31 January 1887

Churruca, Madrid

Hoping Rizal’s chest ailment is not serious – Condemnation of the projected Philippine exposition – Traditional banquet on 31 December not worthily celebrated – Regrets lack of unity among the Filipinos in Madrid.

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4 principal, Churruca, Madrid

31 January 1887

My dear Friend Pepe Rizal,

Do not be surprised that I have delayed answering your letter of 10 November. It was because, not long after having received it, I was told that you had gone to Italy, an information that came from Ceferino de Leon, on account of your chest ailment. It was only that same night of the 31 when we gathered that I found out that your trip was not certain, but simply an idea or a project of yours. At any rate, I remained in doubt, as you will understand, whether you have gone on that trip or not, and as a result of this, I postponed writing you until I could find out with certainty where to address my letter. Even your greeting card for the New Year, which brought me your Berlin address, did not remove my doubt, for it occurred to me that you Jaegerstrasse address did not necessarily mean that you have not changed your address, but that it was your address when you were in Berlin. In a word, the kind of travel that you undertake, as recounted by Leon, the fact that you have not told any one of your projected trip, or your regrettable chest ailment, made me doubt on one hand whether your projected trip had been carried out and on the other if you wanted to keep to yourself these facts, inasmuch as only Leon knew it. Now that I know through Lete that you are still in Berlin, I hasten to write you, trusting that, informed of what I have already said, you will not be surprised at my prolonged silence.

Before anything else, now that the news of your chest ailment is confirmed, as Lete has told me, I must let you know my earnest desire that you take care of yourself and that the ailment be not serious, and may I have the pleasure soon to receive news of your complete recovery.

You don’t have to thank me for my sincere declaration that I would have been pleased to defray the cost of printing your novel[1] were it within my means to do so. You ought to know why you believed it convenient not to accept your family’s offer to defray the cost of printing it, but I tell you that the reason you adduce for not accepting our offers (for my part they were only wishes for not having anything else to offer) that you did not wish to drag along or embarrass your friends. There is no reason for this fear as you are not going to state in your work who had paid for its printing. And it remains to know who is the friend on whom the future smiles who would have the immense pretension or who would demand that his name appear in the book with the title of Maecenas. I applaud the studies of Sanskrit that you are making as well as of those other works which will furnish you with a wealth of data necessary for writing that other novel with a historical background that you have in mind.

There is no more need of talking, dear friend, of the notorious Philippine exposition. Let us endure the catastrophe, let us accept fate, let the abyss open and the fields separate well. Let the chains be broken and let nothing but concentrated gall remain in the hearts that from now on poison life or compel the aggrieved to seek full justice. May he who still has a shred of shame, who cannot endure ignominy, nor has courage for vengeance, be destroyed in his impotence. May those who are always ready to defend their dignity sooner or later decide once and for all and now with greater reason that they have an opportunity to rush to the fulfillment of their mission. As a casus belli, a worthy challenge was certainly preferable to degrading insult, but the country is not an enemy, it is dominated, it is property, and her rebel children are not the hosts, they are offenders, so that there cannot be a challenge, unless it should come from the ruled. If through their unity and strength they can resist….it is not for you to receive the insult but to endure it. And after all, what is the exposition but another iniquity among those that formed the uninterrupted chain of domination? Because you know very well that until now (and perhaps they will ever be so) the systems of colonization followed have been and are depressing, so that the hostility of the colonies is perfectly justified, with much more reason when the colonies, even if the Metropolis is the most benign imaginable, could and ought to declare themselves its enemies, so long as they are dominated, if not under pretext of avenging offense, exercising the sacred right of peoples (more of a duty than a right) to an independent life; for peoples, like individuals, cannot be held responsible for their acts, they cannot get merit or demerit, they cannot fulfill their mission in life, while they do not act on their own account, according to their own aptitudes, without shackles that hinder them. The exposition cannot be helped, it cannot even be modified. Thus it has been conceived since the beginning by its luck initiators. It has been Balaguer’s[2] pet project who, it is said, accepted the portfolio of colonies on condition that it would be held, and his technical advisers (lovers of that country) made him see with all its details that it was the way of making it more complete and brilliant. Govantes, Del Pan, La Serna, Pozas, are all agreed that the show will be ridiculous, that more than an advantage, the lucky exposition will be a moral and material misfortune for the Philippines, that the exposition will appear rachitic and what is more painful, the children of that country (this cannot be prevented) will come to be the object of the mocking, stupid, and rude curiosity of this truly savage people. But, what remedy? This is foreseen, but so long as the exposition is not held, nothing more can be said except that the project is pretentious, that according to the programmes, it is planned to hold it with all splendor and its true object is the welfare of the Philippines, to make her known to the Metropolis with her best products, her small industries, her simple ways, and other circumstances that may give a complete and true idea of her life and distinctive features. Who can oppose this, if all this is promised? What more can be asked? The circulars to the authorities, to the private corporations, enjoining them towards the greater splendor of the exposition, without compulsion; the programme or exposition of the Royal Commisariat, making protestations of love for the country, of desiring her welfare, prosperity, and progress, offering to hold a grand exposition, regardless of pecuniary sacrifices, and stating besides that it will bring the children of that country, paying for their expenses and treating them well, that they may demonstrate their aptitudes – all these suffice to justify the idea and work of the government and to remove misgivings, pessimism, and fears of those like us, who see them in advance, as unfounded. “There we shall see,” they would say to us, and above all “our idea and intention are good.” The only thing that can be done is to wait and see the exposition and comment on it later. How can one say that the native Filipinos will be exhibited like beasts or savages or work so that they will not be exhibited? They will tell us that they are not going to exhibit, that they are going to bring cigar-makers to make cigars, carpenters to build their houses, rowers to row their bancas, to give an idea of this Filipino fluvial locomotive, soldiers to show their equipment and condition who, under the command of Europeans, are brave, docile, and long-suffering; in one word, they will tell is they are going to be brought not for exhibition. And what would we say if they replied that they could not prevent us from becoming the object of ridicule or if they told us that we are afraid of the exposition because we are convinced of our ridiculousness? Nothing, dear friend, what I have said: let the exposition come, let the abyss open that will separate us; what you say: let us take advantage of this event: if every transcendental event has its purpose, this undoubtedly, cannot be more proper to awaken in dormant consciences the knowledge of what is done to them and the sentiment of what is owed to them. And though you are so calm with the conviction that you will be free from all blame, which in time will be laid on the Filipinos who, being here, did not take up the defense of their Mother Country on this occasion. Some may envy you; but apart from what I have already said on this point, believe me that it is painful to see that the country that someday will try, and will do well, to throw the blame on some people, should allow itself so easily to be brought here to be an object of ridicule or to pay a sad role in this exposition without even a passive resistance, much less without a protest. Because that people (sixty or eighty individuals come accompanied by civil guards to guard the women and conducted by that pedantic Mr. Francisco Torrontogui), led like ewes to the slaughterhouse, without any difficulty? Is there no on among the people over there who thinks like we do, that sees clearly and has initiative? Is it because we here can do more with protests and articles than they there who have to make accusations? There is no decent person who attends to his private interests first and afterward to those of the country; but there is no sane man who believes himself owner of the great lever of Archimedes able to move alone a people over whom, it seems, weighs exclusively the entire law of gravity. It would be another thing if all fulfill their duty, each one doing here as well as there what corresponds to him; the thing would go on and some day the work would be completed.

On the 31st of December we did not celebrate though we attended the dinner: ten persons, among them I who attended unwillingly indeed. This has been destroyed; neither is there unity nor are there ideas, nor anything except vain air in the head. We are some puppets with childish deeds and manly pretentions. We need blows on the head to bring us back to sanity! This is what is lacking, friend; I wish nothing else but that every Filipino be a Helot who, by force of electric discharges that he gets in the….he ends up one day cursing his life and dismissing the infernal machines and those who handle them. As I say: on the 31st of December I even ate much at home in order not to eat at the restaurant; I don’t know why I took part in the dinner; just to satisfy my conscience, not to interrupt a custom. It was decided to hold it only on the 30th. (Don’t wonder.) I could not reply to your request then to reserve a place for you at the table; but nothing was done and consequently you owe nothing. Melchor Veloso was in charge of organizing it. He gave us dinner of the style of the year before, though more modest, because the price had been reduces to two duros. I cannot give you an idea of how dull and funeral was the dinner. Voices were low, we spoke in whispers in order not to attract attention in the midst of that silence. At a small table, in another room (the dinner was held at the already known restaurant, Madrid) sat Ruiz with his wife, beside the connecting door, inner order to be able to talk with us and to share some dishes from our table, though they were dining at their expense. Came twelve o’clock, one or two said that there were toasts. To the rest of us it did not matter a thing. Galicano rose up, said four things that I don’t care to remember, that echoed as in a void. Then after a quarter of an hour at least, by main force they asked that Julio speak, who by no means wanted to speak. He rose up and improvised, praying that the Philippines may become more and more destitute every day so that the mine may explode. Then the remaining eight spoke one after the other. I was the last and I said commonplace things which are not worthwhile repeating. Leon spoke enough in Greek, and Casal, whom I don’t know if you know well enough, said irrelevant things, asking for schools, deputies, and other things that the country needs, necessities that ought to be expressed because the Mother Country innocently ignores them. Julio raised his voice more than is necessary and from that moment nothing more was heard, except he and Graciano who discussed lengthily socialism, the monarchy, and the republic. It is needless to tell you who showed himself champion of the republic and socialism, though I ought to tell you that it caused surprise to see transformed into a monarchist the one who one day said that progress would wrest the crown from the horsehead of the Caesars to place it on the forehead of the sovereign people. At two o’clock the two of us silently went to sleep. You will understand that there is no one here who understands or directs this colony which, though it has pretensions, evidently needs a leading string, a nurse, or teacher. The hour of darkness sounded and we dispersed. I hope that the interval be brief, that after it, the spirit of union and intelligence appear again like the light of the electric lamp. Amen. I don’t doubt that it is pleasant for you to be reunited with fellow countrymen, whoever they may be, without any reservation in heart, in mind, or without being Jesuitical, as you say. I have enough good faith not to doubt that and God knows that I would like to find all our countrymen to be equally disposed, though it is bad for me to say so (as they say here.)

I don’t know if you are already informed that our countryman Mr. Cuesta, a very judicious young man, studious and loved by all, though he lived aloof from us (perhaps….or without perhaps) who was studying road engineering died of pneumonia. His schoolmates paid for his modest burial. We went to see the body; a subscription list was made, some signed, but I don’t know why no collection was made. I send you that article in Corresponencia of tonight for your satisfaction once you are informed of its content. I don’t know if that Mr. La Guardia is Dr. Eduardo who was in Manila for a long time and was acting director general of finance or administration. Let us see if it creeps and if it exerts influence, even though the political trimmers come now. It is planned to have some countrymen go to see that gentleman to thank him and ask him for favors.

Farewell, friend Pepe, you cannot complain of my apathy, though you may complain of my verbosity.

Keep yourself well and command your most affectionate friend who loves you,

Cauit

02-194 [Blumentritt V.1]