INTRODUCTION TO RIZAL'S NOLI ME

TANGERE
Christian Bryan S. Bustamante, Ph.D.
Fr. Salvador Font’s Criticisms

The book is libellous, defamatory, full of falsehood

and calumny. He accuses the author of ignorance
of the Philippines’ history, which he describes as
“savage country” until the light of the Gospel
shone her and the Spanish Mother Country raised
her from the “wretched state of atony and moral
prostration.”
Fr. Salvador Font’s Criticisms

The author of the book, because of his ill-

concealed hatred, wants to discredit the “one of
the greatest works of generous Spain” and “all the
institutions established by the Metropolis in these
distant Islands.”
Fr. Salvador Font’s Criticisms

The general synthesis of the book is “to instill deep

and cruel hatred of the mother country” in the
minds of the Filipinos and its objective is to
achieve “absolute independence of the country.”
The author is ingratitude and ungrateful to the
Mother Country that “have him birth, that nursed
him on her noble breast, that nurtured him with
the bread and principle of civilization and who of
an ignorant and degraded heathen has made of the
Philippines a Catholic country par excellence.”
M.H. del Pilar’s Defense
Its objective is
the betterment
of the
Philippines.

It is essentially
critically.
F. Blumentritt’s Exposition
• Plastic form of the abuses of the
administration

• Faults and abuses of the ruling class, friars,

civil authorities, and ordinary people

• Photographs whose original still live

F. Blumentritt’s Exposition

But still more: Not only is the Spanish element

depicted black in the Noli me tangere, but all the
Indios who appear in the book are idealized. That
is considered as defect. This does not need
defense, because I find it natural for Rizal to
depict his fellow countrymen, whom he loves, in
the way he thinks just.
Rizal’s Explanation

I have described the social condition, the life

there, our beliefs, our hopes, our desires, our
complaints, our sorrows. I have unmasked the
hypocrisy that under the cloak of religion has
impoverished and brutalized us.
Rizal’s Explanation

I have distinguished the true religion from the

false, from the superstitious, from that which
capitalizes the holy word in order to extract
money, in order to make us believe in absurdities
of which Catholicism would blush if it would
know them.
Rizal’s Explanation

I have lifted the curtain in order to show what is

behind the deceitful and glittering words of the
government. I have told our compatriots our
defects, our vices, our culpable and cowardly
complacency with the miseries over there.
Rizal’s Explanation

DARE
TOUCH ME NOT means “DON’T
TO DISCUSS ABOUT IT.”
Rizal’s Explanation

“on the steps of the temple so that each one

would come to invoke the Divine, would
propose a cure for them.”
Rizal’s Explanation

I wrote the Noli me tangere to stir the

patriotism of my
countrymen. I would be happy if
among those I have stirred, I shall find
more notable champions
Factors that Influenced Rizal

La Loba
German
Ninay
Society

Noli
German Society

Studious and
Industrious Women

Christian
Brotherhood
La Loba and Ninay

La Loba: Widow’s
quest for vengeance

Ninay: Passion
and Courage
The Political Message of
Noli Me Tangere

No progress, no justice,
no reforms are possible…

…because of the Spanish

friars.