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146287552 Who Made Rizal Our Foremost National Hero
Course: Life and Works of Rizal (ZGE 1109)
68 Documents
Students shared 68 documents in this course
University: University of the East (Philippines)
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Who Made Rizal Our Foremost National Hero,
and Why?
BY: ESTEBAN A. DE OCAMPO
Dr. Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonso, or simply Jose Rizal (1861-1896), is unquestionably the greatest hero &
martyr of our nation. The day of his birth & the day of his execution are fittingly commemorated by all
classes of our people throughout the length & breadth of this country & even by Filipinos & their friends
abroad. His name is a byword in every Filipino home while his picture adorns the postage stamp & paper
money of widest circulation. No other Filipino hero can surpass Rizal in the number of towns, barrios, &
streets named after him; in the number of educational institutions, societies, & trade names that bear his
name; in the number of persons, both Filipinos & foreigners, who were named "Rizal" or "Rizalina"
because of their parents’ admiration for the Great Malayan; & in the number of laws, Executive Orders &
Proclamations of the Chief Executive, & bulletins, memoranda, & circulars of both the bureaus of public &
private schools. Who is the Filipino writer & thinker whose teachings & noble thoughts have been
frequently invoked & quoted by authors & public speakers on almost all occasions? None but Rizal. And
why is this so? Because as biographer Rafael Palma (1) said, "The doctrines of Rizal are not for one
epoch but for all epochs. They are as valid today as they were yesterday. It cannot be said that because
the political ideals of Rizal have been achieved, because of the change in the institutions, the wisdom of
his counsels or the value of his doctrines have ceased to be opportune. They have not."
Unfortunately, however, there are still some Filipinos who entertain the belief that Rizal is a "made-to-
order" national hero, & that the maker or manufacturer in this case were the Americans, particularly Civil
Governor William Howard Taft. This was done allegedly, in the following manner:
"And now, gentlemen, you must have a national hero". These were supposed to be the words addressed
by Gov. Taft to Mssrs. Pardo de Tavera, Legarda & Luzurriaga, Filipino members of the Philippine
Commission, of which Taft was the chairman. It was further reported that "in the subsequent discussion in
which the rival merits of the revolutionary heroes (M. H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Gen. Antonio
Luna, Emilio Jacinto, & Andres Bonifacio—O.) were considered, the final choice—now universally
acclaimed a wise one—was Rizal. And so history was made."(2)
This article will attempt to answer two questions: 1) Who made Rizal the foremost national hero & 2) Why
is Rizal our greatest national hero? Before proceeding to answer these queries, it will be better if we first
know the meaning of the term hero. According to Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English
Language, a hero is "a prominent or central personage taking admirable part in any remarkable action or
event". Also, "a person of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger". And finally, he is a man "honored
after death by public worship, because of exceptional service to mankind".
Why is Rizal a hero, nay, our foremost national hero? He is our greatest hero because as a towering
figure in the Propaganda Campaign, he took an "admirable part" in that movement w/c roughly covered
the period from 1882-1896. If we were asked to pick out a single work by a Filipino writer during this
period, more than any writer writing, contributed tremendously to the formation of Filipino nationality, we
shall have no hesitation tin choosing Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere(Berlin, 1887). It is true that Pedro Paterno
published his novel, Ninay, in Madrid in 1885; M. H. del Pilar his La Soberania Monacal in Barcelona in
1889, Graciano Lopez Jaena, his Discursos y Articulos Varios, also in Barcelona in 1891; & Antonio Luna,
his Impresiones in Madrid in 1893, but none of these books had evoked such favorable & unfavorable
comments from friends & foes alike as did Rizal’s Noli.
Typical of the encomiums that the hero received for his novel were those received from Antonio Ma.
Regidor & Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt. Regidor, a Filipino exile of 1872 in London, said that "the book was
superior" & that if "don Quixote has made its author immortal because he exposed to the world the
sufferings of Spain, your Noli Me Tangere will bring you equal glory…"(3) Blumentritt, after reading
Rizal’s Noli, wrote & congratulated its author, saying among other things: "Your work, as we Germans say,
has been written w/ the blood of the heart... Your work has exceeded my hopes & I consider myself happy
to have been honored by your friendship. Not only I, but also your country, may feel happy for having in
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