reflection paper

Jose Rizal

“Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!”, after watching Jose Rizal the Movie, these are the words that wanted to find its way out into my mouth. Words that wanted to travel beyond distance and beyond boundaries that would defy ages to finally find a resonating voice that sent earthquake to the stoned floor of the holy temple of God that sheltered fiends who clothed themselves in white and who spoke His words with fluency but undoubtedly knew nothing of His language. I could not say it better, as a realization hit me, but I admire my Motherland. I could not help but think how did she, after everything that was done to her, have found it in her heart to forgive? The film did not only depict the life of Jose Rizal during the gripping of the Spaniards’ iron hands but also the Filipinos during those darkest times before the crack of dawn. The movie did not also just settled for only Rizal and the Filipino people during the Spanish colonization, but it made a sort of movie adaptation of the two notable masterpieces of Rizal; the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo. The movie itself was faithful to accuracy that you could see what it wants people to see and that is to see. The movie suggested us to see what had really happened to our motherland. It is to see what she had been through to keep her standing in her place in the map of the world. It is to see how many times our country had lost her identity, her dignity, her freedom, her voice, her rights, and her name. It is to see how many lives she had to remorsefully sacrifice just to keep standing. Watching the movie, I saw her. She took all pain and suffering and given up almost everything she has because she loves her children. She love the Filipinos that she kept standing and resisted the embrace of the god of the sea for us to have our feet on earth to land on. Realizing all she had borne made me proud to be molded from the earth of the Land of the Morning. Jose Rizal the Movie made it crystal cleared to everyone who would watch it how the Filipino people loved our country that they had given up their lives to free her from her iron cage. The movie showed that during the time of Rizal, Filipinos had started stirring from their seemed to be forever slumbering, although the Spaniards oppression continued to darken the skies. During those times, as portrayed, there was social unrest that resulted revolts. Most prominent movements were initiated by the Katipuneros led by Andres Bonifacio. A lot of native eyes had started to see the real faces inside the holy veil worn by the Spaniards that led them to the realization of their own scraped image. Spaniards had continued to use religion, specifically the teachings of the Catholic Church and the words of God to frightened majority of the Filipinos to conform and manipulate them.
The film portrayed the Spaniards abuse of power and authority over the Filipinos. Friars shrouded their corruption in the cloak of church contributions and tributes. They collected high imposed taxes from the farmers who till their own soil. They acquired lands by authority and force. Worst of it, Spaniards did not content themselves in getting hold of our country but also our dignity. Filipinos had been treated unfairly. The Spaniards made sure that we had no equal human rights, no parity before the law, no seat for the government, no mercy from the church, and no place for morality. Filipinos became slaves. Our native women were victimized. There was racial discrimination. Only elites were granted to have a formal education and even in school, Filipinos were slandered, mocked and belittled. Even the justice system was in favor of the State. Filipinos who have committed crime in the eyes of their justice were subjected to persecution and death. Spaniards would then scheme any person who go against their regime; that would include the conspiracy they had done to Rizal as he was sentenced by prejudiced to death before his trial was even performed. They stripped our nation’s identity and clothed us in ballooned dresses to conform but even so denied our right-I believe-to baptize our country a name. Those lowest times, people who had finally perceived the truth tried to raise their voices but mostly failed to do so because there was no firmed foundation. Their flares were not enough. When Rizal gave light, flickers were rekindled to a raging fire. Jose Rizal became their source of strength though he did not purposely want to ignite insurgency. Though his writings were double edged sword, he wanted to address his appeal for freedom and equality in a diplomatic manner. Unfortunately, it did not go as planned because not only the Spaniards wanted to bind him for the trouble he had cause to the name of the Spanish government. I really liked the portrayal of those people close to Rizal after he was shot and had fallen on the ground; none of them even shed a tear. They held their ground, Rizal was not a traitor. They were the ones who held his pride when he was deprived to die with dignity. He doesn’t deserve a cry of sympathy because he had done nothing but to love and to be faithful to his country. Because he was not married to a woman; he was married to our country, faithfully. Watching that scene, I felt dignified. He was not a traitor and so were those lives that fought to free our country. They were Filipinos who desired to regain our freedom and identity from the Spaniards.
As the movie concluded, I realized I have never been so proud of my country, and never did I really give proper acknowledgement to the many lives that, especially those nameless faces that did not have the chance to have a space in paper. “Give credit to who is due”, as the saying goes. All of us, we walk in different paths of life. We see strangers every day but I never really consider looking at their faces in a different way. After watching the film, I learned to see the faces of past through the faces of the present. We are all carrying fragments of souls of the people of the past. How we are giving shape to those fragments of souls is the real challenge in us. I have learned from watching the film how embarrassing we have become to cater these fragments in us because we failed and ignored to recognize them and the way we savor the liberty they struggled to regain but tragically did not had the chance to hold. These souls had once fought for freedom. We have to see them in us to fix how we abused our freedom. I still see our motherland in her situation back then because we failed to get the lessons from our past. How many more times does she have to be in same situation she thought she had been freed from? One lesson I clearly got from the movie, we have to carry the past in us like it is our own experience for us to never want to be in that situation again. We should never forget our own history and the importance of it, for the sake of those souls who only had the chance to experience true freedom in us.