Bonifacio As Hero Exaggerated By Agoncillo. (Never Mind, Let’s Invent Our Own Big-Little Hero!)

“Isbo” in Ilocano means “urine.” Perhaps in Grade 5, in 1951 or some 70 years ago, in my hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, when we full-blooded Ilocano (FBI) boys were commonly urinating, the joke was, “Is Bonifacio a hero?” (Laughter)

Sorry to disappoint you, whoever you are, FBI or not, but Andres Bonifacio is not much of the herothat historian Teodoro A Agoncilloportrayed him to be!

I knew that 24 years ago yet. How did I remember all that? I bragged & blogged about it, 28 Dec 2007, “Inventing A Hero. Each Of Us Looking Through The Mirror Of Everyday[1]” (A Magazine Called Love, Blogspot.com). This is part of what I wrote:
(book cover image[2] from amazon.com)

I final-edited the book by Glenn May published in 1997 by New Day (Quezon City, Philippines): Inventing A Hero. The subtitle tells you enough of its contents: The Posthumous Re-Creation Of Andres Bonifacio. The author casts doubts on much of the bits and pieces of information we know of Bonifacio, the second most popular national hero of the Philippines, by questioning the integrity of the sources, both persons and papers. The historian in Glenn May makes a very good case in putting to doubt the historian in Teodoro Agoncillo in his account of Bonifacio, his hero. Bonifacio was a hero, May says; one must not doubt… it; but an erudite one? Bonifacio’s intellectual genius has not been established. One must not think about it.

30 November 2021 is the 158th birthday of this Filipino hero; he founded the society called Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, or Katipunan, that which fought for and eventually obtained the Philippines’ emancipation from Spain (but not from the United States of America, which is another story). No doubt Bonifacio was a hero, but we must deconstruct him from Agoncillo’s hero-making.

In my “Inventing A Hero” essay of 2007, I also said:

Rizal was a hero for peace, Bonifacio was a hero for war. Peace for peace, war for peace. Rizal stood for progress by way of reformation; Bonifacio stood for progress by way of revolution. Do you advocate the Rizal hero or the Bonifacio hero? Will you do a Rizal or a Bonifacio?

I’ll do neither. I speak for myself – I wouldn’t think of dying for my country like Rizal did. And I wouldn’t think of dying for my country like Bonifacio did either. In any case, it’s too gory for me. I never liked the sight of blood, especially my own.

Nonetheless, each of us can be a little hero. It’s simple – and not so simple:

Love more.
Give more.
Help more.
Contribute more.
Forgive more.
Be more considerate.
Be more gracious.
Be more gallant.
Be more kind.
Be more forgiving.

Each one of us can be a little more heroic to our own family. A little more heroic to our neighbors. A little more heroic to strangers. Then the world will turn into a lovelier place because of more little heroes like us!@517


[1]http://amagazinecalledlove.blogspot.com/2007/12/inventing-hero.html

[2]https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Hero-Posthumous-Re-Creation-Bonifacio/dp/1881261190

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