El Filibusterismo (El Fili) – Chapter 21
Chapter Title: Manila Characters
Setting: Evening, Teatro de Variedades
Characters:
- Camaroncocido
- Tio Quico
- Padre Salvi
- Simoun
- Tadeo
- Tadeo’s Townmate
- Pepay
- Ben Zayb
- Padre Irene
- Paulita Gomez
- Dona Victorina
- Juanito Pelaez
- Don Custodio
- Macaraig
- Pecson
- Sandoval
- Isagani
- Mr. Jouy (mentioned)
- Padre Camorra (mentioned)
- Capitan General (mentioned)
- Chinaman Quiroga (mentioned)
- Basilio (mentioned)
Plot:
On the play’s opening night, people gather outside the theater.
Chapter Summary:
Mr Jouy’s French operetta company is giving the first performance of Les Cloches de Corneville. By 7:30 pm there are no more tickets and people are angry.
Camaroncocido and Tio Quico are talking. Tio Quico’s job is to advertise the show by announcing shows and pasting theater posters. Tio Quico shows Camaroncocido some pesos, but he doesn’t care. Camaroncocido says that the friars will still earn more, because all admission tickets were bought by convents.
Friars like Padre Salvi, Padre Camorra, and Padre Irene protested against the performances. Ben Zayb defended them only because he wanted free tickets. Don Custodio was against the performance because he thought that there would be obscenities in French.
But the military and the government want to watch the performances, and so do those who want to pass themselves off as ilustrados. Two factions have formed: pro-operettas (made up of single people) and anti-operettas (who are made up of people described as “free and attractive”).
There were a lot of insults from both sides and rumors about Indios rebelling, but the performances were allowed. Padre Salvi issued a letter that was not read (by anyone except the printer’s proofreader). People gossiped that Capitan General, Chinaman Quiroga and Simoun were involved in getting the performances to push through.
As the play neared the opening, people started learning French. Ben Zayb was appointed as critic and translator of the story plot. Ben Zayb was nervous because he didn’t know French, and was traumatized by an incident wherein he translated the name of a tenor of the Italian Opera Company wrong, so another columnist called him an ignoramus.
Camaroncocido tells Tio Quico that the friars seeking to ban the play made it more popular than Tio Quico’s ads did. Tio Quico asks if Padre Salvi will cause him to lose his job. Camaroncocido says “maybe”. Tio Quico wonders if he should become a friar.
Camaroncocido walks around and sees men with dark faces, wearing coats (“as though they had put on coats for the first time”) and hiding in the shadows. He wonders if they are secret police or thieves but tells himself that he does not care.
Camaroncocido sees four or five people talking to a soldier. He thinks it’s the secret police. The soldier talks to more suspicious people and approaches the carriage. Camaroncocido recognizes Simoun.
Simoun says “The signal is a shot” and says that if the soldier follows his instructions he will be rewarded, so he should be ready. The carriage leaves. Camaroncocido knows something is being planned but just shrugs. He walks around again and sees Padre Salvi talking to someone.
Padre Salvi tells someone that the friars have more power than Capitan General so that if they do well they will be rich. He also says that the signal is a shot.
Camaron decides not to care.
More people arrive.
Tadeo is showing around a townmate and claiming to know personally everyone who arrives. He tells his townmate that everyone he recognizes is important (even though they may just be a shop attendant) and if someone ignores him, he claims that person is a nobody. He invents stories about the people passing by to impress his townmate.
Tadeo points out Pepay, and says she no longer dances because a Catholic senor forbade it. He also points at Ben Zayb and says he is a good writer. The townmate keeps asking who the people are and Tadeo notices Paulita Gomez with a friend, accompanied by Dona Victorina and Juanito Pelaez.
Juanito Pelaez had given them a box in the theater. Tadeo is briefly distracted by Paulita Gomez but goes back to pointing out people. He calls out Padre Irene disguised in a false mustache because his nose is recognizable. Padre Irene is in disguise because he publicly opposed the play.
Tadeo points out many people but their names are not mentioned. He sees a poet, a physician and a businessman who is Indio but has daughters who are white-skinned. The townmate asks about this and
Tadeo explains that is why rice is more expensive, but they eat nothing but bread.
Tadeo sees Don Custodio, who is frowning because he is thinking of a project. Tadeo sees Macaraig, whom his townmate lives with. Macaraig is with Pecson, Sandoval and Isagani. Macaraig asks if they are coming and Tadeo says they could not get tickets. Macaraig invites them to his box because Basilio cannot come. The townmate is shy and refuses to join, because he is shy (like most provincial Indios).
Trivia:
- Tadeo points out many unnamed people, who have similar traits to the main characters:
- Poet T – talented but “has thrown away his pen”; Isagani is commonly described as poet.
- Physician U – invented many cures; Basilio aspires to be a physician.
- Businessman F – wants to be mestizo; Don Custodio shows the same behavior.
- Tadeo also recognizes someone referred to as “the lover”. He is a young man who does not eat Filipino food because he wants to be like the Spaniards. He ate a jar of mustard to prove he was European and Basilio saved him from gastritis. This man is not mentioned again and the reason for his character being included is unknown.
Quotes:
Camaroncocido: You see, Quico, half of the public came because the friars said they should not – it is a kind of demonstration – and the other half because they said to themselves, ‘Do the friars prohibit it? Then it must be instructive.’
Camaroncocido: What was it [to him] if the heavens fell?
Tadeo: I never ask for favors! I endow them, but disinterestedly.
