RIZAL IN BRUSSELS

• Rizal used two pen names Dimas Alang and Laong Laan.

RIZAL IN BRUSSELS (1890)

ANALYSIS:

TO MY MUSE

ROMANCE WITH SUZANNE JACOBY

As we discuss Rizal’s travels, I become more and more of a fan. In Brussels, although he was very lonesome, he did not let that fact bother him and stop him from voicing out what he felt especially when it came to the Philippines. He showed such patriotism in countless ways; he wrote various articles for La Solidaridad that was in the Philippines & he reached out to his fellow Filipinos in Madrid when he heard that they were too involved in gambling. Distance was not an issue for him. I also am impressed by how courageous he was and how open-minded he was about dying, and even though he had terrible dreams about that, he did not fear and back down, he worked even harder in order to finish the second installation of Noli Me Tangere and assured his family and friends that he was fine despite everything that he was facing. And I can now truly say that Rizal was definitely a chick magnet, just reading Suzanne's letter made me realize the effect that he had with the ladies. I have learned from Rizal that if we want something, we should do something in order to get it but in the most humane way possible, and I hope that someday, I will be able to achieve a lot of great things that may actually make an impact in our society.

o Rizal wrote this poem during those sad days in Brussles.

o This poem lacked the exquisitry of To the Flowers of Heidelberg and less polished than To the Filipino youth but it is passionate in feeling.

• Two things brought some joy to Rizal:

o Summertime festival of Belgium

o Romance with Suzanne Jacoby

• Rizal was so charming and dignified a gentleman that Suzanne was attracted to him. He was lonely in a strange country and Leonor was far away; naturally being a normal young man, he found certain bliss in the company of a pretty Belgian girl. Rizal may have flirted with Suzanne but he could not stoop low to deceptive amorous relationship

• Like other women: Segunda Katigbak, Orang Valenzuela, Leonor Rivera, O-Sei-San, Gettie Beckett, Consuelo Ortiga y Rey and the Bousted sisters, Suzanne fell in love with Rizal. She cried when he left toward the end of July 1890 for Madrid.

• Although Rizal was in faraway Madrid, Suzanne could not forget him. She wrote to him in French:

RAQUION, Jam T.

ON TO MADRID, INSTEAD OF HOME

BAD NEWS FROM HOME

• Rizal was determined to go home, no amount of warning or danger could change his mind.

• However, Paciano told him that they lost the case against the Dominicans in Manila, but they appealed it to the Supreme Court in Spain, hence a lawyer was needed to handle it in Madrid.

• Accordingly, Rizal wrote to Del Pilar on June 20, 1890 retaining the latter’s services as a lawyer and further informed him that he was going to Madrid, in order to supervise the handling of the case.

• In another letter to Ponce dated July 29, 1890, Rizal announced that he was leaving Brussels at the beginning of the following month and would arrive in Madrid about the 3rd or 4th of August.

PREPARATION TO GO HOME

• The Calamba agrarian trouble was getting worse. The management of the Dominican Hacienda continually raised the land rents until such time that Rizal’s father refused to pay his rent.

• The Dominican Order filed a suit in court to dispossess the Rizal family of their lands in Calamba. The tenants, including Rizal’s family, were persecuted and ejected from their lands; Paciano, together with Antonio Lopez (husband of Narcisa) and Silvestre Ubaldo (husband of Olympia) were deported to Mindoro. Manuel T. Hidalgo (husband of Saturnina) was banished for a second time to Bohol.

• Rizal got depressed, his heart bled to know the sorrowful plight of his family. From Brussles, he wrote to Soledad on June 6, 1890:

o “I have caused much harm to our family, but at least there remains to us the consolation of knowing that the motive is not disgraceful nor does it humiliate anybody. On the contrary it raises us up and gives us more dignity in the eyes of our very enemies themselves; to fall with the head high and the brow serene is not to fall, it is to triumph. The sad thing is to fall with the stain of dishonor. Moreover, I may be what my enemies desire me to be, yet never an accusation are they able to hurl against me which makes me blush or lower my forehead, and I hope that God will be merciful enough with me to prevent me from committing one of those faults which would involve my family.”

• In the face of the sufferings which afflicted his family, Rizal decided to go home.

• Hearing that Graciano Lopez Jaena was planning to go to Cuba, he wrote to Ponce on July 9, 1890 opposing Graciano’s plan of action. He said that Graciano shouldn’t go to Cuba to die of yellow fever but rather “ought to go to the Philippines to allow himself to be killed in defense of his ideals.” For he believed that “We have only once to die and if we do not die well, we lose an opportunity which will not again be presented to us.”

• In another letter to Ponce, dated July 18, 1890 he expressed his determination to go home, but he said that the only thing that would stop him from going back was whether his parents would agree or not. He didn’t want to disturb their last years, and in case they would object he would just look for a livelihood in some other part of the world.

• All his friends including Blumentritt, Jose Ma. Basa and Ponce, were horrified by Rizal’s plan to return to the Philippines. They warned him of the danger that awaited him at home.

PRESENTATION OF DEATH

• Rizal had bad dreams during the nights in Brussels when he was restless because he was always thinking of how unhappy his family in Calamba was.

On January 28, 1890, Rizal left Paris for Brussles.

Reasons why Rizal left Paris:

• Cost of living was very high

• The gay social life hampered his literary works.

• He divulged this morbid presentiment to M. H. Del Pilar in a letter dated June 11, 1890. In his letter he said that he didn’t give much attention to the sad presentiments. He also said that even when he was younger, he had a strange belief he would not reach 30 years old. There were 2 months wherein he only dreamt of his friends and family were dead. He also said that he dreamt of reaching the center of the Earth and met a multitude of people seated, dressed in white, with white faces, silent and surrounded by white light. Although he had no illness and was strong, Rizal prepared for his death. He even said that “Laong Laan” (Ever ready) was his true name. He was determined to finish the second volume of Noli for he didn’t want to leave unfinished business that no one could continue. He did assure Del Pilar that he wasn’t depressed for every 2 days, he would go to the gymnasium and practice fencing and shooting.

RIZAL CRITICIZES MADRID FILIPINOS FOR GAMBLING

LIFE IN BRUSSELS

• In Brussels, Rizal received news from Juan Luna and Valentin Ventura that the Filipinos in Spain were destroying the good name of their nation by gambling too much.

• Accordingly, Rizal wrote to M. H. Del Pilar on May 28, 1890 to remind the Filipinos about their purpose. (To work for the Philippines’ freedom and not to gamble)

o “Luna in Paris complains of the gambling of the Filipinos in Madrid so does Ventura. They say that, according to news from the Philippines, the parents are very much disgusted… I am afraid we are serving the friars’ scheme. There is nothing at home to remind them that the Filipino does not come to Europe to gamble and amuse himself, but to work for his liberty and for the dignity of his race. It is necessary to leave the Philippines to gamble, for there they already gamble very much. If we who are called upon to do something, if we in whom the poor people place their modest hopes, spend our time in these things precisely when the years of youth should be employed in something more noble and lofty, for the very reason that youth is noble and lofty, I fear much that we are fighting for a useless illusion and that, instead of being worthy of liberty, we are worthy of slavery. I appeal to the patriotism of all Filipinos to give the Spanish people proof that we are superior to our misfortune and that neither are we capable of being brutalized nor can our noble sentiments be deadened with the corruption of customs.”

FUN FACT:

"Pansit" incident

Pansit for lunch and

dinner for 2 days.

• Rizal was accompanied by Jose Albert when he moved to Brussles.

• They stayed in a boarding house on 38 Rue Philippe Champagne managed by two Jacoby sisters.

• Later on Jose Albert left the city and was replaced by Jose Alejandrino, an engineering student.

• He worked on his second book, which was a continuation of Noli.

• He spent part of his time in the medical clinic.

• For recreation, he had gymnastics, target practice and fencing.

RIZAL’S ARTICLES IN LA SOLIDARIDAD

o “Ingratitudes” (Ingratitudes), January 15, 1890

- a reply to Governor – general Weyler, who, while visiting Laguna

province in company with the Dominicans said that the people, “should not let themselves be deceived by the vain promises of ungrateful sons.”

o “Sin Nombre” (Without Name), February 28, 1890

o “Sobre la Nueva Ortografia de la Lengua Tagala” (On the New Orthography of the Tagalog Language), April 15, 1890

o “Cosas de Filipinas” (Things About the Philippines), April 30, 1890

o “Sobre la Indolencia de los Filipinos” (On the Indolence of the Filipinos), July 15 – September 15, 1890

- a brilliant essay in defense of the Filipino Indolence.

• Among his splendid articles which appeared in La Solidaridad from 1889 to 1890 were the following:

o “La Verdad Para Todos” (The Truth For All), May 31, 1889.

- This was the first article of Rizal written for La Solidaridad.

o “Verdades Nueves” (New Truths), July 31, 1889

o “Una Profanacion” (A Profanation), July 31, 1889

- an attack against the Spanish friars for refusing to bury Mariano Herbosa in a Catholic cemetery just because he was Rizal’s brother-in-law

o “Diferencias” (Differences), September 15, 1889

o “Filipinas dentro de Clen Afios” (The Philippines A Century Hence), September 30, October 31, December 18, 1889 and February 1, 1890.

- contains a prophecy that someday, the Filipinos will rise in revolution against Spain and win their independence, but shall come under the rule of the United States.