The First Filipino by Leon Ma. Guererro: Religion, Race, Rhetoric

De Guzman, Mia Milagros T. II-17 BSE ENG

RELIGION,RACEAND

RHETORICFrom Leon Ma. Guerrero’s The First Filipino

Religion, Race and Rhetoric

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Rizal used to say that as a boy he felt deeply the little regard with which he was treated by the Spanish simply because he was an indio. From that time on, he strove to find out what moral right the Spanish, or for that matter any white people, had to despise a man who thought like them, learned the same things and had the same capabilities, simply because he had a brown skin and wiry hair.

Blumentritt’s Short biography


It was at school that he first gained the conviction that, other things being equal, whites and indios had the same capacityfor mental work and made the same progress.


He concluded that whites and indios had the same mental ability.



it was racial pride as much as the scholastic monastic discipline and seclusion of boarding-school life which had driven him to win five medals a year.



Educational Device at Ateneo


VSEducational Device at Ateneo


The Emperors


EmperorsTribuneDecurionCenturionStandard bearer

Romans

Carthaginians


He told himself in school tat only Spanish used, that is to say, the whites were taught in their mother-tongue while the indios had to struggle with a foreign language in order to obtain instruction;

Hence, the indios were mentally superior to the Spaniards if they succeeded not only in keeping pace with the whites but even in managing occasionally to surpass them.

Blumentritt


He fell in Love with Literature


Why have you come to earth, Child-God, in a poor

manger? Does Fortune find you a

stranger from the moment of your

birth?

Alas, of heavenly stock now turned an earthly

resident! Do you not wish to be

president but the shepherd of your

flock?

¿Por qué has venido a la tierra,¿Dios hijo, en un pobre pesebre?¿Fortuna se encuentra un extrañodesde el momento de su nacimiento.

Por desgracia, de acción celestialAhora se volvió un residente terrenal!¿No desea ser Presidente¿Pero el pastor de su rebaño?

To the Child Jesus

Religion, Race and RhetoricWhen I recall the days

That saw my childhood of yoreBeside the verdant shoreOf a murmuring lagoon;

When I remember the sighsOf the breeze that on my browSweet and caressing did blow

With coolness full of delight;

When I look at the lily whiteFills up with air violent

And the stormy elementOn the sand doth meekly sleep;

When sweet 'toxicating scentFrom the flowers I inhale

Which at the dawn they exhaleWhen at us it begins to peep;

I sadly recall your face,Oh precious infancy,

That a mother lovinglyDid succeed to embellish.

I remember a simple town;My cradle, joy and boon,

Beside the cool lagoonThe seat of all my wish.

Cuando recuerdo los días Que vi en mi infancia de antaño Al lado de la costa verde Un arrullo de laguna; Cuando recuerdo los suspiros De la brisa en mi frente Dulces y caricias no golpe Con frialdad lleno de alegría.

Cuando miro el lirio blanco Se llena de aire violenta El tormentoso y elemento En la arena hace mansamente el sueño; Cuando dulce fragancia toxicating De las flores I inhale Que en los albores que exhala Cuando en ee.uu. comienza a asomarse.

Recuerdo con tristeza la cara, ¡Oh preciosa infancia, Que una madre con amor Tuvo éxito para embellecer. Recuerdo un pueblo sencillo. Mi cuna, alegría y bendición, Al lado de la laguna fría El asiento de todo mi deseo.

A Message of Remembrance to my Home-Town


… that these are all student compositions; that is true; the dexterity of the writer can scarcely be noticed, but the eaglet begins to show its claws in certain strokes of wit, and in “Education Gives Glory to Our Native Land” one may observe a tendency towards wider fields than those which are strictly scholastic. -J.C. de Veyra


+RHETORIC=

Greek and Latin classics

Ateneo collegiate course



rhet·o·ric noun \ˈre-tə-rik\:

language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable

: the art or skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence people


In spite of the fact that Father Vilaclara told him to stop communicating with the Muses and to say a last farewell to them, which brought tears to my eyes, I continued in my spare time to speak and cultivate the beautiful language of olympus under the direction of Father Sanchez (full name Father Francisco de Paula Sánchez). So sweet is the society of the Muses that, once having tasted it, I cannot conceive how the young heart can ever forsake it.

Jose can scarcely speak middling Spanish but after taking special lessons at Santa Isabel he was able to write fair compositions.

Jose to Blumentritt: 26th May 1890


THE MOUSAI (Muses) were the goddesses of music, song and dance, and the source of inspiration to poets. They were also goddesses of knowledge, who remembered all things that had come to pass. Later the Mousai were assigned specific artistic spheres: Kalliope, epic poetry; Kleio, history; Ourania, astronomy; Thaleia, comedy; Melpomene, tragedy; Polyhymnia, religious hymns; Erato, erotic poetry; Euterpe, lyric poetry; and Terpsikhore, choral song and dance.

Muses

http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/olympian-gods.html


His study of poetry and rhetoric had elevated his feelings and also his patriotic sentiments ha been greatly developed.

The End…