In short, RizalPark is a fun place to observe and learn things when the rain isn't pouring down. (August is rainy season here in the Philippines.) At one end of RizalPark is the exact the location where the most famous national hero of independence, Jose Rizal, was executed by Spanish forces near the end of the 19th century. It was at another memorial to the execution-grounds of Rizal where I asked a tour guide why the leaders of the revolt against Spain were called "Illustrados". Without bothering to translate or give a lengthy explanation, the guide stated that many of these leaders at the time of Rizal were from well-to-do or mixed-blood Filipino families. They were proud of their Spanish skill and identity as leaders.
In short, Illustrados is apparently a phrase that stands for the fact that certain people of the independence movement are (or were) memorable or to be remembered. That is, they are worthy of being remembered--even if the reason for this national memory is vague or non-universal.
NOTE: Even now, I am still not clear on why the leaders of the revolt against Spain in the 1890s are known as the Illustrious Ones or Illustrados. It is a feeble name to me--i.e. not only as a native speaker of English but as one who is fluent in Spanish. (Spanish was the language of the occupiers of the Philippines for over 3 centuries prior to the USA taking over and colonizing it, starting in 1898.) Moreover, modern Filipino language takes many more words from English than Spanish, so I am fairly certain that the traditional name, Los Illustrados, which is still used to label and describe the Rizal cohort generation, has little meaning for modern Filipinos. This perplexing imagery of "illustrious beings" simply fails to conjure up the leadership of a nation as one would perceive in a phrase like "our founding fathers" or "the enlightened ones'.
This raises an important issue about the language and culture of the Philippines. One issue confusing the identity of Filipinos historically has been a lack of strong leaders and heroes to create a sense of national unity, which would erase the powers of local caudillismo or tribalism (or village leaders) as central to the Filipino psyche and system of allegiance. Importantly, the drive to both define a traditional Filipino identity and a moderen nationalist image for all Filipinos is an issue raised in The Pretenders, set in early 1960s Manila--i.e. in the years before Ferdinand Marcos, created a dictatorship here. Jose, the author, is certainly critical of how patriotism and nationalistic phrases and jingoes are used at that time to condone all kind of economic, political and social malfeasance in his homeland.
Allied with this issue of nationalism and its role in modern Filipino political-economic and social development is the language issue in modern Philippines. This issue is only to be inferred in this work, as the author often refuses to use local languages, to add color to his character's thoughts--although they are thoughts originally perceived in some of the country's dozens of dialects.
Initially, near the end of the USA occupation of the Philippines in the 1930s, the powerful northern island of Luzon chose to force the rest of the country to accept Tagalog as the Filipino national language. Since the 1980s, a new national language, known simply as Filipino, has been promulgated and been supported more nationally. This language creation attempts to take popular words and grammar from other language groups in the Philippines--as well as more English words than Spanish into its vernacular. (Indonesian, also was created primarily in the 20th century on a neighboring archipelago through such similar trial and error.)
Nonetheless, even today, smaller language groups--such as Cebuano, Ilongo, and Ilucano--across the 7107 islands of the Philippines are unsuccessfully fighting for improvements in their position in Filipino's centralized political economy. Moreover, Filipino still has to compete with English as a national language.
IS HE A SAMSON?
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