COMMENTARY: Live Rizal out

Rizal.

 

Well, technically, his family name wasn’t really Rizal. He was a Mercado, but he was only prompted to use the name Rizal so the Spaniards wouldn’t be able to track him down as his brother Paciano was being pursued for being linked in an uprising which led to the martyrdom of three Filipino priests known as the Gomburza.

 

But that’s not the point. All I wanted to say is that I am a self-proclaimed Rizal fan. Well, at least when I was a kid.

 

My family used to frequent the original Rizal residence when we were still living in Calamba, Laguna back when I was still in Kindergarten (the shrine was only an approximately 10-minute drive from our place).

As a kid, I was both amazed and confused. I remember asking Mom once, “Ma, hindi ba napapagod si Rizal sa kakatayo diyan buong maghapon?” (Mom, doesn't Rizal get tired of standing there the whole day?) pointing to a statue of the young hero playing with his pet dog. Aside from that, I had a lot of nagging questions in my mind. Why did he do this? Why did he do that? Why was he our national hero in the first place?

 

Let’s face it—we may claim to high heavens that we’re mature both in thinking and understanding , but is the way how we perceive Jose Rizal as mature as we think it is? Or do we know him based on a shallow and curious child-like perspective?

 

The kind of Rizal many people try to depict is too overused, like a cliché. We’ve heard thousands of times that he’s the national hero we must imitate, and that he’s a significant figure to us Filipinos, and without him there wouldn’t have been any free country as the Philippines.

True, but that’s just too broad, not to mention too idealistic, to understand. Just how should we imitate Rizal? Do we need to imitate him literally? Do we need to write eyebrow-raising novels, be fluent in Spanish, or write a poem of 14 stanzas before we die to imitate him? Not really.

To appreciate Rizal more, I think we must look at him in a different viewpoint—different from how several nationalists, teachers, or the orators look at him—not as a hero, but as a human being, as someone who went to school just like us, who fell in love just like us, and had dreams not only for himself but also for his community, just like us.

 

Rizal fell in love, just like us. He threw some good pick-up lines and love letters, just like what we usually do when we like someone. Rizal actually is one of the most romantic Filipinos who ever graced our history books. He had a multitude of girlfriends, starting his quest for love when he first fell for Segunda Katigbak, a Batangueña. He then moved on, pursuing a lot of women especially in his travels abroad. He had Nelly Boustead from France, Gertrude Beckett from England, Consuelo Ortiga y Perez from Spain, O-Sei-San from Japan, and Josephine Bracken from Ireland as his sweethearts. But just like us, he also experienced being “emo” at times. His heart broke real bad when he learned that his cousin and long-time love Leonor Rivera was forced to marry an Englishman. He did break down in tears and emoted, just like us.

 

Rizal went to school, just like us. He, without doubt, was a polymath; he was well-versed in countless fields. But human as he was, there were also times where he felt downtrodden. His favorite answer back in grade school was “un poco” (a little) whenever he was asked if he knew Math or Latin. 

 

But most importantly, he had dreams to fulfill, just like us. Remember the story of the moth his mother Teodora shared to him as a kid? Not only did he want to have a decent education and become a doctor, he also wanted equality, if not freedom, from Spain, not caring if it would risk his own life in the process. Whether you are a student, a professional, a housewife/houseband, or a tambay, I know for certain that you have a mission to accomplish. People to help. Lives to change. And you don’t care how many sleepless nights, how much money, and how much efforts you have to spend just to make your dreams become a reality.

 

Tell you what—Rizal was just like us. No, scratch that. He was us. And he is still us. He’s you. He’s I. He’s every Filipino. So why would you have to imitate yourself? Get rid of those idealistic and blurry pictures people project about him. The only thing you have to do is simple.

 

Just live him out.

 

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Raffy Cabristante is a young man working as a Senior Multimedia Producer for GMA News.