01-074 [Family]
1883.02.13 Madrid
From: José Rizal
To: Paciano Rizal
Sinking of the Lipa — Eagerness for home news — Horseback riding at Barcelona — Remembering the Calamba singers — His progress in learning languages — A sample of his Tagalog — Scandals at the Madrid court — Inquiring the reaction about a Filipino who married a Spanish woman — Dinner at the house of the Paterno Brothers
* * *
Madrid, 13 February 1883
MR. PACIANO MERCADO
MY DEAR BR0THER,
Two days ago I received your letter of 29 December, one day after Uncle Antonio left that place on the same day of the disaster of the Lipa. We were exceedingly terrified by the news and we were making a thousand, conjectures; but your letter has calmed me somewhat because, written as it was on 29 December, it doesn’t mention any trip to or going down to Manila of any member of our family, besides the fact that being the 2nd January many families would be at home. I had been there, perhaps having to accompany Tasio to Manila as his guardian and then to return immediately in order to enjoy a few days at home would have cost me very dearly. When I think of this, I remember so many events in my life that I’m inclined to believe that a divinity watches over me. However, the case of Tasio should not worry me, for Capitán Juan has the habit of remaining at Manila for a few days to do some shopping, especially now that this house is perhaps about to be finished.
Your letter pleased me very much on account of the news you give me in it – news that make my voluntary exile not altogether complete, because so long as we share, however imperfectly, the manner of life of a people, so long as their news reach our ears, so long as we perceive their joys even from distant countries, we ought not to consider ourselves exiles and dead to the country. This is then the reason why I’m so eager to know the happenings in that country, only way that I have of transporting myself to that land through the imagination, so that as much as possible the old pleasant impressions may not be erased.
Tell Mother that as a true celadora,[1] she should see to it that the Hermanas do not seek the Franciscans when they want to seek God. All the friars, Jesuits, and clergyman here wear the same black habit or cassock, for if they wore any other attire, which is forbidden, they would be stoned. Good for the feast of St. Francis. Had I been there perhaps I would have enjoyed too. With respect to the gods of Greece and Rome, I don’t know if you have continued the subscription that I left in the middle; what a pity it would be not to finish it.
What you tell me about the horse and what happened to Dandoy don’t surprise me at all, for the one they have in the king’s stable is reputed to be the most lively and unruly. Why should horses have more temper than…? At Barcelona I learned to ride the horses of this country and on the third day I already rode bareback and jumped barriers. For a long time I haven’t ridden horseback because it is costly and therefore I’m afraid I may no longer know how to ride horseback.
My sincerest congratulations to the Christmas singers and above all to “La Raguer”[2] of whom I keep pleasant memories of the harp, song, and moon that used to enter through the window. Here the moon is so heavily shaded and shy; there is such a lack of vegetation and poetry that I turn to the sky looking for it and I don’t find it. I’m already getting so bored of Madrid that if I succeed to graduate this year, I’ll go to Paris or Rome perhaps never to return to Spain, although here I know already families appreciate me in their own way.
I’ve already sent you the first bulletin of the C. H. F.[3] as well as the second, for I was a member; but as I wrote you in my previous letter, it is already dead and you will no longer receive any issue. “Pagong” or rather the “Marquis of Pagong” is Vicente Gonzalez with whom I’m living now – that one who was there [that is, Manila] with me and Aguado, the one who put on your gauze shirt [Aroma].
I’m still thinking of the day when you’ll come to tour Europe before I go home. It will be very useful to you to know French. At present I already write it with sufficient correctness. When I’ve mastered it, I shall begin English or German; I’m beginning to master Italian little by little. Fortunately I still speak Tagalog well and according to my companions, on many occasions I’m unintelligible to them. And so that you may see here goes a paragraph:
Bagay sa sinabi sa aquin sa mga panaginip, sa ating pinagusapan niyaon una isang simbangabi at di co nalilimutan at siya na lamang nagaayos ng aquin mga hacbang. Marami sa mga naninirá dine ay quinuculang lagui ng dugo at quinacapos ng hininga, ngunit di co matantó cung baquit walang capanatilihan ang canilang mga nasa. Ang cabataan caya o sapaggat di sila nasusugatan sa canilang laman; may ilan ilan ding camucha ni F. R., ni B. V. na mga may tinagong init na mahahalata rin, anhin moi ang usoc ng bundoc na may tinagong apoy. Mayroong ditong dulós na dulós, pangal na pangal, na siya lamang catatauan ng ibá at hia ng casamahan. Baquit caya pinabayaang maglacbay bavan? Ang capangalan ay sumusuco dahilan sa arao arao yaong carapatan bagang italas ay ipinupurol at nagpapaquita ng capanganan. Uui ng culang: ang mga magagandang ugali ng ating mga bayan ay nalilimutan at ang napupulot ay ano mga basahan ng taga rito.[4]
Send me a list of those who died on the Lipa. I wish that when I return it be as if I had left only yesterday; I don’t want to be a stranger in my country.
I don’t know if the news of Madrid that I can give you could be of interest to you – you who are neither curious nor do you know anybody in this place; but in exchange for yours I’ll relate to you the scandals at the Court, scandals which the Manila press, canonized in life, will certainly not print.
The Duke of La Torre, or rather General Serrano, head of the party called Izquierda Dinástica (Dynastic Left), who engaged in polemics the ministry of Sagasta, a rather popular man and formerly considered the most influential man in the army, suffered a lightning stroke: A pamphlet. This pamphlet, published at Paris by Carreras, denounces before the whole world the crimes of the domestic life of the said duke with proofs and testimonies. The duke, according to the pamphlet, married off his hermaphrodite son to Miss De Santa Lucía with a million-peso dowry through forgery and fraud. The lad confessed to the wife on the first night that he was incapable of being a husband, until finally the lass asked the dukes for a divorce. It seems that the duchess answered her not to be stupid for she could look for a lover. The duke promised her that the marriage would be annulled within three years… In short there is now a European lawsuit at Paris, because in Spain the duke would win. Carreras published the pamphlet; many newspapers agreed. The duke is very much discredited; nobody wants to attend his balls, and of a fallen tree, all make fire-wood. It is said that at the Congress they called him indecent, and Carreras is planning to publish another pamphlet on the death of Prim[5] in which he will bring to light important things. Cautiously it is said that a person, very powerful at present, a political enemy of the duke, was the instigator of the pamphlet. It [is the] bottom [of] wretchedness and corruption. Here all dance, and they are comical, to the tune of gold and jobs.
With respect to their majesties, I don’t notice much enthusiasm for them among the people. On the various occasions they have appeared in public not even a “Viva!” was heard. Everybody aspires to be a minister, and haranguers and schemers abound so much so that one can’t take a step without encountering them.
Women abound even more and it is indeed shocking that in many places they intercept men and they are not the ugly ones either.
With respect to morality there are also some who are models of virtue and innocence and others who have nothing womanly about then except their dress or at most their sex.
Rightly it has been said that the women of the south of Europe have fire in their veins. However, here prostitution is a little more concealed that at Barcelona, though no less unrestrained.
I don’t know how that marriage plan of a young woman over there with [a] matured man that you told me about turned out. Has it failed maybe? It is strange that I don’t know the one referred to, there being very few young women in the town.
I close this letter recommending to you many of my friends who will probably go there to pay a visit. I don’t know if Santiago Carrillo has called on you as he promised me when he was here. When you write me, tell me about him and the reception accorded [the] one who got married in Spain.
With nothing more, regards to all your friends and to mine, to our relatives and to other persons whom I wish old sympathies to remain always.
Your bother who loves you,
JOSÉ RIZAL
On throve Tuesday we had a luncheon and dinner at the house of the Paternos, each one contributing one peso. With our fingers we ate rice, stewed chicken, adobo,[6] fritada,[7] and roast suckling pig. We were Felix Resurrección, Emilio and Esteban Villanuva, the two Paternos, the two Llorentes, Figueroa, Vicente Gonzalez, Raymundo Perio, Manuel De Irairte (the initiator), Eduardo Lete, Juan Fernández, Federico Calero, and I. Ariarte got drunk. All of us ate very well, but as the rice expanded, we were attacked by buli-buli the whole day. After each dish, we walked about, and when any one came to inquire for the owners of the house, he was told they were not at home in order not to disturb the feast. Consumed were fourteen pounds of rice, five chickens, four pounds of beef, and of the suckling pig, that cost us a peso and half, not a bone was left. There was an indescribable confusion. Valentin Ventura was also with us, so that we were sixteen Filipinos.
We missed the sinigang.[8] The cook was Esteban Villanueva. During the meal, we spoke Tagalog. This reminded me of Pansol when we ate there and Marianito cooked wonderful dishes.
[1] Celadora was a member of a lay sisterhood that attended to church needs, and the teaching of the Christian Doctrine. The elders in the sisterhood are called Hermana who acted as the leaders. Rizal’s mother was a celadora.
[2] Ursula Herbosa, sister of Rizal’s brother-in-law Mariano Herbosa, was described as “Calamba’s Raguer” in Paciano’s letter of 29 December, 1882. He was alluding to the actress La Raguer who came to the Philippines in 1880 and took into her theatrical company Filipinos like Praxedes Fernandez, Patricinio Tagaroma, José Caravajal, Nemesio Ratia. and others, who became celebrated actors.
[3] The Circulo hispano-filipino, an association of Filipino students and Spaniards, which published a fortnightly magazine with the support of Mr. Juan Atayde, a Spaniard born at Manila and a military officer.
[4] “With regard to the dreams that we talked about before at a pre-Christmas Mass, I’ve not forgotten them and in fact they have always regulated my conduct. Many of those who are here are always lacking in spirit and vigor, but I don’t understand why that have no fixed purpose. Is it because of their youth or because they have not been deeply hurt yet? However, there are some who are like F. R and B.V., who have hidden warmth that is also noticeable, like the smoke rising from a mountain with hidden fire. There are some here who are so exceedingly dull that they are the laughing stock and shame of their companions. Why are they allowed to go abroad? Their dullness reaches the limit because they don’t improve every day as they should, thus manifesting their dullness. They will go home devoid of the beautiful customs of our towns, which they have forgotten, and hearing the rage of the people here that they have picked up.”
[5] General Juan Prim y Prats (1814-1870) led the insurrection that broke out in 1865. It was suppressed and Prim sought refuge in exile. Later he returned, deposed Queen Isabella, then restored the monarchy. He was murdered on 27 December 1870.
[6] Adobo is a favorite dish of the Filipinos. It consists of either pork, beef, or chicken, or all of them mixed together, cooked in vinegar, with salt, garlic and pepper.
[7] Fritada is fried meat or fish.
[8] Sinigang is stewed fish, pork, chicken, or beef with vegetables, seasoned with salt, some sour tamarind or any other sour fruit or leaves that abound in the Philippines. It is much relish by Filipinos.