The Music Played After Rizal's Execution
After a Spanish officer delivered the tiro de gracia, a final inspection confirmed that José Rizal lay lifeless. At that moment, the Spanish regimental band—the Banda del Batallón de Voluntarios—struck up the Marcha de Cádiz, also known as the Himno de Cádiz. León Ma. Guerrero, in The First Filipino, records the scene with piercing irony: "But as the last Spaniards gave their ragged cheer, and the band of the battalion of volunteers struck up, with unconscious irony, that hymn to human rights and constitutional liberties, the Marcha de Cádiz, the quiet Filipinos broke through the square, to make sure, said the Spanish correspondent, that the mythical, the godlike Rizal was really dead, or, according to others, to snatch a relic and keepsake and dip their handkerchiefs in a hero’s blood." MARCHA DE CADIZ The Marcha de Cádiz is deeply rooted in Spain’s historical memory, drawing inspiration from the Peninsular War, when Spain resisted Napoleonic France. That conflict not only i...