Module 5: Rizal’s Secret Mission and Travels Abroad

Travels
- Rizal’s travel in Europe was a part of his preparation for specializing in ophthalmology
and for broadening his knowledge of the life of the people in various places to be applied
in the Philippines - education for leadership.
- Met Ferdinand Blumentritt who became his friend for 10 years.
November 3, 1882
- Studied Medicine, Philosophy & Letters in Universidad Central de Madrid.
1885-1886
- Specialized ophthalmology in France and Germany.
1887
- Published the Noli Me Tangere in Berlin, Germany.
Dresden
- Rizal, who was interested in botany, studied the “numerous plant varieties of
extraordinary beauty and size.”
Leitmeritz, Bohemia
- Now: Litomerice, Czechoslovakia.
- Reason: to see Blumentritt for the first time.
Prague
- A historic city
- Visited tombs, bacteriological laboratories, saints, and the famous caves.
Other Places Visited
- Lintz
- Rheinfall
- Vienna
- Italy
- Madrid
Exhibition of Igorots in Madrid Exposition
- He was angered
- “I am tired as a dog, but I will sleep as a God”
August 1887
- After 5 years in Europe, he returned to the Philippines.
Reasons in Returning Home
- To operate his mother’s eyes
- To inquire why Leonor Rivera remained silent
- To find out for himself how the Noli and his other writings were affecting Filipinos and
Spaniards in the Philippines
- To serve his people who had long been oppressed by Spanish Tyrants
Rizal wrote to his father
- “I shall embark for our country, so that from the 15th to 30th of August, we shall see
each other”
Fears of Rizal’s Family
 - Paciano did not leave him during the first days after arrival to protect him from any
enemy assault.
- His own father would not let him go out alone; lest something might happen to him.
Operating his Mother’s Eyes
- Established a Medical Clinic. His first patient was his mother.
- Within a few months, he was able to earn P900 as a physician. After a year, he earned a
total of P5,000 as medical fees.
- Being called “Doctor Uliman” because he came from Germany.
- Reasonable medical fees, even gratis to the poor.
Silence of Leonor Rivera
- It was a failure to see Leonor Rivera
- Reason: Her parents did not like im for a son-in-law,
- During Rizal’s time, marriages must be arranged by the parents of both groom and bride.
4 Storms over the Noli
1. Storm 1: From Gov. Geb. Terrero
- Rizal received a letter from Governor General Emilio Tererro requesting him to
come to Malacanang Palace because of the alleged subversive ideas of the Noli.
- He denied it, explaining that he merely exposed the truth, but did not advocate
subversive ideas.
- Terrero said, “Everything in it was the truth, you may lose your head for it.”
- Assigned Taviel de Andrade for Rizal’s security.
2. Storm 2: Faculty Members of the UST
- The faculty committee came up with a report that the Noli was “heretical,
impious, and scandalous in the religious orders, and anti=patriotic, subversive of
public order, injurious to the governments of Spain and its function in the
Philippine island in the political order”
3. Storm 3: Attackers of the Noli
- Attacker: Fr. Rodriguez: Rizal is an ignorant man. Rizal attacks the Church and
Spain. Readers commit mortal sin by reading the Noli.
- Defender: Fr. Garcia: Graduate of Spanish Universities and recipient of
Scholastic honors (not an ignorant man). Does not attack the Church but bad and
corrupt friars. Does not attack Spain but bad Spanish Officials. Since Fr.
Rodiguez had read the Noli, therefore, he committed mortal sin.
4. Storm 4: Banning the Noli
- The importation, reproduction, and circulation of the Noli are absolutely
prohibited.
- But the banning of the Noli only served to make it popular.
Served His People Against Spanish Tyranny
1. Calamba Agrarian Trouble
- Gov. Terrero, influenced by the facts brought about by the Noli, ordered a
government investigation of the friar's estates.
- Goal: To remedy whatever inequalities might have been present in connection to
land taxes and tenant relations.
- Affected: Calamba Hacienda owned by the Dominican Order
 2. Calamba Trouble - Findings
- The hacienda of the Dominican Order comprised not only the lands around
Calamba, but also the town of Calamba.
- The profits of the Dominican order continually increased because of the arbitrary
increase of rentals paid by the tenants.
- The hacienda owner never contributed a single centavo for the celebration of
town fiesta, for the education of the children, and the improvement of agriculture.
- High rates of interest were charged to the tenants for delayed payment of the
rentals, and when the rentals could not be paid, the hacienda management
confiscated their carabaos, tools, and homes.
Results
- Anonymous threats against his life were received by his parents.
- The friars exerted pressure on Malacanang to eliminate him.
Decision to go back to Europe and leave Calamba
- His presence in Calamba was jeopardizing the safety and happiness of his family and
friends.
- He could fight his enemies better and serve his country’s cause with greater efficacy by
writing in foreign countries.
Preparation to go Home
- He could not stay in Europe in the face of sufferings which afflicted his family.
- He could not stay writing a novel while his parents, relatives, and friends in the distant
Philippines were persecuted.
- Rizal ignored the dire warning of his friends. No threats of danger could ever change his
plan.
- However, the letter changed his plan. Paciano related that they lost the case against the
Dominican in Manila. But they appealed it to the Supreme Court of Spain, hence a
lawyer is needed to handle the case in Madrid.
- Thus, Rizal went to Madrid to retain the services of M.H. del Pilar.
Misfortunes in Madrid
- He tried all legal means to seek justice for his family and the Calamba tenants, but to no
avail, disappointment after disappointments piled on him.
1. Duel with Antonia Luna
- Luna is a frustrated fiance of Nellie Boustead and blames Rizal for his failure to
win her. Luna having an alcohol-befogged mind could not control, he uttered
unsavory remarks about Nellie. Rizal could not tolerate any slur against the
honor of any woman Angered, he challenged Luna to a duel but aborted it.
2. Duel with Wenceslao E. Retana
- Retana is a talented Spanish scholar and a press agent of the friars in Spain.
- He used to attack Filipinos, including Rizal, in various newspapers in Madrid.
- He wrote an article in La Epoca, an anti-Filipino newspaper, asserting that the
family and friends of Rizal had not paid their rents so that they were rejected from
their lands in Calamba by the Dominicans.
- Insulted, Rizal challenged him to a duel. Retana published a retraction and
apology in the newspapers.
 3. Infidelity of Leonor Rivera
- Rizal received a letter from Leonor, announcing her coming marriage to an
Englishman, her mother’s choice.
4. Rizal-Del Pilar Rivalry
- Pilar was a lawyer-journalist. Purchased the La Solaridad from Pablo Rizanzales.
Replaced Graciano Lopez Jaena as its Editor.
- As to Rizal, members must possess a high standard of morality, dignity, and
spirit of sacrifice.
- Rizal leadership declined due to members turning against him because they
resented his interference in their private lives (wine, woman, and cards).
- To intensify the campaign for reform and patch up differences, a leader
(responsable), be chosen to direct the affairs of the Filipino community and
determine the editorial policy of the La Solidaridad. Del Pilar opposed that the
periodical be under a Responsable on the ground that it was a private enterprise.
But he is willing to publish articles that would express aspirations and demands
of the Filipino people.
- It took 3 rounds of voting (⅔ majority) in declaring Rizal as the responsable.
5. Rizal abdicates his leadership La Solaridad
- Rizal declined the position. He was a man of honor and dignity, with a high sense
of Delicadeza.
- Preferred to abdicate his leadership rather than be the cause of disunity and
bitterness among his countrymen.
- Del Pilar realized the need for Rizal's collaboration in the Propaganda movement
and La Solidaridad for the reform movement crusade was declining.
- When Rizal was in Biarritz, he stopped writing for La Solidaridad. The reasons
were: (1) I need time to work on my book (2) I wanted other Filipinos to work (3) I
considered it very important to the party that there will be unity. Del Pilar asked
for forgiveness and wanted Rizal to resume writing for La Solidaridad.
6. Failure to get justice for Family
- Action 1: Minister of Colonies. He called on the Minister of Colonies (Senyor
Fabie) in order to protest the injustices against the Calamba folks but nothing
came out.
- EL RESUMEN (Madrid newspaper): “To cover the ears, open the purse, and fold
the arms - this is the Spanish colonial policy.”
- Action 2: Spanish Statesmen: Becerra and Maura. Sought the aid of 2 Spanish
Statesmen and former members of the ministry. Rizal was disappointed.
- Action 3: Queen Regent Maria Cristina. The ruler of Spain during the minority of
Alfonso XIII. but how could Rizal see Her Majesty?
- He had neither powerful friends to bring him to the queen’s presence nor gold to
grease the palms of influential courtiers.

Rizal decided to focus and continue writing his El Filibusterismo and prepared for his second
homecoming.