I’ve never heard of any such law elsewhere in the world that safeguards and promotes the reading of particular works of fiction in this way. The Act mandated that the novels be translated from the original Spanish into English and Tagalog (the principal Filipino dialect), that they be available in cheap unexpurgated editions, and that there should always be a sufficient number of copies held in school and university libraries. The children are the future – that’s the key message of Rizal’s novel.Īccording to the Rizal Law, compulsory study of Rizal’s novels should promote in the country’s youth ‘a re-dedication to the ideals of freedom and nationalism for which our heroes lived and died’, ‘encourage civic conscience’ and ‘teach the duties of citizenship’. The Act identifies Rizal as ‘the national hero and patriot’ of the Philippines. In 1956 the ‘Rizal Law’ came into force in the Philippines, requiring the life and writings of José Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere(1887) and El Filibusterismo(1891), to be included in the curricula of all public and private schools, colleges and universities throughout the country. It was only after I’d finished the novel, back at home a few weeks later, that I learned the reason for this seemingly universal response every time I mentioned Rizal and his novel. ‘We read that at school! Rizal is our national hero!’ José Rizal ![]() I can’t believe you’re reading that!’ Later in the week I received a virtually identical reaction from the media manager at one of the hotels we visited. ![]() ‘ Noli Me Tangere? We studied it at school. Our other host (another young woman in her twenties) came back from the breakfast buffet and joined in the conversation. She looked at me in amazement, her fork poised in mid-air. I told her it was a novel called Noli Me Tangere. I downloaded it on Kindle and started reading it on the plane going over to Manila.Ī few days later I was talking at breakfast to one of our lovely hosts from Tourism Philippines and happened to mention that I’d been reading before bed the previous night. I knew nothing about it except that the title kept coming up in Google searches for ‘novels set in the Philippines’. For my Philippines trip last month, I chose Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal. When I visit a country for the first time, I try to read a novel written or set there. ![]() Bell ringers of Bohol (photograph by Adam Gibson)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |