A Critical Paper on Leon Ma. Guerrero's The First Filipino (original) (raw)

Filipinos are not even studying yet, but they already aware of who is the Philippines' national hero. The name's Dr. Jose Rizal, commonly referred to as Rizal. We gained our initial knowledge about him in elementary and had a deeper understanding of this man when we reached college. He fought for the freedom of the Philippines through his writings that directly attacked friars and all the maladies of society. He was the greatest martyr that Filipinos would always remember and honor. The First Filipino was written by Leon Ma. Guerrero. He also wrote the modern translation of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which received praise. He also won the biography contest on Rizal held by the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission-the biography being the improved versions of the three previous biographers, namely Wenceslao E. Retana, Austin Craig, and Rafael Palma. The book is a detailed account of Rizal's life, from childhood until his execution in 1896. It is divided into two parts: [1] covering Rizal's life up to his departure for Europe in 1882, and [2] covering his life in Europe until his return to the Philippines in 1892. The book gave an introduction to the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines. Came along the missionaries whose goal was to spread Catholicism in the archipelago led by the Augustinians, followed by the Franciscans, the Jesuits, the Dominicans, and the Augustinians Recollects. Capuchins, Benedictines, and Vincentians came after. They were all referred to as friars except the Jesuits. After fifty years, conversion succeeded in spreading Catholicism despite challenges in reaching inhabitants scattered within the archipelago. A new social and political order had risen, and the beginning of oppression took place in a brand new society that no longer looked like the precolonial Philippines. Freedom becomes a foreign concept and bleeds the tongue of whoever speaks about it as if they need it. These so-called light bearers slowly dimmed the light of the Filipinos resulting in an exploitable society for the next hundred years.

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