Magisterial Lectures | Ambeth Ocampo - Rizal Without the Overcoat
Summary
TLDRThis lecture explores the multifaceted life of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, beyond the iconic overcoat, through the lens of personal research spanning four decades. It delves into Rizal's humanity, humor, and the cultural impact of his legacy, challenging the one-dimensional portrayals in monuments and textbooks. The speaker encourages a nuanced understanding of Rizal by engaging with his writings and personal artifacts, emphasizing the importance of recognizing his relatable humanity in appreciating his greatness.
Takeaways
- 🗝️ The lecture aims to present a more nuanced view of Jose Rizal, a national hero of the Philippines, beyond the traditional image often depicted.
- 🧥 Rizal's iconic image wearing a heavy winter coat in the tropics was a humorous point raised by the lecturer's father, sparking a lifelong curiosity about Rizal.
- 📚 The book 'Rizal Without the Overcoat' encourages readers to see Rizal from a different perspective and has been influential for over three decades.
- 🗝️ Rizal's overcoat in Indonesia is due to the Swiss origin of the monument, highlighting the influence of context on how historical figures are represented.
- 👕 There is a debate about whether Rizal wore Filipino clothes, with evidence suggesting he did wear a barong tagalog and other traditional attire.
- 🎩 A unique 'salakot' (traditional Filipino hat) made of carabao horn and silver in a museum is a personal relic that connects the lecturer to Rizal.
- 🏛 Monuments around the world honor Rizal, but their ubiquity can lead to them being overlooked and the stories they represent being forgotten.
- 🤔 The lecture emphasizes the importance of questioning and curiosity in understanding history and the human aspects of heroes like Rizal.
- 📖 Rizal's writings are extensive but often overlooked; the lecturer suggests that reading Rizal's original works can offer deeper insights into his humanity.
- 🎭 Rizal is depicted in various ways in art and monuments, sometimes humorously, showing that heroes can be relatable and have a lighter side.
- 💡 The lecture concludes by reflecting on the relevance of heroes like Rizal in contemporary times, suggesting that their humanity makes them relatable and inspiring.
Q & A
Why does the speaker's father's question about Rizal's winter coat have a significant impact on the speaker's life?
-The question sparked the speaker's curiosity and interest in history, leading to a lifelong career in research and public history, as it encouraged him to ask 'why' instead of simpler questions that have one answer.
What is the main argument the speaker makes about Rizal's representation in the book 'Rizal Without the Overcoat'?
-The speaker argues that Rizal should be viewed beyond the traditional, formal representations and that questioning these representations can offer a more nuanced understanding of Rizal as a person and a national hero.
Why does Rizal wear a heavy winter overcoat in the Indonesian monument?
-Rizal wears a heavy winter overcoat in the Indonesian monument because it was made by a Swiss sculptor in Switzerland, where a coat was necessary for the climate, not a traditional Filipino barong tagalog.
What does the speaker find significant about the 'salah' mentioned in Rizal's letters?
-The 'salah' is significant because it shows Rizal's connection to Filipino culture, as he wore it during a carnival in Madrid, drawing attention and making him wish he had brought more Filipino attire.
What did the speaker discover about the 'salah' made of carabao horn and silver in the Berlin Ethnographic Museum?
-The speaker discovered that the 'salah' was part of a collection of items Rizal sent to the museum, and it was a personal item of Rizal, marked with 'esgehert mir' (this is mine) in German, making it a 'holy relic' to the speaker.
Why do the speaker and others find the monuments of Rizal around the world interesting?
-The monuments are interesting because they represent Rizal in various ways, some more traditional and others more unique or unusual, which can lead to discussions and a deeper understanding of Rizal's impact and legacy.
What is the problem the speaker identifies with monuments?
-The problem is that while monuments are erected to make people remember, they often have the opposite effect, causing people to see but not notice them, leading to the fossilization of heroes and a disconnect from their humanity.
Why does the speaker believe that reading Rizal's original works is important?
-Reading Rizal's original works is important because it allows people to connect with Rizal's humanity and understand his thoughts and experiences directly, without the barriers of translation or interpretation.
What is the significance of the photograph of Rizal with other Filipinos in Paris?
-The photograph is significant because it is one of the latest images of Rizal to come to light and shows him in a casual, social setting with other notable Filipinos, humanizing him and providing a rare glimpse into his personal life.
How does the speaker suggest we should remember and appreciate Rizal?
-The speaker suggests that we should remember and appreciate Rizal by reading his works, understanding his humanity, and recognizing the Filipino capacity for greatness that he embodied.
Outlines
📚 Unveiling Rizal Beyond the Overcoat
This paragraph introduces the speaker's lifelong journey to understand the national hero of the Philippines, Jose Rizal, beyond the traditional iconography. The speaker recounts his childhood curiosity sparked by his father's humorous question about Rizal's winter coat in the tropics, which led to a career in public history. The paragraph highlights the speaker's 40-year research culminating in the book 'Rizal Without the Overcoat,' which challenges the conventional portrayal of Rizal. It discusses the origins of Rizal's heavy coat, the significance of his clothing, and the discovery of Rizal's personal items, including a unique 'salakot' hat, in a museum, emphasizing the human aspect of the national hero.
🗿 Monuments and the Myth of Rizal
The second paragraph delves into the role of monuments in shaping our understanding of history and heroes, specifically focusing on Rizal. It discusses the global presence of Rizal monuments and their varying depictions, from the simple to the extravagant. The speaker points out the irony that while monuments are intended to foster remembrance, they can lead to oblivion as people become desensitized to their presence. The paragraph also touches on the commercialization of Rizal's image on various products and the disconnect between the public's perception and the historical Rizal, urging a deeper engagement with the real person behind the monument.
👤 Humanizing the National Hero
In this paragraph, the speaker emphasizes the importance of viewing Rizal as a human being rather than an untouchable icon. Through personal anecdotes and interactions with Rizal's descendants, the speaker uncovers intimate details about Rizal's life, such as his sense of humor and personal effects like a rosary. The paragraph also highlights the speaker's research findings, including a fingerprint on a letter and a potential DNA source, reminding us of Rizal's humanity. It also touches on the public's limited knowledge of Rizal's personal life and the need to appreciate him as a relatable figure.
🎭 The Paradox of Rizal's Fame and Obscurity
The fourth paragraph explores the paradox of Rizal's widespread recognition and simultaneous obscurity. It discusses how Rizal's image is ubiquitous in Philippine culture, from currency to various consumer products, yet his writings and true legacy are often overlooked. The speaker reflects on surveys showing the public's varying perceptions of Rizal and the need to engage with his original works to understand his significance. The paragraph also addresses the disconnect between Rizal's wishes for a simple commemoration and the extravagant celebrations that take place in his honor.
🌟 Celebrating Rizal's Humanity and Greatness
The final paragraph concludes the speaker's reflections on Rizal's legacy, advocating for a more profound understanding of Rizal through his writings. It emphasizes that Rizal's greatness lies in his humanity and ability to overcome challenges, which makes him relatable and inspirational. The speaker also contemplates the changing nature of heroes and the importance of recognizing the human aspects of those we idolize. The paragraph ends with a call to action to read Rizal's works to truly appreciate his impact on the nation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Rizal
💡Monuments
💡Humanity
💡Overcoat
💡Barong Tagalog
💡Salah
💡Commercialization
💡Fossilized
💡Research
💡Cultural Relatability
💡Deepfake
Highlights
The speaker aims to present a more nuanced view of Jose Rizal, a national hero of the Philippines, beyond the traditional iconography.
A childhood question about Rizal's heavy coat in the tropics sparked the speaker's lifelong curiosity and research.
Rizal's overcoat in monuments is attributed to the Swiss origins of the sculptor, emphasizing the influence of context on historical representation.
Rizal's personal attire, including a barong tagalog and a salakot, reveals a blend of Filipino and international influences.
The discovery of Rizal's personal effects, such as clothing and a salakot, humanizes the historical figure and provides intimate connections to his life.
Monuments of Rizal worldwide reflect a global recognition of his significance but also the risk of reducing him to a static symbol.
The speaker critiques the common depiction of Rizal in monuments, suggesting that they can lead to a forgetting of the complexity of his life.
Rizal's humanity is emphasized through personal artifacts like a rosary and handwritten letters, inviting a deeper understanding of his character.
The speaker recounts meeting Rizal's descendants and learning about his personal life, which adds layers to the public persona of the hero.
Rizal's writings, including his deathbed instructions, reveal his personal wishes and the gap between his desires and how he is commemorated.
The speaker discusses the commercialization of Rizal's image on various products, indicating the extent of his presence in Filipino culture.
Rizal's image on currency is examined, with the speaker questioning the significance of his placement on the one peso coin.
Survey results about Filipinos' knowledge and recognition of national heroes highlight a potential disconnect between the public and historical figures.
The speaker argues for the importance of reading Rizal's original works to truly understand his thoughts and character.
Rizal's humanity and imperfections are presented as what make him relatable and inspiring, rather than an idealized figure.
The use of technology to bring Rizal's image to life, such as moving pictures and deepfake apps, raises questions about the authenticity of historical representation.
The lecture concludes by emphasizing the importance of seeing Rizal as a human being who overcame challenges, thereby inspiring the audience to recognize the Filipino capacity for greatness.
Transcripts
[Music]
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
[Music]
you
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