Jose Rizal & Womanhood

Like most everyone, I grew up in awe of Rizal, the Filipino national hero.  The first fable I learned which I also used to regale my daughter as a child is Rizal’s famous comic strip of “ Ang Matsing at Pagong.” 
While I was in Grade two, about the same age that Rizal wrote “ Sa Aking Mga Kabata,”  I devoured that literary piece and I knew then that Rizal was way beyond our league. In college, in our Spanish class, we were asked to memorize  Adios Patria Adorada, ( Mi Ultimo Adios)  and I still remember most of the  lines today. My love for Spanish is a belated one and so I will take up that beautiful poem again because it is about love of country in poetic language.  Then, my Rizal three unit college course was mostly all about the Noli & Fili novels and more.

During the holidays, I read again, Rizal’s “The Philippines, A Century Hence”  and yes, our hero is a consummate political scientist and a futurist. 

Very early on, it was impressed upon us that Rizal wrote Maria Clara in his novel  as a parody of  womanhood. That the Rizal icon and representation of  womanhood  is immortalized in his “ Letter To The Young Women of Malolos.”  Like a painting or a portrait, a literature or piece of writing may draw a different insight when read again at another time. 

So, I am reading again the “Letter To The Women of Malolos”   from a feminist perspective.  Let me quote some lines which I would consider today as about empowerment of women :

“No longer does the Filipina stand with her head bowed nor does she spend her time on her knees, because she is quickened by hope in the future; no longer will the mother contribute to keeping her daughter in darkness and bring her up in contempt and moral annihilation. And no longer will the science of all sciences consist in blind submission to any unjust order, or in extreme complacency, nor will a courteous smile be deemed the only weapon against insult or humble tears the ineffable panacea for all tribulations."

I will no longer dare to annotate the above self explanatory words. Rizal said what he said. I urge you to appreciate that as a portrait of what a woman should be.

The following lines of Rizal can be a reference for religion and faith that I found inspiring: 

“You know that the will of God is different from that of the priest; that religiousness does not consist of long periods spent on your knees, nor in endless prayers, big rosarios, and grimy scapularies, but in a spotless conduct, firm intention and upright judgment. You also know that prudence does not consist in blindly obeying any whim of the little tin god, but in obeying only that which is reasonable and just, because blind obedience is itself the cause and origin of those whims, and those guilty of it are really to be blamed. The official or friar can no longer assert that they alone are responsible for their unjust orders, because God gave, each individual reason and a will of his or her own to distinguish the just from the unjust; all were born without shackles and free, and nobody has a right to subjugate the will and the spirit of another. And, why should you submit to another your thoughts, seeing that thought is noble and free?”

So, in imparting a theory of Philippine society towards nationhood: then, now and for the future, we have always looked up to the monumental hero in Dr Jose Rizal for guidance and wisdom for most anything.