Graciano Lopez-Jaena
Propagandist, reformist, orator. Author of “Fray Botod” [Friar Rotten], moral tale that’s not as funny as its title sounds. Visayan; wrote in Spanish.
H
Middle initial of Marcelo del Pilar, leader of the Propagandists. Still have no idea what it stands for.
Heidelberg16
Flowers floating from Heidelberg, Germany, to Manila Bay are a physical impossibility. I think.
Hitler
Grandson of Rizal.
Incunabula, Filipino
Not a lot around. See Fire, Insects, and Worms, Etc. See also Americans.
Indolence of the Filipinos
Pet peeve of colonizers. The hero Rizal wrote a whole essay refuting it, proving he was industrious. Devote an entire postcolonial graduate seminar to it, called Industry or Indolence?: Retrospective Recrimination in Current and Colonial Attitudes toward Bla Bla Bla [name your symptom here].
Jose
Rizal, of course. His first novel, Noli Me Tangere, revolutionized art and nation. His second novel, El Filibusterismo, is an art-novel miserably read as political tract. His third novel, Makamisa, is unfinished. Font of Wisdom, Holy Grail, Martyr Most Prolific, Seed of History, Origin of Words. A bit short, however: only 4'11.
Katipunan
The revolutionary secret society, organized by Bonifacio, the Supremo. Glorious name, now an Avenue. Means “association”: from verb tipon (to congregate). Possibly a completely made-up noun, that is, a neologism. Full name of the association: Kataas-taasang, Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan. By the time you finished swearing this mouthful, you got arrested.
Kleptos
One more damned virus of Philippine history, shame on them. Books and manuscripts about the revolution, especially primary sources, have been prey to kleptos. A famous case of klepto is the theft from the National Library in Manila of the final draft of the Noli Me Tangere in Rizal’s own hand; and who knows what other manuscripts have been feloniously fondled? Not even the novel’s injunction—Touch Me Not—dissuaded the thief—who, of course, being klepto, had to not only touch it but steal it.
Krag
Civilize them with a. Krag-Jørgensen rifle, the American soldier’s weapon of choice in the Philippine-American War (1899–2013), epilogue of the 1896 Philippine revolutionary war against Spain (“Why can’t this memoir have only one war instead of two?!” a referee of an acclaimed academic press exclaims, “I’m so confused.” So was the nation, lady, so was the nation!). Jaunty motif in a musical wartime slogan, “Civilize them with a Krag!” The Americans were also fond of another weapon, the Colt .45. However, since their imperial misadventure in Manila in 1899, Americans vowed never to subjugate other nations with false alarms of democracy, benevolent assimilation, etc. etc.
Lacuna
Do not confuse with Laguna, a province in Luzon and Jose Rizal’s birthplace. Also, a general in the Philippine revolution, first name Urbano.
Mabini
See Sublime Paralytic. Sadly, now a street of brothels and murky infamy.
Magsalin
Matronymic of Crisostomo Ibarra, hero of Rizal’s Noli. His full name was Crisostomo Eibarramendia y Magsalin (surname was Basque, cut to Ibarra, for short). The name Magsalin is a pun. It means the infinitive transitive verb “to translate” as well as “to transfuse,” as in blood. Which makes sense to Filipinos. Rizal’s novel about Ibarra translated history into fiction and transfused a patient (nation) with fresh blood.
Masons
Godless.
Neologisms
Another device of cryptolepts and revolutionaries; also a symptom of certain kinds of brain damage. Katipunan may be a neologism; so, too, the Tagalog word for freedom, kalayaan. Queries the polyglot Rizal to his brother Paciano as he translated the tale “Wilhelm Tell” from German into Tagalog: “I lacked many words, for example Freiheit, liberty. The Tagalog word kaligtasan cannot be used, because this means that formerly he was in prison . . . I found the noun malaya, kalayahan, that Marcelo del Pilar uses. In the only Tagalog book I have—[Balagtas’s] Florante—I don’t find an equivalent noun. The same thing happened to me with the word Bund—liga in Spanish, alliance in French. The word tipanan . . . does not suffice.” Excuse me, ehem, Dr. Rizal: Katipunan, anyone? Why could he not think of a word easily coined by the Great Plebeian, Bonifacio?
Nora/Vilma Complex
The tendency to think in binaries. As in: if you are not for superstar Nora Aunor, you are for star-for-all-seasons Vilma Santos. If you are not for Vilma, you are for Nora. For instance: if you compare the great actress Nora to a durian, you are insulting Nora. If you compare Vilma to a durian, you are insulting a durian. That is the point of view of a Noranian. If you compare the great actress Vilma to a durian, you do not know what you’re talking about. That is the point of view of a Vilmanian. The Nora/Vilma complex applies to debates on: girl/boy; class/race; etc. Also, Tagalog versus English; Filipino versus Fil-Am; Rizal versus Bonifacio. Ditto the debate on revolutionary founder of the Katipunan Bonifacio versus everyone else. (Other binaries: Tagalog/Cebuano; Morena/Mestiza; Pangak/Coño; the following are not binaries but reify the concept of binaries: Mutt/Jeff; Betty/Veronica; Pugo/Togo; etc.) The Aguinaldo/Bonifacio debate gives off a fishy odor in the Aguinaldo camp. In the Bonifacio camp, the debate is tragic. If you speak against Aguinaldo, you are echoing the prejudice of the Americans against Filipinos at the start of the twentieth century. If you praise Aguinaldo, you are defaming the memory of Andres Bonifacio. If you like Bonifacio, you’re a patriot. If you don’t know who he is, you are likely Fil-Am.17 18
Novena
Nine-day prayer consisting of a series of metonyms. Raymundo Mata’s curious Penitential Novena to Zajir Solé,19 addressee in dispute though sense of guilt is obvious, is unfinished.
Our Lady of Antipolo
Patron saint of travelers. Fiesta of Our Lady of Antipolo was popular day of pilgrimage. Always a good time for katipuneros, disguised as devotees, to hold meetings. Also a good excuse for them to drink basi, tuba, lambanog, and all other kinds of rice and coconut-suffused alcoholic drinks during meetings. No wonder no one really knows whatever happened at the election fiasco at the Tejeros Assembly.20 Or at the momentous Cry of Balintawak. Etc. etc.
Pedro Paterno
Original balimbing, i.e., most consistent traitor among brains of the nation. An elegant Filipino among reformists in Madrid, mocked by Rizal for being “rich and vacuous
