Ang Pinaikling Bersiyon ng El
Filibusterismo ni Jose Rizal ni Glady E.Gimena
A Book Review by Hanz Jahred Guerrero, Bryan Acosta,
Mary Joy Garcia, Jomar Balmores and Rency Galamgam
Glady
Gimena was one of the most talented comic book writers in the industry in The 90s. She graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. Creative Writing in the Philippines at
the University of the Philippines College of Art and Literature in 2002. A
college teacher, and also a textbook writer, some of which he produced versions
of Dr. Jose Rizal's masterpieces. Jose Rizal's El Filibusterismo and Noli Me
Tangere. In 2006, he also served as judge of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards
for Literature (Short Story Category).
This
is one of the masterpieces of our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. It composes of
39 chapters. Our national hero took many years to complete this long novel
piece, but Glady makes a shorter version of it. She published it in 2009 by Prime
Multi Quality. The original language used in El Filibusterismo is in Spanish, but Glady translated it in Filipino.
He
disguises as a vibrant, jewel vendor from Europe, and to his return, he reunited with
the old characters, including Basilio, who is now a college student. Due to the
circumstances, Basilio meets his savior (Ibarra) Simoun, convinced by him to
join him to take revenge because they both have the reasons to do it. But they
failed to do so.
Glady
uses some unfamiliar tagalong worlds that make us confused and think of what
it is. Every chapter has its own title, like the name of places, events,
even the name of the characters that included in the novel. She also summarizes
the characters' points of view to give us knowledge about them. At the end of
every chapter, she added questions and unfamiliar words for us to review, think, and answer for us to understand it.
As
upon completing El Filibusterismo, Rizal wrote to Bluementritt: “I have not written in it any idea of
vengeance against my enemies, but only for the good of those who suffer, for
the rights of Tagalogs…” We could fully understand that one of the main
point is anger with revenge is not an answer to solve problems but bringing us
to the closer truth about the times when Spaniards ruled our country as the Dr.
Jose Rizal conveys this in his novel.
“Isang malaking kamalian,” pagtutol
ni Simoun. “Kaydali ninyong malinlang ng matatamis na pangako na hindi n’yo man
lang pinag-aaralan ang magiging bunga…”This
is one of the remarkable lines in chapter 7: Simoun. Just like now in our
society, we quickly believe what politicians promise to us even they’re
also Filipino. But in the end, we are the one who suffers the consequence of
not choosing the right one, the right path, and decisions for our beloved
country.
The
return of Ibarra (in Noli Me Tangere) as Simoun to take revenge, the hardships
of some characters under the rulers of Spaniards, and the different kinds of
love that the main character has, the main reason why he has to do it. We
agree to Dr. Jose Rizal’s point also Glady’s on how she translated it in
Filipino. We are lucky to have this book even though the original copy of this
novel is limited. In this generation, especially to the millennials, we should
really read this novel to remember our history, not only to know who the author is but to understand what Filipinos living in the past under the Spaniard's rulers.
You will learn a lot of moral lessons that we surely use it in our lives.
References:
https://hslrc.dlsud.edu.ph/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=7936&shelfbrowse_itemnumber=8381
http://arman-komixpage.blogspot.com/2010/07/glady-e-gimena.html
