A new perspective on Rizal

Tomorrow, June 19, is the 165th birthday of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

Let me begin this column by quoting from the Foreword by eminent scholar and award-winning fictionist of Tiempo Muerto fame, Caroline Hau.

“So much has been written about Jose Rizal that one may be forgiven for thinking that little of substance can be added anymore to the immense body of scholarship and commentary on the man.  This book proves otherwise; ‘Jose Rizal, Nationhood and the Anticolonial Imagination’ is eloquent testimony of the continued vitality of Rizal studies and Philippine studies.”

The author, Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr., also an award-winning professor of history, has written this book, a scholarly volume that offers a thoughtful and original reexamination of how Rizal and his fellow ilustrados conceived of the concept of the Philippine nation in the late 19th century. Rather than accept the widely held view that Filipino nationhood was somehow natural or primordial or existing from the very beginning, Aguilar argues that the idea of the Philippine nation was actively constructed through the intellectual and political work by Rizal and his fellow ilustrados.

According to the book’s blurb: “The book focuses on four key issues in ideating the nation – territory, people, history and emotions. It probes the question of how and why Jose Rizal and his fellow ilustrados conceptualized a nation with an unfamiliar yet delineated territory, identified an imagined emotional community, pinpointed a category of inhabitants of these islands as their ancestors with a respectable civilization and situated the territory and the people in a linear time frame that stretched back to the ancient past.”

One of Aguilar’s most compelling contributions is his exploration of how these ilustrados defined the “Filipino people.” Instead of romanticizing all inhabitants indiscriminately, Rizal and his peers selectively included certain groups and excluded others, defining “Filipinoness” in ways that reflected colonial categories and their own social ideas.

In doing so, Aguilar examines the “emotional dimension” of nationhood. He argues that the nation for Rizal was not just a political or territorial project but also an affective one, a community of sentiment, memory and longing that bound together people who had rarely met but who shared a vision of collective liberation. This imaginative work helped transform geographic space into a “homeland” in people’s hearts.

Aguilar wrote about Rizal’s historical imagination and how he and his fellow ilustrados did not accept colonial narratives of backwardness. Instead, they asserted that their ancestors had cultivated complex societies, governance and moral systems. By doing so, they reconfigured the past to serve their anti-colonial critique, infusing their nationhood project with dignity and continuity.

This book is a timely and important contribution to Philippine historical scholarship. Aguilar’s work underscores that the Philippines was never an inevitable nation but became one through intellectual labor, political struggle and emotional commitment.

The book offers students, educators and its readers a more critical understanding of Rizal not just as a national hero, but as a thinker who grappled with colonial power, identity and history. It challenges us to consider what it means to belong and what responsibility we carry for the emotional and historical community we have inherited.

The book has several very interesting illustrations.  Two of the most interesting for me are the Murillo Velarde map of 1734 and Rizal’s sketch of the spheres of influence of imperial powers in the Pacific in the late 1880s. There is also Juan Luna’s painting, “El Pacto de Sangre.”

The most sentimental chapter for me is Chapter 8, entitled “Awakening the Imagination: Emotions and Rizal’s Quest for a Happy Nation.” In her Foreword, Hau writes: “Aguilar writes movingly of Rizal’s longing for the happiness of his country. How this longing comes about, how it is nurtured, how it comes to be shared by most if not all of those who call themselves or are interpellated by the State as Filipinos, how it lingers even when the dream of happiness remains elusive – these were big questions that challenged Rizal and the reformists and revolutionaries of his time.  These questions retain their pertinence to this day.”

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Good news for those who missed Write Things’ Writefest last month.  Writefest 2026, Write Things’ 12th summer workshop for young writers aged 8-16 will again run on July 6-17 at Fully Booked BGC. It is a hybrid six-session workshop (MWF with three sessions via Zoom, three face-to-face), 3-5 p.m. Join us for engaging sessions with guest author Marga Ortigas and writer-facilitators Mica Magsanoc and Sofi Bernedo.

Marga is a writer and media communications consultant who previously worked as a correspondent for Al Jazeera English for many years.  Her novel “The House on Calle Sombra” recently won the Country Award at the Chommanard International Women’s Award 2025 in Bangkok and had a recent launch in Madrid.

Register here: bit.ly/summerwritefest2026.

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