diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

tyrant, the scoundrel, him who forgets his duty regardless of whether he is aSpaniard, Indio, Negro, or Papuan. He values not the colour of the skin or thelanguage he speaks, but the character of the man. Is this being anti-SpanishrIt was quite natural that Spanish xenophobia should be extended toGermany and the Germans in general. Circumstances allowed the Spanishauthorities a most welcome opportunity to slander and distort Rizal in generaland his work in particular in more than one way. There was the Prussiannationalism fostered by Bismarck who was presented as Rizal's friend. Thefact that Rizal had studied medicine in Germany led to the rumour that he wasa professor at a German university. But nearer to the Philippines, there wasthe problem of the Carolines on which the Germans had designs (and whichthey finally acquired by buying them from the victorious United States afterthe Spanish-American war). To this may be added that the Noli was printed inBerlin and—a most important and disreputable fact—Rizal's closest friendand staunch supporter was Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt who might havebeen an Austrian, but whose native tongue was German and who set out totranslate the novel into German, thereby making it available to millions moreof readers! And a final blow! The majority of the Germans were believers inProtestantism, Lutherans, traitors to the Pope and the Holy Roman CatholicChurch. Germany was the historical seat of heresy. All in all, here was theclassical conspiracy with the enemy spread out over the national, political,and even economic field.Inexperience in democracy made it unlikely that Spain would realize thatthe reading public of Europe had not only read much more critically about theSpanish colony than about the Noli. People of democratic countries wereused to much more condemnatory literature about the situation in their owncounties: Harriet Beecher-Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which finally led tothe liberation of the slaves in North Anierica (and has often been compared toRizal's Noli); Heinrich Heine's poetry condemning the exploited weavers;Charles Dickens' descriptions of the abominable life of the underdog duringthe industrial revolution in Britain; Emile Zola's harsh social criticism ofFrench society, which Blumentritt mentions. All these should have been persecutedand black-listed, according to the Spanish rule against Rizal. Insteadtheir authors were widely honoured and their works were widely read.In the end, not only Rizal but his friend, too, was warned, threatened andintimidated. To all of which the professor had only one answer: he wouldcontinue his work for the Noli for only men weakened by evil or stupiditycould "filibusterize" him. He had never attempted to curry favor through238