Name: Tadeo
Sex: M
Race: Indio
Occupation: Student
Aliases:
Affiliations: Students’ Association
Background
Not much is known about Tadeo other than that he is currently a student who is a member of the Students’ Association. He is originally from the province (though his province isn’t revealed) but currently lives in Manila and is a student.
Story
Chapter 12: Tadeo is first introduced, waiting with the other students in UST for classes to start. When he sees Paulita Gomez arrive, he tells his companion to tell the professor he is ill. He follows Paulita Gomez into the church.
Chapter 21: Tadeo arrives at the theater with his townmate, but the two do not have tickets to watch the play. Instead, he points out various people to his townmate and claims to know everyone personally. He lies by recognizing people and calling them important (even though they may just be a shop attendant), and whenever he is ignored, he calls that person a nobody. Tadeo tells his townmate invented stories about the people passing by.
Tadeo recognizes Pepay and Ben Zayb, identifying them to his townmate. Tadeo’s townmate keeps asking who people are. Tadeo is distracted when Paulita Gomez arrives. He recognizes Padre Irene disguised with a fake mustache.
Tadeo describes a businessman to his townmate, saying the man wants to be a Spanish mestizo no matter what. Tadeo’s townmate sees his daughters and notices they are white-skinned. Tadeo explains that that is why rice is more expensive, and that the daughters eat nothing but bread.
Tadeo greets Macaraig who has arrived with Pecson, Sandoval and Isagani. Macaraig finds out that Tadeo could not get tickets so he invites him and his townmate to join them, since Basilio could not come. Tadeo accepts.
Chapter 22: Tadeo sits in Macaraig’s box together with his fellow students. Their box is across Pepay’s and she smiles at them, making them happy because they think she has good news about the petition. When the play starts, Tadeo gets excited and hopes the performers will dance the can-can. The reason he wanted to watch the play was to see the “obscenities” they were warned about. Later, Tadeo recognizes Padre Irene in disguise again, when the character Serpolette smiles at him from on stage.
During the intermission, Tadeo goes to talk to Don Custodio. He returns and Macaraig tells the students the bad news: that a religious corporation will be in charge of the Academy for Spanish. Everyone is disappointed. Macaraig explains that the students’ job is to collect money and give it to a treasurer whom the corporation will choose. Tadeo compares this to being like cabezas de barangay.
The students follow Padre Irene’s advice by celebrating the decision, even though they plan to do it with bitterness. Tadeo says it will be like a banquet of convicts.
Chapter 25: Tadeo is one of the fourteen young men who have dinner at Panciteria Macanista de Buen Gusto. They hold a mock celebration for the disappointing results of the petitio, and laugh and joke with one another to hide their anger. Tadeo tells the rest of the students that they should have invited Basilio since Juanito Pelaez did not even show up, so that Basilio would get drunk and spill secrets.
When a student notices that the surroundings have gone quiet and that people are probably listening to them, Macaraig tells Tadeo to make a speech. Tadeo plagiarizes a speech by the president of the academy and talks about chicken being “the treasure of a people” yet now they are being gluttonous with it. The students make fun of the friars and later on realize that they were being watched by a spy of Padre Sibyla’s.
Chapter 26: The day after the poster incident, Basilio is walking toward University when he sees Tadeo, who looks happy. Tadeo is pleased that there will be no classes because everyone in the Association will be going to jail. Basilio asks him if he is happy, but Tadeo just cheers that there are no classes.
Chapter 28: Tadeo is mentioned by a confectionary shop worker while people are tense because of the poster incident. The worker says that Tadeo owes her money. There are also false rumors that Tadeo was shot.
Chapter 32: It is revealed that Tadeo was suspended from school after being arrested. He reacts by burning his books.
Physical Description
Tadeo’s physical appearance is not described.
Personality
Tadeo’s defining characteristic is his tendency to always miss classes by pretending to be sick. However, as stated in Chapter 12, he is still able to pass his courses and is well-liked by his professors. In Chapter 22, it is revealed that he was the first prize winner of French in his class. Despite this, he is described as lazy, even choosing to plagiarize a speech instead of making his own when he is asked to by the other students. He is usually seen with the other students working to get the petition for the Academy for Spanish approved.
Tadeo is one of the more cheerful students, as he is shown to be happy even after finding out that he is going to be arrested. He enjoys making up stories about people and pretending to recognize prominent figures around town, even lying to his townmate about knowing several people personally. Perhaps the only thing he hates is going to school: this is shown in Chapter 26 when, unlike the other students who are worried and scared of being arrested, he is celebrating that there will be no classes. He appears to quickly accept that he has been suspended by immediately burning his books.
Tadeo appears to have money problems, as shown when he admits to Macaraig that he could not get tickets to the play. In Chapter 28, it is revealed that he also owes a confectionary shop worker some money.
Skills
Charm
Tadeo is talkative and can be very convincing when he wants to be. Because of this, he is well-liked by his professors even though he often misses class. He is able to get his townmate to believe that he personally knows many important people in Manila, by inventing detailed stories and backgrounds about people he sees. During the students’ dinner, he is not ashamed to recite a speech, even if everyone knows it is plagiarized.
Relationships
Beliefs
On Hispanization
Tadeo does not express any strong beliefs about any social issue, but like the other students he is supportive of the petition for the Academy for Spanish, and is disappointed by the results.
Trivia
- Tadeo is not mentioned by name during the meeting at Macaraig’s house, therefore it is not known whether he was there or not.
- Ironically, Tadeo hates going to class but seems to have no problems helping his fellow students start an Academy.
Quotes
“I never ask for favors! I endow them, but disinterestedly.” (Chapter 21)
“We will not have classes for at least a week, chico! Sublime! Magnificent!” (to Basilio, Chapter 26)
