ABSTRACT
The Spanish arrived to establish a colonial presence in what they called the Philippine Islands early in the sixteenth century, marking the earliest onset of large-scale European colonization in Southeast Asia. Jos Rizal spent part of the 1880s and early 1890s studying first in Spain and then in Germany, and it was in the latter country that he published his first novel, Noli Me Tangere, in 1887. The Noli is sprawling work of social commentary that skewers the hypocrisies of the Spanish priests who so dominated local life and society, as well as the absurdities of life in the colony more generally. The economy of religious power is also on display, revealing truths widely understood by the populations of the Philippines. The excerpt reproduced below introduces the center of power in the village of San Diego, showing it to be the parish priest, not the various other secular figures with titles, and not even God himself.
