Rizal’s true height

We are always taught about José Rizal’s diffidence when it comes to his height. But how come Marcelo H. del Pilar didn’t seem to mind about his? After all, he seemed to be shorter than Rizal by a few inches, as evidenced by this famous photo of theirs (left) together with fellow propagandist Mariano Ponce. Which brings the seated man to our attention. Just imagine how tall Ponce would have stood if he didn’t use a chair (see photo at right, edited by Louis Ilo); Rizal and del Pilar would be gaping their heads up at him! Now I understand why he used Tigbalang as his nom de guerre.

I first started writing about this as early as 2016. Unfortunately, I had no evidence. But earlier today, Ambeth Ocampo published in his Facebook page his latest discovery about Rizal’s height, thus confirming what I have been doubting all these years:

Eureka!!

There has always been a debate about José Rizal’s height, with many people insisting, without evidence, that the hero stood at four feet eleven inches. This was even used in the Ayala Museum, since changed at my insistence.

The 4-11 club would not buy my method of measuring Rizal’s extant clothing in the National Historical Commission to estimate his height at around five feet two inches.

Well, this evening, without my looking for it, the definitive proof for the 5-2 side cropped up while I was filing my scans of Rizal manuscripts.

In one of his notebooks, RIZAL HIMSELF said that at 19 years old and four days old he stood at one meter 61 centimeters. That translates to 5.28 feet or almost 5’3″!

Oh, serendipity is one of the thrills of research!!

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Don’t treat politics as if it’s a religion

This is just a friendly FYI to those who are triggered by my political posts on my Facebook wall: I do not support any presidential candidate. In fact, the last time I voted for a president was in 2004. I still join the electoral process, but primarily to vote for LGU candidates as their decisions have more proximal impact to my household.

The infuriating results of the 2004 presidential elections coupled by our country’s sad, sad political history made me this way — a savagely cynical netizen hardened to every statement made by all these SUGAR-COATERS. That’s why I just consider national politics as a much higher form of comedy. I still find the verbal tussle between Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago highly entertaining than Vice Ganda‘s toilet humor. Well, there was a sliver of hope in Noynoy Aquino, but at the end of his term, it turned out to be just that — a sliver. I also thought that Rodrigo Duterte was Claro M. Recto’s dream president. Turns out that I’m wrong.

They are all different ingredients of the same substandard pizza.

So if you feel slighted that I’m zeroing in on your candidate, you shouldn’t. They’re all the same to me. I sometimes make comparisons, but that’s about it. Besides, I am not an influencer. No matter how I put down any one of them, it won’t matter. I’m just another spoke in the wheel. So chill. I treat ALL of them the same way: for the clowns that they really all are.

Politics has become so divisive, and it saddens me. That’s why I just make fun of it.

Don’t treat politics as if it’s a religion to die for. Your presidential candidate will not fight as hard for you as you did for them. And they will not and cannot redeem our country. Whoever you install in Malacañang, our country will still remain in shambles as long as we do not recognize our national identity. Embrace it, then everything will fall into place. Including politics.

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El Filipinismo Facebook page

 

EL FILIPINISMO now has a Facebook page! You may like/follow it by clicking on the image above, or right here.

This Facebook page, however, is not new. Actually, it is the old Facebook page of my defunct blog FILIPINO eSCRIBBLES. I just renamed it for possible monetization (I don’t think Facebook monetizes personal accounts such as mine). I thought of overhauling my social media presence especially since I’ve been receiving a lot of requests from friends and officemates to set up a vlog (more on that in a future blogpost). Humorously, my wife already beat me to it as she had just launched her own vlog last night (please subscribe to her channel; it’s her diversion from her cancer). Her first vlog is raw, unedited, especially since we are not that tech-savvy when it comes to video editing. But we’ll get into that one day. Hopefully.

My other Facebook page, Alas Filipinas, an offshoot of my Spanish-language blog which I also shut down in 2016, is still up. But I only use it whenever sharing Spanish-language content and whenever I feel the urge/need to write in Spanish here in EL FILIPINISMO.

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Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Fátima as well as the sixteenth birthday of my eldest son Mómay (who could very well turn out to be our video editor). ¡Feliz día!