The Sprinkles: Remembering Rizal

“I die just when I see the dawn break,

Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;

And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take,

Pour’d out at need for thy dear sake,

To dye with its crimson the waking ray.”

— Jose Rizal, My Last Farewell (1896)

Today, the whole nation marks the 115^th death anniversary of the national hero who dedicated his life to the cause of freedom and sovereignty. To put it in Neville Longbottom’s words in the final installment of the Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows 2, he may have died but his memories will forever lie in our hearts. People die everyday. But remarkable people such as Dr. Jose P. Rizal cannot be forgotten; his idealism and his hopes for his impoverished nation shall live on. He has not died in vain.

But have long have we achieved so far in living up to the young man’s cause?

Not that far. For as long as majority of us haven’t recovered from the illusion of indolence and as long as we don’t reject the system of corruption in the society, we will disappoint Rizal. If Rizal is alive today, he will surely be disappointed with the pandemonium going on in the country. The existence of greed and corruption in the government is the modern-day Spanish Atrocity.

Today, I remember Rizal as a reminder of being just and right, to fight for a cause and to live with honor. I remember Rizal when majority seems not to remember him anymore.

As what Ambeth Ocampo said in his preface of the Philippine Edition of Spectre of Comparison, Rizal is seldom read for pleasure today; rather, his novels are read as an academic requirement, his texts mined for patriotic symbols and sentiment, his words memorized for examinations, quiz bees, and oratorical contests. Would Rizal be fossilized as such if he did not happen to be prime National Hero of the Philippines? One can imagine that if Rizal’s works were not required and canonized texts many Filipinos would be spared the corrupted translations, censored versions, and comic-book versions that now form part of the thriving Rizal industry.

Today I remember Rizal and the cause he fought for. Today is for an elaborate remembering. When he died, nationalism was born.

PS: Here are some of the pictures I got during my sidetrip in Manila last November 2011. The particular photos (including the one above) are taken in Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. Others are taken in the Rizal in Ateneo, Ateneo in Rizal Gallery in Ateneo de Manila University. And of course, the famous Rizal monument in Luneta.