RIZAL'S LETTER
Europe,
February, 1889
To
The Young Women of Malolos
When I wrote Noli Me Tangere, I asked myself whether bravery was the common
thing in the young women of our people. I brought back to my recollection and
reviewed those that I have known since my infancy, but there were only few who
seem to come up with my ideal. There was, it is true, an abundance of girls with
agreeable manners, beautiful ways, and modest demeanor, but there was in all an
admixture of servitude and deference to the words or whims of their so-called
"spiritual fathers" (as if the spirit or soul had any father other
than God) due to excessive kindness, modesty, or perhaps, ignorance. They seemed
faded plants sown and reared in darkness, having flowers without perfume and
fruits without sap.
However, when the news of what happened at Malolos reached us, I saw my error,
and great was my rejoicing. After all, who is to blame me? I didn't know Malolos
nor its young women, except one called Emilia (Emilia Tiongson, whom Rizal met
in 1887 - Z), and her I knew by name only.
Now that you have responded to our first appeal in the interest of the welfare
for the people; now that you have set an example to those who, like you, long to
have their eyes opened and be delivered from servitude, new hopes are awakened
in us and now we even dare to face adversity, because we have you for our allies
and are confident of victory. No longer does the Filipinos stand with her head
bowed nor does she spend her time on her knees, because she is quickened by hope
in the future; no longer will the mother contribute to keeping her daughter in
darkness and bring her up in contempt and moral annihilation. And no longer the
science of all sciences consist in blind submission to any unjust order, or in
extreme complacency, nor a courteous smile be deemed the only weapon against
insult or humble tears the ineffable panacea for all tribulations. You know that
the will of God is different from that of the priest; that religiousness does
not consist of long period spent on your kness, nor in endless prayers, big
rosarios, and grimy scapularies, but in a spotless conduct, firm intention and
upright judgment. You also know that prudence does not consist in blindly
obeying any whim of the little tin god, but in obeying only that which is
reasonable and just, because blind obedience is itself the cause and origin of
those whims, and those guilty of it are really to be blamed. The official or
friar can no longer assert that they alone are responsible for their unjust
orders, because God gave each individual reason and a will of his or her own to
distinguish the just from the unjust; all were born without shackles and free,
and nobody has the right to subjugate the will and the spirit of another.and,
why should you submit to another your thought, seeing your thought is noble and
free?
It is cowardice and error to believe that saintliness consists in blind
obedience and that prudence and the habit of thinking are presumption. Ignorance
has ever been ignorance, and never prudence and honor. God, the primal source of
all wisdom, does not demand that man, created in His image and likeness, allow
himself to be deceived and noodwinked, but wants us to use and shine the light
of reason with which He has so mercifully endowed us. He may be compared to a
father who gave each of His sons a torch to light his way to darkness, bidding
them keep its light bright and take care of it and not put it out and trust to
the light of others, but to help and advice each other to find the right path.
They would be madmen were they to follow the light of another, only to come to a
fall, and the father could upbraid them and say to them: " Did I not give
each you his own torch"; but he could not say so if the fall were due to
the light of the torch of him who fell, as the light might have beem dim and the
road very bad.
The deceiver is fond of using the saying that "It is presumptious to rely
on one's own judgment", but in my opinion it is more presumptious for a
person to put his judgment above that of the others and try to make it prevail
over theirs. It is more presumptious for a man to constitute himself to an idol
and pretend to be in comunication of thought with God; and it is more than
presumptious and blasphemous for a person to attribute every movement of his
lips to God, to represent every whim of his as the will of God, and to brand his
own enemy as the enemy of God. Of course, we should not consult our judgment
alone, but hear the opinion of others before doing what may seem most reasonable
to us. The wild man from the hills, if clad in the priest's robe, remains a
hillman and can only deceive the weak and ignorant. And to make my argument more
conclusive, just buy a priest robe as the Franciscans wear it and put it on a
carabao, and you will be lucky if the carabao does not become lazy on account of
the robe. But I will leave the subject to speak of something else.
Youth is a flower-bed that is to bear rich fruit and must accumulate wealth for
its descendants. What offspring will be that of a woman whose kindness of
character is expressed by mumbled prayers; who knows nothing by heart but awits,
novenas, and the alleged miracles; whose amusement consists in playing
panguingue and on the frequent confession of the same sins? What sons will she
have but acolytes, priest's servants or cockfighters? It is the mothers who are
responsible for the present servitude of our compatriots, owing to the unlimited
trustfullness of their loving hearts, to their ardent desire to elevate their
sons. Maturity is the fruit of infancy and the infant is formed on the lap of
its mother. The mother who can only teach her child how to kneel and kiss hands
must not expect sons with blood other than that of vile slaves. A tree that
grows in the mud is unsubstantial and good only for firewood. If her son should
have a bold mind, his boldness will be deceitfull and will be like the bat that
cannot show itself until the ringing of vespers. They say that prudence is
sanctity. But, what sanctity have they shown us? To pray and kneel a lot, kiss
the hands of the priest, throw money away on churches, and believe all the
friars sees fit to tell us; gossip, callous rubbing of noses...
As to the mites and gifts to God, is there anything in the world that does not
belong to God? What would you say of a servant making his master a present of a
cloth borrowed from that very master? Who is so vain, so insane that he will
give alms to God and believe that the miserable thing he has given will serve to
cloth the Creator of all things? Blessed be they who succor their fellow men,
aid the poor and feed the hungry; but cursed be they who turn a deaf ear to
suplications of the poor who only give to him who has plenty and spend their
money lavishly on silver altar hangings for the church, or give it to the friar,
who lives in abundance, in the shape of fees for masses of thanksgiving, or in
serenades and fireworks. The money ground out of the poor is bequeathed to the
master so the he can provide for chains to subjugate, and hire thugs and
executioners. Oh, what blindness, what lack of understanding!
Saintliness consists in the first place in obeying the dictates of reason,
happen what may. "It is acts not words that I want of you," said
Christ. "Not everyone that sayeth on to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven." Saintliness does not consist in abjectness, nor is the successor
of Christ to be recognized by the fact that he gives hand to the priest. Christ
did not give the kiss of peace to the Pharasees and never gave His hand to be
kissed. He did not cater to the rich and vain; He did not mention scapularies,
nor did He make rosaries or solicit offerings for the sacrifice of the mass or
exact payments for His prayers. St. John did not demand a fee on the River
Jordan, nor did Christ teach for gain. Why then, the friars now refuse to stir a
fruit unless paid in advance? And, as if they were starving, they sell
scapularies, rosaries, belts, and other things which are nothing but schemes for
making money and are detriment to the soul; because even if all the rags on
earth were converted into scapularies and all the trees in the forest into
rosaries, and if all the skins of all the beasts were made into belts, and if
all the priests of the earth mumbled prayers over all these and sprinkled oceans
of Holy Water over it, these would not purify a rogue or condone sin were there
is no repentance, thus, also, through cupidity and love of money, they will, for
a price, revoke the numerous prohibitions such as those against eating meat,
marrying close relatives, etc. You can do almost anything if you but grease
their palms. Why that? Can God be bribed and bought off, and blinded by money,
nothing more nor less than a friar? The brigand who has obtained a bull of
compromise can live calmly on the proceeds of his robbery, because he will be
forgiven. God then will sit at the table where theft provides the viands? Has
the Omnipotent become a pauper that he must assume the rule of the excise man or
gendarme? If that is the god whom the friar adores, then I turn my back upon
that God.
Let us be reasonable and open our eyes, especially you women, because you are
the first to influence the consciousness of man. Remember that a good mother
does not resemble the mother that the friar has created; she must bring up her
child to be the image of the true God, not of a blackmailing, a grasping God,
but of a God who is the father of us all, who is just; who does not suck the
life-blood of the poor like vampire, nor scoffs at the agony of the sorely
beset, nor makes a crooked path of the path of justice. Awaken and prepare the
will of you children towards all that is honorable, judged by proper standards,
to all that is sincere and firm of purpose, clear judgment, clear procedure,
honesty in act and deed, and for the fellowman and respect for God; this is what
you must teach your children. And, seeing that life is full of thorns and
thistles, you must fortify their minds against any stroke of adversity and
accustom them to danger. The people can not expect honor nor prosperity so long
as they will educate their children in a wrong way, so long as the woman who
guides the child in his steps is slavish and ignorant. No good water comes from
a turbid, bitter spring; no savory fruit comes from acrid seed.
The duties that woman has to perform in order to deliver the people fro
suffering are of no little importance, but be they as they may, they will not be
beyond he strength and stamina of the Filipino people. The power and good
judgment of the woman of the Philippines are well known, and it is because of
this that she has been hoodwinked, and tied, and rendered puaillanimous; and now
her enslavers rest at ease, because so long as they can keep the Filipina mother
a slave, so long will they be able to make slaves of her children. The cause of
backwardness of Asia lies in the fact that there the women are ignorant, are
slaves; while Europe and America are powerful because there the women are free
and well educated and endowed with lucid intellect and a strong will.
We know that you lack instructive books; we know that nothing is added to your
intellect, day by day, save that which is intended to dim its natural
brightness; all this we know, hence are desire to bring you the light that
illuminates you equals here in Europe. If that which I tell you does not provoke
your anger, and if you will pay a little attention to it then, however dense the
mist maybe that befogs our people, I will make the utmost efforts to have it
dissipated by the bright rays of the sun, which will give light, though they may
be dimmed. We shall not feel any fatigue if you help us; God, too, will help to
scatter the mist, because He is the God of truth; He will restore to its
pristine condition the fame of the Filipina in whom we now miss only a criterion
of her own, because good qualities she has enough and to spare. This is our
dream; this is the desire we cherish in our hearts; to restore the honor of
woman, who is half of our heart, our companion in the joys and tribulations of
life. If she is a maiden, a young man should love her not only because of her
beauty and her amiable character, but also on account of her fortitude of mind
and loftiness of purpose, which quicken and elevate the feeble and timid and
ward off all vain thoughts. Let the maiden be the pride of her country and
command respect, because it is a common practice on the part of the Spaniards
and friars here who have returned from the Islands to speak of the Filipina as
complainant and ignorant, as if all should be thrown into the same class because
of the missteps of a few, and as if women of weak character did not exist in
other lands. As to purity what could the Filipina not hold up to others!
Nevertheless, the returning Spaniards and friars, talkative and fond of gossip,
can hardly find time enough to brag and bawl, amidst guffaws and insulting
remarks, that a certain woman was thus; that she behaved thus at the convent and
conducted herself thus with the Spaniards who on the occasion was her guest, and
other things that set her teeth on edge when you think of them which, in the
majority of cases, were fault due to candor, excessive kindness, meekness, or
perhaps ignorance and were all the work of the defamer himself. There is a
Spaniard now in high office, who has sat on our table and enjoyed our
hospitality in his wanderings through the Philippines and who, upon his return
to Spain, rushed forthwith into print and related that on one occasion in
Pampanga he demanded hospitality and ate, ands slept at a house and the lady of
the house conducted herself in such and in such a manner with him; this is how
he repaid the lady for her supreme hospitality! Similar insinuations are made by
the friars to the chance visitor from Spain concerning their very obedient
confesandas, hand-kissers, etc., accompanied by smiles and very significant
winkings of the eye. In a book published by D. Sinibaldo de Mas and in other
friar sketches since are related to which women accused themselves in the
confessional and of which the friars made no secret in talking to their Spanish
visitors seasoning them, at the best, with idiotic and shameless tales not
worthy of credence. I cannot repeat here the shameless stories that a friar told
Mas and to which Mas attributed no value whatever. Everytime we hear or read
anything of this kind, we ask each other: Are the Spanish women all cut after
the pattern of the Holy Virgin Mary and the Filipinas reprobates? I believe that
if we are to balance accounts in this delicate question, perhaps… But I must
drop the subject because I am neither a confessor nor a Spansish traveler and
have no business to take away anybody’s good name. I shall let this go and
speak of the duties of woman instead.
A people that respects woman, like the Filipino people, must know the truth of
the situation in order to be able to do what is expected of it. It seems an
established fact that when a young student falls in love, he throws everything
to the dogs – knowledge, honor, and money, as if a girl cannot do anything but
sow misfortune. The bravest youth becomes a coward when he marries, and the born
coward becomes shameless, as if he had been waiting to get married in order to
show his cowardice. The son, in order to hide his pusillanimity, remembers his
mother, swallows his wrath, suffers his ears to be boxed, obeys the most foolish
order, and becomes an accomplice to his own dishonor. It should be remembered
that where nobody flees there is no pursuer; when there is no little fish there
cannot be a big one. Why does the girl not require her lover a noble and honored
name, a manly heart offering protection to her weakness, and a high spirit
incapable of being satisfied with endangering slaves? Let her discard all fear,
let her behave nobly and not deliver her youth to the weak and faint–hearted.
When she is married she must aid her husband, inspire him with courage, share
his perils, refrain from causing her worry and sweeten his moments of affliction
always remembering that there is no grief that a brave heart cannot bare and the
there is no bitterer inheritance than that of infamy and slavery. Open your
children’s eyes so that they may jealously guard their honor, love their
fellowmen and their native land, and do their duty. Always impress upon them
they must prefer dying with honor to living in dishonor. The women of Sparta
should serve you as an example in this; I shall give some of their
characteristics.
When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching to battle, she
said nothing to him but this: "Return with it, or on it," which mean,
come back victorious or dead, because it was customary with the routed warrior
to throw away his shield, while the dead warrior was carried home on his shield.
A mother received word that her son had been killed in battle and the army
routed. She did not say a word, but expressed her thankfulness that her son had
been saved from disgrace. However, when her son returned alive, the mother put
on mourning. One of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning from
batt6le was told by one that her three sons had fallen. I do not ask you that,
said the mother, but whether we have been victorious or not. We have been
victorious – answered the warrior. If that is so, then let us thank God, and
she went to the temple.
Once upon a time a king theirs, who had been defeated, hid on the temple,
because he feared the popular wrath. The Spartans resolved to shut him up there
and starve him to death. When they are blocking the door, the mother was the
first to bring stones. These things were in accordance with the custom there,
and all Greece admired the Spartan woman. Of all women – a woman said
jestingly – only you Spartans have power over the men. Quite natural – they
replied – of all women only we give birth to men. Man, the Spartan women said,
was not born to live for himself alone but for his native land. So long as this
way of thinking prevailed and they had that kind of women in Sparta, no enemy
was able to put his foot upon her soil, nor was there a woman in Sparta who ever
saw a hostile army.
I do not expect to be believed simply because it is I who am saying this; there
are many people who do not listen to reason, but will listen only to those who
wear the cassock or have gray hair or no teeth; but while it is true that the
aged should be venerated, because of their travails
and experience, yet the life that I lived, consecrated to the happiness of the
people, adds some years, though not many of my age. I do not pretend to be
looked upon as an idol or fetish and to be believed and listened to be with the
eyes closed, and head bowed, and the arms crossed over the breast; what I asked
of all is to reflect on what I tell him, think it over and sift it carefully
through the sieve of reason.
First of all. That the tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice and
negligence on the part of others.
Second. What makes one contemptible is lack of dignity and abject fear of him
who holds one in contempt.
Third. Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does
not think for himself and allowed himself to be guided by the thought of another
is like the beast led by a halter.
Fourth. He who loves his independence must first aid his fellowman, because he
who refuses protection to others will find himself without it; the isolated rib
of the buri palm is easily broken but not so the broom made of the ribs of the
palm bound together.
Fifth. If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let her rear no more
children, let her merely give birth to them. She must cease the mistress of the
home, otherwise she will unconsciously betray husband, child, native land, and
all.
Sixth. All men are born equal, naked, without bonds. God did not create man to
be a slave; nor did he endow him with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or
adorn him with reason to have him deceived by others. It is not fatuous to
refuse to worship one’s equal, cultivate one’s intellect and to make use of
reason in all things. Fatuous is he who makes a god of him, who makes brute of
others and who strives to his whims all that is reasonable and just.
Seventh. Consider well what kind of religion they are teaching you. See whether
it is the will of God or according to the teachings of Christ that the poor be
succored and those who suffer alleviated. Consider what they are preaching to
you, the object of the sermon, what is behind the masses, novenas, rosaries,
scapularies, images, miracles, candles, belts, etc.,; which they daily keep
before your minds; ears and eyes; jostling, shouting, and coaxing; investigate
whence they came and whither they go and then compare that religion with the
pure religion of Christ and see whether they pretended of observance of the life
of Christ does not remind you of the fat milch cow or the fattened pig, which is
encouraged to grow fat not through love of the animal, but for grossly mercenary
motives.
Let us therefore reflect; let us consider our situation and see how we stand.
May these purely written lines aid you in your good purpose and help you to
pursue the plan you have initiated. "May your profit be greater than the
capital invested;" and I shall gladly accept the usual reward of all dare
to tell our people the truth. May your desire to educate yourself be crowned
with success; may you in the garden of learning gather not bitter, but choice
fruit, looking well before you eat because in the surface of the globe all is
deceit, and the enemies sows weeds in your seeding plot.
All this is the ardent desire of your compatriot,
Jose Rizal