At 8 Years Of Age, Jose Rizal “Declared PH Independence” 3 Decades Before President Emilio Aguinaldo Did!

Surprised? 19 June 2024 – I do not simply wish “Happy Birthday!” to our National Hero Jose Rizal; I earnestly wish “Happy Birthday, PH Independence!” The Filipino idea of Independence was first proclaimed by this Boy Wonder. Here’s the story you probably don’t know – not one of our history books mention this!

I believe that historians, Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike, have misinterpreted the Calamba boy’s poem, “Sa Aking Mga Kabata.” They think that that boy has been poetic about his national language, that is all. Not this Ilocano!

Here is my translation, “To Kids Of My Own Time” – I translated that poem 04 Jan 2016:

If the people naturally love
its tongue that is a gift from Heaven,
pawned freedom too it will seek to gain
as the bird that flies the sky above.

Since language is an estimation
of kingdom, town and community,
and man is like, a match to any
creature who has been of freedom born.

His native tongue who does not treasure
is worse than a beast or smelly fish;
it’s right that on our own we nourish
like a mother who bestows favor.

Tagalog language is like Latin,
English, Spanish, and angelic tongue,
because God who has the wisdom
is He who gave, to us did assign.

Our own language, like any other,
had alphabet and letters, its own,
now vanished since by waves overthrown
like bancas in the lake long before.

All stanzas mention language. Our historians (and Tagalog professors) have always interpreted the first stanza as the essence of the poem – but, remember, the boy Rizal was a genius, and it showed in this poem. Let me explain.

Where is Rizal’s genius in “Sa Aking Mga Kabata”? In the last stanza – Here it is, read again!

Our own language, like any other,
had alphabet and letters, its own,
now vanished since by waves overthrown
like bancas in the lake long before.

Read the first and last stanza, and the meaning of the first stanza becomes clear; no, it is not obvious – that is to mislead the reader. The real intention of the Boy Poet can be seen in the last stanza: “Our own language… now vanished since by waves overthrown...”

It was “Freedom” that had been overthrown, “not Language.” We Filipinos were no longer free. “Freedom” is disguised as “Language” but the last stanza implies what the real subject of the poem was – our Tagalog language had not disappeared when the 8-year old Jose Rizal wrote that poem – so he did not mean “language” by saying “language.” The poem says, “now vanished since by waves overthrown” – what has vanished was the essence of freedom. The poem talks of Freedom itself!

Ergo: PH Independence was declared by a boy of 8 several decades before old boy PH President Emilio Aguinaldo declared the independence of the Philippines from the Spanish rulers!

Can you find another boy genius like our Philippine National Hero? I doubt it!@517