BEYOND ROMANCE

Landscape
By GEMMA CRUZ ARANETA

DURING the sesquicentennial of Jose Rizal, many students, in groups mostly, came to my desk at the Manila City Hall to interview me about Jose Rizal, after learning that I am one of descendants. I had the feeling that they were beating deadlines for term papers required by the Rizal course, so I was ready to help.

The students came from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, the City College of Manila, Philippine Normal University, the Technological University of the Philippines, UP- Manila, FEU, UE, and a few from La Salle University. Take note that most of these are public and are very near the Manila City Hall.

Invariably, they asked the same questions and, lamentably, never went beyond the romantic angle. The most commonly asked was – “Among all his girl friends, whom do you think Rizal loved best?” Every single group demanded to know and all were perplexed when I revealed the one Rizal loved best was called Filipinas. “Did he marry Josephine Bracken?” “Did they have children?” Then – “Is it true that Rizal was the father of Hitler?” I am baffled at how anyone can take that ridiculous conjecture seriously.

During the interviews, I became curious and would ask if they had read the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Many had not; some had read summaries and a few confessed to resorting to the comics version. They seem to have heard about “La Liga Filipina” but could not say what it was all about. They knew Rizal was exiled to Dapitan but were not sure why, nor did they know what exactly he did there.

Isn’t it about time that we go beyond romance? Even the interest in Rizal’s lady friends is superficial; it is never about what he found so admirable in European women that he advised his sisters to be more like them. Have we so dehumanized our heroes that we have forgotten their rational qualities and trivialized them?

On the last day of Rizal’s sesquicentennial, my nephew and I were walking alongside the monument looking for our car when a man, middle-aged and rather informally dressed, suddenly emerged from that leafy glade where the Heidelberg fountain is installed. He saw shocked to see the Philippine flag at half-mast so he exclaimed – O, bakit nakaganyan ang bandera? His question was addressed to no one in particular, but I felt somewhat obliged to answer – “Ginugunita natin ang kamatayan ni Jose Rizal.” He made an about face and as he walked away, he kept repeating with an orator’s voice, “Gago talaga ang mga Filipino, hindi sinusunod ang mga inutos ni Rizal!” I think many of us have silently come to the same painful conclusion. (gemma601@yahoo.com)