Early life (1850–1880) and birthplace in Bulacán, Bulacan. Marcelo H. del Pilar was born at his family's ancestral home in sitio Cupang, barrio San Nicolás,
Bulacán,
Bulacan, on August 30, 1850. He was baptized as "Marcelo Hilario" on September 4, 1850, at the
Iglesia Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion in Bulacán. Fr. D. Tomas Yson, a Filipino secular priest, performed the baptism, and Lorenzo Alvir, a distant relative, acted as the
godfather. "Hilario" was the original paternal surname of the family. The surname of Marcelo's paternal grandmother, "del Pilar", was added to comply with the
naming reforms of
Governor-General Narciso Clavería in 1849. Marcelo's father, Julián Hilario del Pilar (1812-1906), was the son of José Hilario del Pilar and María Roqueza. Don Julián was a famous
Tagalog grammarian, writer, and speaker. In the municipality of Bulacán, he served as a "three-time"
gobernadorcillo of the town's
pueblo (1831, 1854, 1864-1865) and later held the position of
oficial de mesa of the
alcalde mayor. In the early 1830s, Julián met and married Blasa Gatmaitán (1814-1872?), a descendant of an ancient Tagalog nobility. Known as "Doña Blasica", she was the daughter of Nicolas Gatmaitan and Cerapia De Torres. Fernando (father of
Gregorio del Pilar), Andrea, Dorotea, Estanislao, Juan, Hilaria (married to
Deodato Arellano), Valentín, Marcelo, and María. From an early age, del Pilar learned the
violin, the
piano, and the
flute. He also mastered the
palasan or rattan cane. In the mid-1850s, del Pilar received early education from his paternal uncle Alejo del Pilar. He pursued his
segunda enseñanza at the
Colegio de San Juan de Letran under the tutelage of Sr. Mamerto Natividad. The subjects he took there were:
Poetry,
Doctrina Christiana,
Spanish grammar,
Latin grammar, Elements of
Rhetoric, and Principles of
Urbanidad. From July 8, 1865 to January 12, 1866, del Pilar studied under Sr. José Flores in
Binondo. Afterward, he enrolled at the
Universidad de Santo Tomás to study
Philosophy. There, del Pilar earned: (1867-1868) Psychology,
Fair; Logic,
Fair; Moral Philosophy,
Fair; Natural History,
Good; Arithmetic,
Notablemente; Algebra,
Very Good; (1868-1869) Metaphysics 1,
Very Good; (1869-1870) Metaphysics 2,
Very Good; (1870-1871) Physics,
Good. In 1869, del Pilar quarreled with the parish priest of
San Miguel over exorbitant baptismal fees. Shortly after the incident, the judge, Sr. Félix García Gavieres, sent del Pilar to
Carcel y Presidio Correccional. He was released after thirty days. Afterward, he resumed his studies at the Universidad de Santo Tomás. He obtained his
Bachiller en Filosofía on February 16, 1871. Four and a half months later, on July 2, 1871, del Pilar pursued
law. In late 1871, del Pilar joined a group of intellectuals in Manila. They gathered at Sr. Enrique Genato's
almacén, where they frequently talked about the
friars, affairs of the Philippines, liberty of nations, fall of the
Carlists,
insurrections, and
wars. On the night of January 20, 1872, the
Cavite Mutiny broke out at the arsenal of
Fort San Felipe. Del Pilar was living with Fr. Mariano V. Sevilla, a Filipino priest who supported the
secularization movement in the 1860s and early 1870s. As punishment, Fr. Toribio was tortured and dragged from Malolos to Bulacán. Del Pilar begged the authorities to allow his brother to see their sick mother. As expected, they ignored del Pilar and continued with their barbaric actions. On March 14, 1872, Fr. Toribio and Fr. Sevilla were deported to the Mariana Islands along with other Filipino patriots. Out of school, del Pilar worked as
oficial de mesa in
Pampanga (1874–1875) and
Quiapo (1878–1879). In 1876, he resumed his law studies at the Universidad de Santo Tomás. In law school, del Pilar earned: (1871-1872) Canon Law 1,
Fair; Roman Law 1,
Very Good; (1873-1874) Canon Law 2,
Fair; Roman Law 2,
Excellent; (1876-1877) Civil and Mercantile Law,
Very Good; (1877-1878) Extension of Civil Law and Spanish Civil Codes,
Very Good; Penal Law,
Very Good; (1878-1879) Public Law,
Fair; Administrative Law,
Fair; Colonial Legislation,
Fair; Economics,
Fair; Political and Statistics,
Fair; (1879-1880) Judicial Procedures,
Excellent; Practice and Oratory Forensics 1,
Excellent; Elements of General Literature and Spanish Literature,
Excellent. No grades were recorded for the years 1880-1881 as del Pilar took six months leave. During this time he became active in exposing the existing conditions of the Philippines. Del Pilar attended many events such as
funeral wakes, baptismal parties,
weddings, town fiestas, and cockfights in the
cockpits. Using the Tagalog language, he would talk to different kinds of people like laborers, farmers, fishermen, professionals, and businessmen. In his house in Trozo,
Tondo, del Pilar preached nationalistic and patriotic ideas to the young students of Manila.
Mariano Ponce, a high school student at the time, was one of his active listeners. Other listeners who would later become his disciples were Briccio Pantas, Numeriano Adriano, and
Apolinario Mabini.
Anti-friar activities in the Philippines (1880–1888) Del Pilar was one of the leading figures of the Philippine anti-friar movement in the late 19th century. After the deportation of his brother in 1872, he worked to destroy the
friars' authority and influence on the country's affairs. In
La Soberanía Monacal en Filipinas (Monastic Supremacy in the Philippines), del Pilar explained how the friars dominated the economic and political life of the colony: before the earthquake that tore down its clock tower in 1863. This was one of the sites of del Pilar's anti-friar activities. Del Pilar, together with Basilio Teodoro Morán and
Pascual H. Poblete, founded the short-lived
Diariong Tagalog (Tagalog Newspaper) on June 1, 1882.
Diariong Tagalog was the first bilingual newspaper in the Philippines and was financed by the wealthy Spanish liberal Francisco Calvo y Múñoz. Del Pilar became the editor of the Tagalog section.
José Rizal's essay,
El Amor Patrio, was featured in the
Diariong Tagalog on August 20, 1882. Del Pilar translated it into
Tagalog language,
Ang Pagibig sa Tinubúang Lupà (Love for the Native Land).
Diariong Tagalog later experienced financial difficulties and on October 31, 1882, the newspaper ceased publication. In early 1884, an election for the
gobernadorcillo position was held in the city of
Malolos. With the support of the liberal Spanish officials of the town, del Pilar and his group managed to elect their candidate, Mariano Crisóstomo, against the candidates supported by the friar-curate. On March 6 of the same year, a
Royal Decree which called for the abolition of the
tributo was issued. The people who collected the tributes, the
cabezas de barangay, were the ones who suffered from this unjust taxation system. They were forced to follow the inaccurate and bloated
parochial lists of the friars. They were also obliged to pay for the excess individuals in the mentioned lists. As a result, most of the
cabezas became penniless. On June 30 of the same year, another tax reform was introduced in the Philippines. Sr. Chinchilla, the
intendant of finance, proposed a set of regulations (Articles 52 and 53) which prohibited the friars from altering the tax lists of the
cabezas de barangay. Despite the massive support it received, its implementation did not last long. Sr. Chinchilla, after leaving his office, was immediately replaced by Sr. Luna, a pro-friar. The citizens of Malolos, particularly del Pilar, denounced Sr. Luna's measures, and shortly after the latter canceled Sr. Chinchilla's regulations, the whole townsfolk protested. The
cabezas and the priest argued about the legal terminology of
asesorar (to advise), but the latter, Fr. Felipe García, resolved the matter by declaring
asesorar (to advise) as
confrontar (to confront). On July 16, 1885, the
cabezas and the parish priest clashed again. The
cabezas interpreted
confrontar as
cotejar (to compare) while Fr. García declared
confrontar as
copiar (to copy). Refusing to copy the parochial lists, the
cabezas appealed to Vicente Pardo y Bonanza, the
alcalde mayor. Sr. Pardo rejected their plea, and like Sr. Luna, took the side of the friars. Despite these setbacks, del Pilar and his group managed to expand their anti-friar activities to Manila and nearby provinces. In 1887, during the upcoming
fiesta of
Our Lady of the Rosary in
Binondo, a conflict arose between the
gremio de naturales (Native guild), the
gremio de chinos (Chinese guild), and the
gremio de mestizos de sangley (Chinese mestizo guild). The
gobernadorcillo de naturales (native governor) of Binondo, Timoteo Lanuza, wanted the friar-curate of Binondo, Fr.
José Hevía de Campomanes, to prioritize the natives over the Chinese in the fiesta. Fr. Hevía, who sided with the Chinese, did not allow Lanuza's request. According to Fr. Hevía, the Chinese and the mestizos should lead the fiesta, because of their past contributions to the construction of the
Binondo Church. On September 30, 1887, Lanuza, with the secret assistance of del Pilar and
José Centeno García (the civil governor of Manila), wrote a petition to Governor-General
Emilio Terrero, demanding the natives' right to manage the fiesta. Terrero, a liberal and anti-clerical, approved the petition. He decreed that the
gobernadorcillos de naturales should lead all public functions in the country. Embittered by Terrero's decision, Fr. Hevía did not attend the celebration. Most of the attendees of the fiesta were the natives and the
gobernadorcillos de naturales of Manila. Insulted by Fr. Hevía's action, Terrero removed him as friar-curate of Binondo. All the
gobernadorcillos of the Chinese and the mestizos were also removed. The organizer of the fiesta, Juan Zulueta, relied on the instructions of del Pilar. In October 1887, during a deadly
cholera epidemic, another tension arose between del Pilar's group and the friars. To limit the spread of the epidemic,
Benigno Quiroga y López Ballesteros had issued a
ban against the entry of
cadavers into the churches. In Malolos,
gobernadorcillo Manuel Crisóstomo announced Quiroga's decree by means of a
bellman. Fr. Felipe García, the friar-curate of Malolos, violated the ban, purportedly because of the fees which the church earned from the funeral wakes. In protest, he paraded through the streets of Malolos the corpse of a cholera victim. The authorities and citizens of Malolos were displeased by Fr. García's action; shortly after the parade, a
riot almost broke out. To control the situation, Crisóstomo sought advice from del Pilar. Afterward, Crisóstomo reported to the office of Manuel Gómez Florio, the Spanish governor of Bulacan. Gómez Florio, an ally of del Pilar and the Malolos reformists, ordered the arrest of Fr. García. Other friars who violated the ban were reprimanded by the authorities. (1814–1889) was the 24th Archbishop of Manila who took charge in 1876 until his death in 1889. In early 1888, the friars' power was again challenged by the anti-friar forces. On January 21 that year, a
memorial to establish a school of "Arts, Trades, and Agriculture" was forwarded by del Pilar to the
gobernador civil of Bulacan. Signed by the residents of the
pueblos of the province, this was supported by liberal officials like Terrero, Quiroga, Centeno, Gómez Florio, and Julio Galindo (the captain of the
Guardia Civil). In 1883, the original plan was to establish an
orphan asylum managed by the
Augustinian friars and financed by the government. When the plan was revised to a school of "Arts, Trades, and Agriculture", the Augustinians protested. Quiroga then warned the Augustinians that the project will be managed by the government and not by the church. This angered the Augustinians and the archbishop of Manila even more and they planned to boycott the school's establishment. Despite their efforts, the school of agriculture opened in Manila the following year. This incident was another victory for del Pilar and his group. In 1887 and 1888, del Pilar wrote a series of anti-friar petitions to the colonial authorities and the
Queen Regent. On November 20 and 21, 1887, he wrote the complaints of two
Navotas residents, that of Mateo Mariano and the
gobernadorcillo de naturales of Navotas, to the civil governor. This manifesto, entitled
Viva España! Viva el Rey! Viva el Ejército! Fuera los Frailes! (Long live Spain! Long live the King! Long live the Army! Throw the friars out!), was believed to be written by Cortés and del Pilar. General Antonio Moltó, Terrero's successor, ordered the arrest of the organizers of the anti-friar demonstration, abolished Quiroga's decree on funerals, and pardoned Fr. Hevía for his previous offenses. These measures, however, did not affect del Pilar and his group. They continued their anti-friar activities in Malolos where they managed to elect Vicente Gatmaitán as Manuel Crisóstomo's successor. Fr. José Rodríguez, an Augustinian parish priest, authored a pamphlet entitled
¡Caiñgat Cayó!: Sa mañga masasamang libro,t, casulatan (Beware!: of bad books and writings, 1888). The friar warned the Filipinos that in reading Rizal's
Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not) they commit "mortal sin". On August 3 of the same year, del Pilar wrote
Caiigat Cayó (Be as Slippery as an Eel) under the pen name
Dolores Manapat. It was a reply to Fr. Rodríguez's
¡Caiñgat Cayó!.
Valeriano Weyler succeeded Moltó as the Governor-General of the Philippines. Known as The Butcher, Weyler ordered the arrest and deportation of the participants of the anti-friar demonstration. Even Spanish officials were not spared. A few days after Weyler's arrival, Manuel Gómez Florio, the Spanish governor of Bulacan, was removed from his position. An
arrest warrant was issued against del Pilar, accusing him of being a
filibustero and
heretic. Upon the advice of his friends and relatives, del Pilar left Manila for Spain on October 28, 1888. They also wrote the
Pasióng Dapat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Tauong Babasa sa Calupitán nang Fraile (The Passion that Should Inflame the Hearts of Those Who Read About the Cruelty of the Friars).
Gregorio del Pilar, del Pilar's
nephew, helped distribute these pamphlets in the churches. There was one incident in Malolos, where Gregorio stole copies of Fr. José Rodríguez's
Cuestiones de Sumo Interes (Questions of Supreme Interest) from Fr. Felipe García, who had a habit of distributing counter-revolutionary materials after
mass. These books were set to be distributed after the mass. Gregorio removed the book covers of
Cuestiones de Sumo Interes and pasted Marcelo's pamphlets inside before distributing them after. of the letter written by
Rizal while in
London, dated February 22, 1889, and addressed to del Pilar. Shortly before his departure, del Pilar formed the
Caja de Jesús, María y José. Its objective was to continue
propaganda and provide education to indigent children. He managed it with the help of compatriots
Mariano Ponce, Gregorio Santillán, Mariano Crisóstomo, Pedro Serrano y Lactao, José Gatmaitán, Briccio Pantas,
Teodoro Sandiko,
Apolinario Mabini, Numeriano Adriano, Doroteo Cortés,
Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, Domingo Franco, Mamerto Natividad, Mariano Alejandrino, Marcelino Santos, Modesto Español, Juan Zulueta, Graciano Bautista, Pedro Dandan, and Fr. Rafael Canlapán (the coadjutor of Malolos from 1885 to 1893).
Caja de Jesús, María y José was later discontinued and replaced by
Comité de Propaganda (Committee of Propaganda) in Manila.
Propaganda movement in Spain (1888–1895) Del Pilar arrived in
Barcelona on January 1, 1889. He headed the political section of the
Asociación Hispano-Filipina de Madrid (Hispanic Filipino Association of Madrid), an organization of Filipino and Spanish liberals. On February 17, 1889, del Pilar wrote a letter to Rizal, praising the young women of Malolos for their bravery. These twenty-one young women asked the permission of Governor-General Weyler to allow them to open a night school where they could learn to read and write Spanish. With Weyler's approval and over the objections of Fr. Felipe García, the night school opened in 1889. Del Pilar urged Rizal to write a letter in Tagalog to "
las muchachas de Malolos," adding that it would be "a help for our champions there and in Manila." In his reply to del Pilar, Rizal shared the handwritten manuscript of the
letter he wrote to "
las malolesas." . On April 16, 1889, del Pilar met
Miguel Morayta y Sagrario in Barcelona. Morayta, an anticlerical and follower of
Emilio Castelar, was one of the Spanish liberals who supported the Filipino cause. He was the
History Professor of Rizal at the
Universidad Central de Madrid and Grand Master of Masons of the
Gran Oriente Español. On April 25, 1889, a
banquet honoring Morayta was held by del Pilar and other Filipinos in Spain. In the mid-1889, to further damage the friars' influence and authority in the Philippines, del Pilar and his associates sponsored
Fr. Nicolás Manrique Alonso Lallave, an ex-Dominican friar (now a
Protestant pastor) assigned in
Urdaneta, Pangasinan. Governor-General
Rafael Izquierdo deported Lallave to Spain after the latter supported the 1870 decree of
Segismundo Moret. In 1872, Lallave wrote an inflammatory pamphlet, entitled
Los Frailes en Filipinas (The Friars in the Philippines), wherein he exposed the atrocities of the friars and asked for the termination of the
religious orders. He returned to the Philippines in 1889 to establish a Protestant
chapel in Manila. Del Pilar wanted to help Lallave through Serrano y Lactao and Sandiko, but before help arrived, the priest died of an illness on June 5, 1889. Some scholars believe that the friars
poisoned Lallave. (left) and Eduardo de Lete (center). Photographed in 1890. On December 15, 1889, del Pilar succeeded
Graciano López Jaena as editor of the
La Solidaridad. Under his editorship, the aims of the newspaper expanded. Using propaganda, it pursued the desires for:
assimilation of the Philippines as a province of Spain; removal of the friars and the
secularization of the parishes; freedom of assembly and speech;
equality before the law; and Philippine representation in the
Cortes, the legislature of Spain. A tireless editor, del Pilar wrote under several pseudonyms:
Pláridel,
Maytiyaga,
Patos,
Selong,
M. Calero, In February 1890, del Pilar met a former
Diariong Tagalog colleague, Francisco Calvo y Múñoz. Calvo y Múñoz was one of the Spanish liberals who helped del Pilar in the campaign for the Philippine representation. Calvo y Múñoz's first efforts were on March 3, 1890. At the time he presented to the members of the Cortes an
amendment to Article 25 of the Spanish
Universal Suffrage Bill. Signed by six deputies, Calvo y Múñoz's amendment called for the restoration of the Philippine parliamentary representation and the election of three deputies from the Philippines. Famous Spanish politicians and liberals were present during Calvo y Múñoz's presentation:
Manuel Becerra, the overseas minister under
Práxedes Mateo Sagasta; and Antonio Ramos Calderón, a member of Sagasta's Liberal Party. Both spoke after Calvo y Múñoz's presentation. They praised Calvo y Múñoz's intention to restore the Philippine parliamentary representation; however, the two rejected the amendment's early implementation. Despite their statements and judgments, del Pilar, with the help of the
Asociación Hispano-Filipina de Madrid, held banquets in honor of Calvo y Múñoz, Becerra, and Ramos Calderón. Del Pilar also featured their speeches in the next issue of
La Solidaridad. In a letter dated April 29, 1890, del Pilar said that if Agustín de Burgos y Llamas will succeed Weyler as Governor-General, he may appoint Calvo y Múñoz as the new Director-General of Civil Administration but first the latter should introduce the bill on Philippine representation to the Cortes. Calvo y Múñoz agreed with del Pilar's advice and proposed a more considerate bill the next month. While Calvo y Múñoz was away, del Pilar talked to many deputies to assist in the approval of the bill. On July 3, 1890, the bill's passage was halted after the liberal Sagasta was replaced by the conservative
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo as Prime Minister of Spain. Del Pilar maintained good relations with the Liberals despite the fell of Sagasta. In the late 1890, a rivalry developed between del Pilar and Rizal. This was mainly due to the difference between del Pilar's editorial policy and Rizal's political beliefs. On January 1, 1891, about 90 Filipinos gathered in
Madrid. They agreed that a
Responsable (leader) be elected. Camps were drawn into two, the
Pilaristas and the
Rizalistas. The first voting for the
Responsable started on the first week of February 1891. Rizal won the first two elections but the votes counted for him did not reach the needed two-thirds vote fraction. After Mariano Ponce, instructed by del Pilar, pleaded to the
Pilaristas, Rizal was elected
Responsable. Rizal, knowing the
Pilaristas did not like his political beliefs, respectfully declined the position and transferred it to del Pilar. He then packed up his bags and boarded a train leaving for
Biarritz, France. Inactive in the Reform Movement, Rizal ceased his contribution of articles on
La Solidaridad. After the incident, del Pilar wrote a letter of apology to Rizal. second, he wanted other Filipinos in Spain to work also; and lastly, he could not lead an organization without solidarity in work. Del Pilar and Rizal continued to correspond until the latter's exile to
Dapitan in July 1892. In his later years, del Pilar rejected the assimilationist stand. Writing to his brother-in-law
Deodato Arellano on March 31, 1891, he explained his ultimate goal: On December 11, 1892, Sagasta returned as Prime Minister of Spain with
Antonio Maura as the new overseas minister. On December 15, 1892, and January 15, 1893, del Pilar published two articles on
La Solidaridad, entitled
Ya es tiempo (Is it About Time!) and
Insistimos (We Insist), wherein he reminisced the Liberals' pledges and the amendment introduced by Calvo y Múñoz in 1890. Months later, Maura passed two decrees in the Philippines, all put into effect in 1895. The first decree,
The Royal Decree of May 19, 1893, was a law that laid the basic foundations for
municipal government in the Philippines. It established
tribunales,
municipales and
juntas provinciales. The second decree,
The Royal Decree of February 13, 1894, was known as the
Maura Act and grew out of a proposal made in the 1820s by Manuel Bernaldez, a long-serving colonial official. Its preamble declared that it would "insure to the natives, in the future, whenever it may be possible, the necessary land for cultivation, in accordance with traditional usages." Despite the passage of these laws, talks regarding the Philippine representation were not entertained. In March 1894, Maura resigned as overseas minister and was replaced by Becerra. Becerra, however, became less sympathetic on the representation of the Philippines and the reforms he proposed. Knowing this, del Pilar approached
Emilio Junoy, a friendly deputy and editor-in-chief of
La Publicidad. On February 21, 1895, Junoy presented to the Cortes a petition bearing seven thousand signatures. Two weeks later, on March 8, 1895, Junoy delivered a
speech to the
Spanish Congress wherein he discussed a proposed bill representing the Philippines. On March 23, 1895, Cánovas del Castillo replaced Sagasta again as Prime Minister of Spain thus ending the chances of the bill being implemented. Advised by Mabini, del Pilar stopped the publication of
La Solidaridad on November 15, 1895, with 7 volumes and 160 issues. In del Pilar's farewell editorial, he said:
Later years, illness, and death (1895–1896) Del Pilar contracted
tuberculosis in the spring of 1895. The following year, he decided to return to the Philippines to lead a
revolution. His illness worsened that he had to cancel his journey. According to
Mariano Ponce's account of his death, his last words were: "Please tell my family that I was not able to say goodbye, but that I died with my true friends around me… Pray to God for the good fortune of our country. Continue with your work to attain the happiness and freedom of our beloved country." He was buried the following day in a borrowed grave at the
Cementerio del Sub-Oeste (Southwest Cemetery). Before dying, del Pilar retracted from Masonry and received the
sacraments of the church. ==Reactions after death==