RIZALS VISIT TO THE

UNITED STATES (1888)

Dr. Rizals journey to America started at Yokohama,

Japan on April 13, 1888. He boarded an English
steamer named The Belgic.
After traveling fifteen days across the Pacific
Ocean, the steamer Belgic finally reached San
Francisco on Saturday morning, April 28, 1888.

April 28, 1888

All passengers are not allowed to land.
The American health authorities placed the ship under
quarantine on the ground that came from Far East where
a cholera epidemic was alleged to be ranging.
He discovered that the placing the ship under quarantine
was motivated by politics to the reason that the ship
carrying 643 Chinese coolies.

At that time, public opinion on the Pacific coast was

against cheap coolie labor because the coolies from
china were placing white laborers in railroad
construction camps.
After almost a week of quarantine, all first-class
passengers, including Rizal, were permitted to land. But
the Chinese and Japanese passengers of the second and
third-class accommodations were forced to remain on
board for a longer quarantine period.

Rizal in San Francisco (May 4,1888)

Rizal registered at the Palace Hotel, which was then considered a
first-class hotel in the city. On that day, he wrote on his diary:
I lodged in Palace Hotel: $4 a day with bath and everything included.
Stockton St., 312. I saw the Golden Gate On Sunday the stores are
closed. The best Street in San Francisco is Market Street.

He mentioned in his diary the name Leland Stanford. Who was the
millionaire senator representing California. The President of the USA
that time was Grover Cleveland.
Rizal stayed in San Francisco for 2 days May 4 to May 6, 1888.

Across the American Continent

Rizal left San Francisco on May 6, 1888 and
boarded a ferry going to Oakland.
In Oakland, he boarded the train for his trip across
the continent.

Across the American Continent

May 7-Reno, Nevada this is where he have been glamourized by
American high-pressure propaganda as The Biggest Little City in
the World.
May 8- Utah States While traveling through Utah, Rizal noticed
that in spite Mormonism being the dominant religious order in the
state, and the cities are not thickly populated, he also notes the
fields, flowers, and mountains.
May 9- Colorado Rizal observed that the state of Colorado has
more trees than the three previous states they travelled through.
May 10- Nebraska He noticed that the country is a plain. He also
mentioned the Missouri River which is twice as wide as Pasig River.

Across the American Continent

May 11- Chicago In Chicago, he noted that every tobacco shop
has a statue of an Indian.
May 12- Niagara Falls The train stopped for a few hours near
Niagara Falls where Rizal went down to the foot of the falls. Rizal
was amazed by the titanic size of the falls and the thunder that it
created as more than 168,000 cubic meters of water poured down
from the falls every minute. He called the falls as The majestic
cascadein his letter to Mariano Ponce. Though Rizal was impressed
by Niagara Falls, he noted in his diary that it is not as pretty as the
falls in Los Banos. But he added that there is no comparison between
the two falls.
May 13- Albany He mentioned the landscape is beautiful.

New York
When Dr. Rizal arrived in New York, he got a room at the Fifth
Avenue Hotel.
From the time Rizal arrived in New York on May 13, 1888 at
11:10AM until he left for Europe on May 16th at 9AM, as his 3
days stay in New York, he did not write a lot of details about what
he saw and observed in New York.
In one of his letters, Rizal wrote that New York is a big town and
everything is new.
He visited scenic and historical places. He was awed and inspired
by the memorial to George Washington. He wrote to Ponce: He
is a great man who, I think has no equal to his country.

May 16, 1888

Rizal left the New York for Liverpool on board
on the City of Rome. According to Rizal this
steamer was the second largest ship in the world,
the largest being the Great Eastern.

Rizals Impression of America

The good impressions were:
1 The material progress of the country as shown in the great
cities, huge farms, flourishing industries, and busy factories;
2 The drive and the energy of the American people;
3 The natural beauty of the land;
4 The high standard of living;
5 The opportunities for better life offered to poor immigrants.
The bad impression Rizal had of America was the lack of
racial equality.

Rizals Impression of America

1890 two years after Rizals visit to the United
States, Jose Alejandro, who was then studying
engineering in Belgium, roomed with him. Jose
Alejandro never been in America, so that one day he
asked Rizal: What impressions do you have of
America?
America, answered by Rizal, is the land par
excellence of freedom but only for the whites.

Conclusion:

Jose Rizal on his time, has given all the privileges to travel, visit and
even study in a different countries and continents which makes it possible
because of his family status in the society. He was also known to indulge
with knowledge as par excellency of his keen observation to his environment.
In Rizals visit in the United States which was held on 1888, eight years
after the U.S.-China treaty that allows U.S. to regulate immigration of
Chinese laborer, wherein somehow the bilateral agreement was it the process.
As we walk through the history, norms that was build in decades was not
easy to break just because there was a certain rules or regulations that says
so. I believed, that the race barrier was just started to break down in pieces
on that time, and United States that is one of the major power in any period
and ere in the history, was trying to cope up and open its door to the other
county, race and culture. Which gives Rizal an observation of racism that
time, which is not really change till these days. To sum it up, Rizal never
failed to appreciate and see the beauty of any country that he has been.