Constantino, Renato, and Constantino, Letizia R. Excerpt from A History of the Philippines: From the Spanish Colonization to the Second World War. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 2008 [1975]. 162-166. 

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Bonifacio

Bonifacio’s own lower middle class origins may be gleaned from his biography. His mother was a Spanish mestiza who used to work as a cabecilla in a cigarette factory. His father, a tailor, had served as a teniente mayor of Tondo.²⁶ Bonifacio was born in Tondo in 1863. The early death of his parents forced him to quit school in order to support his brothers and sisters. Bonifacio first earned his livelihood by making walking canes and paper fans which he himself peddled. Later, he worked as a messenger for Fleming and Co. and as a salesman of tar and other goods sold by the same firm. His last job before the Revolution was a bodeguero or warehouseman for Fressell and Company.

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Nery, John. "No Marx or Lenin." In Revolutionary Spirit: Jose Rizal in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011. 122-142.

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5

“No Marx or Lenin”


In 1921, an official holiday to mark the birthday of the Philippine revolutionary supremo Andres Bonifacio was celebrated in the Philippines for the first time; it came a generation after his execution. As labour leader Hermenegildo Cruz was to later recall, the day before the new holiday his school-aged children asked him, “Sino ba iyan si Bonifacio? -- Who is that [man] Bonifacio?”

The pioneer labour organizer and nationalist writer was stunned. “Wari ako’y natubigan -- I felt like I had been doused.” After he recovered, he began to tell his children about Bonifacio and the Katipunan:

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St. Clair, Francis. Excerpt from The Katipunan: Or, The Rise and Fall of the Filipino Commune. Manila: Tip. "Amigos del Pais," 1902. 130-138.

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Note 16. Andrés Bonifacio was the soul of the Katipunan movement; he was the President of the “Council of Ministers of the Supreme Popular Council.” His social condition was of a low grade, that grade from which many of the most fanatical pseudo-reformers have come; he was a warehouseman, a porter. In this capacity he was employed in the establishment of Messrs Fressel and Co., and was one of the humblest of the employees.

Bonifacio was, however, very vain and quixotic. He was, too, a man of sanguinary character, and held the people over whom

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he attained ascendancy, in awe.

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Mojares, Resil B. Excerpt from Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes, and the Production of Modern Knowledge. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006. 464-466.

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In August [1895], Mabini wrote del Pilar saying that the decision had been reached to stop the publication of Solidaridad. Intimating that the mood had turned insurrectionary, Mabini wrote that many people have lost hope in the paper and "have transferred it [hope] wholly to another direction."¹⁸¹ (Within a few years Mabini himself would change direction and become the leading theoretician of the Philippine Republic.)

Solidaridad folded up with its issue of November 14, 1895. Del Pilar and Ponce were informed that a meeting would take place in Hong Kong to discuss plans (including Solidaridad's possible revival somewhere outside Spanish jurisdiction). To escape persecution at home and solicit Japanese assistance for the movement, Jose Ramos was already in Japan in August of 1895 and was joined there by Doroteo Cortes in May 1896.¹⁸² Del Pilar and Ponce were preparing to leave Barcelona for Hong Kong when del Pilar was taken ill. He died in Barcelona on July 4, 1896.

What Mabini meant by "another direction" was the Katipunan. On the night Rizal was arrested, July 7, 1892, Andres Bonifacio, a member of Liga, and others founded Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (Highest and Most Respectable Society of the Sons of the People), a secret society committed to uniting Filipinos to wage a revolution for Philippine independence.

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