Madrid
4 November 1888
Evaristo Aguirre
My dear Friend,
I received you esteemed letter of the 23rd October last.
Although you do not say anything about it, I believe you must have received my reply to your previous letter, as you have received my card with my new address.
So you have resigned as member of the board of directors of the new association? Llorente has also resigned as treasurer and certainly he says he intends to hold aloof as much as possible like you from collective work, having found by experience that it is more profitable for each one to work independently.
I don’t belong to the association, though I was invited to join at the very beginning, because I don’t want to be useless and I am whenever I don’t join willingly, as it would happen if I joined the association, which I don’t believe would obtain any grand thing, because it is evident to me that its greatest enemy is the Ministry of Colonies. It is already known what effect that league and the name of its president, the ex-communicated Morayta, will produce in the Philippines. Time will show what positive results can be obtained from all this.
But, though you have nothing to do with the matter, I have already spoken to Lete to make the substitution that you suggest of the title of the protector of Regidor to that of member of the boards, which they wanted to grant you.
I am not informed about the division in the Filipino colony of Madrid. When you were in Germany, they said the same thing about us. You will remember all that I told you then. There are members of the colony who are only ready material for trouble and the colony is the toy of their caprices and no sensible ones appear who could make a just estimate of their value. Now we are Manobos or of blue blood. It is a pity that those who report and regret divisions do not know to what faction they belong. Perhaps Llorente or Rosario – very estimable persons – may be able to unite and harmonize us. I am the first to admit the evil, because I despise wretchedness and I do not make the colony responsible – I do not attribute to it the disunion – for divisions that are not based on ideas and diverse serious procedures, but on personal temperaments. The tale-bearers and coteries that exist are an inveterate vice, and no one can put an end to them nor to our oceanic passions. We are educated thus, the fault is that we are like children. Our factions ought to be called children at the breast and children at the bottle, fortunately I belong to no faction, though I do not know if one of the factions already counts me as belonging to it. For the rest, we carry the penance in our sin and it will not be long that we shall suffer for our wicked ways.
This is the first news I have of the revival of the periodical and of the vacancy in the management; they must be authorized to do it. I have not been told even one word about the revival of the periodical nor do I know anything, though I suppose that I will be told about the remitting of funds. I ought not to meddle where I am not called, and it is better that they do not call me, because I am not ready to serve as an instrument of personal caprices and passions. I am at peace with everyone and quiet and this suits me very well, better than to be fetched and carried away by every kind of gossip and entanglements…. Those who want a new manager must have their reasons for expressing it and to convince, if that worries them. I see that they are resolved to put Lete in eclipse here and over there, above all where they have responded to his circular that they allowed him to sign when they were not yet thinking, or were not yet courageous enough to think, as they do today. I do not know how some compatriots will look at things, but that is a rebuff in due form that, however openly it may be done, is enough to make Lete decline to accede to it, even for patriotism, unless by demanding that he renounce his dignity. Hence the conflict whose origin you can trace through sources better informed than I am. I shall be glad if there would not be an injudicious action. That a newspaper falls short, there being funds, though it is another injudicious action, what does it matter to our little world? Who will like to be manager? And he who may be manager can now put his head in for soaking as he must have already coached in the procedure that some compatriots employ.
Do not ask me to excuse you for interfering in our problems. You may interfere as you please. You have as much right as any other in the community. I am not involved in any, I hear only bells, I have no pretensions, and not even as a joke can I accept your excuse. Moreover, questions of this kind are of concern to all.
Yes, unfortunately those sentiments of other times are cooling off like the planets. Some tutored by experience and others disenchanted no longer see things through magic crystals. Until the next, my friend; regards from Leonor and Don Antonio who appreciate you.
Affectionately yours,
Cauit
03-343 [Reformists]