Ferdinand Blumentritt On Graciano López Jaena


One of the early contacts Ferdinand Blumentritt had with Filipinos in Spain was with the propagandist Graciano Lopez Jaena. In a letter dated 26 June 1888 to German Philology professor Hugo Schuchardt, Blumentritt mentioned his correspondence with Jaena and described the Ilonggo patriot:


"Jaena often leaves a long wait for an answer. He is also very vain and easy to hurt. Like most Indios, they always believe that one wants to mock or humiliate them..... They are extraordinarily good, amiable, and noble. I now understand why the Europeans talk so badly about them. The Indios are shutting up before them because they always believe the whites want to make fun of them. I am writing this to you so that you can provide your respectable letter for a brief introduction about the purpose of your creole studies. The effort will be worth it. Believe me, I am supposed to be an Indio, and I am their brother and friend."


This part of the letter gives us the mind of Blumentritt when dealing with Rizal et al. Was this the reason why most of his letters to Rizal were written in a very formal way? (way too formal as compare with his correspondence or the style of language he used with the likes of Schuchardt) His great contacts and studies dealing with the Philippines, starting as a boy with the stories or those artefacts collected in the house of a grand-aunt, had given him ideas on how to deal with Asiatics, Malay, or Filipinos?



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