Quotations

from

Noli Me Tangere

 

valkyrie47no@yahoo.com wrote

Crisostomo Ibarra went to Pilosopong Tasio to ask him for advice about his plan to build a school. He saw a book on which the old man was working and thought that the old man was using hieroglyphics. He asked Tasio "But why do you write if you don't want to be read?" and the old man replied,

"Because I'm not writing for this generation, but for other ages. If this generation could read, it would burn my books, the labor of my whole life. But the generation that deciphers these characters will be an intelligent generation, it will understand and say, 'Not all were asleep in the night of our ancestors!' The mystery of these curious characters will save my work from the ignorance of men, just as the mystery of strange rites has saved many truths from the destructive priestly classes."

Pilosopong Tasio used the word "asleep" on the intellectual and psycho-social levels to describe those of his people who did not think or refused to think about their life under the Spanish colonizers, perhaps because of fear, a fatalistic resignation to being oppressed, or just plain indifference. The people who were not "asleep" were those who were keenly aware of what was happening and, although unable to do anything yet, recorded what they have observed.

Too much of the history of Las Islas Filipinas went unrecorded by the native population and many accounts of the old knowledge, practices, values and traditions were destroyed by the friars because they were deemed as "superstitions" and a danger to the Catholic faith. Pilosopong Tasio was referring to those who protected existing records in order to preserve them for the generations yet to come. It is said that history is written by the victors. Rizal and members of La Solidaridad were among those who tried to record the history of their people through their writings, in painting and sculpture, and in music.

 

 

"This people does not complain because it has no voice, it does not move because it is lethargic, and you say that it does not suffer because you haven't seen how its heart bleeds Pilosopong Tasio speaking to Ibarra, Chapter 25

valkyrie47no@yahoo.com wrote

The complete text of Pilosopong Tasio's reply goes:

"This people does not complain because it has no voice, it does not move because it is lethargic, and you say that it does not suffer because you haven't seen how its heart bleeds. But some day you will see this, you will hear its complaints, and then woe unto those who found their strength on ignorance and fanaticism! Woe unto those who rejoice in deceit and labor during the night, believing that all are asleep! When the light of day shows up the monsters of darkness, the frightful reaction will come. So many sighs suppressed, so much poison distilled drop by drop, so much force repressed for centuries, will come to light and burst! Who then will pay those accounts which oppressed peoples present from time to time and which History preserves for us on her bloody pages?"

This was the reply of Pilosopong Tasio to Ibarra's "Oh, that's asking too much! Let us content ourselves with observing that our people do not complain or suffer as do the people of other countries, thanks to Religion and the benignity of the governing powers."

To a large extent, this description still applies to millions of Filipinos in their own homeland who do not have a voice. If they have a voice, it is too faint to be heard in the wilderness of shameless greed and corruption in government. Generally, Filipinos are gentle and, used to suffering, have the tendency of going through life with the attitude of "Puwede pa, puwede na". Despite the worsening social and eco-political conditions, Filipinos have not reached the point that drove Bonifacio and his katipuneros to face the enemy, armed only with his bolo. Like Tasio, we can only say, "Woe, to those who will be made to pay their accounts."

 

cdvictory21@yahoo.com wrote

This is from the Rizal Quotations project, from the Noli. The Dominicans speaking to each other:

Besides, we need their attacks, to keep us awake; that makes us see our weaknesses so that we may remedy themflattery will deceive us and . Exaggerated put us to sleepwe shall be , while outside our walls laughed at, and the day in which we become an object of ridicule, weshall fall as we fell in Europe. Money will not flow into our churches, no one will buy our scapularies or girdles or anything else, and when we cease to be rich we shall no longer be able to control consciences.

I believe the Catholic Church let us down in the Philippines, even after the Spanish friartocracy was removed. I actually don't have time right now to spell out why I believe so. Recently I was chatting with a businessman here in the US about the Philippines. He is originally from Hong Kong. He said to me: "It is a riddle to me that the Church in the Philippines appears to have done little to alleviate all the injustice going on in your country."

I liked his use of the word "riddle."

But isn't it indeed a riddle that God's Church, supposedly a champion of social justice, has all these years since 1946 done little to alleviate the problem of social injustice in the Philippines?

My alma mater is the Jesuit Ateneo de Manila. Incidentally it is also Jose Rizal's alma mater. This month is the month of the Rosary and our traditional wearing of the "October Medal." It is a major devotion for many Ateneans. You can see that after all these years, over 110 since the Noli was written, we are still buying their scapularies....and the injustices in our society continue unabated. Is there a connection? I don't know for sure, but I suspect that there is.

valkyrie47no@yahoo.com wrote

In the same chapter, Fray sibyla said, "... the young man is going to marry Capitan Tiago's daughter, who was educated in the college of our Sisterhood. He's rich, and won't care to make enemies and to run the risk of ruining his fortune and his happiness." The old Dominican replid, "Yes, I think as you do. With a wife like that and such a father-in-law, we'll own him body and soul. If not, so much the better for him to declare himself an enemy of ours." What I find interesting is the contemptuous description of Maria Clara as "a wife like that". Maria Clara is beautiful, kind, charming and the only heir to the wealth of Kapitan Tiago, but she definitely does not belong to the kind of women that Rizal praised very highly in his "Letter to the Young Women Women of Malolos." Surely, Rizal did not mean her to be the heroine of a novel that would later earn the dubious description, "ideal of Filipino womanhood."

 

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