26 September 1886

Churruca, Madrid

Unity among the Filipinos is imperative for the triumph of their cause – Will send Rizal copies of newspapers containing articles on the Philippines – Noli me tangere – Need of undertaking a campaign in the Philippines to awaken the people – Sends Rizal sketches of Fort Santiago and Bilibid – Villaruz, Filipino student of engineering from Capiz.

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4 (principal, left) Churruca, Madrid

26 September 1886

Mr. Jose Rizal

Leipzig, Germany

My dear Friend,

Sooner than I expected and for that reason with greater pleasure, I received your esteemed letter of the 22nd.

It is evident, in my opinion, that the union of all is necessary to make our ideas and aspiration triumph.

Inevitably this union draws closer those who are already joined together by numerous ties that Nature weaves and consecrates. The man and citizen dignifies himself by respecting those sacred ties and thereby realizes right and justice. If he isolates himself, holding aloof from the common cause, producing schism among brothers, allowing himself to be led by suspicions, antipathies, prejudices (which are always personal and mean, never founded on justice), because there is no doubt (unlucky of us if we doubted) that above all individual aberrations, at bottom is the great truth, the love for the Supreme Being who divides His paternal love equally among all, before whose respectable glance ought to disappear all hatred, before whose tears all hearts ought to unite, and to whose lap we all ought to go together to worship Him, to place our caresses and to present our triumphs. If the citizen separates himself from the common cause he does not only hurt the Mother Country, who expects something from him, he does not only hurt his brothers among whom he sows discord, but, what is damaging to his egoistic views, he hurts himself, converting himself thrice a criminal, like a loathsome, unworthy, and despicable traitor, without country, without faith, without love, without hope, like a pariah. And this union must be eternal, but it can only be realized among those who have ideas and convictions in the mind and sentiments in the heart. Empty heads, insensible hearts (not to say insensible epidermis) are not ready material. Always I have gone with faith to toast among my fellow countrymen, far from seeing through the cup the foam that disappears, rather observing the bottom that boils. I cannot agree that our nation should scatter like the fume of champagne. But neither do I let myself be carried away by a candid optimism, because it is obvious that there is vacuity in some, lack of formality in other, and a good amount of unsteady fear in not a few. Let us trust in the goodness of the cause and the progress of the times…..

I shall take care of sending you every issue of newspapers in which an article about the colony appears. Now I send you three magazines that speak of the events of the 19th, unimportant coup de main,[1] according to its impassioned enemies, and a very vast plan though an aborted one, according to impartial observers. They have caught all those who rose up in arms, including the immediate leaders, the most outstanding of them being Brigadier Villacampa. It is not yet known what the fate of the rebels will be, but without posing as a redeemer, I believe that the government should not condemn them to death, because, dealing with political questions, opnion is not unanimous and fortune is very variable. As a poet said, “Just as the wheel goes turning around, it shows its face, smiling or disdainful.” If those who are now defeated should go up, they would be consistent by being implacable towards those who are against them now.

I take into consideration the essence and object of your novel and I cherish the hope that it will answer some of our numerous needs as it is inspired by the lofty sentiments that animate you and which we all know. That the personages are all taken from life and the happenings are rue are circumstances that increase the merit of the work and will render it more commendable, placing it in a position to produce practical results, if, as it is to be expected, the naked truth of the happenings is duly appreciated.

I am sorry I don’t know of any military prison I should like to comply with what you ask me, but before finishing this letter, this same afternoon, I will see if I can obtain some data on the matter through a military friend of mine, married to a Filipino woman. I believe that in Manila there is no other military prison except Fort Santiago where there are dungeons under the wall towards the river, where it is completely dark and humid because of its proximity to the Pasig that laps the walls, and surely I do not remember now the name that they gave to a dungeon which they said was the worst. In one of them the shipping merchant Mr. Mourente caught rheumatism which he remembers perfectly even now that he is established in Hong Kong.

Villaruz has recovered, though he does not go out yet of the house. He is not a military man; he is a lad educated at San Juan de Letran, a native of Capiz, according to what I know and has come here to study engineering. I don’t know if it is agricultural or road; not to be “extracted” nor to….[2] As our famous “to be not” said. He is a likeable chap, of gentle disposition who, though very young and consequently more fond of gay woman and mazurcas and dances than of any other thing. However, he does not fail to listen when one talks to him about the great ideals, like one day when I was seated on the edge of his bed and were conversing amicably, he exclaimed smiling and pensive: “How good, chap, if we did so; castles in the air, nothing more.”

I am planning to return to the Philippines and though I do not know the exact day, if they fulfill what they offer me, it will not be very long before I shall salute those shores. What happens is that, waiting for a job, as I do, things move more slowly. So you have already written five times asking for money to go home? May they answer soon. We must make propaganda in the Philippines. When will that people be ready? …. At the metropolis, we must work to obtain rights. One work complements the other, for people who do not know their rights, nor use them, cannot appreciate them well, much less when they have already allowed the principal right to be snatched away and with time, insensible, they will see it in the hands of others. The work then now is that of reflection; it is double: of study, of education and petition and recovery. At the beginning, the spontaneous and natural work of simple opposition sufficed. Julio must have already informed you of the society of which he is president and whose object is to form another overseas-anonymous general society. In my desire, on one hand, that this be something good and produce results and on the other, fearing that it may turn out a step in vain, I don’t dare foretell anything about the society. The idea of joining us to Cubans and Puerto Ricans is not bad, if it could be favorable, these gentlemen being sui generis that they are almost always a fiasco. I have not been able to sympathize yet with any of them because I seem to discover in all of them a large dose of exaggerated vanity egoism. (Perhaps they need to be so for their redemption.) The leadership of Labra would be good, if her were not republican in the midst of a monarchy, a characteristic that inevitably accompanies all his acts in order to find an echo; it would be good if we did not know by heart that, as an autonomist, he had been completely repudiated by almost all the parties in the last sessions of the Cortes. Can the Philippines, represented by some young men in Madrid, be a candidate for autonomy (as Labra likes), when it was denied to Cuba and Puerto Rico, alleging that it would be a step towards independence? The good that I get from the society for the present is that, it accustoms Filipinos to foregather, to make a contribution towards the common cause, which, though little, if they continue along this path, may result in the accumulation here of a little ready fund to pay for the publication of articles in the newspapers (if they cannot be published in any other way) and to remunerate also the representatives in the Cortes who speak and interpellate on Philippine matters. This is very practical and on this I agree with Govantes. For lesser reasons they make interpellations, and precisely Govantes has just told me that a deputy, disgusted with Gamazo for not having minded him in various matters, told him that he would harass him in the coming sessions of the Cortes with interpellations for which Govantes himself offered him data. These are the times and in the name of these principles are interpellations made and rights demanded. Let us adjust ourselves to the times and utilize all the means to get some benefit and though it is only to satisfy the personal interests of a deputy, let us say that, inasmuch as this gentleman needs money, the government is very wrong, the minister of the colonies is very wrong in not implementing the reforms that the Philippines demand, and if they give us reforms, bless the hunger of interpellant!

Enclosed I send you some scrawled plans of the military prisons of Fort Santiago and of the Bilibid jail. I wish that through them you may form an idea of what those places are. You already know the square exterior fort. I have been inside the second square to see an artillery officer on duty, but I did not see either the dungeons or the pavilions for officer-prisoners. But these pavilions for important people are on the walls (in front, over the entrance gate, behind towards the river, and on the left side towards the south quay, as you yourself must have seen from outside) and the obscure dungeons for those condemned to death and heavy penalties, as I have told you, are under the walls, the worst ones being those behind the warden’s house, somewhat lower than the level of the Pasig, with double doors and without skylight nor any air hole. One goes down there through two cramps, on the right and left. Through the relief door you must have seen come out gunners to take a bath in the river. From the exterior square there is a bridge over a small ditch and at its end there is a door or iron screen and to find the entrance to the fort, following the road marked by some walls or parapets, one must turn to the right and then to the left, passing at last the door, the vault of the wall where the guard-room and the second gate opening on the second square are. An officer of the military staff of the fort gave me these data.

I can think of nothing more to tell you, my friend. May you be in good health, receive the regards of Don Antonio [Rivera] and Leonor, as well as of friend Villaruz, who appreciates your greetings and command your very affectionate,

Cauit

Leonor requests me to tell you that she is very much offended because you do not remember to write them, knowing how they esteem you and how pleased they are to have news of you.[3]

The Same

02-171 [Blumentritt V.1]