Rizal Without the Overcoat

Summary

In the lecture "Rizal Without the Overcoat" by Areté Ateneo, the speaker delves into a more personal and humorous perspective of José Rizal, the Philippines' national hero. Emphasizing Rizal's human side, the lecture highlights anecdotes from his life, exploring the misconceptions and misrepresentations often associated with his historical image, such as his portrayal in monuments and artistic representations. By examining the lighter sides of Rizal's life and encouraging direct engagement with his writings, the lecture aims to make him relatable and more accessible, transcending the static image of a distant historical figure.

Highlights

• Discover why Rizal is frequently depicted in an overcoat thanks to a Swiss sculptor! 🇨🇭
• Unravel the mythos surrounding Rizal through often overlooked letters and artifacts. ✉️
• Marvel at the unexpected whimsy of Rizal and his friends in rare photographs. 📸
• Explore why Rizal was a 'brand'; from cigarettes to beer, his influence is timeless. 🍻
• Reflect on the meaning of national heroes today and how Rizal’s story challenges modern perceptions. 🤔

Key Takeaways

• Rizal wore the iconic overcoat due to the Swiss origins of his monument! 🧥
• Monuments often fossilize heroes, making people forget rather than remember. 🏛️
• Understanding Rizal means seeing his humor and humanity amidst historical glorification. 😄
• Rizal’s writings remain pivotal but are seldom read today, even though they offer great insight. 📚
• In reading Rizal, we find a relatable figure, flawed yet brilliant. He sets an example for greatness. 🌟

Overview

The lecture 'Rizal Without the Overcoat' is an engaging journey into uncovering the lesser-known nuances of José Rizal, a man often romanticized through statues and stamps. Away from the typical reverence, it offers a chance to view Rizal as more than just a historical icon, examining his life, humor, and personality to reveal a relatable human being underneath the heroics.

A huge part of the storytelling involves Rizal’s clothing choices, busting the myth of the overcoat as a mere tropical misfit. The overcoat has become an essential symbol through artistic representation since the monument originated from Switzerland, a delightful mix-up in historical narrative. On the same humorous thread, the lecture touches on Rizal's letters, attires, and friendships, introducing a Rizal who partakes in playful antics and joyful gatherings.

Furthermore, the lecture strongly emphasizes reading Rizal’s original texts, emphasizing how such engagements can uncover profound insights into his brilliance and imperfections. Delving into Rizal's human side invites listeners to appreciate his real-life humor and intellect, making his inspirations and aspirations more accessible for today’s audiences.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Jose Rizal Without Overcoat The chapter begins with an introduction to the theme and context of 'Jose Rizal Without Overcoat', setting the stage for deeper exploration into Jose Rizal's life and works. The music at the start adds an emotive atmosphere, preparing the audience for a reflective and insightful journey through Rizal's legacy.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Personal Journey with Rizal The chapter "Personal Journey with Rizal" takes a unique approach to presenting Jose Rizal, aiming to uncover the man beyond his iconic status as depicted in Filipino culture. The author reflects on Rizal's perceived identity in society, comparing it to a known currency face, a monument figure, or a textbook name. Through the narrative, the speaker intends to share a more intimate understanding of Rizal, as shaped by forty years of dedicated research, suggesting a journey to unveil Rizal beyond conventional historical depictions.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Significance of 'Why' Questions The chapter discusses the importance of asking 'why' questions. Through a personal anecdote, the narrator illustrates how his father's humorous question about "result wearing a heavy winter coat in the tropics" sparked his interest in history and shaped his career as a public historian. The chapter emphasizes that while understanding results is crucial, the deeper inquiry of "why" can lead to greater insights and personal growth.
• 02:30 - 04:30: Rizal's Overcoat and Representation The chapter titled 'Rizal's Overcoat and Representation' begins with an exploration of different types of questions, culminating in the intriguing 'why' question that demands more than just a straightforward answer. This question sparks a curiosity-driven journey of research for the author, which has led to the writing of 40 books. Among these, 'Result Without the Overcoat' stands out as particularly memorable.
• 04:30 - 07:00: Rizal's Heritage and Artifacts The chapter titled 'Rizal's Heritage and Artifacts' discusses the author's experience with a book about Rizal that has been in print for over thirty years. The book presents Jose Rizal from a different perspective, challenging traditional views. Initially, this approach faced resistance from those who held onto the conventional image of Rizal and viewed questioning this image as irreverent or unpatriotic. Through this work, the author learned that questioning and the process of learning are vital, sometimes holding more significance than the answers themselves, emphasizing that learning, much like life itself, is a journey.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Rizal in Monuments and Public Memory The chapter titled 'Rizal in Monuments and Public Memory' discusses the representation of Jose Rizal, a national hero of the Philippines, in statues and monuments. A specific example mentioned is a statue of Rizal made in Switzerland, where he is depicted wearing a heavy winter overcoat, highlighting the context of its creation in a cold climate rather than the Philippines. This raises questions about Rizal's representation and attire, as historical photographs typically show him wearing Western-style coats rather than traditional Filipino clothing like a barong Tagalog.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Rizal's Humorous Side and Personal Life The chapter titled "Rizal's Humorous Side and Personal Life" highlights an interesting anecdote of the Philippine post issuing a stamp featuring Rizal in a barong Tagalog. Rizal's personal letters mention him wearing a barong at a carnival in Madrid in 1883 that attracted considerable attention, exemplifying a humorous side of his personality. Rizal jokingly remarked about the attention, wishing he had brought his 'sala' (a traditional Filipino home garment) for the occasion. This snippet shares a glimpse into his humorous side and personal life.
• 15:00 - 20:30: Rizal as a Cultural Icon The chapter discusses the enduring relevance of Rizal as a cultural icon. The author reflects on a long-standing thought that resurfaced while examining the Berlin Ethnographic Museum's archives. An unpublished letter from Rizal revealed a packing list of objects sent to the museum, highlighting his contribution and connection to cultural heritage.
• 20:30 - 24:00: Public Perception of Rizal and Heroism This chapter explores public perceptions of Rizal and heroism, illustrated through personal reflections on visiting a museum. One key exhibit is a traditional Filipino salakot made of carabao horn and silver, symbolizing historical and cultural reverence.
• 24:00 - 30:00: Encouragement to Read Rizal's Works The chapter titled 'Encouragement to Read Rizal's Works' discusses the significance of a personal item belonging to Rizal—a salakot (a traditional Filipino hat) made of horn and silver. The narrator highlights that Rizal, in a packing list, annotated this salakot with 'esgehert mir' in German, meaning 'this is mine.' This annotation and the object itself become symbolic and a sacred relic to the narrator, showing the personal connection and the enduring relevance of Rizal's legacy. The chapter aligns with commemorations of 160 years since Rizal's birth and 125 years since his death, underscoring that Rizal's works and personal history remain significant and not merely historical artifacts or 'old hat.'
• 30:00 - 34:30: Conclusion and Rizal's Lasting Impact The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Rizal's Lasting Impact' explores how monuments dedicated to Rizal around the world serve as a testament to his enduring influence and historical significance. Despite claims that everything about Rizal is already known, continuous exploration and questioning reveal new insights. The chapter encourages readers to consider what these monuments teach about history, heroes, and Rizal himself.

Rizal Without the Overcoat Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music]
• 00:30 - 01:00 filipinos know jose result as the face on a coin a figure in a monument a name on a street or a textbook in this lecture i want to show you result without the overcoat a result i have come to know and love following four decades of research
• 01:00 - 01:30 i hope to persuade you not to overlook result but to give him a second more nuanced look when i was a boy my father took me to lunetta and introduced me to the national hero he then asked a question that changed my life why does result wear a heavy winter coat in the tropics little did he know that by adding humor to the day's history lesson my father planted a seed that grew into the public historian i am today instead of asking who
• 01:30 - 02:00 what where when and how simple questions that lead to one answer he asked why that required some explanation why was tricky open-ended and generated more follow-up questions than answers in retrospect that question opened the natural curiosity that has fueled a life of research leading to 40 books the most memorable being result without the overcoat that has
• 02:00 - 02:30 been in print for the past three decades that's actually older than many of my students overcoat encouraged readers to see result from another angle in the beginning the book was resisted by those who prefer the old result to question this was deemed reverent disrespectful unpatriotic writing about result taught me that questions can sometimes be more important than answers that learning like life is a journey
• 02:30 - 03:00 not a destination result wears a heavy winter overcoat in indonesia because the monument was made in switzerland by a swiss sculptor we see it here in the alps in the background photographed before shipment to manila rizal needed a coat not a barong tagalog in switzerland so this leads us to the second question which is did the national hero of the philippines wear filipino clothes all his photographs show him wearing a coat
• 03:00 - 03:30 but that is it didn't stop the philippine post from issuing a stamp of result wearing a beautifully embroidered barong tagalog in his letters we actually see a reference that says that rizal wore his barongasa in the carnival in madrid in 1883 and it drew so much attention that rizal actually said i wish i had brought my salah this little historical reference stayed in my
• 03:30 - 04:00 mind for many years it was just there and then some years ago while we were going through material in the berlin ethnographic museum this comment of result became relevant again in an unpublished unknown letter of result he sent a packing list of objects that he sent to this museum and the collection includes a lot of clothing
• 04:00 - 04:30 including a pina barone and also a woman's pina outfit but of all the things in that museum what really struck me was a salahu made of carabao horn and silver that i had held reverently resisting the overwhelming urge to try it on to be photographed this hat was merely a curious 19th century hat from the philippines to
• 04:30 - 05:00 the german curators but to me it meant something else because in the packing list rizal wrote one salacoat of horn and silver and he wrote in german esgehert mir this is mine therefore this salakot was a holy relic to me this is one example that this year 2021 160 years since result's birth or 125 years since his death result is far from old hat only the
• 05:00 - 05:30 disinterested can claim that anything and everything on resale is already known i have been studying results since i was in college and discover new things about him every day because i continue to ask questions so today we will look at monuments what do monuments teach us about history what do monuments teach us about heroes what the monuments teach us about result all over the world you will find result monuments not many people know
• 05:30 - 06:00 that in madrid there is an exact replica of the lunetta monument in what is called the avenida de filipinas in xinjiang fujian province in the people's republic of china you also have another result monument which was built on a rice field that is close to the town where results ancestors came from all over the world you will find it i've seen him resale in honolulu i've seen him in canada i've seen him in tokyo i've seen him in singapore
• 06:00 - 06:30 all these monuments show result in his code but if you will go back to history and we go back to the very first result monument in marines norte which was unveiled in december 30 1899 you will realize that this is just squat obelisk it has no human figure but this shows us that that early that filipinos considered rizal their hero long before the americans
• 06:30 - 07:00 encouraged it so monuments are representations of people and historical events these endure because of nobility of material they are made in stone cement bronze and marble and so we have things very elaborate like this one in binyan laguna this wedding cake fantasy in zamboanga this one in dumaguete that even has a clock or something simple with just results face
• 07:00 - 07:30 in burnham park in baguio the problem with monuments is while they are erected to make people remember they often have the opposite effect they make people forget when monuments become so common people see but do not notice them when this happens heroes are fossilized requiring more effort for us to resurrect them in our mind and to make them flesh and blood like you and me in our slides look at this
• 07:30 - 08:00 you will see result in a wedding cake he's wearing white but it doesn't have he doesn't have his wife on the wedding cake my students say that maybe he's wearing white because they didn't want him to wear the iconic black or maybe they thought the overcoat was a lap gown another image shows him wearing gray because it is the middle between black and white and i've actually seen him wear screaming red in santa barbara iloilo there is a very
• 08:00 - 08:30 interesting monument where rizal is flanked by four different figures and the city tourism officer of of santa barbara couldn't tell me what it was all about she just laughed nervously and said ang alampuna minjan rissal and friends and i asked sinopoulou being friends yeah and she couldn't answer so i got off looked at the friends and i was able to identify marcelo del pilar pedro paterno and two others who i cannot remember now and i
• 08:30 - 09:00 told them but this shows you that even people who are living in the shadow of a monument sometimes do not know what these monuments mean or what they are supposed to tell us so when you go to valenzuela city you will find this let us dance result which nobody can explain to me and the most amazing is in katbalog and summer it used to be no one used to notice it when it was plain and whitewashed but when it was painted showing result
• 09:00 - 09:30 being carried on his books by three naked men it went viral and later people had to explain that the three naked men actually represented luzon visayas and mindanao monuments and textbook history have fossilized results so much that we tend to forget that he was human and i was fortunate to see results rosary when i was in high school it was donated by father jose cruz a descendant from rizal's sister maria
• 09:30 - 10:00 who happened to be president of the university i guess the rosary was displayed to make students more prayerful but its effect on me was to see result first as a man and second as a hero not the other way around after college i interviewed other descendants i met carmen guerrero khrushnakil who married into the result family during the war and passed on to me what she heard firsthand from the hero's sister maria rizal i met the descendants of
• 10:00 - 10:30 paciano and narcissa narcissist in los banos in the home of results brother the white man here in this photograph is not a relative is actually results british biographer austin coates from them i learned to refer to result as lolo jose not because i was a relation or pretended to be one but because the national hero can be seen as the father or grandfather of the nation our lolo whom we should all appreciate with affection
• 10:30 - 11:00 and understanding some years ago i went to the lopez museum to evaluate the result collection and i asked one of my students to come with me and we measured all of the handwritten letters result and i looked at it not just for the content i looked at the size i looked at the condition of paper but there were some things that were strange like this one actually shows uh what looked like a lip mark so result must have kissed the piece of paper and then i looked at all the smudges now
• 11:00 - 11:30 in this other paper you will look in the back and it just looks like any old smudge but if you look very closely with the magnifying glass you will see that it is a fingerprint this is the closest we can get to being with the real result and some of my friends actually asked where are the letter envelopes and i said why why do you need them they're not there because if rizal had sealed it with his tongue that means that we have his dna and we can actually clone him so when you see this this all makes us
• 11:30 - 12:00 think and should remind us that resal is actually human and how do we see that you ask yourself did risa laugh did result smile we have many photographs of him but there's none of him laughing and all we have is this one with half a smile but just to show you that result had a sense of humor in the national library there is this drawing of result which is not reproduced in our textbooks because it depicts a farting man
• 12:00 - 12:30 and we cannot have a national hero of the philippines drawing a farting man but this shows you that rizal had a healthy sense of humor in my research i saw this photograph supposedly of aguinaldo and his family but it was grainy so i know i didn't mind it but some years ago in the library of congress i saw the same photograph and very clearly it was a picnic that was taken in paris sometime in 1889
• 12:30 - 13:00 and in this picture when you look very closely you will see jose rizal with the other filipinos and we know it is paris because we see here juan luna his ill-fated wife past pardo de tavera we see that they even had ayaya taking care of them you see here nelly bowstead and adeline about that who are romantically linked to result so where is rizal rissal is in the center of the picture a bit blurred because he probably moved when the picture was taken
• 13:00 - 13:30 so this is the latest picture of result that has come to light which we did not know about before this picture is also interesting because it shows you in luna studio they had themselves photographed behind an empty picture frame from left to right you have felix hidalgo juan luna pardo de tavera another picture shows us result playing a flute and you i can identify luna you can identify hidalgo and there's a pinoy in the back who i
• 13:30 - 14:00 cannot identify but again we see them having fun now also in luna's studio once they wanted to play and reenact luna's painting the death of cleopatra so luna played the dead geopatra and seated in front as a scribe is jose rizal so he put a funny thing on his head and you see that that's not the first time in this other photograph he wore a piano shawl or a manton de manila on his head
• 14:00 - 14:30 the last picture that i will show you you will never see in our textbooks because it shows our heroes eating from left to right rizal felix hidalgo pardo de tavera luna and a guy in the back who is francisco ramirez but my students simply call him the waiter now in the next picture you will see that part of the tavera is on the ground the waiter has joined them and results going to throw either an orange or a hard bread roll
• 14:30 - 15:00 they posed for this they laughed when they had this and we will never see this in our textbooks because the heroes don't look heroic enough but this shows you that they were ordinary young men like you and me people who had fun and people who also knew the time to be serious but why is it result always serious he doesn't smile from us on the one peso point and it makes people ask is result worth less than rojas on the 100 pesos for the
• 15:00 - 15:30 three people in the 1000 peso bill result is on the one peso coin because it is the basic unit of currency he is our national hero but more the national hero this man was a brand and a brand name he was on cigarettes before and cigars and today he's on t-shirts with his raven eyeglasses when i was researching i found so many pre-war cigarettes with the picture of rissal on
• 15:30 - 16:00 them so if you have cigarettes that means you need matches and in my childhood the most famous matches were called result matches the san miguel corporation used to have a cerveza result which has been discontinued and i wonder why and you wonder when you build a house you need result cement if you need to fund the house maybe you can take a loan from the result commercial and banking corporation you have him on the name of a stadium the most modern theater in
• 16:00 - 16:30 makati in the 60s was called result theater it was torn down and it's now the makati shangri-la so what you see here is that result is in our lives from womb to tomb you can be born in a result hospital and when you die you can be put in area result so what you actually see here is that result is everywhere but nowhere but how do we take him do we remember him in 2011 sws asked a question uh who are the
• 16:30 - 17:00 people who are considered genuine filipino heroes jose rizal got 75 andres bonifacio got 34 to the great dismay of our friends from diliman but you will see here you have benigno aquino cory aquino aquino all we need is chris and bimbi and we complete the set there are pulse asia the other company asked to your knowledge who is the national hero of the philippines
• 17:00 - 17:30 number one is jose salad 82 number two was manny pacquiao but that's only 2.8 percent and you wonder how they did this survey because there's 2.1 who don't know who the national hero is and there were 3.6 who did not even answer but the thing here is when you think of national heroes in 2011 who did they think were heroes and i'm sure today this will give us
• 17:30 - 18:00 different names but what should we remember we should remember that result's greatest misfortune was to become national hero of the philippines because his national hero we see him but we don't notice him he wrote a lot for a nation that does not read him he left twenty five volumes of writing for ambet okampo to read but nobody reads it and if resale is read at all he's read in translation very bad translation or inaccurate which
• 18:00 - 18:30 means that we are separated from our past because of language and to give you an example this is results death bed instructions what were the what was the family to do when he died now when you look at it he said i prefer pang bundo that's cemeterio del norte we buried him in lunetta bury me in the ground they put him under a monument put a tombstone and cross over my grave they put monument on top of it it says my tombstone is
• 18:30 - 19:00 simple my name date of birth date of death nothing more they put whole text they said if you want to fence my grave you can put a fence that's the only thing we followed worse he said no anniversaries please and for nine years as chair of the historical commission i would accompany the president of the philippines in laying a wreath to a man who told us not to celebrate any anniversaries at all so what we have to remember is that we have to get to know result by
• 19:00 - 19:30 reading result and nobody but scholars reads him but he's there and we should read him and when we read him we will realize that result was great because result was human and viscose result was not perfect just recently during the pandemic i found out that with an app we can actually make results old picture move and this picture is quite interesting because it's quite scary because result will move and there's a new app that can make us
• 19:30 - 20:00 change our put our picture into an archival picture like you have result but now you can put pacquiao's picture on results head so this gives us the opportunity for fake news or deep fake news so the thing that we have to remember today is why are our heroes male old and dead is here history and hero is him irrelevant today do we still still have
• 20:00 - 20:30 heroes today i like to think that we still have them but they don't look like result in his overcoat anymore he looks more fancy with better hair and better glasses so i think the best way that we should remember result is to read him because reading result makes us see him lame imperfect human this doesn't pull him down from the pedestal but actually makes him relatable to us who see in him someone who transcended
• 20:30 - 21:00 challenges and became the best that he could be with or without an overcoat rizal remains national hero of the philippines he inspires not because he was shot for writing two novels that nobody reads result inspires because by seeing him playing we recognize in his humanity the filipino capacity for greatness
• 21:00 - 21:30 [Music]
• 21:30 - 22:00 you