FRIAR BOTOD
Graciano
Lopez Jaena
1 “Who
is Botod?”
2 “Look
at him, there he goes, he is there in the Plaza, that plump friar who is
talking with a woman beside the trunk of the almendre tree! Do you
recognize him?”
3 “No.”
4 “Look
well towards the center of the plaza, look across it, and fix your gaze on that
small tower of bamboo and nipa that is the belfry of the town. At the stairs, also made of bamboo and nipa,
grow various luxuriant young almond trees, and beside the trunk of the largest
trees and under its shade is Friar Botod, talking angrily with a woman. Do you see him now?”
5 “Yes,
yes, I see him. He is a barbarian. How he frowns! The girl is not bad: but by what I see, by
his movements and grimaces, Friar Botod, the devil, has a bestial look. What do I see? Now he raises his stick in a threatening
manner.”
6 “He
scares the girl so that she will grant him his wishes.”
7 “Will
this rogue of a friar eat this girl?”
8 “He
is capable of it. See the crowd of small
boys who are leaving the parochial school, naked, some from the waist down,
others from the waist up, running towards his Reverence to kiss his hand. The surrounded friar commands them in a
scornful manner; the boys run away frightened.”
9 “But,
look, look! The shameless friar has
slapped the girl twice… Hmm… She falls
down on her knees at his feet, looks as if she were asking his pardon. She kisses his hand. Poor girl.
He leads her away… the bad friar.
What a brute, what a detestable person.
But you permit and suffer the same abuses against the honor of this weak
person, victim of the brutal force of this cynical friar.
10 “We
are hardened to this sight; it happens all the time.”
11 “But
what does this religious devil do in God’s world? He is the priest of this town.”
12 “A
priest! A friar is a priest! I did not believe that the friars are parish
priest in the Philippines. They told me,
and I never believed it.”
13 “then
see it for yourself and be convinced.”
14 In
my country there came a time when we kicked them out.”
15 “There
is no more reedy, my friend; you must give the morcilla (black sausage) as you give it to dogs.”
16 “All
things come to an end and all debts must be paid, says a proverb; the day will
come and woe to them. Meanwhile, let us
leave everything which prolongs it.”
17 “This
is horrible, worse than China, a thousand times worse than Warsaw. Ah, let us leave these sad ideas, let us go
near and see the rascally friar.”
18 “Jesus,
Jesus! How terrible, ho ugly! …He looks like a seal.”
19 “What
a comparison friend!”
20 “Yes,
yes, a seal, a seal without whiskers.”
21 “Well
said.”
22 “Let
us describe a seal—I mean a friar—so that the whole world will know him.”
23 Like
this.
24 Friar
Botod is not called so because it is his proper name nor his family name.
25 Botod
means big abdomen, fat belly. The town
nicknamed him so because of his immense paunch.
26 His
baptismal name is Ano (anus) because he was born on St. Ann’s day; but he gets
furious and very angry when he is called Friar Ano, preferring that they call
him Botod rather than Ano.
27 It
is then Friar Botod or Friar Ano Aragones, son of unknown parentage, who was
found near the vicinity of Eber by the stairs of the church of Pilar on a
stormy night by a certain mule driver who passed by that place on his way from
work.
28 He
educated the boy as well as he could; he wanted to teach the child his trade,
but at the age of fourteen the boy ran away from the house of his aged foster
father, and after walking and walking, he arrived at Valladolid, where he
entered the convent of the Augustinian fathers.
29 Not
quite twenty-one years of age, he was sent by his superiors to the Philippines,
to which he brought his boorish ways.
30 He
looked like a dead mosquito; but after being ordained and singing his first
mass, after five years in the country, eating bananas and papayas and being
angry and being called a priest in a town as important as this, he came out of
his shell. He changed completely. He is a very valuable man.
31 He
knows more than Lope, and he has more grammar than Santillan.
32 There
you get a sketch of the birth and novitiate of Friar Botod and his stay during
his first years in the Philippines.
33 [Lopez Jaena here describes the
Physical appearance of the friar and concludes that Friar Botod looks like a
well-fed pig who eats, drinks, sleeps and thinks of nothing but how to satisfy
his carnal appetites.]
34 Look,
he is leaving the convento (parochial house) again accompanied by that young
girl who is sobbing and crying bitterly.
Friar Botod is petting her, consoling her, but she is insensible and
indifferent toward it all. She continues
crying and being overcome by fear, obeys and follows the friar automatically.”
35 This
time they don’t leave the convent alone; following them are some young girls,
very beautiful, very young; others are grown up already, but all are beautiful
and well-dressed. He now enters an omnibus to take them for a ride and a
picnic.”
36 “But
who are these young girls and why does he have them in his convent, the Fray
Botod?”
37 “These
are his canding-canding.”
38 “Who
are these canding-canding?”
39 “In
the Spanish language canding means
goats.”
40 “If
you don’t explain it to us more clearly I will not be able to unravel the
story. Why does this devilish friar have
in his power these innocent creatures and why are these angelic-looking girls
called little goats?”
41 They
are called little goats simply because in time when they mature… you hear it,
do you understand now? He has them in
his power because they come from poor families.
Under the pretext of educating them in the Christian doctrine, the
Catechism, reading, writing and other skills, he takes them from their homes,
fooling the unfortunate parents, or even using force.”
42 “But
isn’t there a woman teacher in town?”
43 “Yes,
but the woman is of the same tribe as Fray Botod.”
44 “This
is unheard of! Horrible! But why don’t they denounce this barbarity of
Boboo or this lascivious friar to the government?”
45 “There
is nobody in town who wants to meddle.
Oh! The one who dares…
46 “I
do not wonder because since I was born I have not left this town but from what
I have heard of the others, it is not venturing too far to infer that this
practice is common.
47 “Wretch! What villainy! In that manner the young buds open up near
the heartless, soulless, friar, having the same fate as that of the bayaderas of India.”
48 [An explanation of the bayaderas of
India follows. They are women kept by
the Brahmins, supposedly for religious reasons but actually for their own
gratification.]
49
[For
entertainment, Botod plays monte and burro with the town’s
rich but he never loses. The indios let
him win; otherwise he is in a bad mood.]
50 How
does his “Reverence” discharge his duties towards his parishioners’ souls?
51 Tilin, tilin, tilin—a
loud sound of the bell is heard at the door of the convent.
52 “Open,
boy.”
53 The
boy brings into the gambling room an old man, who walks slowly as if he had
come from a long distance.
54 “Good
evening, sir.”
55 “What
do you want?”
56 “Confession,
sir.”
57 “Go
and call the assistant, father Marcelino.”
58 “Not
here, sir.”
59 “What
do you want?”
60 “Confession,
sir.”
61 “Go
and call the assistant, father Marcelino?”
62 “Not
here, sir.”
63 “What
do you mean, not here?”
64 “Father
Marcelino, sir, is in the other confessional.”
65 “Then
wait for him.”
66 “I
cannot wait, sir.”
67 “Why
can’t you wait, you rogue, you savage.”
68 “Because
the sick person, sir, is dying. He will
die.”
69 “Then
let him die and let him go to hell. I am
not hearing confessions.”
70 “Sir,
pity, pity, sir.”
71 “Go,
tell him to make an Act of Contrition and I will give him absolution from her.”
72 “Sir,
sir.”
73 “Go
rogue, do not bother me anymore. I am
losing, damn Jack! Oh, brute, go. Boy, open the door for this old man.”
74 You
can have a good idea here of how Fr. Botod regards his religion—
75 He
leaves a sick Christian who is asking for the last rites of the church to die
without confession because of a Jack of Clubs.
76 After
the death.
77 “Sir,
that one died.”
78 “Well,
and what?”
79 “The
family wants, sir, that three priests get the corpse from the house and a
Requiem Mass be said for him.”
80 “Does
the family of the dead person have much money?”
81 “No,
just enough, sir, the family wants three priests.”
82 “I
will do it; but you can’t have three priests.”
83 “The
wife, sir, wants Father Marcelino to be the main priest.”
84 “No,
I don’t like it. These things belong to
me and do not concern the assistant at all.”
85 “But,
sir…”
86 “Nothing
doing.”
87 “Well,
sir, how much sir?”
88 “One
hundred and fifty pesos, second class funeral with an old cape with silver.”
89 “Three
priests, sir?”
90 “Three? It can’t be; I alone am worth three.”
91 “Father
Marcelino, sir, asks only fifty pesos for three priests, and a first class
funeral.”
92 “You,
with your assistant, can go to hell. You
are talking to the wrong party. Father
Marcelino is a scoundrel.”
93 “Pardon,
sir.”
94 “Go
bring the money. If you do not come with
the money, your dead will not be buried.
Do you understand?”
95 “Very
well, sir, I will consult the family.”
96 “Whom
will you consult? No, bring the hundred
fifty pesos. If not, the corpse will rot
in your house, and you and your whole family will go to jail.”
97 “Sir
(in a repentant tone), sir, he does not have much money, sir, the dead person.”
98 “Go
and ask the rest of the relatives to lend you money.”
99 “They
don’t want to lend it, sir.”
100 “Go
away, go away. Sell the dead man’s rice
field and you will have money. Look for
a loan company, you idler. If not, I
won’t bury your corpse.”
101 “Very
well, sir.”
102 He
kisses the hand of the priest and leaves the poor man. Three hours later, the assistant priest,
knowing the friar very well and that he will be the object of insults, arms
himself with a strong drink and creates a scandal.
103 With
a glass of alcohol and tuba which he
mixed well, Father Marcelino goes straight to the convent.
104 The
assistants of the secular order step themselves in vices to the same extent as
the friars themselves. The bad examples
begin to spread. The Indian priests
follow the examples of their superiors, the friars. They become as wicked as they, or worse.
105 It
is said then that Father Marcelino went to look for Friar Botod, planning to hit
the chubby-cheeked “Reverence” in the abdomen.
106 Father
Botod, foreseeing that his assistant would be drunk and what he would do,
ordered the boy to close the convent with an expressed order not to let the
assistant in.
107 Father
Marcelino, doubly irritated by this measure, shouts loudly at the door of the
convent, shocking the people.
108 “Come
down, come down, Botod, if you are not afraid, friar without shame, you filthy,
stingy vile, bad man, see, see what I will do.
I will break your neck! Animal!
Friar, coward, you do not have a bit of shame.”
109 Similar
insults and others spurt out of that mouth, smelling of alcohol and tuba.
110 Fr.
Botod does not utter a word against these diatribes, but after three days, the
father assistant is called by the bishop and locked up in the Seminary.
111 The
corpse is given a pompous funeral but the family has gone into debt.
112 [As host, he entertains visitors at
the expense of the townspeople. As money
lender, he lends money but forces the tao to pay him back with cavans of rice, the
price of which he dictates.]
113 How
does he think and boast?
114 Preaching:
115 “Indios,
laborers, we are all rich in Spain.
There on that soil of the Virgin, nobody is poor. We all wade in gold.”
116 “Jesus,
what a liar is this friar.”
117 Botod
continues.
118 “We
came here to these barbaric lands to conquer souls for heaven, in order to be
dear to our great Father San Agustin.”
119 “Keep
still, Manola,” exclaims a Spaniard who happens to hear this nonsense of Fr.
Botod.
120 He
continues the sermon.
121 “We
have come to civilize you, serfs, indios, carabaos, and illiterates. You are all slaves of Spain, of Father San
Agustin. Do you understand? Amen.”
122 It
is the first time that Fr. Botod has occupied the pulpit during his fifteen
years of being a priest, and all he does is to hurl a lot of insults.
123 [He eats like a pig and is fond of
pepper, luya and
other sexual stimulants.]
124 Between
a Kastila and his “Reverence”:
125 “Father
Botod, why don’t you educate, provide and endow the town with good
instruction?”
126 “It
doesn’t suit me, countryman.”
127 “Your
mission is to instruct the country which you administer spiritually”
128 “Political
reasons forbid us. The day when the
Indio becomes educated and knows how to speak Spanish, we are lost.”
129 “Why,
father?”
130 “Because
they will rebel against us and will fight the integrity [sic] of the country.”
131 “I
don’t believe it. You will be the ones
who will lose your substance and easily get gains, but Spain…”
132 “But
why, are we not the same Spain? Go, go,
go! The interest of the friars is the
interest of Spain. We cannot go back to
the old ways.”
133 How
does the friar punish?
134 Barbarously.
135 Because
a man did not work three days in the hacienda, he deprived him of salary and
gave the unhappy laborer fifty lashes on his bare buttocks.
136 See
it:
137 “Oy,
tao, why didn’t you come to work for three days?”
138 “My
wife is sick, sir.”
139 “Oy,
boy.”
140 “Sir.”
141 “The
bench and the whip, ala, ala, hapa, hapa
(stretch him out, stretch him out).”
142 “Sir,
sir, my wife is sick, my wife is sick!”
143 “You
lie; ala, hapa!”
144 The
poor unfortunate lies down flat keeping his mouth above the bench. Fray Botod at the same time takes off the
man’s pants and his underwear, tying his head and feet to the bench.
145 “And
you, sacristan, get the whip and give him fifty lashes.”
146 You
should know that the punishment is in three measures, that is, that it is not
fifty but one hundred fifty lashes.
147 What
brutality!
148 “Enough
sir, enough sir, aruy, aruy, aruy! It hurts, sir, enough, sir, enough!”
149 “Keep
quiet, brute, animal. Boy bring the hot
peppered vinegar.”
150 Over
the body lacerated from the lashes, the inhuman friar pours the vinegar with
the pepper in it, rubbing the vinegar and making the unfortunate man see stars.
151 “Compassion,
compassion sir, enough, Padre, aruy,
aruy, aruy!”
152 The
poor laborer is doubling up because of the pain, trying to untie himself.
153 After
such a cruel operation, the sacristan applies the rest of the lashes until he
completes the fifty.
154 Terrible
moments! The man doubles up again, a
nervous spasm chokes him—groans, moans die out in his throat.
155 The
friar in his cruelty is amusing himself, laughing like a fool.
156 Sad
reflections of the past Inquisition! Fr.
Botod is worse than a hyena.
(1874)
Meet
the Writer
GRACIANO LÓPEZ Y JAENA (December 18, 1856 - January 20, 1896), was a Filipino
writer and journalist in the Philippine Revolution. He was recognized as the
"Prince of Filipino Orators" who wrote great and striking articles in
the infamous newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona, Spain. López Jaena was born in Jaro, Iloilo to
Placido López and María Jacoba Jaena. His parents were poor; his mother was a
seamstress and his father a general repairman. At the age of six, López Jaena
was placed under the care of Friar Francisco Jayme who raised him.
His parents sent López Jaena to the
Seminario de San Vicente Ferrer in Jaro which had been opened under the
administration of Governor General Carlos María de la Torre. He was appointed
to the San Juan de Dios Hospital as an apprentice. Unfortunately, due to
financial problems, his parents could not afford to keep him in Manila. He
returned to Iloilo and practiced medicine in communities.
During this period, his visits with
the poor and the common people 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 priest. Botod’s false piety "always had
the Virgin and God on his lips no matter how unjust and underhanded his acts
are." This naturally incurred the fury of the friars who knew that the
story depicted them. Although it was not published a copy circulated in the
region but the Friars could not prove that López Jaena was the author. However
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 on his life.
López Jaena sailed for Spain in
1879. There he was to become a leading literary and oratorical spokesman for
the Philippine reformal issues. Philippine historians regard López Jaena, along
with Marcelo H. del Pilar and José P. Rizal, as the triumvirate of Filipino
propagandists. Of these three Ilustrados, López Jaena was the first to arrive
and may have founded the genesis of the Propaganda movement.
López Jaena pursued his medical
studies at the University of Valencia but did not finish the course. Once Rizal
approached Lopéz Jaena for not finishing his medical studies. 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."
Rizal noted, "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." In
addition he is remembered 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 to Marcelo H. del Pilar.
López Jaena died of tuberculosis on
January 20, 1896, eleven months short of his 40th birthday. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graciano_Lopez_Jaena)
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