Propaganda Movement
Rise of the Propaganda Movement
The conditions in the Philippines after 1872 worsened – the Filipino leaders were deported to Spanish disciplinary districts and the intellectuals were put on the trails. As the assaults done by Spanish became unstoppable, many Filipino students gathered in different places all around the world, such as London, Singapore and Madrid. Their established goal was to bring happiness to their homeland and encourage social security. The campaign, called “Propaganda Movement”, which they had created, fought aggressively, but peacefully at the same time, with the Spanish system, by the use of words in form of speeches as well as pieces of writing. It has begun in 1872, at the time when 3 men – Burgos, Zamora and Gomez were killed and lasted for 24 years.
Goals of the Propaganda Movement
The main goals of the Propaganda Movement was to create reforms in the Philippines. Students, who created the movement, wanted the Philippines to be acknowledged as a province of Spain and to be represented in the Spanish Cortes. Status of the Filipinos and Spaniards was supposed to be equal – as well as the human rights, for example freedom of speech and press. One of the main goals was also to secularize parishes of the Philippines.
The Propagandists
The Propagandists, who consisted of upper-class Filipinos, created the movement not only for the political purposes, but the most importantly for the cultural reasons. They aimed to open Spaniard’s eyes to the needs of their country and to bind together both countries more closely. The Propagandists were students with a good education, an “ideal examples of Filipino manhood” – with patriotic minds and brave souls. One of the most influential members of the Propaganda Movement consisted of José Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar of Bulacan and many more.
However, the most remarkable of the members is claimed to be José Rizal – writer, ophthalmologist, scholar, and scientist. He was born in 1861 into a Chinese family and from the beginning he shown a substantial intelligence. After graduating from the University of Madrid, his career stretched onto two dimensions – one was becoming a leader and a spokesperson of the society created among Filipino students in many cities of Europe. The second one was creating close relationships with scientists, mostly the ones from Germany. Rizal was very interested in anthropology – he wanted to prove wrong the stereotypes of Filipinos, which were created among many people, by presenting his scientific arguments. However, his two novels “Noli Me Tangere” from 1886 and “El Filibusterismo” from 1891, were the factors that influenced the Filipino evolution of national consciousness. Even though both novels were banned, some of the copies spread among Filipino people and gained a broad range of readers in no time.
The second influential Propagandists also worth mentioning is Graciano Lopez Jaena. The journalist, after publishing his novel "Fray Botod", left for Spain in 1880. However, while being there, he had not stopped his actions – Lopez Jaena started to publish "La Solidaridad". This newspaper became one of the main organs of the Propaganda Movement and had a large number of audiences in both Spain and the Philippines.
Weakening of the Propaganda Movement
The arrest of Rizal as well as the fall down of the Liga Filipina began the weakening process of the Propaganda Movement. Shortly after that, in 1895, La Solidaridad stopped to be published and Lopez Jaena died. Moreover, even though some people tried to reestablish Liga Filipina, their actions ended in failure.
Filipinos used the Propaganda Movement as a medium in their pursuit for independence from Spain. The whole movement began as gentle actions and advices created by students from the Philippines, who attended universities in Europe. Because of the fact that the level of education provided at that time in the Philippines was low and offered mostly in Spanish (which Filipino did not know that well), many young people followed their education path abroad. After seeing what is happening in other countries, how free people seem to be in Europe, they wanted to do something about the bad conditions in their homeland. This is how the Propaganda Movement was created. The Propagandist used literature to create change and in this way provide people with knowledge.
