Between the Empires: Martí, Rizal and the Limits of Global Resistance by Koichi Hagimoto B.A., Soka University of Ameica, 2005 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2007 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2010 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Koichi Hagimoto It was defended on April 21, 2010 and approved by Juan Duchesne-Winter, Professor, Hispanic Languages and Literatures Daniel Balderston, Professor, Hispanic Languages and Literatures Alejandro de la Fuente, Professor, History Dissertation Advisor: Joshua Lund, Associate Professor, Hispanic Languages and Literatures ii Copyright © by Koichi Hagimoto 2010 iii Between the Empires: Martí, Rizal and the Limits of Global Resistance Koichi Hagimoto, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2010 This dissertation aims to compare and contrast an aspect of the fin-de-siècle literature and history of anti-imperialism in Cuba and the Philippines. I focus my study on what may be the most prominent authors of the two contexts: José Martí (1853-1895) and José Rizal (1861-1896). Although scholars such as Benedict Anderson and Leopoldo Zea have already noted the obvious relations between Martí and Rizal, their anti-imperial texts have not been systematically compared. Caught between the two empires (Spain and the United States), their projects were equally overwhelming: while studying the history of the failed independence movement in their respective colonies, they attempted to transform the dilemmas of imperial culture into the building blocks for national liberation. Based on this historico-political premise, my study attempts to explore how Martí and Rizal employ different literary forms to articulate their discourse of protest and to what extent their political writings create the conditions of possibility for a transnational, inter-colonial form of resistance against imperial domination. One of the central contentions of this dissertation is that the two writers’ anti-imperial texts construct the conceptual framework for the idea of what I call “global resistance.” By this, I mean to indicate the ways in which Cubans and Filipinos shared certain anti-colonial ideas and struggles against common opponents in the nineteenth century. Through literary analysis and historical study, I intend to examine both the possibilities and the limits of global resistance. The project involves diverse cultural points of reference, ranging from the Caribbean to Asia and seeking to participate in the ongoing debate within the field of Trans-Pacific Studies. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................ VII INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 1.0 CUBA, THE PHILIPPINES AND GLOBAL RESISTANCE ............................... 17 1.1 HISTORY OF SPANISH IMPERIALISM IN CUBA AND THE PHILIPPINES ..................................................................................................................... 19 1.2 RECENT STUDIES ON THE CUBA-PHILIPPINES NEXUS .................... 26 1.3 THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MARIANO PONCE AND JOSÉ ALBERTO IZQUIERDO .................................................................................................. 33 1.4 LA REPÚBLICA CUBANA AND LA SOLIDARIDAD ............................... 48 2.0 THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE IN THE MANIFESTO: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MARTÍ’S “MANIFIESTO DE MONTECRISTI” (1895) AND RIZAL’S “FILIPINAS DENTRO DE CIEN AÑOS” (1889-1890) ......................................................... 61 2.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ..................................................................... 65 2.2 THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE OF THE MANIFESTO FORM ........... 70 2.3 MARTÍ AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF CUBAN “PEOPLE” ................ 76 2.4 RIZAL AND THE FORMULATION OF FILIPINO “RACE”.................... 87 v 3.0 WRITING THE MELODRAMA: GENDER RELATIONS AND THE DISCOURSE OF RESISTANCE IN NOLI ME TANGERE (1885) AND LUCÍA JEREZ (1887) ……………………………………………………………………………………….101 3.1 RIZAL, MARTÍ AND THE NARRATIVE OF MELODRAMA ............... 102 3.2 THE (NON)NATIONAL ASPECT OF NOLI ME TANGERE .................. 105 3.3 THE POSSIBILITY OF RESISTANCE IN DOÑA VICTORINA AND DOÑA CONSOLACIÓN ................................................................................................. 113 3.4 LUCÍA JEREZ AND LATIN AMERICAN MODERNISMO ..................... 123 3.5 LUCÍA’S IMPERIALISM AND ITS FAILURE .......................................... 132 4.0 TIME FOR FILIBUSTEROS: RIZAL AND MARTÍ CONFRONT THE MODERN EMPIRE ................................................................................................................. 146 4.1 THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY UNITED STATES ................................. 147 4.2 RIZAL’S “INDIOS BRAVOS” ...................................................................... 151 4.3 THE FILIPINO FILIBUSTEROS ................................................................. 157 4.4 MARTÍ’S EMERSON AND THE IDEA OF NATURE .............................. 167 4.5 NATURE’S VIOLENCE IN “EL TERREMOTO DE CHARLESTON” .. 176 4.6 THE CREATION OF THE “HOMBRE NATURAL” IN “NUESTRA AMÉRICA” ....................................................................................................................... 180 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 194 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of innumerable individuals. First I would like to thank my adviser, Joshua Lund, whose critical insights and emotional support have always encouraged me to work hard and to follow my interest in the relationship between Latin America and Asia. I am also fortunate to have great scholars and colleagues in my committee. Juan Duchesne-Winter and Alejandro de la Fuente have provided me with the necessary background of Caribbean history and culture. Through many discussions in and outside of the classroom, I was able to deepen my understanding of Cuba and thus to analyze Martí’s writings. When Daniel Balderston came to Pittsburgh in 2008, he kindly accepted my request to be the last member of the committee. Dan was always supportive and gave me important feedback in numerous occasions. Moreover, I must also thank Jody Blanco from the University of California-San Diego who reviewed the earlier version of this project and helped me become familiar with Filipino literature and history. At the University of Pittsburgh, I was fortunate to have received two kinds of financial support. The travel grant provided by the University Center for International Studies allowed me to conduct archival research at the National Library of the Philippines during the summer of 2009, while the Andrew Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship gave me the necessary time to focus on this dissertation during my last year in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures. I am also thankful to the department’s staff members—Deborah Truhan, Connie Tomko and Lucy vii DiStazio—for helping me survive the intense years of graduate studies from the beginning to the end. I owe a great debt of gratitude to many others who have given me tremendous emotional support over the past five years. Here, I would like to acknowledge my special thanks to Alaina Farabaugh, Betina González, Jorge Azcárate, and Jungwon Park. In addition, I am deeply grateful to my family for their constant support and encouragement. Without really understanding the significance of my project or my passion for Latin America, they have always stood by my side. Lastly, I would like to express my enormous gratitude to my mentor, Daisaku Ikeda, for teaching me about Martí and Rizal in the first place and for always having faith in me. To him I dedicate this dissertation. viii INTRODUCTION The 1898 Spanish-American War represented one of the most drastic changes in modern world history: an old empire was replaced by a new one, indicating not only the end of a historical phase led by Europe, but also the coming of an entirely new, modern era. A central aspect of this historical shift was a surprising link between two geographically remote countries. As a result of the war, Cuba and the Philippines almost simultaneously achieved their “independence” from Spain, though they were at once converted into targets of an ascendant U.S. expansionism. Caught between the two empires, Cubans and Filipinos shared similar experiences of colonial injustice as well as struggles for national independence. Equally notable is the presence of a transoceanic circuit of ideas that would juxtapose both colonies under the same sphere of anti- imperial resistance. These ideas are articulated by various writers and political actors from the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, symbolizing a particular cultural politics of trans-Pacific networks. This dissertation aims to compare and contrast an aspect of the fin-de-siècle literature and history of anti-imperialism in Cuba and the Philippines. I focus my study on what may be the most prominent nationalist authors of the two contexts: José Martí (1853-1895) and José Rizal (1861-1896). Although scholars