The Modern Maria Clara

Maria Clara as we all know is the female heroine in Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo novels written by our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal. Her full name is Maria
Clara delos Santos y Alba. She is the childhood sweetheart and fiance of Noli Me
Tangeres hero, Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y Magsalin, the son of Don Rafael Ibarra. She
was raised by San Diegos cabeza de Barangay, Capitan Tiago. In the novels, Maria
Clara is the most beautiful and famous girl in San Diego. It was discovered at the latter
part of the story that she was an unlawful daughter of Father Damaso, former parish
curate, and Doa Pia y Alba, wife of Capitan Tiago. Both Doa Pia and Capitan Tiago
are native Filipinos however; Maria Clara is a mestiza girl for the fact that his father was
Father Damaso, a Spanish friar. She never saw her mother because Doa Pia died
during the delivery. She grew under the guidance of Tia Isabel, the cousin of Capitan
Tiago. Her father sent her to the convent of Beaterio de Santa Clara while her boyfriend
was travelling in Europe. At the end of the novel, she chose to become a monk and it is
not clearly stated if she is still living in the convent or she is already dead.
Accordingly, Rizal described her as Inang Pilipinas (Mother Philippines). Rizal
patterned her character after his first cousin and childhood sweetheart, Leonor Rivera.
Maria Clara is considered to be the most beautiful lady in the town as mentioned. She is
also promoted by Rizal as the ideal image of a Filipino woman who should be honored
by males. It is for the fact that she is very religious, the epitome of virtue, demure and
self-effacing and endowed with beauty, grace, and charm. Maria Claras name has also
become famous in the Philippine fashion in which it became the eponym for the female
Filipino national dress popularly known as the Maria Clara Gown. This attire is very
symbolic in nature because it was made after the character of Maria Clara in the novels
who is a maiden with delicate, feminine, self-assured, conservative, and with sense of
identity. It is usually wore during Buwan ng Wika, national events, etc.

We Filipinos have been looking up with this Maria Claras famous traits wherein they
define a real Filipina based on her traits. Definitely, some of our teachers since grade
school taught us that we Filipino women are conservative in nature and where did they
get this idea? It was patterned after the character of Maria Clara whom Rizal considered
the real image of a Filipina. As a matter of fact, Filipinos observed Filipino women who
possess Maria Claras characters especially in provinces and only few in urban areas.
Nevertheless, there is a controversial issue about considering Maria Clara as the
epitome of a genuine Filipina. Some people agree for it but some disagree for the
reason that Maria Clara is not a pure Filipina meaning she is a half Filipino and half
Spanish. On the other hand, she is also exposed to Spanish culture and her physical
appearance really looks like a mestiza. Have you ever saw or knew of an epitome who
is not a pure blood? Perhaps, there would be some around the world but it is commonly
known to be a pure blood like a pure Filipino blood. However, in my own opinion, I
agree that Maria Clara fits the ideal image of a Filipino woman and Rizal gives a lot of
reasons for it as described in the first part. Perhaps, another reason also is that Maria
Clara became an inspiration to Filipino women during the Spanish colonization to bring
an uprising like Gregoria de Jesus and Gabriela Silang especially when their husbands
died. Perhaps, they realized how Maria Clara was abused in the novel wherein she has
no right to choose who she will marry as well all her actions are strictly watched by
Father Damaso therefore controlling and deciding for her. These realities in the two
novels led Filipino women before to fight for their rights and fight for their lost loved
ones.
Moreover, one of the distinguishing traits of Maria Clara is being conservative in
nature that is still seen today with the Filipino women. I truly admire Gregoria de Jesus
and Gabriela Silang for they spoke up and rise against the Spaniards. This only shows
that from being conservative women, they turned out to be feministic, motivated to fight
for their freedom and rights. In this connection, I believe that the original definition of a
Maria Clara woman has been changed already because we have now modern Maria
Claras. I strongly believe that modern Maria Claras nowadays are still conservative but
already know of their rights and where they stand in the society. It is a good thing that
women are honored and treated equally with men though still with limitations but it is no
longer the same on how women like Maria Clara treated in the novel even though they
are still respected. I think this is the impact of bringing the feministic perspective in the
society like being the first country in Asia to have a female president. We Filipino
women are more sophisticated people and we have the rights for freedom and to decide
in our own pace. Maria Clara is still the icon of a Filipina whom is a strong, honorable,
loyal, and dignified and a principled person for she never followed Father Damaso but
rather enter the wall of the convent to show her undying love for Crisosotomo Ibarra.
This is the manifestation of a real feminism and an ideal image of a Filipina.
Posted 8th October 2011 by Cypher Westley Forester

From <http://wwwcreativeminds-cfwestley.blogspot.com/2011/10/modern-maria-clara.html>
5-7-2014

Maria Clara- Paragon or Caricature? Salvador P. Lopez

There is no more significant inquiry that can be made into the literary work of Jose Rizal
than his conception of the character of Maria Clara. No other character in Philippine literature
has had a more pervasive influence on the thought-life of the Filipino people than this famous
heroine of Rizal.

Filipino womanhood is even now at the crossroads of modernity and conservatism,
slightly bewildered, and not knowing exactly which way to turn. Lure on the one hand by the
attractions of the new emancipation, she is on the other handas yet too strongly attached to a
lingering ideal of Filipino womanhood to brush aside the traditional conception of her sex
which she imbibed with her mother's milk.

For decades since Maria Clara was created by the genius of the great patriot, we have
heard the name of this heroine spoken now in reverent whispers, now in a gust of romantic
idealism. She has been celebrated in song and oratory as the paragon of Filipino
womanhood. Whenever it seemedd that the modern Filipino girl was becoming too vital, too
progressive or too daring, prophets of execration and doom were not lacking to hold up the
figure of Maria Clara anew and to whisper her name as if it were an incantation to drive away
an evil spirit.

That was the accepted interpretation of the character of Maria Clara. Everyone thought
that RIzal intended to set her up as an ideal for the women of his country, the noblest
blossom of Filipino womanhood. Was she not the fiancee of the hero of the novel in which he
tried to bare the soul of his people through the sufferings of his own soul? Did not even this
hero himself seem to be moulded upon Rizal's own personality, the author weaving into this
hero's thoughts, pains and tribulations, the deep notes of his own anguish? Did he not imbue
Maria Clara with loyalty and modesty, which are the two cardinal virtues of our women?

There seemed to be no escape from the only conclusion to which the answers logically
led. It was evident, according to this view, the Rizal had intended Maria Clara to be a model
Filipino woman- loyal to the point of selflessness, modest to the point of weakness.

So did the legend become firmly embedded in the Filipino mind- of Maria Clara against
whose assumed perfections all the weakness of present-day women are to be measured,
whose virtues are a mirror whereon other women might look at their own reflection and blush
in shame.

Let us try to be subject this legend to closer examination. We shall not tear away the
canvas from the wall of memory where Rizal hung it for the contemplation of posterity. We
shall only take it down with reverent hands so that at close range we may judge whether the
portrait was drawn by a loving or by a satirical hand.
Let us consider the original inspiration of Maria Clara. Rizal makes her the daughter of a
Spanish priest, thus placing a double handicap upon her as a would-be Filipino woman. FOr
that automatically makes her a mestiza and an illegitimate child. It is true that he gives her the
virtues of modesty and loyalty.But in an age which compelled a woman to remain in the
background, these qualities were not virtues borne of interior strength. And while Rizal
surrounds the figure of Maria Clara with the aura of romaticism (as in her love scenese with
Crisostomo Ibarra), he also places her in questionable situations with another priest. All in
all, the character of Maria Clara is far too weak to justify her being held up as a model for the
women of our country. Her loyalty is the loyalty of the vanquished spirit, her modesty the
modesty of the timid.

To insist that Rizal meant to put up a woman of this type as an ideal for future
generations of Filipino women to imitate, is to place a miserable estimate upon the prophetic
insight of Rizal. Surely, the man who wrote "The Philippines a Century Hence" and 'The
Indolence of the Filipino" could not have made the mistake of putting up as aan ideal a type
of womanhood that the twentieth century was certain to outmode. Rizla knew that the new
century was going to be a century of unprecedented progress in all lines of human endeavor.
He knew that the new age would witness the emergence of a new woman enjoying priviliges
and responsibilities of which before she was not even aware. Having lived for many years in
Europe and visited America shortly before the turn of the century, he could not have missed
the clear portents of the new womanhood that was soon to arise.

It is difficult to believe that, with this background, Rizal could ever have fallen into the
error of setting up a feeble and invertebrate woman as the model for the women of his
country. He wanted his countrymen to be robust and powerful in spirit; he could not have
wished his countrywomen to become exactly the opposite. His famous letter to the women of
Malolos shows clearly that his conception of Filipino womanhood was enlightened, and that
while he deplored none of their old virtues, he insisted that new and more vital qualities be
added to these.

We are left with the surmise that Rizal most probably intended the character of Maria
Clara not as a glorification of the women of his time but rather as a satire upon their foibles
and weaknesses.To point out that her figure is touched with the sublimity of the author's
conception, is merely to say that Rizal succeeded as an artist in creating a character that is
fundamentally unsound without being contemptible, that is weak and yet appealing.

The character of Maria Clara inspires not scorn but sympathy born of understanding. We
realize that Rizal probably intended to use the type of womanhood she represented for a
definite purpose, even as Cervantes used the character of Don Quixote to laugh the romantic
knight out of court forever.

Maria Clara was the forerunner in fiction of that woman who, in 1896, betrayed the secret
of the Katipunan to the priest of Tondo. You find in her the same feebleness, the same
helplessness, the same fear- none of the qualities that were possesed by Princess Urduja of
ancient Pangasinan or by Tandang Sora of the Revolution, or by Teodora Alonso, Rizal's own
brave and gallant mother.

Other times, other heroes and heroines. In the regime upon which this nation has but
recently entered, we shall need a tyope of Filipino woma as unlike that of Maria Clara as
possible- energetic, enterprising, progressive and with a mind of her own.
Posted 22nd September 2011 by Random Ramblings

From <http://perlishell79.blogspot.com/2011/09/maria-clara-paragon-or-caricature.html>

5-7-2014
Maria clara as:
1. Fictional Character
a.
She was raised by Capitn Tiago, San Diego's cabeza de barangay and is the most
beautiful and widely celebrated girl in San Diego.
In the later parts of the novel, Mara Clara's identity was revealed as an
illegitimate daughter of Father Dmaso, former parish curate of the town, and Doa
Pa Alba, wife of Capitn Tiago. In the end she entered local covenant for nuns
Beaterio de Santa Clara.
b. In writing this piece, I was able to ask 11 Fil-Ams to describe Maria Clara. Six of
them said she was a weak and submissive woman, with one stressing that Maria Clara
was inferior to men. Four thought of her as strong-willed while one said she did not
know her at all.
c. It is unfortunate that Maria Clara, one of the main characters in Dr. Jose Rizals
novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, was typecast as a weakling. This low
opinion of her may not be prevalent only among Filipinos here in the United States
but perhaps even in our own country.
d. Maria Clara had not the small eyes of her father; like her mother, she had eyes large, black,
long-lashed, merry and smiling when she was playing but sad, deep, and pensive in
moments of repose. As a child her hair was curly and almost blond, her straight nose was
neither too pointed nor too flat, while her mouth with the merry dimples at the corners
recalled the small and pleasing one of her mother, her skin had the fineness of an onion-
cover and was white as cotton, according to her perplexed relatives, who found the traces
of Capitan Tiagos paternity in her small and shapely ears.
2. Filipino women
a. after the character of Maria Clara in the novels who is a maiden with delicate,
feminine, self-assured, conservative, and with sense of identity.

3. Symbolism of Filipno Women during spanish era
a. Maria Claras wretchedness would have been a perfect representation of the state of
the country under Spanish oppression.
b. On the other hand, she is also exposed to Spanish culture and her physical
appearance really looks like a mestiza. Have you ever saw or knew of an
epitome who is not a pure blood? Perhaps, there would be some around the
world but it is commonly known to be a pure blood like a pure Filipino blood.
4. Representation of Leonor rivera
a. Rizal based Maria Claras character on Leonor Rivera, his real life fiance for 11
years. In the end, Rivera decided to marry an Englishman thinking that Rizal
abandoned her when he left for Europe, not knowing that all of the heros letters were
intercepted and hidden by her mother.
5. Weakness/strenght of Women
a. Joaquin, a national artist, observed that contrary to most peoples opinion, Maria
Clara goes to the nunnery not out of weakness but out of strength. He explained that
Maria Clara finds the strength to live in spiritual confinement rather than to marry or
to commit suicide.
6. Filipino religiosity
a. Her father sent her to the convent of Beaterio de Santa Clara while her
boyfriend was travelling in Europe. At the end of the novel, she chose to
become a monk and it is not clearly stated if she is still living in the convent or
she is already dead.
b. It is for the fact that she is very religious, the epitome of virtue, demure and
self-effacing and endowed with beauty, grace, and charm.
7. Eye opener for women empowerment
a. We Filipino women are more sophisticated people and we have the rights for
freedom and to decide in our own pace. Maria Clara is still the icon of a
Filipina whom is a strong, honorable, loyal, and dignified
b. I strongly believe that modern Maria Claras nowadays are still conservative
but already know of their rights and where they stand in the society.
c. Yes, Maria Clara did not lead a country like Thatcher did but the power of her
choices, under her peculiar condition, is comparable to the strength shown by the late
premier, who was dubbed Iron Lady by the press, when she led Great Britain.