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Saturday, May 2, 2009

IN RIZAL'S FOOTSTEPS

by JB D. Baylon published May 27, 2008 in Malaya


LAST week I found myself in Madrid on a short visit, for purposes actually of dressing up a Philippine jeep that is in the care of the alcalde of Almonte, Spain, in time for a corporate event on the evening of June 2. Our plans initially were to actually ship a jeepney from Manila – at enormous cost, obviously – but the resourcefulness of the Philippine embassy in Madrid resulted in the discovery that shipping was unnecessary as one already existed on Spanish soil.

I arrived in Madrid on the 28th of May – there were no later flights for less than US$ 4,000 – and thereupon resolved that the first thing I would do as soon as I got over jet lag was visit the Philippine Embassy to say `thank you' to the ambassador and his staff.

The Embassy is located in a quiet district of Madrid, close to the Plaza dela Republica Argentina, and easily reached via the very reliable Madrid Metro. As I mentioned last Monday I was warmly welcomed at the Embassy and it gave me great pride to have seen a diplomatic post eagerly doing what it could to promote the Philippines. Most specially so, I felt, for the one in Madrid, given our historic ties to the host nation.

I felt greater pride when, before leaving, the Embassy's Cultural attaché, Ms. Sarah Salcedo, handed me a brochure titled "Rizal's Madrid" – featuring places of interest in the Spanish capital that played a significant part in the life of our national hero, who lived in Madrid from 1882 to 1885. That's about 120 or so years ago.

To those interested, the brochure lists 11 places of interest, all within walking distance of each other, around which Rizal lived, studied, worked, played, drank, ate, orated, and even flirted. There actually is a 12th point of interest – the replica of the Rizal monument in Rizal Park, Manila, but it is located quite a distance from where the 11 other points are and you'll need to take the Metro and find the Islas Filipinas" station and from there walk up the Avenida de Filipinas to get to the monument at the corner of Santander street.

Other than the monument, what are these places?

The brochure lists seven locations where Rizal lived from September 1882 to 1885. On an allowance of 50 pesos (reduced to 35 pesos due to bad harvests in Calamba), Rizal tried to live a spartan life and, we are told, first chose a house on Calle Amor de Dios, sharing it with a friend from Ateneo de Manila, Vicente Gonzalez, whom he fondly called "Marques de Pagong".

From May to June 1883 Rizal moved into a house on Calle Fernandez y Gonzalez, staying on the third floor, and again sharing it with others – Eduardo de Lete and Ceferino de Leon. They agreed that gambling would be a "no no" in their flat – but everything else must have been fair game.

Rizal also stayed at the residence of Don Pablo Ortiga y Rey at what is now Calle Ventura dela Vega, which was also the headquarters of the Circulo Hispanico Filipino. While the Circulo soon dissolved, in part at Rizal's urging due to lack of sufficient interest among its members, Rizal had other interests in mind in this residence as well. The brochure states that Rizal apparently fell for the daughter of Don Pablo, a young lady named Consuelo, whom he wooed with letters and poems but who apparently eventually chose Rizal's friend and board mate, Eduardo de Lete. That must have made Rizal suffer lonely nights in Madrid.

There also was an address at Calle Gran Via, where Rizal stayed in September of 1883 paying 4 pesetas a day. He didn't stay long at this place and moved again, moving to a flat in Calle del Barquillo which he shared with a Filipino names Esteban Villanueva.

By 1884 Rizal was in another flat along Calle Pizarro, sharing it with Ceferino de Leon and Julio Llorente. It was close to the college where Rizal was studying his philosophy and letters. And it was also here where he started writing the Noli.

His last place of residence was at Calle Cedaceros, sharing it for 15 days again with Ceferino de Leon and Eduardo de Lete. From this residence Rizal was to move to Paris and then Berlin to study ophthalmology, an area of interest of importance to his mother.

Other than these places where Rizal lived, the walking tour will also bring you to places where he studied and socialized. There is the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad de Madrid along Calle Atocha. He also took courses in painting at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, on Calle Alcala. He also took up philosophy and letters at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, which has been displaced in its building by the Ministry of Justice. And then there was the Ateneo de Madrid, not an educational institution as I expected but actually a private club for men of letters and science.

Then there are a few more interesting the places, such as the address where La Solidaridad had its office of publication, along Calle Atocha (which, by the way, is the road leading to Madrid's main railroad station); Los Gabrieles, a watering hole where Filipino students met and discussed issues, and which is now a famous venue for flamenco dances; a bar named Viva Madrid on Calle Manuel Fernandez y Gonzalez which was another watering hole; the Hotel Ingles where the Filipinos met to celebrate major occasions – and where President Ramos himself graced the celebration of the centennial of the Philippine revolution, and finally, the Congress of Deputies, then known in Rizal's time as the Las Cortes Españolas, the legislature in which Rizal and company lobbied for the recognition of our rights – specifically for autonomy and equality with Spanish citizens.

While one is always tempted to visit the museums and then the shopping places when in a new place especially in Europe, Madrid provides every Filipino a special attraction – an attraction that should interest all of us as we are who we are today in part because of what Rizal and his fellow "exiles" in Madrid said and did more than a century ago. This is why I believe the effort of the Philippine Embassy in Madrid is so laudable – and once again wish to extend my best wishes to the people who make up that diplomatic post and who I had the privilege of meeting, led by Ambassador Joseph Bernardo, Consul General Celia Anne Feria, cultural attaché Sarah Salcedo, and the Ambassador's assistant Genevieve Balanzat.

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