This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 8, March 25-31, 2007
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
`Marcha de Cadiz’ and José Rizal’s Execution
The composer
of Marcha de Cadiz (March of Cadiz) – supposedly meant to celebrate the
victory of Spain – could not have foreseen that his work would one day be played
by a brass band at the execution of the national hero of a Spanish colony.
BY ROSALINDA N.
OLSEN
As
soon as a work of art leaves the hands of the artist, it is entirely out of his
hands and takes a life of its own. The same applies to scientific discoveries
and to most inventions.
Marcha de Cadiz
(March of Cadiz), for example, is a beautiful victory march, very charming and
old, dating way back to the Napoleonic wars. Its composer couldn’t have known
that it would one day be played by a brass band in a far corner of the Spanish
empire. It was meant, after all, to celebrate the victory of “Mother Spain.”
However, the circumstances made it more of a victory of the “forces of darkness”
over the “true, the good and the beautiful.”
On
the early morning of December 30, 1896, the band played “Marcha
de Cadiz” amid cries of “Viva España!” (Long Live Spain!)
as the lifeless body of national hero José Rizal fell to the ground. Nothing is
said in the history books about how this affected the Filipinos present at the
execution. It is not necessary; it’s easy enough to visualize how the Filipino
patriots, including Rizal’s sisters, must have felt.
Rizal
was charged with sedition to which he pleaded absolute innocence. He denied all
connections with the revolutionaries. Let’s assume he was telling the truth in
all sincerity. Then, let us recall the two novels he wrote, the Noli me
tangere (Touch me not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibusterer).
Rizal wrote that the novels would serve as mirror for his countrymen to see
themselves and what is ailing the country. The mirror was too good that the
Spanish saw themselves in the caricatures; they vowed revenge. The mirror was so
bright that it awoke intense patriotism in the slumbering souls of the
Filipinos. The Katipunan was thus conceived and born.
His
two novels can be regarded as a debate that Rizal conducted with himself through
his unforgettable characters – Crisostomo Ibarra, Pilosopong Tasyo, Elias,
Simon, Isagani and Basilio. In the end, Rizal concluded that although a
revolution was inevitable, the country and the people were not ready. They
simply had to wait. Elias and Simon, in the person of Andres Bonifacio, couldn’t
wait. Once the first battle of the Katipunan was launched, nothing could have
stopped the momentum.
As
the author of the two novels that inspired a revolution, was Rizal culpable?
That is like asking if Albert Einstein had to bear part of the guilt for the
destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima because his scientific mind made it
possible to create the first atomic bomb. Same thing with Karl Marx; he wrote
Das Kapital but it is absurd to blame him for how the Leninists and
Stalinists created the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
In a
short story titled “The Socialists”, the author (Gilda Cordero-Fernando, I
think) described how “socialists” from Manila celebrated May 1, Labor Day, among
the “socialists” in a small town just outside the capital city. During the
program, one of the “socialist peasants” went up to the little makeshift
platform and began reciting Edwin Markham’s “The Man with a Hoe.” Markham’s poem
was inspired by the painting of Jean-Francois Millet with the same title. (See
Figure) Its first lines give a vivid and powerful image:
Bowed by the weight of centuries he
leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face, There is little
doubt that the peasant on the stage was incapable of holding a discourse on
socialism. Yet, there can be no doubt that what little English he knew gave him
a full understanding of the theme. We can well imagine a change in the
intensity of his voice when he recited the last lines:
O masters, lords and rulers in all
lands,
How will the Future reckon with this
Man?
How answer his brute question in that
hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the
world?
How will it be with kingdoms and with
kings--
With those who shaped him to the thing
he is--
When this dumb Terror shall reply to
God,
After the silence of the centuries?
Rizal
loved Spain, but he loved Las Islas Filipinas (The Philippine Islands)
more. The mirrors that he created were for Spain to correct the wrongs; and, for
his countrymen so that they could lift themselves up through education. Rizal
couldn’t have foreseen how all the Eliases and the Simons would use his
writings, just as Jean-Francois Millet couldn’t have known how his painting
would inspire Edwin Markham’s famous poem. Bulatlat
Editor’s
Note: To hear the
Marcha
de Cadiz, please check the author’s multi-media presentation at URL
http://joserizal.info/movies/MarchadeCadiz.swf. © 2007 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Contributed to Bulatlat
And on his back the burden of the world.