Shara Mariel B. Escorpizo

2014-89091

Dr. Ma. Luisa Camagay

Kas 1

Reaction Paper: Ang Buhay ng Isang Bayani

Before going to college, history was a subject I could not wait to finish. From grade

school to high school, academics teach the same thing: specific dates, nitty-gritty details, and

miscellaneous stuff that seem important in the smallest bit. What I got from all the years of

taking history is that for the most part of our documented yesteryears, we were under the Spanish

colonial rule. So what better way to start the discussion about Spanish colonialism than Jose

Rizal?

Textbook content and other print sources used in schools establish the fact that Jose Rizal

is a Filipino scholar sent abroad to study and go back to the Philippines to help the locals. The

only focus from that point is his nationalistic views manifested in his published scholarly works

and his contribution to the Filipino uprising against the Spanish rule. Other than this, the rest of

his personal details fade into the background, never to be heard by those who do not seek it.

In the documentary Buhay ng Isang Bayani, we see Jose Rizal in a fresh perspective.

Much light is shed on his origins, and his humble beginnings were exhibited. Jose Rizal here is

not just that man who was hungry for knowledge; Jose Rizal here is also the innocent boy who

longed for a more permissive local environment.

In this documentary, we see a more human side of Jose Rizal. The textbooks and

informative materials seem to strip away the soul in these narratives that makes it more boring to

study. Events about Rizal’s schooling and upbringing were discussed here with a familiarity that

we do not experience while studying it. Rizal’s parents here were not addressed as Teodora

Alonzo and Francisco Mercado; instead, they were simply Donya Lolang and Don Kikoy. Rizal

was not Jose Rizal, but Moy Mercado; and in Calamba was his starting point.

Unlike books, this documentary discussed Jose Rizal’s life in thorough detail. From his

first days in school to his ventures abroad, Buhay ng Isang Bayani showed Jose Rizal as a regular

bachelor who took opportunities handed to him. From these ventures, he met a handful of people

he had intimate relationships with; a few of which he shared his romantic feelings. One of the

events in Rizal’s life that are not present in books was the incarceration of Donya Lolay due to

the accusation of food poisoning by his sister-in-law and the use of her maiden name, which

wounded Rizal deeply to a point that he wanted to go home. This perspective offers familiarity in

a way that it shows how Jose Rizal is not distant and no higher than we are, and that we could be

our versions of Rizals in our own little ways.

I think Buhay ng Isang Bayani was a good material to use in class because it offers a

larger scope about Rizal unlike the bits and pieces of him that we see or read in textbooks.

Documentaries like this are what I would personally look forward to in class because not only is

it more informative than textbooks, it also captures the essence of history more than just reading

it.