Rafael Palma

“ I remember very well that in the past, not so very long ago, the same apprehension and fears were felt with regard to higher education for our women. How ridiculous—the same people argued—is it for woman to study history, mathematics, philosophy, and chemistry, which are not only superior to the assimilating power of her deficient brain, but will make her presumptuous and arrogant and convert her into a hybrid being without grace or strength, intolerable and fatuous, with a beautiful, but empty head and a big, but dry heart! ”

“ But that is not woman as she should be; the woman that our century has redeemed from ignorance and slavery; the woman whom God has endowed with an intellect, a will and a heart, hers to cultivate and perfect in order that she may be not the servant of man, but his companion, not the subject of the king, but the queen enthroned by his side, to be his faithful and constant ally from the cradle to the grave, in prosperity and adversity, not only in the intimacy of the home, but also in the wide arena of public life. ”

“ To me, these precepts indicate that man and woman have duties towards others, that they have duties towards their fellow-beings, and that they must not confine their efforts towards happiness to the home, but extend them beyond it, to society. Will you tell me whether there can be happiness in the homes if society is not happy, seeing that society is nothing but the extension and sum of all the homes, and that all the suffering and evils that afflict society find their echo in the home, just as the happiness of the home exercises an influence upon the happiness of society? ”

“ Y estas niñas de hoy que adoran en Rizal y que le dedican sus cantos y oraciones, mañana se convertirán en las ciudadanas, que no serán, como la infeliz Maria Clara, víctimas de las injusticias sociales, sino reparadoras de ellas, y sublimes propagadoras del bien, de la virtud de la gloria y grandeza de su patria.
Sí; abrigo esa esperanza, tengo fé en la libertad de la mujer. No puede permanecer una mitad de la humanidad en la parte superior y otra mitad en la parte inferior de la escala sin producirse desequilibrios, lágrimas y sufrimientos. ”

“ Female suffrage is the consequence of the education of woman; it is also the consequence of her liberty of conscience. The vote is the expression of political faith, just as worship is the expression of religious faith. There is no more reason for keeping woman from the ballot box than there is for preventing her from going to church.
There is no reason why suffrage should be a privilege of sex, considering that the duties of citizenship rest as heavily upon woman as upon man. Is woman under less obligation to strive for the welfare and future of her country because she is a woman? ”

“ In the first place it is a mistake to conclude that the participation of woman in public life will result in rivalry between the sexes. The attraction and sympathy between man and woman springs precisely from the difference in sex. If there were only men or only women, there might be such a thing as our mutually destroying each other, because there would be no purpose in life and the human race would not reproduce itself. It is in the interest of one sex not to destroy the other. On the other hand, politics is not always a personal struggle. ”

“ La instrucción y la educación tienen un doble fin: el individual, que redime la inteligencia humana de los peligros de la ignorancia, y el social, que prepara al hombre y a la mujer a cumplir los deberes de una buena ciudadanía. No se educa uno exclusivamente para su propio bien sino principalmente para ser útil y servir a los demás. El mayor peligro que existe para la sociedad es el hombre instruído que sólo piensa en sí mismo, porque su instrucción misma le da mayor poder para hacer daño y sacrificar a todos a su conveniencia, o su ambición personal. ”

“ O si no, esta otra: que la mujer no está por naturaleza llamada a luchar con el hombre en la vida pública; que el hombre por razón de esa lucha dejará de considerarla como un ser digno de adoración, un sagrado ídolo ante cuyos pies se arrodilla, sino que verá en ella a una rival a quien hay que combatir y anular para la propia conservación, y con ello la mujer no sólo arrastraría la nítida sampaguita de su virtud en el lodo de la vida política, sino perdería, además, la estimación, el respeto y las consideraciones, de los cuales se ve rodeada en la actualidad. ”

“ Would it not be perfectly ridiculous to declaim against the aeroplane on account of the accidents that are liable to occur, and would we not be stupid to refuse to follow the lead of other governments who utilize its advantages for defence or aggression in war and for rapid communication in time of peace? And is it not just as stupid and even senseless to oppose suffragism on speculative or rather hypothetical grounds, instead of being guided by the experience of other countries in this respect and accepting suffragism as part and parcel of our modern customs and institutions? ”

“ Se ha creído que la mujer debe reducir toda su esfera de acción al hogar a la vida doméstica, ser absolutamente la gloria y el encanto [53] de su esposo y de sus hijos; y no es así, pues que la mujer tanto como el hombre, nace en la sociedad y vive dentro de ella, y no puede, no debe ser indiferente a las miserías y las desgracias sociales. Pensar de otro modo sería egoísmo y aberración, y dejaría a la sociedad abandonada a muchos sufrimientos que solo la mano bendita de la mujer puede curar o acallar al menos. ”

“ El sufragio femenino es consecuencia de la educación de la mujer; es consecuencia, también, de su libertad de conciencia. Por el voto se expresa la fé política, como por el culto la fé religiosa. No hay razón para impedirle a la mujer el acceso a las urnas como no la hay para privarla de ir al templo.
No hay razón para que el sufragio sea un privilegio de sexo, puesto que los deberes de ciudadanía pesan tanto sobre el hombre como sobre la mujer. ¿Es que la mujer, por serlo, está menos obligada a velar por los intereses de la Patria, por la felicidad y el porvenir de su país? ”

“ And the girls who to-day pay homage to Rizal and dedicate their songs and prayers to him, will to-morrow be citizenesses who will not, like unhappy Maria Clara, be made the victims of social injustice, but will help to banish social injustice and strive for justice, virtue, and the glory and greatness of their native land.
Yes; I cherish that hope and have faith in the liberty of woman. It is not possible to keep one-half of humanity in the upper part and the other half in the lower part of the balance without producing disequilibrium, tears, and suffering. ”

“ Why should we fear that woman will leave the flower of her charms on the brambles of politics if she listens to a political speaker, after having listened to sermons all her life, or if she herself makes a speech giving her opinions on some subject of interest to the family, on the necessity of remedying some social evil or of providing a home for abandoned and indigent children? ”

“ How are we to inculcate in our children, that sacred pledge of the future of the nation, the cult and [7] worship of native land and liberty if we do not give their mothers that practical education involved in the exercise of the right of suffrage; if they are taught that government and politics are strange gods at whose shrines they are forbidden to worship; if they feel upon themselves the stigma of inferiority, of being incapacitated from speaking to their children about the public affairs and the interests of the nation and the State? ”

“ Si la política es una noble ocupación de la vida, ciencia y arte de hacer la felicidad de los pueblos, justo es que la mujer contribuya con cuanto quiera y con cuanto pueda a lograr esa felicidad.
¿Qué duda cabe que la mujer tiene facultades, sentimientos, puntos de vista y métodos propios para hacer las cosas, diferentes del hombre? ¡Cuántas veces se ha visto que cuando un hombre no se ha atrevido a hacer una cosa se ha dejado obrar a la mujer para conseguirla! ”

“ El hombre y la mujer han sido hechos para unirse, comprenderse y amarse, para estar juntos siempre a trabajar, sufrir y luchar por cuanto hay de bueno y de bello en la vida, para afirmar el reinado de la pareja humana sobre el planeta y hacer de él una habitación digna y feliz, libre de tiranías y sufrimientos y apta para ser vivida por séres pacíficos e inteligentes y no por buitres y otras fieras voraces. ”

“ El sufragio no hará menos hermosos los cabellos largos de la mujer, ni empalidecerá la rosa de sus mejillas y de sus labios ni hará menos graciosas las curvas de su talle, por el contrario la imprimirá una gracia adicional—la de saber escribir una balota con su pequeña letra—y mientras sea así, el hombre guardará siempre para ella aquel tesoro de amor, de ternura y de adoración que en todas partes y en todos tiempos y por los siglos de los siglos inspirará la idea de la gracia y de la belleza. ”

“ The suffragist is a true product of our era of liberty. Having received the same education as man, she knows and does not shirk her responsibilities towards her family; but at the same time she is free from prejudice and deems it her duty to coöperate with man in all work concerning social reform and the public welfare of the community in which she lives. She believes that for the very reason that there are duties in the home which are assigned to woman, she has also duties to perform in public life. ”

“ Hasta que el hombre y la mujer no se encuentren en un perfecto nivel, en un plano completo de igualdad según sus naturalezas respectivas de modo que pueda haber una comunión íntima de pensamientos, afectos e intereses, la vida será siempre ominosa y miserable para el uno o para la otra, y la Humanidad no [46] triunfará de sus presentes desdichas. La criatura femenina ha salido de la mano de Dios tan perfecta como el hombre y no es justo privarla de ninguna de las satisfacciones y ventajas que al hombre proporcionan las ciencias, las artes y la política. ”

“ Has woman ever been criticised for her assiduous attendance of the religious services and the public performance of her religious duties in crowded churches, in the public streets, filled with tumultuous throngs of people, marching in a procession behind some saint, jostled about and exposed to disagreeable incidents, which she bears with resignation because she suffers them for the cause of the public confession of her faith? ”

“ I have the most profound respect for all men and women who honestly believe this to be the case. It is not their fault that they believe that what has always been so is the best. They do not realize that life is motion and that the new elements of life and character which are being imperceptibly introduced into society demand changes and innovations. Society can not become stagnant, otherwise it runs the risk of becoming like stagnant water, which generates pestilential miasma. The theory that woman exists for the home alone has been a dead issue for some time past. ”

“ If our action as legislators must be inspired by the eternal sources of right, if the laws passed here must comply with the divine precept to give everybody his due, then we can not deny woman the right to vote, because to do otherwise would be to prove false to all the precepts and achievements of democracy and liberty which have made this century what may be properly called the century of vindication. ”

“ En primer lugar, es un error el considerar que la intervención de la mujer en la vida pública dará por resultado la rivalidad de los dos sexos. La atracción y simpatía entre el hombre y la mujer nace precisamente de la oposición del sexo: si no hubiera más que puramente hombres o puramente mujeres, acaso sería posible pensar que se destruirían porque no tendría objeto la vida ni la especie humana se reproduciría. De modo que en el interés de un sexo está el no destruir al otro sexo. La política, por otro lado, no es siempre una lucha personal ”

“ Man and woman were created to mate and to understand and love each other, to work, suffer, and struggle side by side for all that is good and beautiful in life, to perpetuate the sovereignty of human couple on earth, and to make it a place of happiness, free from tyranny and suffering and fit to be inhabited by peaceful and intelligent beings and not by vultures and wild beasts. ”

“ And you try to deny to woman the right to take a part in political affairs, to enlighten the electorate with regard to the fatal results of gambling or cast her vote for the candidate who promises to secure the passage of measures against it? And why should the opinion of woman on issues like this not have as much weight as that of man? Should it not be given greater weight, it being she who suffers the consequences and results of the evil? ”

“ Politics is no longer what it should be; it has become too masculine and is brutal, selfish, and altogether too personal, because it lacks the kindness, the self-denial, the altruism, and the spirit of sacrifice which are characteristic qualities of the feminine sex. Why should we not benefit by the energy of woman, by her impulses and her views of things, in order to improve our practices and methods in public life? ”

“ We are terrified by the idea that the impulsiveness of woman and her fanaticism and narrow-mindedness, according to some, her weakness and lack of character, according to others, and her unpreparedness and deficient culture, according to still others, will make female suffrage a mere farce and will convert it into a tool for certain elements and interests. My opinion is that all these impulses, sentiments, weaknesses, and imperfections of woman are due to nothing but to the seclusion in which she has been kept. ”

“ Everything tends to reach the same level in life, the same as in death, the great leveller. Humanity has seen a new light which will shine brightly, though error and prejudice may endeavor to shroud it with darkness. Woe to those who refuse to see the light! The world continues to progress and stops for no one. He who wishes to lag behind is free to do so, but he will surely deplore it afterwards.
I can not prophesy what will be the outcome of the efforts which the Filipino women are now making to obtain suffrage ”

“ God made woman as perfect as man, and it is unjust to deprive her of any of the benefits and advantages which man derives from science, arts, and politics. Politics is a noble occupation, as it is the art or science of making nations happy, and it is but just that woman should contribute her share to the attainment of that happiness.
Is there any doubt that woman has faculties, sentiments, views, and methods of doing things of her own, different from those of man? How often has man, when he did not dare to do a thing, left it to woman to do! ”