The Modern Maria Clara      Maria Clara as we all know is the female heroine in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo novels written by our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal. Her full name is Maria Clara delos Santos y Alba. She is the childhood sweetheart and fiancée of Noli Me Tangere’s hero, Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y Magsalin, the son of Don Rafael Ibarra. She was raised by San Diego’s cabeza de Barangay, Capitan Tiago. In the novels, Maria Clara is the most beautiful and famous girl in San Diego. It was discovered at the latter part of the story that she was an unlawful daughter of Father Damaso, former parish curate, and Doña Pia y Alba, wife of Capitan Tiago. Both Doña Pia and Capitan Tiago are native Filipinos however; Maria Clara is a mestiza girl for the fact that his father was Father Damaso, a Spanish friar. She never saw her mother because Doña Pia died during the delivery. She grew under the guidance of Tia Isabel, the cousin of Capitan Tiago. Her father sent her to the convent of Beaterio de Santa Clara while her boyfriend was travelling in Europe. At the end of the novel, she chose to become a monk and it is not clearly stated if she is still living in the convent or she is already dead.     Accordingly, Rizal described her as “Inang Pilipinas” (Mother Philippines). Rizal patterned her character after his first cousin and childhood sweetheart, Leonor Rivera. Maria Clara is considered to be the most beautiful lady in the town as mentioned. She is also promoted by Rizal as the ideal image of a Filipino woman who should be honored by males. It is for the fact that she is “very religious, the epitome of virtue, demure and self-effacing and endowed with beauty, grace, and charm.” Maria Clara’s name has also become famous in the Philippine fashion in which it became the eponym for the female Filipino national dress popularly known as the “Maria Clara Gown”. This attire is very symbolic in nature because it was made after the character of Maria Clara in the novels who is a maiden with “delicate, feminine, self-assured, conservative, and with sense of identity.” It is usually wore during “Buwan ng Wika”, national events, etc.         We Filipinos have been looking up with this Maria Clara’s famous traits wherein they define a real Filipina based on her traits. Definitely, some of our teachers since grade school taught us that we Filipino women are conservative in nature and where did they get this idea? It was patterned after the character of Maria Clara whom Rizal considered the real image of a Filipina. As a matter of fact, Filipinos observed Filipino women who possess Maria Clara’s characters especially in provinces and only few in urban areas. Nevertheless, there is a controversial issue about considering Maria Clara as the epitome of a genuine Filipina. Some people agree for it but some disagree for the reason that Maria Clara is not a pure Filipina meaning she is a half Filipino and half Spanish. On the other hand, she is also exposed to Spanish culture and her physical appearance really looks like a mestiza. Have you ever saw or knew of an epitome who is not a pure blood? Perhaps, there would be some around the world but it is commonly known to be a pure blood like a pure Filipino blood. However, in my own opinion, I agree that Maria Clara fits the ideal image of a Filipino woman and Rizal gives a lot of reasons for it as described in the first part. Perhaps, another reason also is that Maria Clara became an inspiration to Filipino women during the Spanish colonization to bring an uprising like Gregoria de Jesus and Gabriela Silang especially when their husbands died. Perhaps, they realized how Maria Clara was abused in the novel wherein she has no right to choose who she will marry as well all her actions are strictly watched by

Father Damaso therefore controlling and deciding for her. These realities in the two novels led Filipino women before to fight for their rights and fight for their lost loved ones.     Moreover, one of the distinguishing traits of Maria Clara is being conservative in nature that is still seen today with the Filipino women. I truly admire Gregoria de Jesus and Gabriela Silang for they spoke up and rise against the Spaniards. This only shows that from being conservative women, they turned out to be feministic, motivated to fight for their freedom and rights. In this connection, I believe that the original definition of a Maria Clara woman has been changed already because we have now modern Maria Claras.  I strongly believe that modern Maria Claras nowadays are still conservative but already know of their rights and where they stand in the society. It is a good thing that women are honored and treated equally with men though still with limitations but it is no longer the same on how women like Maria Clara treated in the novel even though they are still respected. I think this is the impact of bringing the feministic perspective in the society like being the first country in Asia to have a female president. We Filipino women are more sophisticated people and we have the rights for freedom and to decide in our own pace. Maria Clara is still the icon of a Filipina whom is a strong, honorable, loyal, and dignified and a principled person for she never followed Father Damaso but rather enter the wall of the convent to show her undying love for Crisosotomo Ibarra. This is the manifestation of a real feminism and an ideal image of a Filipina.Posted 8th October 2011 by Cypher Westley Forester From <http://wwwcreativeminds-cfwestley.blogspot.com/2011/10/modern-maria-clara.html> 5-7-2014

Maria Clara- Paragon or Caricature? Salvador P. Lopez        There is no more significant inquiry that can be made into the literary work of Jose Rizal than his conception of the character of Maria Clara. No other character in Philippine literature has had a more pervasive influence on the thought-life of the Filipino people than this famous heroine of Rizal.        Filipino womanhood is even now at the crossroads of modernity and conservatism, slightly bewildered, and not knowing exactly which way to turn. Lure on the one hand by the attractions of the new emancipation, she is on the other handas yet too strongly attached to a lingering ideal of Filipino womanhood to brush aside the traditional conception of her sex which she imbibed with her mother's milk.       For decades since Maria Clara was created by the genius of the great patriot, we have heard the name of this heroine spoken now in reverent whispers, now in a gust of romantic idealism. She has been celebrated in song and oratory as the paragon of Filipino womanhood. Whenever it seemedd that the modern Filipino girl  was becoming too vital, too progressive or too daring, prophets of execration and doom were not lacking to hold up the figure of Maria Clara anew and to whisper her name as if it were an incantation to drive away an evil spirit.       That was the accepted interpretation of the character of Maria Clara. Everyone thought that RIzal intended to set her up as an ideal for the women of his country, the noblest blossom of Filipino womanhood. Was she not the fiancee of the hero of the novel in which he

tried to bare the soul of his people through the sufferings of his own soul? Did not even this hero himself seem to be moulded upon Rizal's own personality, the author weaving into this hero's thoughts, pains and tribulations, the deep notes of his own anguish? Did he not imbue Maria Clara with loyalty and modesty, which are the two cardinal virtues of our women?        There seemed to be no escape from the only conclusion to which the answers logically led. It was evident, according to this view, the Rizal had intended Maria Clara to be a model Filipino woman- loyal to the point of selflessness, modest to the point of weakness.         So did the legend become firmly embedded in the Filipino mind- of Maria Clara against whose assumed perfections all the weakness of present-day women are to be measured, whose virtues are a mirror whereon other women might look at their own reflection and blush in shame.          Let us try to be subject this legend to closer examination. We shall not tear away the canvas from the wall of memory where Rizal hung it for the contemplation of posterity. We shall only take it down with reverent hands so that at close range we may judge whether the portrait was drawn by a loving or by a satirical hand.         Let us consider the original inspiration of Maria Clara. Rizal makes her the daughter of a Spanish priest, thus placing a double handicap upon her as a would-be Filipino woman. FOr that automatically makes her a mestiza and an illegitimate child. It is true that he gives her the virtues of modesty and loyalty.But in an age which compelled a woman to remain in the background, these qualities were not virtues borne of interior strength. And while Rizal surrounds the figure of Maria Clara with the aura of romaticism (as in her love scenese with Crisostomo Ibarra), he also places her in questionable situations with another priest. All in all, the character of Maria Clara is far too weak to justify her being held up as a model for the women of our country. Her loyalty is the loyalty of the vanquished spirit, her modesty the modesty of the timid.        To insist that Rizal meant to put up a woman of this type as an ideal for future generations of Filipino women to imitate, is to place a miserable estimate upon the prophetic insight of Rizal. Surely, the man who wrote "The Philippines a Century Hence" and 'The Indolence of the Filipino" could not have made the mistake of putting up as aan ideal  a type of womanhood that the twentieth century was certain to outmode. Rizla knew that the new century was going to be a century of unprecedented progress in all lines of human endeavor. He knew that the new age would witness the emergence of a new woman enjoying priviliges and responsibilities of which before she was not even aware. Having lived for many years in Europe and visited America shortly before the turn of the century, he could not have missed the clear portents of the new womanhood that was soon to arise.        It is difficult to believe that, with this background, Rizal could ever have fallen into the error of setting up a feeble and invertebrate woman as the model for the women of his country. He wanted his countrymen to be robust and powerful in spirit; he could not have wished his countrywomen to become exactly the opposite. His famous letter to the women of Malolos shows clearly that his conception of Filipino womanhood was enlightened, and that while he deplored none of their old virtues, he insisted that new and more vital qualities be added to these.        We are left with the surmise that Rizal most probably intended the character of Maria Clara not as a glorification of the women of his time but rather as a satire upon their foibles and weaknesses.To point out that her figure is touched with the sublimity of the author's

conception, is merely to say that Rizal succeeded as an artist in creating a character that is fundamentally unsound without being contemptible, that is weak and yet appealing.        The character of Maria Clara inspires not scorn but sympathy born of understanding. We realize that Rizal probably intended to use the type of womanhood she represented for a definite purpose, even as Cervantes used the character of Don Quixote to laugh the romantic knight out of court forever.         Maria Clara was the forerunner in fiction of that woman who, in 1896, betrayed the secret of the Katipunan to the priest of Tondo. You find in her the same feebleness, the same helplessness, the same fear- none of the qualities that were possesed by Princess Urduja of ancient Pangasinan or by Tandang Sora of the Revolution, or by Teodora Alonso, Rizal's own brave and gallant mother.        Other times, other heroes and heroines. In the regime upon which this nation has but recently entered, we shall need a tyope of Filipino woma as unlike that of Maria Clara as possible- energetic, enterprising, progressive and with a mind of her own. Posted 22nd September 2011 by Random Ramblings From <http://perlishell79.blogspot.com/2011/09/maria-clara-paragon-or-caricature.html> 5-7-2014Maria clara as:

1. Fictional Charactera.

She was raised by Capitán Tiago, San Diego's cabeza de barangay and is the most beautiful and widely celebrated girl in San Diego.

In the later parts of the novel, María Clara's identity was revealed as an illegitimate daughter of Father Dámaso, former parish curate of the town, and Doña Pía Alba, wife of Capitán Tiago. In the end she entered local covenant for nuns Beaterio de Santa Clara.

b. In writing this piece, I was able to ask 11 Fil-Ams to describe Maria Clara. Six of them said she was a weak and submissive woman, with one stressing that Maria Clara was inferior to men. Four thought of her as strong-willed while one said she did not know her at all.

c. It is unfortunate that Maria Clara, one of the main characters in Dr. Jose Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, was typecast as a weakling. This low opinion of her may not be prevalent only among Filipinos here in the United States but perhaps even in our own country.

d. Maria Clara had not the small eyes of her father; like her mother, she had eyes large, black, long-lashed, merry and smiling when she was playing but sad, deep, and pensive in moments of repose. As a child her hair was curly and almost blond, her straight nose was neither too pointed nor too flat, while her mouth with the merry dimples at the corners recalled the small and pleasing one of her mother, her skin had the fineness of an onion-cover and was white as cotton, according to her perplexed relatives, who found the traces of Capitan Tiago’s paternity in her small and shapely ears.

2. Filipino women

a. after the character of Maria Clara in the novels who is a maiden with “delicate, feminine, self-assured, conservative, and with sense of identity.”  

3. Symbolism of Filipno Women during spanish eraa. Maria Clara’s wretchedness would have been a perfect representation of the state of

the country under Spanish oppression. b. On the other hand, she is also exposed to Spanish culture and her physical

appearance really looks like a mestiza. Have you ever saw or knew of an epitome who is not a pure blood? Perhaps, there would be some around the world but it is commonly known to be a pure blood like a pure Filipino blood.

4. Representation of Leonor riveraa. Rizal based Maria Clara’s character on Leonor Rivera, his real life fiancée for 11

years. In the end, Rivera decided to marry an Englishman thinking that Rizal abandoned her when he left for Europe, not knowing that all of the hero’s letters were intercepted and hidden by her mother.

5. Weakness/strenght of Womena. Joaquin, a national artist, observed that “contrary to most people’s opinion, Maria

Clara goes to the nunnery not out of weakness but out of strength.”  He explained that Maria Clara finds the strength to live in spiritual confinement rather than to marry or to commit suicide.”

6. Filipino religiositya. Her father sent her to the convent of Beaterio de Santa Clara while her

boyfriend was travelling in Europe. At the end of the novel, she chose to become a monk and it is not clearly stated if she is still living in the convent or she is already dead.

b. It is for the fact that she is “very religious, the epitome of virtue, demure and self-effacing and endowed with beauty, grace, and charm.”

7. Eye opener for women empowermenta. We Filipino women are more sophisticated people and we have the rights for

freedom and to decide in our own pace. Maria Clara is still the icon of a Filipina whom is a strong, honorable, loyal, and dignified

b. I strongly believe that modern Maria Claras nowadays are still conservative but already know of their rights and where they stand in the society.

c. Yes, Maria Clara did not lead a country like Thatcher did but the power of her choices, under her peculiar condition, is comparable to the strength shown by the late premier, who was dubbed Iron Lady by the press, when she led Great Britain.