Graciano López Jaena

Philippine historians universally regard López Jaena, alongside legal scholar Marcelo H. del Pilar and polymath José Rizal, as the definitive triumvirate of Filipino propagandists. Of these three towering ilustrados (Filipino educated elite), López Jaena was the first to depart for Europe and arrive in Spain in 1880, where he arguably initiated the concerted political action that became the Propaganda Movement.

This movement was a peaceful, yet fervent, crusade that vociferously advocated for the social, political, and economic reform of the then-Spanish colony of the Philippines, including demanding Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortes. Though non-violent, the intellectual and nationalist ferment created by the Movement, particularly through López Jaena's passionate essays like Fray Botod, played a crucial role in shaping a cohesive Philippine national identity and ultimately laying the intellectual foundation for the subsequent armed Philippine Revolution that officially erupted in Manila in 1896, just months after his untimely death from arterioscleriosis, possibly as a complication of tuberculosis.

Biography

Graciano López-Jaena was born in Jaro, Iloilo, in the Captaincy General of the Philippines in the Spanish Empire on December 18, 1856. His parents were Plácido López and María Jacoba Jaena. He was baptized as "Graciano López y Jaena" on December 20, 1856, at Jaro Church by Plácido de Isana, and his godfather was Rufino Justiniano. Feeling that the priesthood was the most noble profession, his mother sent him to study at the St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary in Jaro. While there, he served as a secretary to his uncle, Claudio López, who was the honorary vice consul of Portugal in Iloilo.

Despite his mother wanting him to become a priest, López-Jaena's true ambition was to become a physician. After convincing his parents, he sought enrollment at the University of Santo Tomas but was denied admission because the required Bachelor of Arts degree was not offered at the seminary in Jaro. Instead, he was appointed to the San Juan de Dios Hospital as an apprentice. Due to financial problems, he dropped out and returned to Iloilo to practice medicine.

During this period, his visits with the poor began to stir feelings about the injustices that were common. At the age of 18 he wrote the satirical story Fray Botod, which depicted a fat and lecherous friar. Botod’s false piety "always had the Virgin and God on his lips no matter how unjust and underhanded his acts are." This incurred the fury of the friars. Although the story was not published, a copy circulated in Iloilo but the friars could not prove that López-Jaena was the author.

He got into trouble for refusing to testify that certain prisoners died of natural causes when it was obvious that they had died at the hands of the mayor of Pototan. López-Jaena continued to agitate for justice and finally went to Spain when threats were made to his life. López sailed for Spain in 1880. There he became a leading writer and speaker for Philippine reform.

López Jaena pursued his medical studies at the University of Valencia, then transferred to Universidad Central in Madrid in 1881, but did not finish. Jose Alejandrino popularized an anecdote that Rizal once reproached Lopéz Jaena for not finishing his medical studies, to which Graciano replied, "On the shoulders of slaves should not rest a doctor's cape." Rizal countermanded, "The shoulders do not honor the doctor's cape, but the doctor's cape honors the shoulders," but recent research reveals this was most likely an Alejandrino concoction and not factual. Graciano's records instead indicate he was intent on finishing his studies, later on even enrolling at the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Central in 1884-1885. His financial difficulties, however, compounded by the cessation of support from the Philippines, made the completion of his degree extremely difficult.

In Madrid, Graciano joined the Filipino community and slowly built a reputation as an intellectual whose oratorical skills eventually earned him his reputation. His 1881 speech praising Fernando Leon y Castillo for the abolition of the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines was praised by the Madrid press, which gave him the opportunity to start a career in journalism. By 1883, he was writing for Los Dos Mundos, where articles such as "Una Protesta" defended Filipinos against racialized depictions and criticized colonial abuses.

Lopez-Jaena became especially known for his oratory. Mariano Ponce, another Filipino propagandists in Spain later recalled the audience's reaction to one of his speeches: "... a deafening ovation followed the close of the peroration, the ladies waved their kerchiefs wildly, and the men applauded frantically as they stood up from their seats in order to embrace the speaker." Rizal also noted López-Jaena's interests, writing: "His great love is politics and literature. I do not know for sure whether he loves politics in order to deliver speeches or he loves literature to be a politician."

López-Jaena he is remembered by the Filipino people for his literary contributions to the propaganda movement. López-Jaena founded the fortnightly newspaper, La Solidaridad. When the publication office moved from Barcelona to Madrid, the editorship was succeeded by Marcelo H. del Pilar. His talent can be seen in his book Discursos y Artículos Varios (Speeches and Various Articles) published in 1891.

López-Jaena died alone on his residence at Calle de Bot (Carrer d'en Bot) on January 20, 1896, in Barcelona, 11 months short of his 40th birthday. The following day, he was buried in a mass grave at the Montjuïc Cemetery of Barcelona. He died in poverty and his remains have not been brought back to the Philippines.