LESSON 4 JOSE RIZAL'S TRAVELS ABROAD

Introduction/Overview

“HE WHO DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO LOOK BACK AT WHERE HE CAME FROM
WILL NEVER GET TO HIS DESTINATION”

During our hero’s time, traveling is very limited to the lay Filipino, since it was
expensive. And also during that time, there were no airships that would quickly bring people to a
certain place as we have today. The major transportation means were streamers, horse-power,
trains, and foot. Rizal was not merely a tourist but a traveler who studies the culture of the places
he visits. He is also traveling to acquire more knowledge, most of which are sciences and literature.

This lesson will discuss about the hero’s journey the values and knowledge he acquired,
friends he met during his travels, the places he visits and what happened there, and the special
friends of Rizal. This will also deal with the fascination of Rizal and the rather bad opinions in the
places he visits.

Intended Learning Outcome

1. Explain assimilation and Rizal's growth as a propagandist.

2. Determine the influences in Rizal’s young life that shapes his aspirations and values.

3. Reflect critically on the achievements of Rizal during his time.

Reflection Time!

1. Which country/place would you like to go and why?

B WHAT’S
NEW/LECTURE

José Rizal and the Propaganda Movement

Between 1872 and 1892, a national consciousness was growing among the Filipinoémigrés
who had settled in Europe. In the freer atmosphere of Europe, these émigrés--liberals exiled in
1872 and students attending European universities--formed the Propaganda Movement. Organized
for literary and cultural purposes more than for political ends, the Propagandists, who included
upper-class Filipinos from all the lowland Christian areas, strove to "awaken the sleeping intellect
of the Spaniard to the needs of our country" and to create a closer, more equal association of the
islands and the motherland. Among their specific goals were representation of the Philippines in
the Cortes, or Spanish parliament; secularization of the clergy; legalization of Spanish and Filipino
equality; creation of a public school system independent of the friars; abolition of the polo (labor
service) and vandala (forced sale of local products to the government); guarantee of basic freedoms
of speech and association; and equal opportunity for Filipinos and Spanish to enter government
service.

The most outstanding Propagandist was José Rizal, a physician, scholar, scientist, and
writer. Born in 1861 into a prosperous Chinese mestizo family in Laguna Province, he displayed
great intelligence at an early age. After several years of medical study at the University of Santo
Tomás, he went to Spain in 1882 to finish his studies at the University of Madrid. During the decade
that followed, Rizal's career spanned two worlds: Among small communities of Filipino students
in Madrid and other European cities, he became a leader and eloquent spokesman, andin the
wider world of European science and scholarship--particularly in Germany--he formed close
relationships with prominent natural and social scientists. The new discipline of
anthropology was of special interest to him; he was committed to refuting the friars' stereotypes
of Filipino racial inferiority with scientific arguments. His greatest impact on the development of
a Filipino national consciousness, however, was his publication of two novels--Noli Me Tangere
(Touch me not) in 1886 and El Filibusterismo (The reign of greed) in 1891. Rizal drew on his
personal experiences and depicted the conditions of Spanish rule in the islands, particularly the
abuses of the friars. Although the friars had Rizal's books banned, they were smuggled into the
Philippines and rapidly gained a wide readership.

Other important Propagandists included Graciano Lopez Jaena, a noted orator and
pamphleteer who had left the islands for Spain in 1880 after the publication of his satirical short
novel, Fray Botod (Brother Fatso), an unflattering portrait of a provincial friar. In 1889 he
established a biweekly newspaper in Barcelona, La Solidaridad (Solidarity), which became the
principal organ of the Propaganda Movement, having audiences both in Spain and in the islands.
Its contributors included Rizal; Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, an Austrian geographer and ethnologist
whom Rizal had met in Germany; and Marcelo del Pilar, a reformminded lawyer. Del Pilar was
active in the antifriar movement in the islands until obliged to flee to Spain in 1888, where he
became editor of La Solidaridad and assumed leadership of the Filipino community in Spain.

In 1887 Rizal returned briefly to the islands, but because of the furor surrounding the
appearance of Noli Me Tangere the previous year, he was advised by the governor to leave. He
returned to Europe by way of Japan and North America to complete his second novel and an edition
of Antonio de Morga's seventeenth-century work, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (History of the
Philippine Islands). The latter project stemmed from an ethnological interest in the cultural
connections between the peoples of the pre-Spanish Philippines and those of the larger Malay
region (including modern Malaysia and Indonesia) and the closely related political objective of
encouraging national pride. De Morga provided positive information about the islands' early
inhabitants, and reliable accounts of pre-Christian religion and social customs.

After a stay in Europe and Hong Kong, Rizal returned to the Philippines in June 1892,
partly because the Dominicans had evicted his father and sisters from the land they leased from the
friars' estate at Calamba, in Laguna Province. He also was convinced that the struggle for reform
could no longer be conducted effectively from overseas. In July he established the Liga
Filipina (Philippine League), designed to be a truly national, nonviolent organization. It was
dissolved, however, following his arrest and exile to the remote town of Dapitan in northwestern
Mindanao.

The Propaganda Movement languished after Rizal's arrest and the collapse of the Liga
Filipina. La Solidaridad went out of business in November 1895, and in 1896 both del Pilar and
Lopez Jaena died in Barcelona, worn down by poverty and disappointment. An attempt was made
to reestablish the Liga Filipina, but the national movement had become split between
ilustrado advocates of reform and peaceful evolution (the compromisarios, or compromisers) and
a plebeian constituency that wanted revolution and national independence. Because the Spanish
refused to allow genuine reform, the initiative quickly passed from the former group to the latter.

http://countrystudies.us/philippines/10.htm

THE TRAVELS OF RIZAL

Disillusioned with how Filipinos in the Philippines were regarded as second-class citizens
in institutions of learning and elsewhere, the National Hero Jose Rizal left the country in May 1882
to pursue further studies abroad. He enrolled in a course in medicine at the Universidad Central
de Madrid in Spain. In June 1883, he traveled to France to observe how medicine was being
practiced there.

After his three-month sojourn in France, Rizal returned to Madrid and thought about
publishing a book that exposed the colonial relationship of Spain and the Philippines. This idea
was realized in March 1887, with the publication of the novel Noli Me Tangere in Germany.

Rizal was actively involved in the Propaganda movement, composed of Filipinos in Spain
who sought to direct the attention of Spaniards to the concerns of the Spanish colony in the
Philippines. He wrote articles for publications in Manila and abroad; convened with overseas
Filipinos to discuss their duty to the country; and called on Spanish authorities to institute reforms
in the Philippines, such as granting freedom of the press and Filipino representation inthe Spanish
Cortes.
 Rizal returned to Manila in August 1887, after five years in Europe. However, his
homecoming was met by the friars’ furor over Noli Me Tangere. The Archbishop of Manila issued
an order banning the possession and reading of the novel, an order that was later reinforced by the
governor-general. Six months later, pressured by the Spanish authorities aswell as by his family
and friends to leave the country and avoid further persecution, Rizal left Manila for Hong Kong.

From Hong Kong, Rizal traveled to Macau and Japan before going to America. Entering
San Francisco, California, in April 1888, he visited the states of Nevada, Utah, Colorado,Nebraska,
Illinois, and New York. He jotted down his observations of the landscape in his diary.

Rizal arrived in England in May 1888. In August, he was admitted to the British Museum,
where he copied Antonio de Morga’s massive study of the Philippines, Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas, which Rizal later annotated for publication “as a gift to the Filipinos.” In the museum
he devoted his time reading all the sources on Philippine history that he could find. He kept up
his correspondence with various people, including his family, who were being oppressed by the
Spanish religious landowners; the Filipino patriots in Spain; and his Austrian friend, Ferdinand
Blumentritt, with whom he planned to form an association of Philippine scholars. From 1888 to
1890 he shuttled between London and Paris, where he wrote ethnographic and history-related
studies, as well as political articles. He also frequently visited Spain, where he met with fellow
Filipino intellectuals like Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, and Graciano Lopez-Jaena.

In March 1891, Rizal finished writing his second novel, El Filibusterismo, in France. He
planned to publish the book in Belgium, but was financially hard up. His brother’s support from
back home was delayed in coming, and he was scrimping on meals and expenses. Finally, in
September 1890, El Filibusterismo was published in Ghent using donations from Rizal’s friends.

Meanwhile, a rivalry had ensued between Rizal and del Pilar over the leadership of the
Asociación Hispano Filipino in Spain. Rizal decided to leave Europe to avoid the worsening rift
between the Rizalistas and Pilaristas, and to help maintain unity among Filipino expatriates.
After staying for some time in Hong Kong, where he practiced medicine and planned to build a
“New Calamba” by relocating landless Filipinos to Borneo, Rizal came home to the Philippines
in June 1892.https://www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/collections/
C EXERCISES AND OTHER LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Problem Tree Analysis: A problem tree provides an overview of all the known causes and
effect to an identified problem.

Step 1: Focus on the given problem

Step 2: Identify the causes and effects

Remember that the causes and effects can create a secondary causes and effects

CONSEQUENCES/EFECTS

REASON OF RIZAL’S TRAVEL ABROAD

ROOT CAUSE

https://www.google.com/search?q=instruction+for+problem+tree+analysis
 D ANALYSIS

1. What do you think is the real purpose of Rizal’s leaving the Philippines?

E EVALUATION
/ASSESSMENT

Enumerate at least five memorable experiences Rizal had during his journey.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
Rubrics:

50% - Content

30% - Analysis

20% - Grammar

F ASSIGNMENT

➢ Graphic Organizer/Table Mapping/Timeline in Rizal’s travels abroad

Rubrics:

40% - Accuracy of Information

40% - Creativity

20% - Organization

G REFERENCES

Other References

Claudio, Eric G.,. Et.al., Life and Works of Rizal . Panday Lahi Publishing House Inc., 2018

De Viana, Augusto V., et.al., Jose Rizal: Social Reformer and Patriot. Study of His Life andTimes
Philippine Copyright 2018 by Rex Book Store, Inc.

Fadul, Jose A. A Workbook for a Course in Rizal Third Edition. Published in 2016 by C&E
Publishing, INC.
Pasigui, Ronnie E. and Cabalu, Danilo H. J. Rizal the Man and The Hero C&E Publishing, Inc.
2006