SUMMARY OF EL FILI

The protagonist of El Filibusterismo is a jeweler named Simoun. He is the new identity

of Crisostomo Ibarra who, in the prequel Noli, escaped from pursuing soldiers. It is revealed that
Crisostomo dug up his buried treasure and fled to Cuba, becoming richer and befriending
Spanish officials.After many years, the newly fashioned Simoun returns to the Philippines,
where he is able to freely move around. He is a powerful figure not only because of his wealth
but also because he is a good friend and adviser of the governor general.Outwardly, Simoun is
a friend of Spain; however, in secret, he is plotting a terrible revenge against the Spanish
authorities. His two obsessions are to rescue his paramour Maria Clara from the nunnery of
Santa Clara and to foment a Philippine revolution against Spain.The story of El Filibusterismo
begins on board a steamer ship sailing up the Pasig river from Manila to Laguna de Bay. Among
the passengers are Simoun; Doña Victorina, a pro-Spanish native woman who is going to
Laguna in search of her henpecked husband, Tiburcio de Espadaña, who has deserted
her; Paulita Gomez, her beautiful niece; Ben-Zayb (anagram of Ibañez), a Spanish journalist
who writes silly articles about the Filipinos; Padre Sibyla, vice-rector of the University of Santo
Tomas; Padre Camorra, the parish priest of the town of Tiani; Don Custodio, a pro-Spanish
Filipino holding a position in the government; Padre Salvi, thin Franciscan friar and former cura
of San Diego; Padre Irene, a kind friar who was a friend of the Filipino students; Padre
Florentino, a retired scholarly and patriotic Filipino priest; Isagani, a poet-nephew of Padre
Florentino and a lover of Paulita; and Basilio, son of Sisa and promising medical student,
whose medical education is financed by his patron, Capitan Tiago.As the wedding feast begins,
the poet Isagani, who has been rejected by Paulita because of his liberal ideas, is standing
outside the house, sorrowfully watching the merriment inside. Basilio, his friend, warns him to go
away because the lightened lamp will soon explode.Upon hearing the horrible secret of the
lamp, Isagani realizes that his beloved Paulita is in grave danger. To save her life, he rushes
into the house, seizes the lightened lamp, and hurls it into the river, where it explodes.The
revolutionary plot is thus discovered. Simoun is cornered by the soldiers, but he escapes.
Mortally wounded, and carrying his treasure chest, he seeks refuge in the home of Padre
Florentino by the sea.he Spanish authorities, however, learns of his presence in the house of
Padre Florentino. Lieutenant Perez of the Guardia Civil informs the priest by letter that he will
come at eight o’clock that night to arrest Simoun.Simoun eludes arrest by taking poison. As he
is dying, he confesses to Padre Florentino, revealing his true identity, his dastardly plan to use
his wealth to avenge himself, and his sinister aim to destroy his friends and enemies. The
confession of the dying Simoun is long and painful. It is already night when Padre Florentino,
wiping the sweat from his wrinkled brow, rises and begins to meditate. He consoles the dying
man saying: “God will forgive you Señor Simoun. He knows that we are fallible. He has seen
that you have suffered, and in ordaining that the chastisement for your faults should come as
death from the very ones you have instigated to crime, we can see His infinite mercy. He has
frustrated your plans one by one, the best conceived, first by the death of Maria Clara, then by a
lack of preparation, then in some mysterious way. Let us bow to His will and render Him thanks!
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra has changed his name and identity to rich jeweler Simoun.
In disguise, he travels the world amassing wealth, which he intends to use to topple
the corrupt and abusive regime in his native land. But Simoun's real motive is
personal. He wants to rescue his beloved, Maria Clara, from the convent and
avenge the death of his father. In a forest on Christmas Eve, medical student
Basilio recognizes Simoun as the man who helped bury his mother Sisa under a
tree over 10 years ago. Simoun is in the forest to retrieve the gems he buried near
Sisa's grave. As the film progresses, all the secrets and intrigues are revealed, and
the plotters' plan fails. A good Filipino priest throws Simoun's jewels away, thereby
eliminating the greed, violence, and other evils they might have provoked.

José Rizal

Rizal c. 1890s
Born José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda[1]

June 19, 1861[2]

Calamba, Laguna, Captaincy General of the Philippines, Spanish Empire[2]

Died December 30, 1896 (aged 35)[3]

Bagumbayan, Manila, Captaincy General of the Philippines, Spanish Empire[3]

Cause of death Execution by firing squad

Resting place Rizal Monument, Manila

 Daet, Camarines Norte

Monuments
 Luneta Park, Manila

 Calamba, Laguna

Other names Pepe, Jose (nicknames)[4][5]

Alma mater  Ateneo Municipal de Manila (BA)

 University of Santo Tomas

 Universidad Central de Madrid (MD)

Organization(s) La Solidaridad, La Liga Filipina

Notable work  Noli Me Tángere (1887)

 El filibusterismo (1891)

Movement Propaganda Movement

Josephine Bracken
Spouse
 

(m. 1896)
[6]

Parents  Francisco Rizal Mercado (father)

 Teodora Alonso Realonda (mother)

Relatives  Saturnina Hidalgo (sister)

 Paciano Rizal (brother)
 Trinidad Rizal (sister)

Signature

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda [7] (Spanish: [xoˈse riˈsal], Tagalog: [hoˈse riˈsal];

June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the
end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered the national hero
(pambansang bayani) of the Philippines.[8][9] An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer
and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement, which advocated political reforms for the
colony under Spain.
He was executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellion after the Philippine
Revolution broke out; it was inspired by his writings. Though he was not actively involved in its
planning or conduct, he ultimately approved of its goals which eventually resulted in Philippine
independence.
Rizal is widely considered one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines and has been recommended
to be so honored by an officially empaneled National Heroes Committee. However, no law,
executive order or proclamation has been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Filipino
historical figure as a national hero.[9] He wrote the novels Noli Me Tángere (1887) and El
filibusterismo (1891), which together are taken as a national epic, in addition to numerous poems
and essays.[10][11]

JOSE RIZAL

"Laong Laan" redirects here. For the railway station, see Laong Laan railway station.

"Philippine Propaganda Movement" redirects here. For the political reforms during late stages of the
Spanish Occupation, see Propaganda Movement. For the propaganda movement during World War
2, see Philippine resistance against Japan.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Mercado and the second or maternal family
name is Realonda
MARXIST CRITICISM ON JOSE RIZAL’S NOVEL EL
FILIBUSTERISMO

The second and last novel completed by José RizalEl Filibusterismois a sequel toNoliMe
Tangere. A dark, brooding, at times satirical novel of revenge, unfulfilled love, and tragedy,theFilistill
has as its protagonist Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra. Thirteen years older, his idealism andyouthful dreams
shattered, and taking advantage of the belief that he died at the end ofNoli MeTangere, he is
disguised as Simoun, an enormously wealthy and mysterious jeweler who has gained the
confidence of the colony’s governor-general. Ibarra had contended persuasively against
savagery to change Manila society, Simoun is anxious to instigate it to get his vengeance:against Father
Salví, and against the Spanish frontier state.
He desires to free the affection for hislife, María Clara, from her stifling life as a sequestered
religious woman, and the islands fromthe oppression of Spain. As associate to the lead representative
general, he prompts him in such away as to make the state considerably harsher, trusting
subsequently to drive the majority torevolt. Simoun has a couple of plotters, like the
schoolmaster and a Chinese vendor, Quiroga,who help him in arranging terroristic acts. In whole,
Simoun has become a troublemaker on anexcellent scale. Basilio, presently a young fellow,
has ascended from neediness to becomeCaptain Tiago's charge. Near procuring his practitioner
training, he is vowed to Julí, the excellentlittle girl of Cabesang Tales, a prosperous rancher
whose land is detracted from him by the monks. Stories hence kills his oppressors, goes to banditry,
and turns into the scourge of the opencountry. In contrast to Simoun's way of equipped
transformation, a gathering of college understudies—among them, Isagani, Peláez, and

Makaraig—push for the establishing of a foundation gave to showing Castilian, in

accordance with a pronouncement from Madrid.
Contradicted even to a particularly benevolent change, the ministers figure out how to co-
pickthe arrangement. Therefore, the understudies are blamed for being behind flyers that call
forresistance to the state. Most spectators see the hand of the monks in this entire
undertaking,which brings about the imprisonment of the understudy chiefs, even of Basilio, however
he wasnot included, and the separation among Isagani and the beauteous Paulita Gómez, who
consentsto wed the affluent Peláez, a lot to the joy of Doña Victorina, who has supported him from
thebeginning. Meanwhile, Tiago, dependent on opium, kicks the bucket of a medication glut
whiletook care of by Father Irene. A pitiful legacy is all that is given to Basilio and all the
imprisonedunderstudies are before long delivered with the exception of him. Julí
approaches Father Camorra to demand him to get Basilio's delivery. The monk endeavors to
assault her howevershe ends it all as opposed to submit to his obscene plans.

José Rizal's El filibusterismo and the problems posed there regarding racist notions of the
incapacity (poco capacidad) of indios to imbibe scientific thought and reasoning. It is argued
that Rizal attempted to dispel such conceptions by focusing his satirical polemic on the faulty
system of education imposed by the Spanish friars on Filipinos. However, it seems that toward
the end of his life Rizal eventually conceded that there was something to the idea of the "limited
intelligence" of the indio. "Noli Me Tangere" is translated "Touch Me Not" or "The Social
Cancer," while "El Filibusterismo" is translated "The Reign of Greed." Both novels were about
politically and historically driven fictional Philippines during the Spanish colonial period inspired
by the writer's living conditions, views, beliefs, and ideologies under the Spanish rule.

The two novels follow the main protagonist Crisostomo Ibarra, an intelligent and educated
Filipino that had studied in Europe and returned to the Philippines. He would later change his
identity into Simoun due to a series of complex events that turned his visions and beliefs from
being idealistic, wishing for positively reasonable reforms among his town and people, to
anarchistic, wishing for revenge and vicious vengeance against those that had wronged him.
Like Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo aims at enlightening society, and at bringing the
Filipinos closer to the truth. I remembered in high school that one of our requirements for our
Filpino subject was to create a school play using two of the most world-class, historical, and
enduring literary works ever written: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These great literary
masterpieces are also often used in dramas, theatrical plays, and movies.
Jose Rizal had his third unfinished work or novel, the alleged sequel and final book on the
first two. Known by historians as “Maka-misa,” Rizal wrote this unfinished third novel in 1892 in
Hong Kong. But what's more baffling is that the title Maka-misa is not actual name of it, but only
a single chapter of the said unfinished novel. He began writing it in Tagalog language but had
given up and continued to try and finish it in Spanish.If you ever find yourself reading history
textbooks or learning history lessons about the Philippines, especially during the Spanish
colonial period, you'll learn that the country was greatly influenced by Spain by language,
culture, names, behaviors, and even societal systems. But just like every part of the history of
the world, there will always be white and black patches within a collective shadowed area.

Even when National Hero Jose Rizal lived and died before women’s suffrage became in vogue in
the West and way before the second half of the 20th century saw the women’s liberation
movement burst into the patriarchal world, he definitely knew the condition of the Filipina in his
own historical location.
While Rizal wrote letters and articles prolifically, very seldom did his writings openly deal with
concepts on the rights and status of women in the Philippine society of the 1800’s. These rather
few literary works are therefore considered valuable by Filipinos.
Of Rizal’s beliefs on women’s independence and on inalienability of women’s rights, the most
famous is the “Message to the Young Women of Malolos.” Upon the request by fellow
Propagandista Marcelo H. del Pilar, he penned the epistle on February 1889 while residing in
London in order to uplift the spirits of these young women. Rizal admitted to not knowing
Malolos or anyone of the women save for Emilia Tiongson, whom Rizal met two years before. A
bevy of twenty young women from Malolos town in Bulacan, daughters of the gentry, signified
their intent to establish a school where Spanish language would be part of the curriculum. It was
on December 12, 1888 when these young women proposed to Governor-General Valeriano
Weyler, later to be named “butcher of Cuba ,” for consent to open a “night school” where they
might learn liberal arts including Spanish language through the supervision of Teodoro Sandiko.
However, the town’s parish priest, Fr. Felipe Garcia, opposed the petition and triumphed in
aborting the idea by arranging for the governor’s disapproval. Nonetheless, the women persisted,
defied the friar’s wrath and continued to push for their plan with the governor until such time
their cause ultimately earned his permission.
The agitation for the Spanish school was a rarity in the Philippines during the period. When they
succeeded in garnering the government permission to their plan, a condition was compromised
that Senorita Guadalupe Reyes should be the one to teach them. The thing unheard of before in
the Islands reached the faraway shores of Spain, where the Malolos women’s Bulakeno
compatriot del Pilar would write Rizal from Barcelona on February 17, 1889, asking Rizal to
transmit a letter in Tagalog—a noteworthy deviation from his customary Spanish writings—as a
booster of the women’s morale.
Although in the thick of annotating Dr. Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, he set
aside his literary business and wrote his famous letter and sent it to del Pilar for transmittal in
Malolos on February 22, 1889. Because the simple deed transgressed the wishes of a powerful
friar, the act was taken as a scoop by Rizal’s fellow reformist Graciano Lopez-Jaena and the
National Hero’s lengthy letter would be published too in the official newspaper of the
Propaganda movement, edited especially by del Pilar.
The consent gained by the young women of Malolos was for Rizal a victory that likewise
belonged to the Filipino women at-large. At most, their success was for the Filipinos in general.
Every so often, women are seen merely as wives, mothers, sisters or daughters. Although the
women perform these sterling roles in their daily lives, the conventional historians have
obliterated the women out of the picture. Despite the suspicion that the women of Malolos were
just tools of the ilustrados immersed in the reform movement, specifically Marcelo del Pilar,
their action was by all means rare and revolutionary for their time and class. The oppositional
rhetoric of the women of Malolos was founded in the old culture of women’s resistance to
colonial trappings. Eversince the Spanish conquered the archipelago for a third of a millennium,
women had fomented uprisings across the Islands from the babaylan rebels circa 1700’s to the
iluminati native nuns residing in beaterios to the bolo-equipped women rebels of the 1896
Philippine Revolution.
The singular deed of the young women of Malolos created a deep impact on women in all
corners of the Philippines . For one, the Spaniards were made conscious of the previously
underestimated resistance being one involving the entire society, not only from the Filipino men
but also from the Filipino women. The reformists noticed this, hence the urging of del Pilar for
Rizal to advise the young women to champion their cause being proper female citizens of the
country. Even as Rizal had a notion of them possessing “a sweet disposition, beautiful habits,
gentle manners, modesty, excessive goodness, humility or perhaps ignorance,” he anticipated
them to be “like withered plants, sowed and grown in the darkness. Though they may bloom,
their flowers are without fragrance; though they bear fruit, their fruit has no juice.” Rizal added:
“However, now that news arrive here of what occurred in your own town of Malolos , I realized
that I was wrong and my joy was beyond bounds.”