialized and powerful
nations. She hesitated to a point of inertness, refusing any change.

Source: Rizal & the Dev. Of National Consciousness

Why is Rizal our National Hero?

In late 19th Century, Rizal became the voice of a people long oppressed by centuries-old Spanish
rule. As an educated man, he was exposed to some of the abuses by Spanish friars and
government officials. As a founder and member of the La Liga Filipina, he originally pushed for
reforms of Spanish colonial rule.

He wrote Noli Me Tangere and El Felibusterismo. Although fictional, the novels described the
abuses committed by Spanish officials against the locals. Alarmed over the threat posed by the
two novels, angry Spanish officials pushed for Rizal's arrest and exile in Dapitan.

While exiled in Dapitan, Rizal devoted himself to improving the conditions of people in Dapitan.

During this time, the concept of "Filipino" was taking shape among the inhabitants of the islands.
Before, society was divided among Spanish citizens and indios (locals). Some began to form
nationalistic ideas. Rizal's two novels inspired locals to call not for Spanish government reforms
but for independence from Spain.

This alarmed the Spanish colonial government. In 1896, Rizal was executed in Bagumbayan
(Rizal Park) on charges of sedition and treason. The execution did not prevent the calls for
independence to stop. The Katipunan led a full scale revolutionary war against the Spanish
colonial government.

Although Rizal did not push for independence, his writings and execution inspired many to
revolt against Spain. This is the primary reason Jose Rizal is a national hero. He instilled the
sense of nationalism among citizens oppressed by centuries-old Spanish rule.

Rizal did not advocate for armed struggle. He is the epitome of the saying "The pen is mightier
than the sword." He was also a learned man who pushed for the emancipation of the people
through education. He advocated for equal rights be accorded to locals and not just limited to
Spanish colonials. And finally, he was a martyr that stood for his beliefs.

Source: http://midorispark.designplusph.com/kaspil1-mp/index.php/information/rizal-nationalhero

How is it to demythologize Rizal?

Demythologizing Rizal by Ambeth Ocampo

Whether you are talking about your neighbor, your enemy, a politician or someone who lived
200 years ago, sex never fails to catch people's interest and imagination. Despite columns I have
written about Apolinario Mabini's polio and that he died of cholera after drinking infected gatas
ng kalabas [water bullfalo's milk], people still insist on the tsismis [gossip] that syphilis caused
Mabini's paralysis. So many readers have asked me to elaborate on the sex lives of former
Philippine presidents or our heroes.

I am always asked if Andres Bonifacio's widow, Gregoria de Jesus, was really raped by Colonel
Agapito Bonzon when they were in captivity, or whether it is true that General Antonio Luna's

girlfriend really was a presidential ancestor named Isidra Cojuangco. Whenever I volunteer
information, it is always seen as tsmis regardless of my documentation. Maybe this is a way of
copeing, because our heroes have been so glorified that people cannot imagine them eating,
drinking, womanizing, or having plain human emotions like you and me. It is for this reason that
we go into the national hero, Jos Rizal.

Doctor Maximo Viola, as every schoolchild knows, was the man who paid for the printing of
Rizal's Noli me Tangere. What the schoolchild doesn't know, however, is that Rizal and Viola
traveled together around Europe and that Viola had written an account of this trip.

Rizal stayed with Viola in Barcelona around June or July 1886 at a time when Viola was
preparing for his medical examinations, so Rizal was forced to roam the city alone. Viola writes:

"It can be said that the life of the illustrious traveler in this city had nothing notable about it. He
visited without pomp and ceremony... During the day I couldn't accompany him in his excursions
as much as I wished, for I was preparing for my final examinations. At night, I sometimes
accompanied him to the Caf Pelayo -- gathering place of the Filipino expatriates -- and
sometimes to other amusement centers, including casas de polomas de bajo vuelo (in Pilipino,
kasa ng mga kalapating mababa ang lapid); in English brothels whose ways, luxury or poverty,
and other customs of refinement of vice were unknown to him in Madrid. In as much as he was
eager to know everything, because the day when, as a writer, he would have to combat such a
vice in its diverse manifestations for being unnatural an anti-psycological, according to him, he
would be informed of its cause the better to correct it. It must be noted that in these excursions,
rather of a character more inquisitorial than voluptious, he always hinted to me thathe had never

been in favor of obeying blindly the whims of nature when theeir call was not duly justified by a
natural and spontaneous impulse."

The original Spanish is florid and corny, so much the better to veil Rizal's "educationalobservation" trips to the brothels. I use a translation by the Jos Rizal Centennial Commission
because if I translate these notes to their bare essentials, it will appear as if I were trying to
denigrate Rizal. What one should keep in mind while reading Viola is that these recollections
were not written in 1886 but in 1913, so many years after the actual events. Rizal was already
the national hero and so, Viola had to paint a dignified picture of his friend. It is because of
writings like these that Rizal has become a figure of myth to today's Filipinios.

Viola says that the brothels "were unknown to him (Rizal) at Madrid." But if you take the time
to read the volumes of Rizal's correspondence, hyou will find a letter of Rizal to his brother,
Paciano, from Madrid dated 13 February 1883 (three years before he visited Viola in
Barcelona). Rizal says: "Women abound even more (here in Madrid) and it is, indeed, shocking
that in many places they intercept men and they are not the ugly ones either."

I have seen these dark esquintitas in Madrid, like Calle de la Montera, where my sisters were
always warned never to go after six. Here you find pretty young things (but it's hard to be seen
in the semidarkness) who lie in wait; the ugly ones are aggressive out of despair, so they pull
men off the street into their sleazy little rooms. I wonder where these kalapati [doves] were in
Rizal's time. From Rizal's letter it is obvious he know what he's talking about.

"With respect to morality there are some who are models of virtue and innocence and others who
have nothing womanly about them, except their dress or at most their sex. Rightly it has been

said that the women in the South of Europe have fire in their veins. However, here prostitution is
a little more concealed than at Barcelona, though not less unrestrained."

Now, tell me, how can Viola say with a straight face that these "amusements" were unknown to
Rizal?

In May 1887 Rizal and Viola traveled together around Europe. It was in Vienna where
Rizal "encountered the figure of a temptress in the form of a Viennese woman, of the family of
the Camellias or hetaeras of extraordinary beauty and irresistible attraction," who seemingly
had been expressly invited to offer for a moment a cup of mundane pleasure to the apostle of
Philippine freedom who until then had enjoyed among his intimates the fame worthy of his
glorious namesake, St. Joseph.

"With these exceptions of this case, I knew of no other slip of Rizal during more than six months
that we were traveling together..."

Is this column tsismis (gossip)? The documentation exists. The point is that there is not need to
hide the humanity of our heroes because it is precisely their being human that makes them
admirable. Whether Rizal was a saint or a sex fiend does not detract from his greatness. The
problem today is rewriting all the distorted hagiography teachers force students to read. What of
today's sex scandals?

I'll leave that for the historical columnist of 2089 A.D.

Source: http://joserizal.info/Reflections/demythologizing.htm