Jose Rizal, From Moth to Martyrdom

Jose Rizal, From Moth to Martyrdom

by Levy Abad (Dec. 7, 2015)
The Diversity Times ( Migrant Perspective ) January 2016, Vol. 5, No. 1

I wrote this article in commemoration of the 119^th death anniversary of Dr. Jose Rizal, Philippine National Hero.

If you ask me about my favorite Jose Rizal story, I can tell you it is the Story of the Moth. Let me tell you why. When I was a kid, I often relate this story to Jesus when he was crucified or to the stories shared by my grandmother about her uncles who died during the revolution of 1896. During my university years in the last days of the dictatorship before 1986, a quote gave more meaning to the story, “He who wants to give light must endure burning.” During those days, it was so easy to understand this quote because almost on a daily basis, you hear news about activists, both ordinary folks and well known, giving away the light of their lives in the struggle for truth and freedom. Jose Rizal was an activist of his time. He offered his life to give light to his people.

Undoubtedly, the things that we read as kids have a lasting impact and they mold our morale idealism, they develop a deep sense of compassion and justice in us. Once the right attitude is there, the context comes into play. What do I mean by this? During the time of Jose Rizal, the world was engulfed by the ideas of the great French Revolution. The impact of the revolution in the mind of the people was to polarize them into two major tendencies, these were the right wing or those who opted for reform of the status quo and the left wing or those who preferred reforms leading to radical change. In France and even in the Philippines way back in the 1890s, a similar scenario occurred. We had the Illustrado (belonging to the wealthy class) calling for reforms and the poor people (peasants) opting for radical change. There were those who gave alms to the poor and those who asked the poor about the root cause of their suffering, as exemplified by one of the followers of Jose Rizal, the Great Plebeian Andres Bonifacio.  Context is powerful and this includes the prevailing condition of society, lifestyle, class status and ideology. It is so powerful that it eats your soul. Either you follow your morale idealism to the grave or calibrate, twist or redact great ideas to suite your interest or convenience, to which all of us in the diaspora are guilty of in varying degrees.

This brings us to the following questions.  What is the meaning of Rizal’s life? How do we show our love for the motherland that up to now is wallowing in poverty and corruption? As followers of Rizal, how do we conduct ourselves in this time and context over the suffering of our people? Do we know that more or less five thousand (5,000) of our compatriots leave for abroad everyday in search of a better life? Are we aware that a lot of our compatriots do not end up as fortunate like us here in Manitoba? Do we still remember the meaning of Noli Me Tangere or “Touch Me Not” (bluntly, “Do not oppress my people!”) and El Filibusterismo or “The Subversive?”

When I migrated to Canada, aside from my full time job, I volunteered Saturdays and Sundays as a community and cultural activist with Migrante. I have done research and organized in Leamington Ontario where the tomato plantations are located and where there are a lot of migrant issues. As a volunteer of Migrante, I had the opportunity to go to Mississauga, Scarborough, Barrie, Collingwood, Hamilton, Quebec and Vancouver to organize and help out with Live-in Caregivers’ struggles, talking about the history of migration and singing about the need to address migrant issues from the perspective of the Philippine struggle. When I moved to Manitoba, we did and still continue doing the same thing of advancing migrant’s rights and welfare and also organizing forums on Philippines history and the struggle for change. Why do we do this?  Looking back, I always remember Rizal’s story of the moth, his love for the motherland and our people and his sense of sacrifice. Indeed, this is the most important thing that I learned from Rizal.  I do believe in Rizal’s emphasis on education, but what kind of education? Is it colonial and decadent and moribund or the liberating kind? We must be mindful that Rizal can be used to colonize us, to make us destroy our own brothers and sisters as in the case of the infamous feudal talangka mentality.

Given the above narrative, another angle that I am looking at is the role of the youth in all of these.   I have mentioned the dire situation of the old country and the necessity for change. During the Spanish colonial period, our people were oppressed and the response of the youth like Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio was to offer their time, strength and life for the liberation of the country. Nowadays, the challenge for the youth remains the same. How can the youth contribute in the effort to make the Philippines progressive, while at the same time helping out in the diaspora with the rights and welfare of the migrant community? How can we help in the propagation of our history and culture? How can the youth absorb the morale idealism of Jose Rizal and later pass it on to the next generation? These are the questions that we have to address sooner than later.  For no matter what personal achievements we have, as long as we do not grasp the depth of the morale idealism of Jose Rizal -his humanism, compassion and sense of justice that will lead to breaking the chains that bind our motherland from its feudal ills, then, what we have is just a personal illusion or delusion. It is my hope that despite living in our newfound home, our love for our motherland will continue to engulf us in the same way the moth came to the light, emerging from the darkness of pessimism, ignorance and indifference to the plight of the people.  By way of closing, I would like to quote two verses from our National Hero’s legendary poem, Mi Ultimo Adios:

             

                                               “ Adios patria adorada, region del sol querida

                                                 Perla del Mar de Oriente, nuestro perdido Eden!

                                                 A darte voy alegre, la triste muestia via,

                                                 Y fuera mas brillante mas fresca mas florida,

                                                 Tambien por ti la dierra, la dierra por tu bien.

                                                 En campos  de batalla, luchando con delirio

                                                 Otros tedan sus vidas sin dudas sin pesar.

                                                 El sitio nada importa, cipres,laurel o lirio

                                                 Cadalso o campo abierto, combate o cruel martirio

                                                 Lo mismo es si lo piden la patria y el hogar.”