The following historical critique will illustrate a narrative of Philippine Nationalism through an examination of the role of the heroes who played in constructing the perceived notion of “nationhood”. Dermendo (2004) argues that heroes are critical components of the identity axis of nationalism. An individual’s veneration of national heroes enhances the individual’s sense of belonging to the national collective. By creating a sense of national kinship, heroes facilitate a person’s internal allegiance to the nation, the awareness of citizenship and belonging to “the people”, an element of what Benedict Anderson has called the “imagined community” that constitutes nationalism.
There are many factors that can be attributed to the development of the Philippine’s national identity. For example, the colonial regimes of Spain and the United States undeniably have played a significant role in the development of the Philippine nation. Nevertheless, there are historians and writers who recognize the role heroes play in establishing a national identity for citizens of a nation to recognize and relate to. This analysis focuses more on the role of individuals in shaping and promoting a sense of pride in the Philippines However, determining the individuals to label as national heroes can be a difficult task especially with the Philippines because of its long tumultuous history.
Moreover, there will be three ilustrados that would be mentioned throughout this critique in order to analyze the important changes that has happened during the rise of these ilustrados and how these enlightened ones contributed to the Philippine Nationalism development thus what did these ilustrados ideas have fulfilled significantly in the history when they’ve enlightened the Filipino nation of their ideas in order for the progression of the Philippine Nationalism.
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The first ilustrado to be mentioned was Jose Rizal who is regularly known as the ‘Father of Filipino Patriotism’ and the Main Filipino’, not on the grounds that he built up a free Philippine state (truth be told, he explicitly and unequivocally impugned the 1896 Transformation against Spain), but since he was instrumental in the production of the conceptualization of ‘Filipino’ as an ethno political aggregate as ‘a people’, or, in the language of patriotism ‘the individuals’. In his exposition entitled, ‘The Indolence of the Filipino’, Rizal makes the intense articulation that, ‘Indolence in the Philippine is a ceaseless disease, however not a genetic one.
There has existed a disgrace in Philippine society with respect to the gigantic hole of riches between the world class and the center, working, and destitute individuals of the Philippine islands. In this way, Rizal illustrated: The way that the best ranches, the best tracts of land in certain areas, those that from their simple access are more gainful than others, are in the hands of the strict companies, whose aim is numbness and a state of semi-starvation for the local, so they may keep on administering him and make themselves important to his pathetic reality, is one reason why numerous towns do not advance notwithstanding the endeavors of their occupants.
Boyce, a scientist having some expertise in the financial advancement of the Philippines in the course of the most recent couple of decades, uncovers: The disappointment of rising GNP per capita to ‘stream down’ to the poor in the Philippines in 1962-1986 develops most unmistakably from an assessment of patterns in genuine wages and joblessness. Pundits assault the earnestness of his feelings because of the charges that Rizal was simply a manikin of the American government whose reason for existing was to alienate Spain’s hold in the Philippines.
Actually, Filipinos themselves sanctified Rizal even before his demise and well before the pundit’s contentions of the American establishment of Rizal as the Philippine’s national legend. In his piece entitled ‘Love of Nation’, Rizal presents to the peruse his feelings in regards to cherish for one’s nation: The less fortunate and increasingly vomited she is, the more one is happy to languish over her, the more she is loved, the more one discovers joy in enduring with her. Taken all in all, Jose Rizal’s writing transfers the message to all Filipinos in the islands, those working abroad, and even second era brought into the world abroad to consistently respect their hereditary homeland and to maintain their city obligations to their country of ethnic starting point.
Obviously, Rizal wanted to delineate to its occupants and different countries of the world that Filipinos are competent and having the right to have their autonomy and invest heavily in their country. As such, Rizal comprehended that his impression of having the occupants of the Philippine Islands join as Filipinos to in a perfect world at that point politically have the option to shape one country was an intense idea that reached out past him. Likewise, it was his solid confidence in the Filipino individuals that persuade significantly after his passing, Filipinos would keep on understanding their noteworthiness as a country and work for their entitlement to make their own self-sufficient state. By and large, Jose Rizal presents a reoccurring topic of a feeling of obligation to his local nation, the Philippines, and its kin, the Filipinos. Rizal saw and lectured about the huge number of Philippine islands and the feelings of its socially assorted individuals as one ‘envisioned network’ of a country for Filipinos to gladly have a place with.
Additionally, the second ilustrado would be Graciano Lopez Jaena who is a man that is well known and respected for a variety of achievements. Jaena is recognized as being an integral part of the Philippine Revolution. This revolution, which is also known as the Tagalog War, helped to release the Philippines from Spanish rule. Graciano Lopez Jaena helped to spur this revolution with his variety of literary works that helped to create the need and desire for independence. Jaena along with two other propagandists are instrumental for their works with the Filipino people.
Graciano Lopez Jaena subsequently becomes very well known for addressing the injustices that occurred amongst the Filipino people. His first attempt at addressing problems in local society was through a story entitled ‘Fray Botod.’ This story made reference to the less-than-kind ways of the local priests. Although no one could prove that Jaena wrote the story, he received many threats to his life as a result of his ridicule of the unholy ways of the local priests. Likewise, while continuing to provide medical services to the local community, Jaena also discovered that many people were dying at the hands of the local mayor. When Jaena refused to testify that the deceased individuals died of natural causes, he was threatened again and decided to move to Spain to escape potential harm.
Upon arriving in Spain, Jaena would eventually become a very well-known advocate for Filipino issues. He and two other men, Jose P. Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar would become the main propagandists speaking out for Filipino reform. Thus, the biography of Graciano Lopez Jaena is one of a man who was committed to changing the way in which the Filipino population was treated. In the context of Philippine Revolution, Jaena was known to publish a number of literary works that challenged the status quo. One of his most popular works included the ‘La Solidaridad,’ which was a newspaper that played a very significant part in the propaganda movement that helped lead to the Philippine Revolution.
Hence, the last ilustrado to be mentioned would be Marcelo Del Pilar whom used propaganda, it pursued the desires for: assimilation of the Philippines as a province of Spain; removal of the friars and the secularization of the parishes; freedom of assembly and speech; equality before the law; and Philippine representation in the Cortes, the legislature of Spain. The first voting for the Responsable started on the first week of February 1891. Rizal, knowing the Pilaristas did not like his political beliefs, respectfully declined the position and transferred it to Del Pilar. Inactive in the Reform Movement, Rizal ceased his contribution of articles on La Solidaridad. From 1890 to 1895, Del Pilar published La Solidaridad almost on his own as funding was scarce in the Philippines. Before his death, Del Pilar rejected the theory of assimilation.
Planning an armed struggle, Del Pilar stated: Suffering from tuberculosis, Del Pilar decided to return to the Philippines. Del Pilar died there on July 4, 1896, a few days before the Cry of Pugad Lawin. He was buried the following day in a borrowed grave at the Cementerio del Sub-Oeste. Some historians and scholars uphold the hypothesis that Del Pilar was the true mastermind of the Katipunan. According to the historian Renato Constantino, the ordinances of the Katipunan were submitted by Bonifacio to Del Pilar for validation. Bonifacio used the letters he received from Del Pilar to enlist more Katipuneros. Kalayaan, the official newspaper of the Katipunan, carried the pseudonym of Del Pilar, Plaridel, as editor-in-chief. A copy of the letters of Del Pilar was also given by Bonifacio to Deodato Arellano, del Pilar’s brother-in-law and the first president of Katipunan.
These ideas that the three ilustrados have done for the construction of the Filipino nation upholds some of the development that has happened in the Philippine Nationalism. The Philippine made its way to be free from its oppressors but aside from this idea, the goal of the three ilustrados mentioned above was also for the Filipinos to be enlightened about the nation and that such oppression should not be tolerated anymore. But in the present times, we could still see that the people whom sits in the government is still practicing its power over its people leading to an oppression in which not all Filipinos notices but only those who are educated. This also has something to do with the unfinished revolution in which believed to be reason why the things that the three ilustrado have done in the past century was somewhat a failure still since the main goal has not been achieved still if we look into the current situation of the Philippines.
