La solidaridad
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La Solidaridad was the name of the all-Filipino organization established by the ilustrados in Barcelona, Spain on December 13, 1888, which sought to create Filipino representation in the Spanish Cortes. It was also the name of the official publication of the organization. First edited by Graciano Lopez Jaena and later on by Marcelo del Pilar. Consisting of twelve pages, the paper came out on the fifteenth and last day of every month. It published articles in Spanish expressing the Filipino demands for reforms in the Philippines. The supreme quest for freedom and independence started in Barcelona, Spain when La Solidaridad, a democratic fortnightly founded and edited by Lopez Jaena, financed by Pablo Rianzares Bautista, a young lawyer, and supported by the Junta de la Propaganda in the Philippines, was first published on February 15, 1889.
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[edit] The Organization
With the policy to champion democracy and liberalism, to expose the real plight of the country, and to work peacefully for economic and social reforms, the newspaper published not only articles and essays about the economic, cultural, political, and social conditions of the country, but also current news, both local and foreign, and speeches of prominent Spanish leaders about the Philippines, and information on the achievements, social doings, and whereabouts of Filipinos at home and abroad.
Galicano Apacible was the first president of the La Solidaridad. With him were Graciano Lopez-Jaena as vice-president, Mariano Ponce as treasurer, and Jose Rizal, who was then in London, as Honorary President. Apacible did not remain long enough as president since could not hold the bickering reformists together anymore. What the organization needed were people like Rizal and del Pilar who could reunite the sentiments of the Filipinos in Spain. La Solidaridad was viewed as a rival organization for Miguel Morayta's Spanish Orient Lodge of Freemasonry. Later, the two organizations collaborated in their petition to the Minister of Colonies. Their petition were as follows:
- to have representation in the Spanish Cortes
- to abolish the censorship of the press
- to prohibit the practice of deportation of citizens through administrative orders
[edit] The Publication
The newspaper also occasionally touched on events happening in the other Spanish colonies like Cuba and Puerto Rico and also provided Filipinos a means of combating the allegations of the counter propagandistas like Wenceslao E. Retana, Desengaños; and Pablo Feced, Quioquiap; who were believed to have been under the pay of the friars. It became the mouthpiece of Filipino propagandists during the struggle for recognition and acceptance of the Philippines by Spain, revealed the conditions of the country prior the 1896 Philippine Revolution, and depicted the aspirations of Filipino propagandists, their hopes for reforms, and their final despair at failure to obtain them by peaceful methods.
Soon enough, on February 15, 1889, through Jaena, the La Solidaridad newspaper was created. It served as the principal organ of the Propaganda Movement for over five years, with its last issue released on November 15, 1895. To quote the editorial in the the first issue of La Solidaridad:
| “ | Our aspirations are modest, very modest. Our program, aside from being simple, is clear: to combat reaction, to stop all retrogressive steps, to extol and adopt liberal ideas, to defend progress; in a word, to be a propagandist, above all, of democratic ideas in order to make these supreme in all nations here and across the seas.
The aims, therefore, of La Solidaridad are described as to collect, to gather, libertarian ideas which are manifested daily in the field of politics, science, art, literature, commerce, agriculture and industry. We shall also discuss all problems relating to the general interest of the nation and seek solutions to those problems in high-level and democratic manner.[1] |
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As editor of La Solidaridad, Lopez-Jaena did not receive any monetary compensation, but was given free meals, lodging, clothing, and a modest pocket money. In 1891, he collected his speeches and articles and incorporated them in his book entitled Discursos y Articulos Varios.
In writing for the newspaper, Filipino reformists used pen names: Dominador Gomez, Ramiro Franco; Antonio Luna, Taga-Ilog; Jose Ma. Panganiban, Jomapa; Marcelo del Pilar, Plaridel; Mariano Ponce, Tikbalang, Naning, and Kalipulako; and Jose Rizal, Dimas Alang and Laong Laan. Ferdinand Blumentritt, an Bohemian scholar, and Miguel Morayta, a Spanish historian, also worked for the newspaper. On October 31, 1889, Lopez-Jaena passed the editorship to Marcelo H. del Pilar, who left his family in the Philippines, went to Spain, and literally gave his life for the newspaper. In spite of the fact that La Solidaridad had been planned before his arrival, Del Pilar quickly became the moving spirit of the reform movement. He worked indefatigably to secure the greatest possible support for the newspaper. He contacted progressive Europeans who would fight side by side with the Filipino reformists.
Lopez Jaena was in many ways more interested in Spanish politics than in Philippine affairs, and though he could be powerful, if demagogic, speaker, he was unreliable for organized work such as a newspaper demanded. Apparently an alcoholic, he had to be bribed with drinks in order for him to write his articles, according to General Jose Alejandrino, who spent some time in Barcelona before going on to study in Belgium. La Solidaridad was totally under the direction of Del Pilar from its earliest inauguration to its ignominious death. It is true that the first editor of the newspaper was Lopez-Jaena, but the entire project and its financing were the work of Del Pilar and his Junta de la Propaganda in the Philippines. Lopez Jaena was chosen editor because, having preceded Del Pilar to Spain, he already had a reputation as a fiery political orator and had influential contact among the anticlerical republicans and masons of Barcelona, where the newspaper made its debut. But, as Lopez Jaena came to realize later, and hence became a mortal enemy of Del Pilar, his editorship was only nominal. Even during the months of Lopez Jaena's editorship, the real moving force, the conduit of funds, and the organizer of the newspaper was in the hands of Del Pilar, who wrote several articles for each issue under different pseudonyms as well as his own name to give illusion that articles and reports came from different correspondents in various parts of the world. The editorship of Lopez-Jaena was largely nominal, in terms of both the number of articles written and their substance.
The only exceptions to the anonymity besides the editor were Jose Rizal and Ferdinand Blumentritt. Under the pen names Dimasalang and Laong Laan, Rizal contributed a few of his literary piece in the early days of the newspaper. His real interest, however, was in writing historical articles, based on ancient Spanish sources showing the Filipinos the level of the culture at the time of the Spanish contact. Moreover, as he begun to publish under his own name, he also successfully urged Del Pilar to do the same to show the Spaniards that they were not afraid to defend their positions. However, the zealous vigilance of the Spanish authorities in the Philippines, the utter indifference of the Spanish politicians in the Peninsula towards the Philippine demands, and the very internecine difference among the Filipinos themselves in Barcelona and Madrid render difficult the task of La Solidaridad. And, he stops contributing to the Filipino democratic fortnightly. Losses such as this are of lethal effect to La Solidaridad.
Del Pilar, on the other hand, wanted Rizal to use his historical learning to refute some of the racist and demeaning articles appearing in Spanish newspapers, like the pseudo-scientific study of Tagalog theater by the Spanish academician Vicente Barrante, which attributed everything of value in Tagalog culture to Spanish influence, and put down the idea that anything of value could come out of the Tagalog race. Rizal, wrote a scathing reply under his own name, full of references to early Spanish sources. To Rizal, however, the task was distasteful. Although he often accommodated Del Pilar's requests for refutations of Spanish detractors, he did not care what racist Spaniards thought or said about the Philippines. He had seen enough of Spanish culture and manners to compare them unfavorably not only with those of other European countries but especially with those of his people. It was not that he thought Filipino culture was flawless, but that he had imbibed deeply the values he recognized there. Hence, he wished his articles, especially his historical ones, to be directed not at Spaniards but to Filipinos in order to build up their national pride and deepen their consciousness of their native virtues and values. He was once more in the tradition of Father Jose Burgos. Thus, he urged Del Pilar to make sure that the newspaper reached the Philippines.
As the years move on, particularly after Del Pilar's break with Rizal, when the latter became aware that the control of the periodical with Del Pilar and not with the Filipino colony whose moral leader was more and more of the articles were actually written by Del Pilar himself, whether under his own name or under various pseudonyms. Its dying years, when its smuggling into the Philippines was effectively blocked by the government, were reflected in growing dependence on other newspaper for its articles, and the increasing weakness of its political program. One last burst of energy came when the long sought for representation in the Spanish Cortes seemed at last to be within the range of possibility.
Though La Solidaridad was the keystone of Del Pilar's strategy, it was only a part of the multiple structure of political lobbying for Filipino rights that Del Pilar set up in Spain. The other were Spanish masonry and the Association Hispano-Filipina. In all these, Del Pilar held the de facto leadership, in union with the Spanish Grand Master of the Gran Oriente Espańol. Morayta, professor at the university, had from the early 1880s tried to attract the young Filipino students, including Rizal, into his own orbit. Now, Del Pilar and Morayta collaborated, out of somewhat different motives undoubtedly, but seeking a common immediate goal - the elimination of the friars from the Philippine politics and society. It is because without the newspaper, not enough money was forthcoming from the Philippines, and without the money, the newspaper could not long survive.
Blumentritt, an Austrian historian and anthropologist, was a rector of a school in Leitmetritz, now Czech Republic. Rizal having read an article of his on the Philippines began a correspondence with him which was to last until the final hours of Rizal's life. Rizal went to visit him in 1887, and Blumentritt introduced him to a number of Dutch and German scholars who were doing research on Southeast Asia. From this point on the two men became fast friends, and Blumentritt could be counted on for an article in almost every issue of La Solidaridad. Blumentritt's two major themes were the equality of races and Spain's failure to improve the lot of the people in its colonies. He was a professed Catholic and a great friend and admirer of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. As such, he provided an effective argument that the antifriar propaganda was not irreligious but rather concerned with effecting reforms in the government of the colony. La Solidaridad was fortunate to have such a contributor - a Roman Catholic, a recognized scholar, a foreigner who could not be accused of prejudice, and one who had earlier been decorated by the Spanish government for his services to Spain.
There is no doubt of his true commitment to the Filipino cause as he understood it, as can be seen from his private correspondence with Rizal and Del Pilar. All this, however did not spare him the vicious attacks of many Spaniards in Manila and in Madrid, but his persistent devotion was a great lift to the morale of the Filipinos. Truly, his anthropological, historical, and political essays and article about the country, helped not only to give the newspaper a scholarly tone, but contributed the people's appreciations of their own culture, so viciously denigrated by Spaniards.
The first two issue of the newspaper contained the better-known essays of Rizal, like Filipinas dentro de cien años, The Philppines A Century Hence, published in four parts, and Sobre la indolencia de los Filipinos, On the Indolence of the Filipinos, published in five parts. There were also analyses of key Philippine problems during the period and clever satires. However, La Solidaridad did not achieve assimilation of the Philippines to Spain, it did not achieve representation of the Philippines in the Spanish Cortes, and there is no evidence that the few reforms which did not come to the Philippines during its lifetime owed their existence to its pleading or its politicking. Yet, it did achieve something in the Philippines itself. This was what Rizal had seen from the beginning, and for a while had convinced Del Pilar when he said “The struggle was for the minds of Filipinos, not of Spanish politicians. Worthy to mention is the Filipinas en La Exposición Universal de Barcelona, The Philippines in the Universal Exposition of Barcelona, a speech delivered by Graciano Lopez-Jaena on February 25, 1889 at the Ateneo de Barcelona. Lopez Jaena mentioned in his speech that the Philippine Islands, accidentally discovered by Magellan, was annexed to the crown by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi after five unsuccessful expedition, by means of a vastly superior political method, very different from the customs of the times, when conquest and territorial annexations were based upon force and carried out by extermination in the manner of Pizarro in Peru and Hernan Cortes in Mexico.
Lopez-Jaena also explained that the Philippine islands, known in the olden times as Catagalugan and Cavisaya-an, was renamed the Philippines after the conquest by the immortal Villalobos, in honor of the then prince of Asturias, who later became the great Philip II of Spain. He also said that “the fertility of the soil is such that her fauna and her flora constitute a real prodigality that some say is better than that of the American world, which is replete with wonders and enchantments and the wonderful grouping of those scattered Spanish Islands in the east is like a banquet that with a noble hand, Provident nature has pinned close to the breast of Mother Spain, and that “Spain is the Mother Country, and the Philippines, her child.”
Those in power have made efforts to exhibit the backwardness of that country and to mislead public opinion for their own political interest. They have not shown the progress which in the last twenty years the country has achieved. Had it not been for Juan Luna's immortal genius which contributed to that contest his painting entitled España Guiando á Filipinas en el Camino del Progreso, Spain Leading the Philippines on the Road to Progress; done with masterful but light strokes and revealing a genius brush whose brave colors produce marvelous efforts, surprising brave perspectives, and one of the enchantments of art and glory of the Philippines, there would have been no exhibit from the Islands worth seeing, but he was so upset because Juan Luna's Spoliarium was not exhibited.
Before long, however, the Filipinos in Madrid began to suspect more sinister motives from the committee in Manila headed by the archbishop, when they heard of the plan to bring along Filipino artisans who would demonstrate their craftsmanship. They rightly feared that the opportunity would be used to bring along people from less civilized groups to show Spaniards the backwardness of the Philippines and its unfairness for progressive reforms. The reality was even worse: the Igorots from northern Luzon and the Moros from Jolo had no crafts to demonstrate, but were rather there simply to be exhibited like animals in a zoo. In May, a Muslim woman by the name of Basalia died of pneumonia. The Filipino colony in Madrid was furious. Lopez-Jaena published a communication in one of the Madrid newspapers in the Filipino's name, denouncing the conditions under which the Filipinos were being “exhibited,” and pursued the argument fiercely in various newspapers. Moreover, he described the friars as parasites sucking and feeding upon the organic, social, moral, and political life of the Malayan nation, all powerful creator of nothing, of retrogression, of the misfortunes of these Islands in the Orient. He has the power to open the gates to knowledge, to science, and to morality, but he teaches fanaticism, infuses idiocy, and educate by prostituting knowledge, and that countries ruled by friars, modern life is not possible, they are not preserving the Archipelago for Spain, but the country is preserve for the friars.
The friars are the only ones who are benefited of the press in the Philippines. They censure and condemn all efforts to uplift the natives of the Philippines. They hate enlightenment because representing interest antagonistic to the laws of human progress, they are not able any longer to fight privately for their cause which is indefensible. To give a decent front of their opposition, they invoke the interest of the church, forgetting that in doing so, they display their lack of faith in the words of Christ who said that against the Church, the gates of hell would not prevail. The pres is not the gate of hell much less is it the spark which ignites, but the very lamp that gives light. The fight is on between friars and Filipinos. It is not a fight for or against religion; it is not a fight for or against a country. It is a fight for life, one defeating his exploitation and the other, fighting for his right to live in these modern times, to a life of freedom, to a life of democracy. This is the reason why the newspaper opposed the candidacy of Fr Bernardino Nozaleda as the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Manila, not because of his being inept or for his not being learned, but because he is a friar.
The newspaper contented that the spiritual administration of the Philippine towns has been entrusted to the hands of the friars in notable contradictions to the canonic prescriptions, and it seems that our governments, to preserve the fictitious peace and apparent order of things in the Archipelago, are content to give free reign to the immorality of the friars, giving them bishop who are also friars. The newspaper questioned why being as there are many known secular priest in those Islands learned and adored with virtues, none of these is proposed for any of the Philippine bishophorics, not even to counteract the deleterious influences of the religious communities who try to make of the Philippines a country of fanaticism and ignorance. It is necessary, therefore, that our governments concentrate on this, decide if it is their scion to make of the Philippines a country informed, liberal, an integral part of Spanish nation and not a factory exploited by the friars which it continues being up to now, an explicit, clear declaration that the friars being parish priests, are subjected in everything and for everything to the authority of the diocesan, and the latter, to be an important judge and just governor, fall back on naming priests who having nothing to do with the religious orders; that is, who are seculars.
He also corrected the belief that the state of retrogression in which the Philippines is found is due to the native way of living - the laziness and the indolence of its inhabitants, who are, allegedly, indifferent to all forms of civilization and progress. He proved the fallacy that the Filipino is indolent by nature. He also called the attention of the Spaniards “to look at your unfortunate Philippines, to free her from the oppressive monarchism so rampant through all her islands.” In addition, asked them to change their colonial policy “because Japan did not need monks to educate her to rule herself constitutionally like she is ruling herself now; Neither did the Scandinavian Islands need the religious orders to help them enjoy the benefits of modern civilization; nor Liberia to enable it to take its place among the nation. He also pointed out that “there is no doubt that commerce is the only important colonizing agent” and that “commercial and industrial Spain should be interested in knowing the Philippines.” He encouraged the importations of manufactured products from Spain and the exportations of raw materials like abaca, cotton, sibucao, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, and medicinal plants. He also encouraged financial ties.
In the next five years, Del Pilar, who died on July 4, 1896, put out the newspaper despite of affliction, deprivation, and starvation. The newspaper, which came out every 15th and last day of the month, with a modest paper of 12 pages, the usual coverage, although sometimes it came out with 16 pages or more, and printed in two columns on each page, about the size of a page of current weekly magazine, ceased publication in Madrid, Spain on November 15, 1895, with 7 volumes and 160 issues.
The La Solidaridad became successful through the contributions of Filipino writers in Barcelona, namely:
- Marcelo H. del Pilar (pseudonym: Plaridel)
- Jose Rizal (pseudonym: Laong Laan)
- Mariano Ponce (pseudonym: Naning, Kalipulako, Tikbalang)
- Antonio Luna (pseudonym: Taga-Ilog)
- Jose Ma. Panganiban (pseudonym: Jomapa)
- Pedro Paterno
- Antonio Ma. Regidor
- Isabelo de los Reyes
- Eduardo de Lete
- Jose Alejandrino
[edit] References
- ^ Agoncillo, Teodoro A. History of the Filipino People. Quezon City: Malaya Books, 1969.
- Sentenaryo '98: La Solidaridad. (accessed on 14 February 2008).
- Constantino, Renato. A Past Revisited. Quezon City: Tala Publications, 1975.
- Zaide, Sonia M. and Gregorio F. Zaide. The Philippines: A unique Nation. Manila: All-Nations Publishing, 1999.
[edit] External links
- La Solidaridad and the Propaganda Movement
- The Philippine Revolution: La Solidaridad
- The Propaganda Movement, 1880-1895
- Filipino Nationalism, AngelFire.com (undated)
- Philippine History, Philippine Children's Foundation, PhilippineChildrensFoundation.org, 2005
- La Solidaridad (Spanish newspaper) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- La Solidaridad, Philippines
