Letter to the Women of Malolos

A Brief Introduction
This famous letter was written by Rizal in
Tagalog, while he was annotating Morgas
book in London, upon the request of M. H. Del
Pilar and was sent on February 22, 1889 for
transmittal to Malolos.
It would eventually be published on La
Solidaridad.
The Story Behind the Letter
On December 12, 1888, a group of twenty young
women of Malolos petitioned Gov.-Gen. Weyler
for permission to open a night school so that
they might study Spanish under Teodoro Sandiko.
The Spanish parish priest, Felipe Garcia, objected
so that the Gov.-Gen. Turned down the petition.
However, the young women in defiance of the
friars wrath, bravely continued their agitation for
the school a thing unheard of in the Philippines
on those times.
Historical Background
During the Spanish colonial period, education
was for the most part in deplorable state,
especially for women. The friars, who exerted
power over both the Filipinos and the Spanish
government officials, considered the
education of the natives threat to the Church,
as scientific knowledge and free thinking could
cause them to abandon the blind faith and
obedience that the Church preached.
Historical Background
Schools for girls particularly focused on turning out graduates who
are pious, chaste, modest, and industrious. The principal aim of
these schools was to turn their students into meek wives and
mothers.
The teaching of Spanish language was especially lacking, not just for
women but Filipinos in general. The friars feared that proficiency in
the Spanish language would give the natives the ability to
communicate directly with the Spanish government officials and
would expose them to liberal and progressive ideas them emerging
in Europe. As the friar-curates spend many years with the natives,
they were able to learn the native language while the government
officials were assigned to the Philippines for a mere three years.
The friars then served as the bridge between the natives and the
Spanish officials, and were thus able to exert strong influence on
both. The friars contented that teaching the Filipinos the Spanish
language would encourage subversion among them since they
would understand political matters.
Historical Background
Malolos is a prosperous town where a number of
the principal residents took their own initiative to
build private schools. On 186, Teodoro Sandico, a
graduate of the University of Santo Tomas,
opened a private school there with the help of
the prominent town members. On such clan is
where Rufina Tansojoy-Santos belong.
While Sandico sought to legitimize the school, the
government turned down his proposal to open
private school for men and women on the
grounds that it might be a threat to Spanish rule.
Historical Background
Gov.-Gen. Valeriano Weyler, who began his term in the Philippines
on June 5, 1888, was known to have liberal leanings taking interest
in education in the country, uplifting the state of teachers and
opening 106 schools before his term ended in 1891.
During his visit to Malolos, Weyler set aside time to hold an
audience with townsfolk. Upon hearing the news, Sandico wrote a
letter in Spanish and asked the women he had been teaching to
sign the letter. Signed by 20 women, the letter was handed to
Weyler b Alberta Uitangcoy. The women waited around for a
response compelling the Gov.-Gen. to read it on the spot. The friars
in the convent relentlessly questioned the women as to the content
of the letter but the women refused to reveal its contents and
spoke and behaved to the friars in such a way that showed Weyler
that the friars were no longer revered by the people of Malolos.
Weyler promised that he would soon reply to the letter , then left.
Historical Background
The Gov.-Gen. initially denied the womens request
but the women continued to appeal for the school with
the help of reformist Doroteo Cortes and school-
teacher Guadalupe Reyes. Rufina Tansojoy-Santos and
other helped pay for the womens expenses when they
traveled to Manila to follow up on their request. In
sympathy with the women, the Spanish Minister of
Colonies, Manuel Becerra, a friend of del Pilars, sent
Weyler a letter of instruction on January 29, 1889
which reminded Weyler that he must strictly enforce
the teaching of Spanish in all Philippine schools.
Historical Background
On February 20, 1889, the women finally
received permission to open their school on
certain conditions:
Women petitioners have to fund the school;
Their teacher would be Guadalupe Reyes rather
that Sandico who had been blacklisted by the
friar-curate of Malolos;
Classes would have to be held in the day and not
at night probably due to the association of night
time gatherings with subversive meetings.
Historical Background
The school was immediately opened in the home of
one of the women, Rufina T. Reyes while Tansojoy-
Santos took care of most of the expenses.
Some of the women had already learned to read, write
and speak Spanish in a college in Manila but they took
interest in the classes since the discussions included
political issues that concerned them. While in the
school, the women read the first issue of La
Solidaridad, where they were significantly featured
with the letter of Rizal which was sent to them in
March 1889.
Rizals Major Message in His Letter
1. Filipino mothers should teach her children about
love of God and fatherland/motherland:
- Awaken and prepare the will of your children towards all
that is honorable, judged by proper standards, to all
that is sincere and firm of purpose clear judgment,
clean procedure, honesty in act and deed, love for the
fellowmen and respect for God.
- Women are the first to influence the consciousness of
man. Since it is the woman who gives birth to an
offspring, it is but normal that she takes the greatest
influence over the child. It is the same woman who
cuddles the child to sleep, offers her breasts for milk
and raises the child to be the adult that he is.
Rizals Message
The duties that women has to perform in order
to deliver the people from suffering are of no
little importance, but be they as they may, they
will not be beyond the strength and stamina of
the Filipino people. The power and good
judgment of the woman of the Philippines are
well known, and it is because of this that she has
been hoodwinked, and tied, and rendered
pusillanimous, and now her enslavers rest at
peace, because so long as they can keep the
Filipina mother a slave, so long they be able to
make slaves of her children.
Rizals Message
2. Filipino mothers should be glad like the Spartan mothers to offer her
sons in defense of the fatherland. Rizal cited as example stories
from Sparta:
- When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching
to battle, she said nothing to him but this, Return with it, or on it,
which meant come back victorious or dead, because it was
customary with the routed warrior to throw away his shield, while
the dead warrior was carried home on his shield.
-A mother received word that her son had been killed in battle and
the army routed. She did not say a word, but expressed her
thankfulness that her son had been saved from disgrace. However,
when her son returned alive, the mother put on mourning.
-One of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning
from battle was told by one that her three sons had fallen. I do no
ask you that, said the mother, but whether we have been
victorious or not. We have been victorious, said the warrior. If
that is so, then let us thank God, and she went to the temple.
Rizals Message
Once upon a time, a king of theirs, who had been
defeated, hid in the temple because he had feared popular
wrath. The Spartans resolved to shut him up there and
starve him to death. When they were blocking the door, the
kings mother was the first to bring stones. These things
were in accordance with the custom there, and all Greece
admired the Spartan women. Of all women a woman said
jestingly only you Spartans have power over men. Quite
natural they replied of all women, only we give birth to
men. Man, the Spartan women said ,was not born to live
for himself alone, but for his native land. So long as this way
of thinking prevailed and they had that kind of women in
Sparta, no enemy was able to put his foot upon her soil, nor
was there a woman in Sparta who ever saw a hostile army.
Third Part of the Message
A Filipino woman should protect her dignity
and honor.
Rizal also shared his experience and the stories
that he hears about Filipino women as well as
remarks made by friars and the Spaniard who
have been able to visit the Philippines.
On Womans Protection of Her Dignity
and Honor
Nevertheless, the returning Spaniards and friars,
talkative and fond of gossip, can hardly find time
enough to brag and bawl, amidst guffaws and
insulting remarks, that a certain woman who
thus; that she behaved thus at the convent and
conducted herself thus with the Spaniard who on
one occasion was her guest, and other things that
set your teeth on edge when you think of them
which, in the majority of cases, were fault due to
candor, excessive kindness, meekness, or
perhaps, ignorance, and were all the work of the
defamer himself.
Womans dignity and Honor
There is a Spaniard, now in high office, who had sat at our table and enjoyed
our hospitality, in his wanderings through the Philippines, and who, upon
his return to Spain, rushed forthwith into print and related on one
occasion in Pampanga, he demanded hostility and ate, and slept at a
house, and the lady of the house conducted herself in such and such a
manner with him; this is how he repaid the lay for her supreme
hospitality! Similar insinuations are made by the friars the chance visitor
from Spain concerning their very obedient confesandas, hand-kissers, etc.,
accompanied by smiles and very significant winkings of the eye. In a book
published by D. Sinibaldo de Mas and in other friar sketches, sins are
related of which women accused themselves in the confessional and of
which the friars made no secret in talking to their Spanish visitors
seasoning them, at the best, with idiotic and shameless tales not worthy
of credence. I cannot repeat here the shameless stories that a friar told
Mas and to which Mas attributed to value whatever. Every time we hear or
read anything of this kind, we ask each other. Are the Spanish women all
cut after the pattern of the Holy Virgin Mary and the Filipinas all
reprobates? I believe that if we were to balance accounts in this delicate
question, perhaps.
Womens Honor and Dignity
Rizal had criticized the Spaniards and friars for
taking advantage of the Filipinas good nature.
He then advises women of Malolos to protect
their name and dignity. And of course, this
could definitely be done by starting to educate
themselves and be more aware of them being
taken advantaged and played like idiots.
4
th
Message: A Filipino woman should
educate herself aside from retaining
her own nature values
Aside from criticizing the Spaniards for blatantly being
abusive of the hospitality and even ignorance while
badmouthing them, Rizal pointed out how it is also the
responsibility of the women to enlighten her own
ignorance and free herself of what Rizal emphasized as
BLIND OBEDIENCE. He had made sure to point out that
women should not only kiss the hands of the friars in
reverence of the mighty God and do whatever is being
asked of them. Filipino women should have more
informed choices and if this information is not given or
presented to them readily, they must without fail, seek
it and get hold of it.
4
th
Message
You know that the will of God is different from
that of the priest; that religiousness does not
consist of long periods spent on your knees, nor
in endless prayers, big rosaries, and grimy
scapularies, but in a spotless conduct, firm
intention and upright judgment. You also know
that prudence does not consist of blindly obeying
any whim of the little tin god, but in obeying only
that which is reasonable and just, because blind
obedience is itself the cause and origin of those
whims, and those guilty of it are readily to be
blamed.
5
th
Message: Faith is real living the
Christian Way
Lastly, in his letter, he has raised a question of
that Christianity is all about, the concept of
God and how a true Christian must live his life,
contrary to those that the friars have taught
the Filipinos. He had reminded the woman of
Malolos to take into heart the teachings of the
Church and open their eyes to the
inconsistencies of the friars towards what they
preach.
Living the Christian Way
The deceiver is fond of using the saying that it is
presumptuous to rely on ones own judgment, but in
my opinion, it is more presumptuous for a person to
put his judgment above that of the others and try to
make it over theirs. It is more presumptuous for a man
to constitute himself into an idol and pretend to be in
communication of thought with God, and it is more
presumptuous and even blasphemous for a person to
attribute every movement of his lips to God, to
represent every whim of his as the will of God, and to
brand his own enemy as an enemy of God.
Living the Christian Way
Saintliness consists in the first place in obeying the
dictates of reason, happen what may. It is acts and not
words that I want of you, said Christ. Not every one that
saith unto me, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
Heaven. Saintliness does not consist in abjectness, nor is
the successor of Christ to be recognized by the fact that he
gives his hand to be kissed. He did not cater to the rich and
vain He did not mention scapularies , nor did He make
rosaries, or solicit offerings for the sacrifice of the mass or
exact payment for His prayers. Saint John did not demand a
fee on the River Jordan, nor did Christ teach for gain. Why,
then, do the friars now refuse to stir a foot unless paid in
advance?
Things that the Women of Malolos
Should Reflect Upon
I do not pretend to be looked upon as an
idiot or fetish and to be believed and listened
to with the eyes closed, the head bowed, and
the arms crossed over the breast; what I ask
of all is to reflect on what I tell them, think it
over and sift it carefully through the sieve of
reason.
Reflect Upon That:
1. Tyranny of some is possible only through cowardice
and negligence on the part of others
2. What makes one contemptible is lack of dignity and
abject fear of him who holds one in contempt.
3. Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he
is; a man who does not think for himself and allowed
himself to be guided by the thought of another is like
the beast led by the halter.
4. He who loves his independence must first aid his
fellow man, because he who refuses protection to
others will find himself without it.
Reflect Upon That:
5. If the Filipina will not change her mode of being, let
her rear no more children, let her merely give birth to
them. She must cease to be the mistress of the home
otherwise, she will unconsciously betray the husband,
child, native land, and all.
6. All men are born equal, naked, without bond. God did
not create man to be a slave, nor did he endow him
with intelligence to have him hoodwinked, or adorn
him with reason to have him deceived by others.
7. Consider well what kind of religion they are teaching
you.