Rizal's death anniversary

About 12 years ago one of the better biographers of Jose Rizal passed away. Austin Coates, a British author, wrote one of the very best biographies on our national hero “Rizal, Philippine Nationalist and Martyr”. This was the second biography written by a foreigner; of course the first was W.E. Retana’s Vida y Escritos del Dr. Jose Rizal published in 1907.

Coates was emphatic in saying that Rizal, who was a contemporary of Mohandas Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Sun Yat-sen, was the very “first exponent of Asian nationalism”. Rizal died in the 19th century. Gandhi, Tagore and Sun Yat-sen made their mark in terms of nationalism in the 20th century. It is ironic that Rizal and Sun Yat-sen never met because Rizal was in Hong Kong when Sun Yat-sen was studying medicine in what is now the University of Hong Kong. A Portuguese doctor named Lourenco Pereira Marquez was Rizal’s friend and neighbor; he also lectured a class attended by Sun Yat-sen. But, they never met.

During Rizal’s time in Hong Kong, Coates wrote about him meeting a gentleman by the name of Balvino Mauricio, along with Jose Maria Basa, Antonio Maria Regidor, Joaquin Pardo de Tavera and others who were exiled to Guam in March 14, 1872 for complicity in the Cavite Mutiny. Mauricio had escaped from Guam disguised as a monk. Of him Rizal wrote, “Unfortunate man worthy of a better fate.” Meeting Mauricio, Rizal said, was useful to him. “It prepared me for an end which could be much worse.” How prophetic. Mauricio is noteworthy because of his home on what was then Anoluague street in Binondo. Jose Alejandrino, who shared a room with Rizal in Ghent, wrote that Rizal told him that the house he described in the opening chapter of Noli Me Tangere was Balvino Mauricio’s home in Binondo.

Yesterday (the 28th) was Holy Innocent’s Day, tomorrow is the death anniversary of another innocent, Jose Rizal (which was correctly recognized by the Spanish government). There is even a monument to him in Spain, on a street named after him. One of the things we have always admired about Rizal was his sense of humor. We recall that when he was exiled in Dapitan, he was called on as a doctor because a coconut had fallen on a man’s head. The poor fellow died from the subsequent brain injury before Rizal arrived. He noted the event in his diary by saying: “This means that if Isaac Newton had been Filipino, the law of gravity would not have been discovered.” Indeed, humor is the true test of gravity.

In the quest for a national identity and even the promotion of non-violence Jose Rizal predates other Asian nationalists. In truth, the Philippines was one of the first of the Asian nations to declare its independence from its foreign colonizer; point of fact we did it twice. Rizal’s historical presence is so large that it even overshadows his own writings. We have a tendency to read his works for their historical import, and forget to read them for pleasure. Aside from being one of our greatest minds, he was also one of our greatest writers. Nick Joaquin once wrote: “For both these books - but Noli especially — are first rate comic novels — fast, funny and outrageous — novels in fact, of the same kind as and almost in the same class with Dickens…”

This year was the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Ateneo de Manila; it is the 113th death anniversary of their greatest graduate and the first of the great Asian nationalists. A good way to personally celebrate Rizal would be to read his books again, not for their historical import or analysis, but for the sheer pleasure of reading a good book. Who knows? In the process of reading them for pleasure and enjoyment, they may inspire a new generation of thinkers.