José Rizal

José Rizal was a physician, poet, writer, educator and linguist whose scholarship and literature challenged Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines. He wrote Noli Me Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo in Spanish, exposing colonial oppression through fiction. Charles E. Derbyshire brought both novels to English readers, translating the first as The Social Cancer and rendering the sequel under the alternate title The Reign of Greed. Derbyshire also translated Rizal’s four-part political essay THE PHILIPPINES A CENTURY HENCE for an edition prepared by Austin Craig. The essay first appeared in La Solidaridad in four instalments from 1889 to 1890. Craig also edited the compilation Rizal’s Own Story of His Life. Across the novels and essay, Rizal joined literary form to a direct critique of colonial power.