RIZAL 2

• RA 1425 was to be included in the curricula of public & private schools, colleges, universities for the re-dedication of ideals of freedom and nationalism
• Approval of the Rizal Bill

  June 12, 1956
• Trials of the Rizal Bill

  1. April 3, 1956- Senate Bill 438 introduced in Senate Comm. on Education

  2. April 17, 1956- Senator Jose P. Laurel sponsored the bill

  3. April 23, 1956- Debate between Laurel & Recto vs. Cuenco, Rodrigo, Rosales

  4. April 19, 1956- House Bill 5561 introduced in Congress by Jacobo Z. Gonzales

  5. May 9, 1956- Debate in Congress

  6. June 12, 1956- Rizal Bill approved into Law as RA 1425 signed by President Ramon Magsaysay
• Strategies of Catholic Hierarchy

  • Pastoral Letter
  • Public Hearing
  • Close door conference
  • Symposium
  • Open Forum
  • Sentinel- daily
  • Catholic members to write the congressmen
  • Jesus Paredes-"objectionable"-right to refuse to read
  • Narciso Pimentel- Recto’s revenge
  • Bishop Manuel Yap- warned legislators who voted will be punished in next election
• Senators opposing

  • Decoroso Rosales- brother of archbishop, cardinal

  Rosales

  • Mariano Cuenco- brother archbishop Cuenco

  • Francisco Rodrigo- former president of Catholic Action
• June 12, 1956

  • Years after Rizal’s Death?

  • December 30, 1896

  • 60 years

  • Approval of the Bill- 1956
• Necessary Fictions


  • RA 1425
  • State’s effort to use LITERATURE to foster NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
  • 2 Novels
  • Source of Patriotism- Read, understand, Act/react
  • Rizal & Other heroes
  • Represent ideals of virtue, patriotism, self-sacrifice
  • By reading the literature, Filipinos are inspired to live by the ideals
  • LITERATURE & NATIONALISM
• The issue: Filipino people have a diversified, heterogeneous culture
• Danger of reading Rizal: 1. Being read in different ways 2. Political and Ideological Variations
• Power of Literature: Imperative of Truth, Represents the Past, Imperative of Action, Matters of Action, Constructs the Future
• Necessary Fictions


  • Ascertain how literature transforms Filipino understanding of the past and present
  • How literature transforms society
• Invention of National Literature

  1880- Rizal 19y/o- essay “El Consejo de los Dioses” Social reform Punishes/corrects without bloodshed
• Digging the Link


  1. 1880- Rizal’s essay “El Consejo de los Dioses” Social reform Punishes/corrects without bloodshed

  2. Propaganda movement waxed due to La Propaganda (M.H. del Pilar)

  3. 1872- Cavite Mutiny Propaganda movement waned due to repression
• Invention of National Literature

  1. DISENGAGE FROM DOMINANT DISCOURSE to assert differences virtues of local languages Popular culture Folk culture Integrity of Tagalog theatre National History of the Philippines- 1st attempt to by Rizal- Not just an appendage of Spain

  2. INTERNATIONALIZATION- CONVERSATION WITH THE ROW Necessary/vital Incorporated colonialism- into the native subjects- culture- contaminated of foreign- Literature-authors more fluent in Spanish than local Nation’s literature- build- appropriate, divert, absorb the best element

  3. CONVERSATION WITHIN THE NATION Dialogue with each other Living discourse
• Literature-authors more fluent in Spanish than local


  • Spanish
• Nation’s literature


  • Build appropriate
  • Divert
  • Absorb the best element
• Invention of National Literature

  1. Conversation within the nation

  2. Dialogue with each other

  3. Living discourse, not just a collection of text

  4. National Literature not by single author but community

  5. International Association of Filipinos in Paris visible community
• Rizal’s Third Novel was Makamisa, written between 1891-1892 and remained unfinished
• Aims of writing the Novel Makamisa
• 1. Address Tagalog readers not European readers
• 2. Modern sense of the word, artistic & literary versus political, judged in comparison to other novels
• 3. Deal exclusively with the usage, virtues, and defects of Tagalog, focusing on ethics rather than politics
• Rizal struggled in Tagalog while writing the unfinished novel Makamisa, which was a reprise of Noli Me Tangere
• It was impossible to write the novel outside of the present situation, emphasizing the continuous and unfinished nature of National Literature formation
• Birth

  June 19, 1861
• Noli, El Fili (Spanish)

  1887, 1891
• American Period, Novels are in English translation

  1950’s
• Centennial


  June 19, 1961
• Best New Translation, Rizal Bill & Catholic Hierarchy (Rizal= hero, but disapproved readings of novels)


  1950’s
• The most popular translation during the American Colonial regime (1899-1942) was Guerrero's
• People involved in translations

  • Leon Ma Guerrero
  • Charles Derbyshire
  • Jorge Bocobo
• Guerrero's translation was systematically distorted
• Distortion in Guerrero's translation was not due to incompetence, ignorance, or haste
• Guerrero's translation aimed to make the novel "palatable" to the new generation of English-speaking Filipinos
• Guerrero allowed paraphrasing in the translation that might provoke sophisticated sniggers, particularly in the love scene on Maria Clara's balcony
• Guerrero's translation aimed to make the novel 'palatable' to the younger generation who no longer have any idea of the customs of forefathers
• Paraphrasing was done to prevent sniggers from foreign, American, English readers, serving as a nationalist means for keeping Rizal alive for Filipino youth and preserving His Filipino glory
• 7 Rubrics


  • Demodernization
  • Exclusion of the reader
  • Excision of Tagalog
  • Bowdlerization
  • Delocalization
  • De-Europeanization
  • Anachronism
• Guerrero & Claro Recto

  Related
• There is an implication between Guerrero (translator) & Recto (Author of the Bill)