philippine studies

Ateneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines

Rizal’s First Published Essay: El Amor Patrio

Raul J. Bonoan, S.J.

Philippine Studies vol. 44, no. 3 (1996): 299–320

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 Rhl's First Published Essay=El Atnor P a w
Raul J. Bonoan, S.J.

Befoe Jo& Rizal left the Philippines for the first time on 3 May 1882
for Spain, Basilio Teodoro, managing editor of the DMong Filipino,
a newly established bilingual newspaper, asked him to send articles
for publication. Arriving in Barcelona in June, Rizal wrote and sent
El amor pltrio to Manila. In its 20 August 1882 issue the newspaper
aided the essay, the first piece wer to be published of Rizal whose
crowded literary career was to stretch to his last days in 1896 when
he wrote UItbno adi6s. Rizal sent other articles which were not pub-
lished due to the early demise of the newspaper (Schumacher 1973,
33-34). The article was reprinted by La S o l i d a W in its issue of 31
Odober 1890 under the pseudonym Laon Laang.
Historians, like John Schumacher, and Rizal's biographers, like
Wenceslao E. Retana and Le6n M a Guerrm, acknowledge the im-
portance of this article, which Rizal wrote at the age of twenty-one
shortly after his anival in Spain even before being s u b j j as a
university student to the full impact of liberal thought, in the study
of the development of his political thought. But being an earlier work
it has been obscured by his novels and other essays. When in 1961
the National Commission on the Centenary of J o d Rizal published
Rizal's writings in the ten-volume collection Esm'tos de Jod b l , this
first article was omitted, more than likely through some oversight,
quite understandable in view of the magnitude of the Commission's
task. This omission is probably why Austin Coates, who relied heav-
ily on the Escritos, makes no mention of it at all.
Both in style and content the piece is classic Rizal. It expresses
intense feelings. The prose is oratorical, employing the rhetorical style
and technique (e.g., periodic sentences, repetition and reformulation
of the same idea) of the Latin authors he had studied at the Ateneo
PZINPPINE STUDIES

Municipal de Manila, notably Cicero. At the same time, the author

rhapsodizes and waxes poetic:

The woods and plains, every tree, every bush, every flower bear the
images of people you love; you feel their b m t h in the sweet-smelling
breeze, hear their song in the sound of the fountains, see their smile
in the brilliance of the sun, sense their anxieties in the troubled howl-
ing of the winds at night.

A master of literary conceit, Rizal regales his reader with flowery

metaphors:

For in the land of our birth the memory of our earliest years still lin-
gers like an enchanted fairy taking a stroll, visible only to the eyes of
children, the flower of innocence and bliss sprouting at her feet.

Whatever be the visage of the beloved country-a rich and mighty lady
clothed in royal purple, with a crown of towers and laurels on her
head; or a sad and lonely figure dressed in rags, a slave longing for
her enslaved children; or some nymph, beautiful and pretty like the
dream of deluded youth, playing in a garden of delights by the blue
sea; or a woman shrouded in snow somewhere in the north pole await-
ing her fate under a sunless and starless sky; whatever be her name,
her age, her fortune--we will always love her as children love their
mother even in hunger and poverty.

With bold strokes of his romantic pen Rizal paints the countryside
and mother nature: hills and mountains, fields and forests, soft
breezes and howling winds, streams and rivers, rains and storms,
seas and sky. Against this vast canvas he conveys a message.
From time immemorial love of country has been a universal sen-
timent All peoples have worshipped the pattia as an idol, offering
her the best of their talents and even their lives. Should we not do
the same? Thus Rizal (he uses the editorial "we") dedicates his first
written words (primes acentos) in a "foreign land" to his country.
Strong feelings for the patria are but natural since she stirs memo-
ries of our childhood years, our families and friends. Thus whatever
be the condition of our country, be she poor or rich, full of the
dreams of youth or weighed down by misfortunes, we must always
love her as a mother. The fatherland-the familiar places, home and
even the tomb, mountains, lake, fields, plain, storm and lightning-
captures our imagination and casts a magic spell on us. When we
leave her for other lands, we (editorial) go into a severe pathologi-
cal depression
Emotions come and go, interests and ideals change, but love of
the country remains the unchangeable constant in the human heart.
Rizal cites Napoleon and Ovid, who in time of death wished to re-
turn to their native land. Love of country has inspired great heroic
deeds, wen the sacrifice of lives. Out of love of country Brutus and
Guzman hindered not the execution of their dear ones found guilty
of crime. Rizal gives other examples: the obscure researcher and
thinker who endures all for the country's good, the farmer who
serves her by planting, and fathers and sons who answer the call of
battle. Many indeed have died for her-from Jesus Christ who suf-
fered death in defense of the laws of his country to the victims of
modem revolutions.
The message is: love the fatherland even unto death but not as in
former days, through the immoral ways of fanaticism, destructive-
ness, and violence, but by following "the hard but peaceful and pro-
ductive paths of science which lead to progress and ultimately to the
union which Jesus Christ wished and prayed for on the night of his
passion." Thus the true dawn of Christianity has appeared.

We are told by Rizal himself in his student memoirs that his own
mnor patrio dates back to his years at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila.
The study of Poetty and Rhetoric had further refined my sentiments;
V i Horace, Cicero and other authors showed a new way.which I
.
could follow in the pursuit of one of my aspirations.. . My second
year as a boarder in school [his fifth and last year at the Ateneol, which
yvas similar to the previous year except that in a rtmarkabk loay there
had deaeloprd in me pltriotic sentiments as wll as an exquisite sensibility,
was spent studying the principles of Logic and Physics and compos-
ing poetry. (1%1, 18, italics added.)

By 1876-77 Rizal harbored strong feelings of mnor patrio, which the

above passage suggests grew out of his study of Latin classical au-
thors. As the pious Aeneas, V i s hero, was ever in search for his
fatherland Italy, Italkm q u m patriam (Aeneid 1,380), so Rizal from
the beginning of his journey abroad longed for the land of birth.
PHILIPPINE STUDIES

Rizal's image of the patria as the mother whom we love, la mnmnos

siernpre, como el niilo a m a su madre, reflects Cicero's own, the com-
mon parent who gave life to all, patria quae communis est omnium
nostrum pmens (Contra Catalinum 1, 7, 17). When Rizal spoke of the
joy in suffering for one's country, b t a se halla placct en sufn't por
ella and of the nobility of those who die for her, ;Cuantas
.
victims. . no han e s p i d o bendWote y desdndote toda clase de
ventums!, he was echoing Horace's ode, dulce et decorum est pro patria
mori (3, 2, 13)--"how sweet it is and noble to die for (Country." To
be sure, patria for the Latin authors meant simply the native land or
the place of birth, lacking the political overtones Rizal might have
read into its use in antiquity. But more important to note than con-
tent is the "sentiments" which the word inspired in Rizd.
In 1879 Rizal found occasion to give expression to these patriotic
sentiments in a literary contest sponsored by a private literary club,
the Licm ArHstico Litmrio. The pieces written by natives and mesti-
zos were judged separately, and Rizal's entry, A la jvoentud filipina,
won the prize under this category. The poem was an exhortation to
his fellow young countrymen to excel in the arts Under the title he
added by way of introduction a lema, a motto or watchword: iCre~e,
oh timida For! The Filipino youth are timid; they must grow up, they
must assert themselves He tells those with talents in poetry, music,
sculpture, and painting to achieve fame and renown. The crucial line
comes at the end of the first stanza: he calls the youth bella esperanza
de la patria mia! The jurors, all Spaniards, presumably interested more
in form rather than content, found nothing innocuous in the poem.
But Wenceslao E. Retana, Rizal's first biographer, saw more be-
neath the surface. In 1896, in the September issues of Heraldo de
Madrid and La Polftica de Espaiia en Filipinas shortly after the outbreak
of the Katipunan revolution while Rizal was aboard ship under heavy
guard on his way to Spain, Retana warned Spaniards of Rizal's ideas,
pointing to the "nationalist tendency" in the ode. Indeed, Retana's
highly emotional journalistic attacks against Rizal and his fellow
propagandists contributed to the hysterical climate in which Rizal's
trial and execution would take place in December 1896 (Schumacher
1991, 145). More than likely, Retana's remarks on A la juventud in
inflammatory articles in circulation at a time when government in-
vestigators were gathering materials to incriminate Rizal, were the
source of the prosecution at Rizal's trial, which cast suspicion on the
ode and marked it as the beginrung of the defendant's anti-Spanish
campaign. The brief signed by the p m t o r , Enrique de Alcocer, states:
 In 1879, when he was barely nine&en years old, Rizal catches the public
eye for the f h t time by taking part in a literary contest held in this
capital city. He won first prize with an ode in which, even then, his
views on the colonial question might be discerned. Fmm this time forth
he has not ceased to labor for the destruction of Spanish sovereignty
in the Philippines (de la Costa 1961, 30-31, 150).

What in the ode aroused Retana's suspicions? As he indicated in

his biography of Rizal published in 19W, it was the young poet's
use of patria, which was no longer Spain, but the Philippines which
had acquired a new political reality (1907,3142). Since Rizal's death
and the loss of Philippines to Spain, Retana had had a change of
heart and in the biography was all in praise for Rizal's genius and
early audacious, innovative understanding of patria. He cited contem-
porary usage which distinguished between patria grade and patria
chica. For the Spaniard and any loyal sub'jt abroad, Spain, a world-
wide empire with provinces in the peninsula and colonies overseas,
was the patria grade. The pahia chica was the land or village or re-
gion or province where one was born and grew up. Thus, the
Catalans would consider Catalunya their patria chica within the larger
patria grande which was Spain, and the native Filipinos would cher-
ish the Philippines as their patria chica, which was politically a part
and province of the Spanish nation, to which they likewise owed
allegiance as patria grade. In Retana's view, as early as 1879 when
A la jmentud was written, Rizal harbored no such distinction. Patria
of the prize-winning poem was simply the Philippines.
Writing more than fifty years later, Le6n Ma. Guerrero was not
so sanguine about Retana's view and cautioned against reading "a
premature ripening of his [Rizal's] embryonic nationalism" into
"casual rhymes" (1963, 75-79). Citing the definition by the Royal
Spanish Academy of patria as either nation in the modem sense or
native land as the place of birth, he stated: ". . .we should find it
just as reasonable to believe that Rizal meant Spain when he said
patria as that he meant the Philippines, and, if he meant the Philip
pines, we should find it just as likely that he used patria in the sense
of birthplace as that he used it in the sense of nation" (77).
While Guerrero's words of caution should be well taken in the
reading of A la juventud filipina, they can stand greater scrutiny in
the study of El amor patrio, written only three years after. At the
outset Rizal made an offering of his first written article to his coun-
try: ". . . we in a foreign l a d will dedicate our first words to our
PHILJPPINE STUDIES

country . . . " Here clearly, Spain was tierra ertranjm; hence phia
was none other than the F'hilippines. Among the histoxical figures
he adduced as harboring an intense love and longing for country
were Napoleon who wished to be buried in his beloved France and
Ovid who in his last moments, knowing he could not be intend in
his native soil, was consoled by the thought that his verses would
be m d in R o n at the Capitol. Ihe Philippines was now pked in
the same category as France and Rome. And among those who died
for country Rizal mentioned Jesus Christ and "the victims of rnod-
em revolutions," by which as an avid student of history, Rizal cer-
tainly meant the French and American Revolutions, and possibly the
Latin American revolutions of the nineteenth century. He was speak-
ing of the Philippines in the way one spoke of the nations of the
world, like France and the United States of America.
True enough, in El mnor patrio the Philippines was not yet patria
in the sense of nation-state, lacking as it did political content, which
would develop in his mind in the course of time and become more
spwific in the writing of the statutes of the Liga filipim in 1892 spell-
ing the establishment of a new political community Wjd 1959, 12-
17). Nonetheless, the broad parameters of patria were already
established by the time he reached Barcelona in 1882 @ria was not
Spain but the Philippines, which bore comparison with the
great nations and cultures of the world: Greece, Rome, France, the
United States.
The editorial staff of Diariong Tagalog were ecstatic about the arti-
cle, stating that only Casteb, the well-known Spanish politidamorator
o d d match the style, ideas, and poetic imagery of the piece (Teodoro
1930,39). Rizal's political message was not lost on the Spaniards who
read it, for his brother-in-law Silvestre Ubaldo warned him that he
had become the object of hatred (quinapopofan) for some friars, who,
it would seem, had "placed him in their list" (Ubaldo 1930, 79).

El amor paMo, UMmo adids, and the Philippine Naticmal

Anthem
Retana claims to detect in this first essay adumbrations of the
themes in Rizal's future writings and even events to come (Retana
1907, 60-61). Thus, the passage "there an entire past slumbers and
we get a glimpse of the future8' is a reference, however vague, to
the c o u n q s independent existence in pre-hispanic times (the theme
of the Annotations to Morga's Sucesos) and the people's future re-
demption through education he would speak of in "Sobre
la indolencia de 10s filipinos." The biographer also sees an
anteautobiom, W s presentiments of his own mission, death and
role in Philippine history in the following passage:

Some have d c e d their youth, their joys; others have given the bril-
liance of their @us; still others have shed their blood. All have be-
queathed an immeasurable fortune, the h i and glory of the beloved
country. And what in turn does she do for them? She weeps and
proudly p-ts them to the world, posterity, and her children, as
worthy of emulation.

According to Retana, the essay was a s e I f - m prophecy. "He

predicts what he plans to do and indeed what would take placeff
(61).The rousing peroration, where he asked his compatriots to love
the fatherland and follow the "hard but peaceful" paths of science
and progress, was at once a Tolstoyesque exhortation to peace and
a Napoleonic call to arms. Retana may be faulted for reading too
much into the essay, but there is validity in his attempts to trace the
development of Rizal's thought.
We may add more. The image of the country as "a sad and lonely
figure dressed in rags, a slave longing for her enslaved children"
would grow into the tragic character of Sisa in search for her sons
Basilio and Crispin. And the researcher who spends nights and days
in his office in search of truth to bequeath to posterity would come
alive in Tasio el fiZ6Ofo. who devotes much time among his books
and scientific instruments.
One might indeed dispute the above assertions as eisegesis into a
sophomoric compositioh But I believe that from the first essay to
the lyrical poem which he was to compose fourteen years later and
the last he was to write before his death, Ultimo adi6s, there is clearly
a genetic link and development. Both have a common theme-arnor
patrio; the ideas and turns of expression in the second are developed
from those of the first. There are obvious differences: the one is
an essay, his primems uccentos written in a foreign land, addressed
to his compatriots; the other is a lyrical poem, his ultimo adws put
into final form when he was held prisoner in his native land, his
parting words to the patria. The first is the sapling, the second the
full grown tree.
PHIUPPJNE STUDIES

In both pieces, the country is object of idol worship, patria adorada,

patria idolatmda. But in the sxond, Rizal adds a new image: she is
perla, joya, pearl and jewel of the orient sea. Now the patria is defi-
nitely a lost home, perdido hogar, an Eden lost, perdido E&n. And to-
wards the end of the poem, with deep pride and affection he calls
her by name: querida Filipinas.
The theme of sacrifice for the fatherland found in the colorful and
rhetorical prose of the first is given terse and imaginative expression
in the last.

Brotan del suelo, cual por encanto, guerreros y adalides. El padre

abandona a sus hi@, 10s hips sus padres y corren todos a defender a
la madre comh. Despfdense de las traquilas luchas del hogar, y
ocultan bap el casco las lagrimas que aranca la ternura. jParten y
mueren todos! Tal vez era 6l, padre de numemos hips, rubios y
sonrosados como los quembines, tal vez era un joven de risuefhs
eeperanzas; hip o amante, in0 importa! Ha defendido a la que le dio
la vida, ha complido con su deber.

(As by a magic command, soldiers and leadem rise from the land. The
father abandons his children, sons their parents; all rush to the defense
of the native land, the mother of all. They bid farewell to their home
and peaceful chores, and hide with their helmet the tears that well from
tender hearts. All set forth and die! Perhaps it's a father blessed with
many fair and smiling children, or a young man full of bright hopes,
or son, or some one in love: it does not matter who. All fight for the
defense of one who gave them life; they only fulfill their duty.)

En campos de batalla, luchando con delirio

Otros te dan sus vidas sin dudas, sin pew.
El sitio nada importa, cip&, laurel o lirio,
Cadalso o camp abierto, combate o cruel martirio,
Lo mismo es si lo piden la Patria y el hogar.
(Rizal 1972,138)

(Rghting fiercely in fields of battle,

some offer you their lives without hesitation or regret.
The place matters n o t i n lands covered with cypresses, laurels or lilies,
 At the scaffold or in the open field, in combat or cruel martyrdom.
What counts is that the fatherland and the home ask for the sacrifice.)

In both, patria is associated and identified with nature, but the

movement from the first to the second is toward a mystical union
with the fatherland and all creation In the first, the elements evoke
fond memories of the fatherland, and even the grave "awaits to re-
ceive you back into the womb of the earth." On the other hand, in
the last farewell, mustering all the powers of his poetic genius, he
invokes the vast expanse of nature-moon, dawn, wind, bird, air,
space, valleys and the heavens-and begs the patria to pray for his
peace in the Lord. On the eve of his death, the poet no longer sees
the grave beckoning, but rather already foresees himself consigned
to human oblivion when no aoss will have been left to mark his
tomb. When such a time comes, he bids the farmer use plow and
hoe to mix his ashes with the earth, and thus in mystic communion;
he will roam the length and breadth of the fatherland, repeating in
the sights, smells, and sounds of nature "the essence of my faith."

Entonces nada importa me pongas en olvido

Tu atm6sfera, tu espacio, tus valles c h
Vibrante y limpia nota sed para tu oido
Aroma, luz, colores, rumor, canto, gemido
Constante repetiendo la esencia de mi k. (Rizal 1972 139)

The essence of his faith is not the sheer nobility of a hero's death,
but going beyond Horace's duke et decorum est pro patria mori,
encapsules the very heart of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, that for the
seed to grow and give life it must die. How beautiful it is to die for
the patria under the sky above her, for in dying the martyr gives
her life and in the repose of death finds peace!

i Salud! ah, que es hermoso caer por darte vuelo,

Morir por darte vida, morir bap tu cielo,
Y en tu encantada tierra la Eternidad morir . . . .
morir es descansar (Rizal 1973, 138-39).

Like many writers of his generation, the young writer Jose V.

Palma (1878-1903) was much influenced by Rizal. In 1899 Palrna
wrote in Spanish the lyrics to the tune of Juan Felipe's Marcha
PHILIPPINE STUDIES

Magdalo, which became the Himno Nacional Filipino (Manuel 1994,

695; Hila 1994, 239). Because of the disappearance of Spanish as
the language of daily communication and culture, few Filipinos
today recognize the echoes of Ultimo adids in the Philippine National
Anthem.
Rizal's patria adomda, idotrtrada becomes in Palma's original fiewa
adomla (boyrmg magiliw). The The &mar l de oriente of the UItimo adibs
is in Palma's hija del sol de O h t e (in the English translation of
Benitez, Osias and Lane, "child of the sun returning"); but the
Tagalog version returns to Rizal's imagery, perk ng Sikrngmtan.
Like El amor pattio and the last farewell, Palma's lyrics range
through nature's elements and the environment.

En tu azul cielo, en tus auras

en tus montes y en tu mar
esplencle y late el poema
de tu amada libertad.

(Sa dagat at bundok

sa simoy at sa langit mong bughaw
may dilag ang tula at awit
sa paglayang minamahal.1

More importantly, the anthem rises to a rousing finale which c a p

tures the "essence of Rizal's faith"--service of country unto death,
motir por darte oida.

En tu regazo duke es vivir,

es una gloria para tus hips
cuando te ofenden, por ti morir.

(Buhay ay langit sa piling mo

aming ligaya na pag may mang-aapi
ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo.)

Some scholars, according to Hila, have noted the likely influence

of the Spanish and French anthems on the music of Juan Felipe. But
more significantly, the lyrics of Palma bear comparison with those
of other national anthems.
The Marseillaise cries for battle: Aux ames, citoym / Fonnez ws
bataillm! ( N a f i 0 ~ Anthans
1 1975,128-30) The Star-Spangled Banner,
which for almost five decades of the American regime Filipino chil-
dren sang in school, is a victory song: "And the Star-Spangled Ban-
ner in triumph shall wave/ O'er the land of the free and the home
of the brave" (National Anthems 1975, 80-82). But what is distinctive
of the Mppine Anthem is that it is essentially a call to the supreme
sacrifice of life in death: &ng liguya .. . ang mamatay nang Mil sa
iyo; and that is because of Rizal's peculiar optic in El amor patrio and
Ultimo ad&.

In a recently published work I traced the development of Rizal's

religious thought, how from a pious student at the Ateneo Munici-
pal de Manila and the University of Santo Tom&, much given to
prayer and religious practices of the Catholic Church and devoted
to the Blessed Mother, he became enamored by the Enlightenment,
which was late in coming to Spain, and in time suffered, to use the
phrase of his favorite teacher Fr. Francisco de Paula !3nchez, "ship
wreck of faith" (Bonoan 1994,7-79). Rizal was enthused with liberal
politics, took to the principles of philosophical rationalism, denied
the divinity of Qvist, and embraced the tenets of deism. Emerging
from the sheltered haven of Catholic schools and society in the Phil-
ippines, he enrolled in the Universidad Central de Madrid, much
influenced by liberal thought, in particular, the freakish, peculiarly
Spanish philosophical rationalist movement known as Krausism. At
the university he came in contact with liberal professors, many of
them freethinkers, fmemasons and anti-Catholic, who showed sym-
pathy for the political aspirations of the young Fapinos. The new
intellectual environment-liberal, rationalist and scientificmade a
deep impression on the young man. The result, in the words of his
confidant Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt, was a sense of bitterness
"when he compared the unlimited freedom in the Mother Country
with the theocratic absolutism in his own land" (Blumentritt in Retana
1907, 70-71).
In 1885, three years after first stepping on Spanish soil, Rizal was
writing his mother that he was judging the doctrines of the Catholic
faith by the norms of reason. By this time, according to his travel-
PHLIPPINE STUDIES

ling companion M W o Viola, he viewed Christ no longer as God,

but merely as a great religious genius Incrrasingly through the years,
his writings showed indications of the deist notion of "natural rev-
elation," "natural religion," or "religion of nature" as being the true
religion supplanting all other traditional religions which claimed to
be supernatural. And in his correspondence for ten months in 1892-
93 with Fr. Pablo Pastells, S.J., Superior of the Philippine Jesuits and
his former spiritual director, he expounded at some length his no-
tion of revelation: God revealing himself not through scriptures but
through nature and its unending cycle and processes.
It is my view that Rizal's religious ideas and his engagement in
religious debate were in function of his politics. He was primarily
not a philosopher nor theologian, but a political ideologue and re-
former. What he was looking for was a theoretical framework and
philosophical base on which to anchor his political ideas and pur-
suits. He moved from assimilation to reformism; in moments of
anger, he thought of revolution; but in the end he opted for 'laying
the foundations of the nation*' by returning to his country, working
directly with the people, and founding the Liga filipina (Majul 1959,
12-15). That much needed intellectual support for his political aspi-
rations was given him not by the Jesuits, the Catholic Church or
Catholic theology, all of which proferred nothing but hostility, but
by the Enlightenment, which provided a most useful grammar or rich
armory of vocabulary, imagery, ideas, and principles for the ongo-
ing discourse on "national redemption."
In his laudatory review, which I find most encouraging, Adrian
Cristobal makes the following incisive observation:
Fr. Bonoan proposes that Rizal's resentment of friar abuses and his
nationalistic political and social ideas led him to embrace the liberal-
ism of the Enlightenment. While this is not entirely indisputable, it
must also be noted that since Spanish colonialism was at the time in-
separable from Spanish Christhthm, emotional and intellectual reac-
tion to one would inevitably affect the other. But it's difficult to say
with finality which came first. (Cristobal 1994, 8)
While I agree with Mr. Cristobal that my position, like all other his-
torical judgements, is subject to review, I believe the weight of the
evidence is in my favor, that it was -1's politics which pushed
him to the religious liberalism of the Enlightenment thinkers.
As Rizal indicates in his Metnorins, his patriotic aspirations began
in his last year (1876-77) at the Ateneo. The prize-winning A la
juoentud gives a hint of a budding sense of nationhood, which will
find clearer expression in El mnor path, written only a month or so
after setting foot in Barcelona. The thrust of the essay is political: it
is discourse on the political reality of the fatherland, which people
must defend even at the cost of life itself. At the same time, the ex-
hortation to love the patria carries a religious dimension, which can
not be missed: Jesus Christ, who made the sacrifice of his life on the
cross, is held up as a model for all who wish to love the fatherland.
The true dawn of Christianity rises when people show love of coun-
try not through violent and immoral ways, but by following "the
hard but peaceful and productive paths of science which lead to
progress." In this manner the union Christ prayed for the night be-
fore he died will take place.
The diary, the poem and the essay were written at a most Cathe
lic period in his life. As Rafael Palma (like Rizal, an Ateneo alumnus
who became much dkdfeckd with the Church) states, as a student
in Manila, Rizal was a pious young man going to Mass and com-
munion regularly and practicing the devotions of the Church, even
as there were already signs of political discontent (1949, 32). As yet
there were no signs of rationalist principles or deism or the notion
of the religion of nature. Palma notes the "religious unction" in the
setting up of JesusChrist as a model of patriotism. If there was any
doubt, it was at best that Christianity never really had a true dawn
until the late nineteenth century (40). The references to Christ and
Christianity point to Rizal's search for a theological framework for
his politics, which the Church in the late nineteenth century tragi-
cally was not able to supply him. Undoubtedly political liberalism
and religious libedism in Rizal influenced and reinforced each other,
two blades of a scissor cutting through the confused maze of the
alliance between civil and religious institutions in late nineteenth
century Philippines. But clearly, his political libendism must be ac-
corded priority.
The republication of Rizal's origvral text and my translation which
follow are an attempt to bring to a wider public an essay little known
and even less read, yet of considerable significance in the develop-
ment of Filipino national consciousness. This piece contains political
ideas and patriotic sentiments which had been percolating in the
young Rizal while still on Philippine soil.
PHILIPPINE STUDIES

He aqui un bello asunto y, por lo mismo que es bello, trilladisimo. Sabio,

poeta, artist& labrador, comerciante 6 guererro, viejo y pven, my 6 esclavo,
todos han pensado en ella 6 le han dedicado 10s m4s preciados frutos de su
intdgench 6 de su c o d n Desde el culto europeo, libre y ufano de su
glorioea historia, hasta el negro del Africa, arrancado d sus selvas y vendido
d precio vil; desde 10s antiguos pueblos, cuyas sombras vagan arin en torno
de sus melanc6licas Ninas, sepulcros de sus glorias y sufrimientos, hasta
las modernas naciones, llenas de movimiento y vida, todos, todos han tenido
y tienen un fdolo hermoso, brillante, sublime, pero implacable, fiero y
dgente, que han llamado PATRIA. Mil lenguas la han cantado, mil liras
dieron por ella sus mds armoniosos acentos; inteligencias las mds
privilegiadas, n h e n e s los mas inspiradoa, desplegaron d su vista 6 d su
recuerdo sus m6s espledentes galas. Ella ha sido el grito de paz, de amor y
de gloria, porque ella ocupa todos los pemamhtos y, semejante d la luz
encerrada en limpio cristal, sale a1 exterior en forma de vivfsimos
resplandores.
Y per4 esto 6bice para que nosotros nos ocupemos de ella? iY, no
podmos dedicarle alp, 10s que por r'mica culpa tenemos la de haber nacido
despds? iEl siglo MX d a d d d o 4 ser ingrato?No. Atin no se ha agotad0
la rica mina del coraz6n; siempre es fecund0 su recuerdo, y por poca
inspirad6n que tengarnos, encontraremos positivamente en el fondo de
nuestra alma, si no un rico tesoro, el 6bol0, pobre, pero entusiasta,
madfe&ad6n de nuestros sentimientos. A la manera, pues, de 10s antiguos
he-, que ofredan en el templo las phdcias de su amor, nosotms, en
tierra extranjera, d e d i ~ a ~ mprimems
os acentos d nuestro pals, envuelto entre
las nubes y las brumas de la mailana, siempre bello y po&co, pero cada
vez m& idolatrado que de Q se ausenta y aleja.
Y no es de extrailarlo, porque es un sentimiento muy natural; porque allf
e s t h los primems recuerdos de la Wancia, hada alegre, conocida s610 de la
ninez, d cuyas huellas brotas la flor de la inocencia y de la dicha; porque
allf duerme todo un pasado y se transparenta un porvenir; porque en sus
bosques y en sus prados, en m 1 , en cada mata, en cada flor, veis grabado
el recuerdo de a e
l ser que como su aliento en la embalsamada brisa,
como su canto en el murmullo de las fuentes, como su sonrisa en el iris del
cielo, 6 sus suspiros en los confusos quejidos del viento de la noche. Es
porque allf v&s con 10s ops de vuestra imaginacidn, bajo el tranquil0 techo
del antiguo hogar, una familia que os recuerda y os ,aguarda, dedidndoos
sus pensamientos y sus mmbras; en fin, porque en su aelo, en su sol, en
susmaresyensusbosques~lapoes~elcariAoyelamor,hastaen
el mismo cementerio en donde os espera la humilde turnba, para devohreros
a1 seno de la tierra. ~Habrdun genio que enlaza nuestro coraz6n al suelo
de nuestra patria, que todo lo hermosea y embellece, mostrhdonos 10s
 LOVE OF COUNTRY

What we will here discuss has an element of beauty, and for that matter it
is a commonplace topic-love of country. It has caught the imagination of the
sage, the poet, the artist, the tiller, the merchant, the warrior, all whether old
or young, ldng or slave. Everyone has dedicated the treasures of heart and
mind to the fatherland. E v e r y o n d m cultured Europeans, free and proud
of their glorious history, to black Africans plucked from the forests and shame-
fully sold as slaves; from ancient avilizations which survive in melancholic
ruins memo^ their triumphs and defeats, to modem nations throbbing
with motion and lif+everyone has worshipped the fatherland like an idol,
fair, brilliant and sublime, but at the same time implacable, stern and de-
manding. In praise of one's country, songs in a thousand languages have risen
and music in most melodious strains has filled the air. The sharpest of minds
and the most inspired of geniuses have regaled her with their brilliance. The
beloved country has been the rallying point in the struggle for peace, love and
glory, for she occupies the minds of all and, like light from limpid crystal,
scatters rap of bdiance in all directions.
Is the behavior of our forebears reason for us to shy away from this obses-
sion? Can we match in some small way the dedication of the past, we whose
only misfortune was to have been born late in history? Does the nineteenth
century give w the right to be ungrateful? By no means. The heart is a rich
mine whose resources have not been exhausted, its memory forever fertile;
and however little inspired we may be, we will find in the recesses of our soul
if not priceless metal, at least a humble coin, which notwithstanding its size
will fire enthusiasm and give expression to our sentiments. Therefore, in the
fashion of the Hebrews of old who made offerings of the first fruits of their
labor of low, we exiles in a foreign land will dedicate our first w r d s to our
country shrouded in clouds and morning mists, ever fair and poetic, ever more
the object of idol worship the longer our absence and distance from her shores.
Do not be surprised, for these sentiments are but natural. For in the land of
our birth the memory of our earliest years still lingers like an enchanted fairy
taking a stroll, visible only to the eyes of children, the flower of innocence and
bliss sprouting at her feet. There the past remains in slumber and we get a
glimpse of the future The woods and plains, wery tme, every bush, every
flower bear the images of people you love; you feel their bmath in the sweet-
smelling breeze, hear their song in the sound of the fountains, see their smile
in the brilliance of the sun, sense their anxieties in the troubled howling of
winds at night. With the eyes of the imagination you see in the quiet ancestral
home the family which remembersyou and awaits your return, thinking and
worrying about you F i y , you find poetry, tenderness and love in the sky,
the sun, the seas and forests, and even in the cemetery where a humble grave
waits to receive you back into the womb of the earth. Must it not be some
magic spell which ties our heart to the native soil, beautifies and embellishes
PHIUPPINE STUDIES

objectos todos bap un aspecto po&co y sentimental, cautivando nuestros

cormnes? Porque bap cualquier a s p que se presente, ya sea vestida de
piupura, coronada de torres y luareles, poderosa y ria; ya sea triste y
solitaria, cubierta de harap, esclava implorando d sus hips esclavos; ya
sea cual ninfa en ameno jardfn, cabe las azules olas del mar, gcaciosa y bella,
como el sueno de la ilusa juvenhld; ya sea cubierta de un sudario de nieve,
sentandose faddica en los extremos del globo, bip un cielo sin sol y sin
estt.ellas; sea cualquiera su nombre, su edad 6 su fortuna, la amamos siempre,
como el nino ama d su madre en medio del hambre y de la miseria.
Y extraila! Cuanto mas pobre y miserable; -to maS se pad-
por ella, tanto d s se la idolatra y se la adora y hasta se halla placer en
sufrir por ella. Se ha observado que 10s habitantes de 10s montes y 10s
agrestes valles, los que ven la luz en suelo esM 6 melanc6lic0, son 10s que
conservan mhs vivos recuerdos de su pais, hallando 5610 en las ciudades un
homble tedio que les obliga volver d su nativo sudo. isex4 poque el amor
A la patria es el mds pum, m8s hedico y m4s sublime? iEs el reconicimiento,
es la afecci6n por todo lo que nos recuerda algo de nwstros primeros dhs,
es la tierra donde duermen nuestms mayom, es el templo donde hemos
adorado 4 un Dios con el candor de la balbuciente infancia, es el sonido de
la campana que nos ha recreado desde nino, son las vastas campitias, el lago
azul de orillas pintorescas que surCabamos en ligera barquilla, el limpid0
arroyuelo que baih la alegre casita, escondida entre flores, cual nido de amor,
6 son 10s altos montes 10s que nos inspiran este duke sentimiento? ~Serdla
tempestad que desencadenada azota y abate con su terrible aleteo cuanto d
su paso encuentra; el ray0 que escapado de la mano del Potente cae
aniquilando? isex4 el torrente 6 la cascada, seres de eterno movimiento y
continua amenaza? isex4 todo esto lo que nos awe, cautiva y seduce?
Probablemente estas bellezas 6 tiemos recuerdos son 1os que fortikan el
lam que nos une a1 suelo donde nacimos, engendrando ese duke bienestar
cuando estamos en nuestm pais, 6 esa profuncia melancolia cuando estamos
lejos de 6l,origen de una cruel enfe!rmedad, llama& nostalgia.
iOh! no contrist&s j a d s al extranjero, al que se llega d vuestras playas;
no despedis en 61 ese vivo recuerdo de su pais, de las delicias de su hogar,
porque entonces, desgraciados, evocar& esa enhmedad, tenaz fantasma que
no le aban- sino d la vista de su suelo natal 6 d 10s bordes de la tumba.
No ver& jamds una gota de amargura en su m d n , que en semejantes
circunstancias se exageran 10s pesares, comparados con la dicha del perdido
hogar.
Nacemos, pues; crecemos, envejecemos y morimos con este piadoso
sentimiento. Es quizas el d s constante, si constanaa hay en el coraz6n de
10s hombres, y parece que no nos abandona ni en la misma tumba. Napole6n
e n M e n d o el oscum fondo del sepulcro, se acordaba de su Franaa, d quien
am6 en tanto extremo, y desterrado le confiaba sus restos, seguro de hallar
d s dulce reposo en medio de ella.
all the land, as it presents to us all objects as full of poetry and feeling and
captures our affections? For whatever be the visage of the beloved country-a
rich and mighty lady clothed in royal purple, with a crown of towers and
laurels on her head; or a sad and lonely figure dressed in rags, a slave longing
for her enslaved children; or some nymph, beautifid and pretty like the dream
of deluded youth, playing in a garden of delights by the blue sea; or a woman
shrouded in snow somewhere in the north pole awaiting her fate under a
sunless and starless sky; whatever be her name, her age, her fortune-we
always love her as children love their mother even in hunger and poverty.
And how strange it is! The poorer and more miserable we are and the more
we suffer for our country, so much the mom do we venerate and adore her
even to the point of finding joy in our suffering. It has been observed that
inhabitants of mountains and rough valleys and those who saw the light of
day in sad and barren lands have the most vivid recollections of their father-
land and find in the dties nothing but unbearable tedium which foxes them
to return to their native soil. Is it because the love of country is purest, most
heroic and most sublime? What is it that grips us? Is it the recognition of
familiar placed and the dear memory of eveything connected with our earli-
est days? Is it the earth where lie our ancestors in peace, the temple where we
worshipped God with the candor of babbling infants, or the sound of the bell
that cheered us from our youngest years? The wide fields or the blue lake
surrounded by its picturesque shores where we sailed in a light boat? Or the
clear stream flowing by a happy hut, like a nest of love, surrounded by flow-
ers, or the tall mountains that produce this sweet emotion in us? Could it be
the storm that unleashed, whips and knocks everything in its path, or the
thunderbolt which from the hand of the Almighty hurls down with destruc-
tive fury? Could it be the heavy rains and the waterfalls, reminders of the law
of perpetual motion and the cycle of continuing threat to Me?Could it not be
that all these pull, capture, and take possession of us?
More than M y , it is these beauteous elements and fond memories which
strengthen the bond that ties us to the land of our birth, causing while we are
in our country a sense of well-bein& or when we go away, the pathological
condition of severe depression and cruel nostalgia.
Oh, don't you ever bring sorrow to the stranger that comes to your shores.
Don't you awaken in him vivid memories of his beloved country and the joys
in his home for unfortunately you will induce this illness which will grip him
like a ghost to vanish only when he steps on his native soil again or ap-
proaches his own grave.
Give him not the slightest cause for bierness, for his tendency is to recall
the bliss in his lost home and blow his woes out of proportion.
We are born, grow up, reach old age and die with this pious sentiment.
Love of the country is perhaps the most constant of emotions, if there ever be
anything constant in the human heart, and, it seems, will not leave us wen in
the tomb. In exile, at the prospect of an obscure grave, Napoleon remembered
 Ovidio, maS infeliz y adivinando que N sus cenizas siquiera volverh d
su Roma, agonizaba en el Ponto Euxino y consoMbase al pensar que si no
61, a1 menos sus versos llegarh d ver el Capitolio.
Nifio, amamos 10s juegos; a d o k t e , 10s olvidamos; pven, buscamos
nuestm i d 4 desenganados, lo l l m q y vamos d buscar algo maS positive
y d s dtil; padre, 10s hipa mueren y el tiempo va borrando nuestro dolor,
como el aire del mar va borrando las playas d rnedida que la nave se aleja
de ellas. Pero en cambii el amor d la patria no se borra jam&, una vez que
ha entrado en el coraz6n, porque lleva en sf un sello divino, que se hace
etano 6 imperecedero.
Se ha dicho siempre que el amor ha sido el m6vil d s poderoso de las
acciones d s sublimes; pws bien, entre todos 10s mores, el de la patria es
el que ha produado las m4s grandes, d s her6icas y d s desinteresadas.
Leed la historia si no, los anales, las tradiaones; penetrad en el sen0 de las
familias; i q d de saddos, abnegaci6n y lagrimas vertidas en el summanto
altar de la nadbn! M e Bruto, que condena d sus h i j j , acusados de traia6n,
ha& Guzmh, que deja morir al suyo por no faltar d su deber, iqu6 dra-
mas, qu6 tragedias, qu6 d o s no se han llevado d cabo por la salud de
esa implacable divinidad que nada podfa darles en cambio de sus h ip sino
agradecimiento y bendidones!
iY sin embargo, con 10s pedazos de su d n e l m d su patria gloriosos
monumentos; con los trabapS de sus manos, con el sudor de su frente han
regado y hecho fnrtificar su sagrado &bob y no han esperado N han tenido
ninguna recompensa!
Ved ahf un hombre sumido en su gabinete; para Q pasan 10s mejores
dias, su vista M debilita, sus cabellos se enarnecen y van desaparedendo
con sus ilusiones, su cuerpo se dobla. Va tras una verdad; a f b ha resuelve
un problems; el hambre y la d, el frio y el calor; las enfermedades y el
inhrtunio se le han presentado sucesivamente. Va 4 descender d la tumba y
apvecha su ago& para ofrecer d su patria un flor6n para su corona, una
d a d , fuente y origen de mil benef~cios.
Tomad la vista d otra parte; un hombre tostado por el sol romp la ingrata
tierra para depositar una simiente: es un labrador. El tambih contribuye en
su modesto per0 titil trabap 4 la gloria de su nad6n.
jLa Patria est6 en peligm! Brotan del swlo, cual por encanto, gwrreros y
adalides. El padre abandona d sus hijj, los hips d sus padre y corren todm
d defender d la madre comfm. Despfdense de las tranquilas luchas del hogar,
y ocultan bap el casco las Ugrimas que arranca la ternura. Parten y mueren
todos! Tal vez era Q padre de numerosos hips, rubios y sonrosados como
los querubines, tal vez era un joven de risuefhs esperanzas; hip o amante,
no importa! Ha defendido d la que le di6 la vida, ha cumplido con su deber.
Codm 6 LeoNdas, quien quiera que sea, la patria sabA recordarle.
Unos han sacrificado su juventud, sus placeres; otros le han dedicado 10s
esplendores de su genio; estos d e m n su sangre;todos han muerto legando
France, which he loved so dearly, and so willed that his remains be brought
home in the sure hope of finding sweet xepose in his native soil.Ovid, cutting a
still sadder figun?,inasmuch as he knew that not even his ashes would return to
Rome, was consoled in his death agony at Black Sea by the thought that he
would go to the Capitol if not in person, at least in the mading of his verses.
As children we love to play games which we abandon in our adolescent
years. In our youth we work for an ideal, but later we become disillusioned
and turn away from it in favor of something more positive and practical. As
parents we lose children to death and time wipes away our sorrow much like
the widening sea makes the shore vanish from sight as the ship sails into the
deep. In contrast, the love for country is never wiped away once it finds a
place in the human heart, for it bears the divine seal which makes it eternal
and indestructible.
It has always been said that love is an extremely powerful force behind
most noble activities. Well then, of all loves, the love of country has inspired
the grandest, the most heroic and the most selfless of deeds. Do read history
books or historical records and traditions. Go into the history of families.
What saaifices, acts of self-abnegation, and tears have been offered to the
nation as to a deity! From Brutus, who condemned his own sons to death for
treason, to Guzrnan, who out of a sense of duty stopped not the execution of
his family, what dramas, tragedies and martyrdoms have taken place for the
sake of this implacable deity who in exchange for the sacrifice of children
offers nothing but words of gratitude and benediction!
Nonetheless, peoples have erected glorious monuments to the fatherland
with contniutions truly coming from the heart. With the work of their hands
and the sweat of their brow, they watered the ground and made her, l i i a
sacred tree, bear fruit, without reward or even any hope of it.
Look at the reseaxher engraaed in his office He has seen better days; his
sight weakens, his hair becomes white and sparse as his dreams vanish; his
shoulders are bent. He is in search of the truth; he has spent years trying to
solve a problem; he has endured hunger and thirst, cold and heat, sicknesses
and misfortunes. He will soon go to his grave and now in his agony offers to
his country an achievement to add to her crown of glory--a discovery which
will produce untold benefits.
Turn your eyes to the farmer burnt by the sun tilling the stubborn earth
and burying a seed. He too contributes through his modest but useful work to
the glory of the nation.
"The country is in danger!," sounds the alarm. As by a magic command,
soldiers and leaders rise from the land. The father abandons his children, sons
their parents; all rush in defense of the native land, the mother of all. They bid
farewell to their home and peaceful chores, and hide with their helmet the
tears that well from tender hearts. All set forth and die! Perhaps it's a father
blessed with children, fair and smiling like angels, or a young man full of
bright hopes, or a son,or someone in love: it does not matter who. All fight in
PHILIPPINE STUDIES

d su patria una inmensa fortuna; la libertad y la gloria. Y ella iqud ha hecho

por ellos? Los llora y 10s presenta o e o s a a1 mundo, 4 posteridad y d sus
hi@, porque sirvan de ejemplo.
Pero jay! si 4 la magia de tu nombre joh, patria! brillan las d s her6icas
virtudes; si d tu nombre se consuman sobrehumanos sacrifiaos, en carnbio
..
j c h t a s injticias! .
Desde Jesucristo, que todo amor, ha venido a1 mundo para bien de la
humanidad y muere por ella en nombre de las leyes de su patria, hasta las
d s oscuras victimas de las revoluciones modernas, jcuantos jay! no han
sufrido y muerto en tu nombre, usurpado por 10s otros! j C h t a s vlctimas
del rencor, de la ambicidn 6 de la ignorancia no han espirado bendicibdote
toda clase de venturas!
Bella y grandiosa es la patria, cuando sus hips, al grito de combate, se
aprestan 4 defender el antiguo suelo de sus mayores; fiera y orgullosa cuando
desde su alto trono w al extranjem huir despavorido ante la invicta falange
de sus hijos; pero cuando sus hijos, divididos en opuestos bandos, se
destruyen mutuamente; cuando la ira y el rencor devastan las campihs, 10s
pueblos y las dudades, entonces ella, avergonzada, desgarra el manto y
armjando el cetro viste negro luto por sus hijos muertos.
Sea, pues, cualquiera nuestra situacibn, amQnosla siempre y no deseemos
otra cosa que su bien. Asf obraremos con el fin de la humanidad dictado
por Dios, cual es la annonfa y la paz universal de sus criaturas.
Vosotros, 10s que haMs perdido el ideal de vuestras almas; 10s que,
heridos en el coraz6n, vis* desaparecer una 4 una vuestras ilusiones, y
semejantes d 10s Prboles en otofio os encontdis sin flores y sin hojas, y
deseosos de m a r no halMs nada digno de vosotros, ahi tenas la patria,
amadla.
Vosotros, 10s que haMs perdido un padre, una madre, un hermano, una
esposa, un hijo, en fin, un amor, en el que funddbais vuestros ensuenos, y
h a l s s en vosotros un vado profundo y homble, ahf tendis 4 la patria,
amadla como se merece.
Amad, joh, si! pero no ya como la amaban en otro tiempo, practicando
virtudes femce, negadas y reprobadas por una verdadera moral y por la
madre naturaleza: no haciendo gala de fanatismo, de destrucci6n y de
crueldad, no; mL risueila a w r a aparece en el horizonte, de luces suaves y
padficas, mensajera de la vida y de la paz; la aurora, en fin, verdadera del
cristianismo, presagio de dks felices y tranquilos. Deber nuestro -1-4seguir
10s dridos pero padficos y productivos senderos de la aencia que conducen
a1 progreso, y de ahf d la uni6n deseada y pedida por Jesucristo en la noche
de su dolor.

LAONC LAAN
Barcelona, Junio 1882
the defense of one who gave them l i i ; they only fulfill their duty. Codrus or
Leonidas or whoever: the fatherland will remember each one forever.
Some have sacrificed theii youth, their pys; others have dedicated the
brilliance of their genius; still others shed their blood. All have bequeathed an
immeasurable fortune, the h i and glory of the beloved country. And what
in turn does she do for them? She weeps and proudly presents them to the
world, to posterity and her children, as worthy of emulation.
But alas, oh beloved country, if there shine heroic virtues in your honor,
and superhuman sacrifices are offered in your name, how many injustices still
prevail!
Alas, how many have suffered and died in your name, which others have
taken in vain to free the fatherland from conquerors-from Jesus Christ who
out of great love came to the world for the good of humanity and died for all
in defense of the laws of his own beloved country, down to the unknown vic-
tims of modern revolutions! How many victims of rancor, ambition or igno-
rance have breathed their last, blessing you and wishing every good fortune!
Fair and majestic is the beloved country when at the sound of battle her
sons give of themselves in deknse of the ancient soil of their forebears. Em-
boldened and proud is she when from on high she watches the foreign ag-
gressors flee in dread of the invincible column of her sons. By the same token,
when her sons, divided into opposite camps, destroy one another, when anger
and rancor devastate fields, towns and cities, she takes off her mantle, throws
away the scepter and dresses in black to mourn for her dead children.
Whatever be then our situation, let us love her and wish her nothing but
her good. Thus we will work for that end which God has wished for all
humankind, universal harmony and peace in all creation.
You whose ideals of the past are lost, you whose hearts are wounded and
whose dreams have vanished one by one, you are like the trees of autumn
without flowers and leaves, and wishing to love, you find nothing worthy of
your affections: here is your native land; love her.
You who have lost father or mother or brother or spouse or child, or a
beloved on whom you were building your dreams, and find within your-
selves nothing but a vast and terrifying emptiness: here is your own country,
love her as she deserves.
Love her, yes, not in the ways of old through rough deeds rejected and
condemned by genuine morality and mother nature, but rather, by doing
away with all display of fanaticism, destructiveness and cruelty. The rosy
dawn rises in the horizon, scattering sweet and quiet rays of light, harbinger
of life and p e e true dawn of Christianity announcing happy and tran-
quil days, It is our duty to tread the hard but peaceful and productive paths of
science which lead to progress and ultimately to the union which Jesus Christ
wished and prayed for on the night of his passion.
LAONG LAAN
Barcelona, June 1882.
PHIUPPINE STUDIES

Bonoan, Raul J. 1994. The Rid-Pasteb w1~qwdena.The hitherto unpub-

lished letters of JdRizal and portions of Fr. Pablo Pastells's fourth let-
ter and translation of the correspondence, together with a historical
background and theological critique. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila
University Press.
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