Sunday, August 31, 2008
elective english 3
My eagerness to make my teaching easier for my students, i decided to make use of the information and communication technology. I elieve that this would be realized with the aid of this blog.
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Protasio’s Pen and Andres’ Pistol
ReplyDeleteby Ma. Inna Paulina E. Palaña
It is widely acknowledge that the Philippine’s national hero is Dr. José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, the author of books and compositions that woke the sleeping Filipino nationalism against the Spanish colonial rule in the late 19th century. But why do others claim it must be Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro to be the rightful owner of the title? Is it because Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro used the power of his fist and sword rather than the power of pen like what Rizal did?
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, or commonly known as Dr. Jose Rizal, was born on June 19, 1861, in the town of Calamba, Laguna. With great parents (Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonzo y Quintos) to support him even though he is the 7th child of their 11 children namely Saturnina, Paciano, Narcisa, Olimpia, Lucia, Maria, Concepcion, Josefa, Trinidad and Soledad, he never had a problem with his family. At the age of three, he learned his alphabets with his mother as his teacher that at the age of five, Jose Rizal started to show his passion as an artist. He flabbergasted his family as he shows to them his skills at his young age like in drawing, writing light compositions or his clay structure. He started to show his talent in writing when he was at the age of eight, the year he wrote his first composition "Sa Aking Mga Kabata," the theme of which revolves on the love of one’s language. These skills became more enhanced as he grew older, as he travelled from one country to another country and become an architect, artists, businessman, cartoonist, educator, economist, ethnologist, scientific farmer, historian, inventor, journalist, linguist, musician, mythologist, nationalist, naturalist, novelist, ophthalmic surgeon, poet, propagandist, psychologist, scientist, sculptor, sociologist, and theologian. Some of his poetry works are El Embargue: Himno ala Flota de Magallanes, La Tragedia de San Eustaquio, El Combates: Urbiztondo, Terror de Jolo, Un Recuerdo a mi Pueblo, La Entrada Triumfa de los Reyes Catolicos en Granda, A La Juventud Filipina, A Mi Madre, Los Viejeros, Mi Retiro, and his works of novels are Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Makimasa (which was not completed). When he went to Barcelona, he wrote the Amor Patrio, and made Dyaryong tagalong with his codename as Laong-laan. Because of his writings, Rizal provoked the hostility of those in power. This led him and his country men into trouble with the Spanish officials in his country. They were searched in every parts of the world. When the Philippine Revolution started on August 26, 1896, his enemies lost no time in pressing him down. They listed all the witnesses that led to Rizal in prison. His last work which he wrote inside his prison cell entitled “Ultimo Adios” is considered a masterpiece and a living document expressing not only the hero’s great love of country but also that of all Filipinos. After a mock trial, he was convicted of rebellion, sedition and of forming illegal association. In the cold morning of December 30, 1896, Rizal, a man whose 35 years of life had been packed with varied activities which proved that the Filipino has capacity to equal if not excel even those who treat him as a slave, was shot at Bagumbayan Field.
Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro was born to a Tagalog cabeza de barangay father namely Santiago Bonifacio and a Spanish mestiza mother, who died in tuberculosis, namely Catalina de Castro. According to some anecdotes, his father peddled canes and fans to support his family. Since his family cannot afford his school fees, his mother taught him lessons he might need in his future. Bonifacio, often rejected for being thought as an illiterate, was highly literate. He was fluent in Spanish language, thanks to his mother’s ancestry, and a passionate reader, his favorites were books on the French Revolution, The Lives of the Presidents of the United States of America, Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables' (which he translated into Tagalog), and Jose Rizal's 'Noli me Tangere' and 'El Filibusterismo'. He also wrote various revolutionary articles, manifestos, and poems, the most famous being 'Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa'. He was a Freemason, and also joined Rizal’s La Liga Filipino, or the Spanish Philippine League, a society that called improvements in the Spanish rule, but later on was disbanded a day after their only meeting when Rizal was arrested and deported to the town of Dapitan in Mindanao. The case of the La Liga being disbanded made Bonifacio realize the uselessness of peaceful struggle for those reforms that he later on founded the underground organization that shock almost all the Spanish rulers and gave hope to every Filipino- The Katipunan. Bonifacio resolved to change history with just a single pistol in hand for a start.
As we can see, Rizal has made more successful activities compared to Bonifacio. Rizal was educated while Bonifacio was not, though he has his parents’ guidance to teach him his lessons. Both will pass as a president of the Republic of the Phillipines if given a chance, for they lead the Filipino community in a great fight. Both struggled hard to free the Philippines from the clutches of the Spanish rule. Rizal is still the rightful holder of the title, for he used his brain and pen to tell all the Filipinos never to give up. This doesn’t mean Bonifacio is useless, but let us just think like this: Without these two powerful minds, Philippines is nothing. They both contributed to the freedom of the Filipino, and the reason why there is still the country Phillipines.