The Trip
THE TRIP TO CUBA THAT ENDED IN LUNETA by VW Bro. Bernardino L. Saplaco, Jr.
Past Grand Pursuivant
I simply want, in this article, to recreate important events that culminated in Dr. Jose Rizal's execution on Bagumbayan field (now the Luneta), the centennial anniversary of which we commemorated on December 30, last year (1996); to pose at certain points, perhaps for polemical reasons, some pertinent questions which, to me, still clamor for satisfying answers; to reiterate a couple of famous tributes to Illustrious Brother and Dr. Jose Rizal; and to suggest how we latter-day Filipinos can best honor the memory of our foremost National Hero.
Why, in the first place, did Dr. Rizal follow Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt's suggestion that he volunteer his services as a physician attached to the Spanish medical corps in Cuba?
For sure, in his flirewell letter to his family which he wrote before the Isla de Panay sailed for Spain on his way to Cuba on September 2, 1896, Rizal said in part:
"We are all in the hands of Divine Providence. Not all who go to Cuba die; and in the end, if one has to die, let him die at least doing something good." (Teodoro M. Kalaw, editor; Epistolario Rizalino, Vol IV, p.285).
But, what was the "something good" Dr. Rizal would do in Cuba? Helping the Spaniards, whose misrule of the archipelago he had vividly exposed in his writings, quell the Cubans' struggle for independence?
Why, furthermore, did Governor-General Ramon Blanco accept Dr. Rizal's application to serve as a volunteer physician attached to the Spanish medical corps in Cuba? Why did he, moreover, give Rizal a letter of recommendation, addressed to the Ministers of War and of the Ultramar, a portion of which is given below?
"His (Rizal's) conduct during the four years he remained in Dapitan has been exemplary, and he is, in my opinion, the more deserving of pardon and benevolence in that he is in no way involved in the chimerical attempt we are deploring, neither in the
Past Grand Pursuivant
I simply want, in this article, to recreate important events that culminated in Dr. Jose Rizal's execution on Bagumbayan field (now the Luneta), the centennial anniversary of which we commemorated on December 30, last year (1996); to pose at certain points, perhaps for polemical reasons, some pertinent questions which, to me, still clamor for satisfying answers; to reiterate a couple of famous tributes to Illustrious Brother and Dr. Jose Rizal; and to suggest how we latter-day Filipinos can best honor the memory of our foremost National Hero.
Why, in the first place, did Dr. Rizal follow Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt's suggestion that he volunteer his services as a physician attached to the Spanish medical corps in Cuba?
For sure, in his flirewell letter to his family which he wrote before the Isla de Panay sailed for Spain on his way to Cuba on September 2, 1896, Rizal said in part:
"We are all in the hands of Divine Providence. Not all who go to Cuba die; and in the end, if one has to die, let him die at least doing something good." (Teodoro M. Kalaw, editor; Epistolario Rizalino, Vol IV, p.285).
But, what was the "something good" Dr. Rizal would do in Cuba? Helping the Spaniards, whose misrule of the archipelago he had vividly exposed in his writings, quell the Cubans' struggle for independence?
Why, furthermore, did Governor-General Ramon Blanco accept Dr. Rizal's application to serve as a volunteer physician attached to the Spanish medical corps in Cuba? Why did he, moreover, give Rizal a letter of recommendation, addressed to the Ministers of War and of the Ultramar, a portion of which is given below?
"His (Rizal's) conduct during the four years he remained in Dapitan has been exemplary, and he is, in my opinion, the more deserving of pardon and benevolence in that he is in no way involved in the chimerical attempt we are deploring, neither in the