Citizen of the world

LITOMERICE – In this picturesque little Czech town, there are three busts of our national hero Jose Rizal, a Rizal Park, a four-kilometer Rizal “heritage trail” and a four-story “bastion” or memorial in honor of Rizal and his Czech friend Ferdinand Blumentritt.

Rizal, an early Pinoy citizen of the world, was here for only four days, from May 13 to 16, 1887, and it’s impressive that details of his visit, including his sampling of local beer, have been well chronicled by the city.

One of the busts is set against the medieval town wall in Jose Rizal Park, which has a terrific view of Dome or Cathedral Hill. It also overlooks a section of the city that includes the train station where Rizal and his traveling companion Maximo Viola arrived at 1:30 p.m. from Germany and were met by Blumentritt and his family.

A second Rizal bust stands in front of the elegant medieval Salva Guarda Hotel in the city square, where the restaurant serves traditional Czech cuisine. Rizal did not dine there so he missed the succulent roast duck like the one that I had for lunch, but he was treated to a Filipino meal cooked by Blumentritt’s wife Rosa at their home.

A third bust greets visitors at the entrance to the office of the town’s mayor of 12 years, Ladislav Chlupac. The office also has a copy of Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, prominently displayed behind a glass case. Chlupac, a founding member of the Czech Republic’s Knights of Rizal, has visited Calamba and Dapitan where Rizal was detained before his execution.

Litomerice is not the only place that pays a lot of attention to our national hero. Six months ago the local government of Budejovice, home of the Czech Budweiser beer, had an exhibit of some of the city’s most precious memorabilia. Among the items was a gold pen given by Rizal to Blumentritt. The pen is currently part of the permanent exhibit at the Museum of Southern Bohemia.

I learned about the exhibit from Czech linguistics professor Ivo Vasiljev, whose late wife Zdenka Vasilievova wrote a book in Czech (no English version) on Rizal.

I am giving the book to Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Olsa Jr., who last week launched in Manila a special edition of the Czech literary monthly PLAV. The edition features Czech translations, co-edited by Olsa and Silvie Mitlenerova, of the literary works of Filipinos from the late 19th century to the early 21st, from Rizal to National Artist F. Sionil Jose to contemporary poets such as Rio Alma and Tsinoy authors Go Bon Juan and Grace Hsieh-Hsing Lee.

The “Literatura ng Pilipinas” PLAV issue was first launched in Prague last month by Olsa and Philippine Ambassador to the Czech Republic Vic Lecaros, whose wife Melissa read the Filipino poetry. Czech Nobel laureate Jaroslav Seifert read his compatriots’ works.

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The Rizal heritage trail in this medieval city has 10 points of interest, ending at a hotel that was called Krebs in 1887 when Rizal and Viola checked in at Room 12.

Tourist brochures provide a well-chronicled story of the visit together with the backgrounds of Rizal and Blumentritt. The Prague-born lecturer in history and geography moved to Litomerice where he became the principal of the secondary school.

Rizal, according to the tourist brochures, arrived here with P1,000 in his pocket sent to him by his brother Paciano through painter Juan Luna from Paris. The amount was enough for Rizal to backpack his way through Potsdam, Berlin and Dresden before heading to Litomerice and then to Prague.

I grew up in Manila and lived in three places that were all near Blumentritt street in Sta. Cruz district. I never knew who he was or why he deserved to have a street named after him. The Czechs, especially the people of Litomerice, may cringe at the pollution and squalor in a street that Filipinos remember for being the site of the LRT station where a train was bombed by Jemaah Islamiyah and Moro Islamic Liberation Front militants in 2000 on Dec. 30, Rizal Day, the anniversary of his execution.

In my visit to this city, I can understand why the Czechs dedicate public funds to immortalize a foreigner. A book published by the city government reminds readers of Rizal’s efforts to enlist the best minds of Europe as endorsers of Philippine autonomy from Spain. Rizal’s tack was to show that Filipinos were fully capable of self-rule, with himself as an example.

The book cites Rizal’s advocacy of the idea – decades before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – that all men are created equal and no race can claim superiority over another. This resonates in a country that had its share of horror during the past war. Tourists go to Litomerice not just to enjoy its medieval charm but also to visit the Nazi concentration camp in nearby Terezin.

Rizal was also an early advocate of non-violent resistance, which was why he refused to endorse the revolution against Spain.

To his compatriots, Rizal stressed that people must deserve freedom. He first reached out to Blumentritt through letters to promote the Philippines’ cause. There is an unconfirmed story that Blumentritt was intrigued not only by the eloquent and impassioned writing but also by the fact that a Spanish ancestor of one of his paternal grandmothers, named Alcazar, served as a governor in the Philippines in the 17th century.

Blumentritt, probably because of health problems, never visited the Philippines, but he was fascinated by stories about other countries, and he would later put together a special Philippine library with 900 volumes. He wrote the preface to Rizal’s El Filibusterismo and made a Czech translation of Noli.

In Litomerice, Rizal impressed the audience by speaking extemporaneously in German when he addressed the session of the board of directors at the Tourist Club where Blumentritt was the secretary.

Blumentritt was so impressed with Rizal that he reportedly told Viola, according to the Litomerice book, that Rizal “was the most important son of the Philippines.” Blumentritt likened Rizal’s “arrival into this world” to “the apparition of a rare comet and a special phenomenon that can be admired only once in two centuries.”

Rizal later described what he felt in his visit to Litomerice, in an ominously prescient letter to Blumentritt: “Shall this magnificent farewell of Europe be perhaps the omen of a terrible reception in the Philippines? Because in my life, happiness was always followed by misfortune, and the more beautiful the one was, the more terrible the other one appeared.”

And a century before the words were immortalized in another freedom movement, Rizal declared, “You are not alone, Rizal; there in a little corner of Bohemia, there are good, noble souls and friends who appreciate you; think of them.”

You can see why the Czechs are impressed.