Complicated history

Last Wednesday, I began a two-part column on Jose Rizal in Belgium. This is a period in the hero’s life, which compared to other countries, is scant on information. From his correspondence, we know that Rizal’s original plan was to visit the Netherlands in search of 17th-century materials on the Philippines, but he ended up in Brussels, staying on from winter to summer of 1890, drafting his second novel “El Filibusterismo.” He left Brussels for Madrid and Paris, returning to Belgium in 1891, first in Brussels and later in Ghent where he supervised the printing of the Fili. Unlike today when books begin with Word or PDF files, in Rizal’s time, a handwritten or manuscript copy is sent to a printer who transforms the written words into printed text as a book.

Rizal finished the Fili in Brussels in April 1891 and copied it from drafts into one clean manuscript then sent it to the press of F. Meyer van Loo in Ghent. By the end of May 1891, Rizal had already corrected the proofs of the first 20 chapters of the novel and had it ready for printing. While copying the remainder of the manuscript, he remarked that he wrote the Fili “with more ardor than the Noli and though it is not so cheerful, at least it is more profound and more perfect.” He moved from Brussels to Ghent in June 1891 but got depressed for lack of financial support for his work. In a letter to Jose Ma. Basa in Hong Kong, Rizal whined:

“At the moment I am printing the second part of ‘Noli me Tangere,’ as you can see by the enclosed pages. I have preferred to publish it in any manner before leaving Europe because it seems to me a pity not to do it. As I have not received a cent for three months, I have pawned all I have in order to print this work and I will continue printing it as long as I can, and when I no longer have anything to pawn, then I will stop, and I will return to your side.

“I am tired of believing in our countrymen; they all seem to have joined together to embitter my life; they have been preventing my return, promising to send me an allowance, and after having done it one month, they have not remembered me again. Lately, I received from the Propaganda at the beginning of April another letter sending me 100 pesos for the months of January and February and promising to send me regularly every month, and we are now in July and I have not received a cent again!

“Some rich men have been promising and offering me money for the publication of my work; now that I accept it, they do not send me even a cent. All my jewels are now pawned; I live in a small room; I eat in a very modest restaurant to economize and be able to publish my work. Shortly I will have to stop it if I do not receive any money … I do not know. If the funds I am expecting do not arrive by the next mail, I will give up, book and all, and I will embark to live and work for myself.”

Rizal even threatened: “At times I feel like burning my manuscript.” Fortunately, he did not burn the manuscripts but sent draft pages of the printed book to Basa with whom he was literally indebted. Rizal told Basa to burn the draft pages of the Fili after reading them.

Rizal planned the Fili to be twice the length of the Noli, but due to lack of funds, the Fili turned out shorter. Rizal threw out about 30 percent of the manuscript, deleting whole pages with black ink.

The finished book was out by September 1891 and the first copies were sent to Basa and Sixto Lopez in Hong Kong, Ferdinand Blumentritt in Litomerice, (present-day Czech Republic, but at the time part of Austria), Juan Luna, and Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera in Paris. He also sent review copies to propagandists in Spain like Marcelo H. del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena.

Despite the Fili published and his resignation as a contributor to the Filipino newspaper La Solidaridad formally presented, Rizal was still stressed. On a personal level, the Rizal family stood to lose their lawsuit against the Dominicans in Laguna. He had also been jilted by Leonor Rivera and Nellie Boustead. On the professional level, he had personal and policy disagreements with Plaridel on the running of La Solidaridad. Plaridel told Rizal that the Fili was inferior to Noli, prompting Rizal to reply:

“I appreciate what you say about my work and I value highly your opinion that considers my Filibusterismo inferior to the Noli. I, too, frankly, without irony or words with a double meaning, share your opinion. For me, the Fili as a novel is inferior to the Noli, so that I receive with a grain of salt the opinion of those who tell me that the Fili is superior to Noli … You are the first one to tell me that truth and you coincide with my manner of thinking. This flatters me as it proves that I still know how to judge myself. Well, now with respect to unity, ideas, depth, etc., it is another thing.”

Rizal’s correspondence from Belgium reveals that our heroes agreed on working for the best interests of the Philippines and Filipinos, but they disagreed on how to attain it. Knowing the conflict between our heroes is not gossip, it underscores the fact that history is complicated.

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