What was it like in the world of Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara?   Were the images of saints really dressed up as it was described in Kapitan Tiago’s collection?  What are the towns around the lake where the picnic was held, and was it the same lake where Ibarra and Elias were chased?  These questions can be answered by taking a tour of the laketowns -- Antipolo, Morong, Paete, Lumban, and Calamba, Rizal’s hometown -- and a visit to Fort Santiago, Casa Manila, and San Agustin Church in Intramuros.

For students in Manila, the tour could start at Intramuros (inside the walls), which was originally the center of the Spanish colonial administration until it was eventually extended outside the walls.   From the “walled city” grew the suburbs that became known as Old Manila, which included Ermita and Binondo, where Kapitan Tiago’s banquet in Chapter 1 of the Noli me tángere was held. [click here]  Malacañan was the residence of the Governor-General, built by the banks of the Pasig River that was an important artery for water transportation at that time.

Casa Manila could very well have been a house where the affluent natives like Kapitan Tiago had lived.  It does not have an azotea but it has a small balcony at the back from which one can look down at a little fountain in the middle of a patio around which the rest of the house is clustered.  Most of the furniture, the décor, musical instruments, and the accoutrements of the bedrooms, living room, and dining room are typical of the period, but the toilet has a rather curious construction.  The toilet is not so big but there are two lacquered wooden toilet seats connected by a board that seems to have been cut from the same plank.  One wonders whether two people play chess or dama as they do their toilet business together. 

Today San Agustin Church is as much a museum as the large room that holds its numerous antique religious and historical collections.  The altar and pulpit of the church is resplendent with the baroque décor that was typical of the time.  No wonder the church has become a favorite venue for fashionable weddings.  Among the museum collections are wooden and plaster images of saints almost all of which are dressed in satin and velvet heavily embroidered with gold and silver threads.  Some of the images are mounted on the “carosa”, the wagon on which was an elaborately decorated platform for the image, just as these would have been included in the religious processions during fiestas and high holidays. 

From Intramuros, the tour could proceed to Antipolo where people make a pilgrimage to its patron saint, “Our Lady of Peace and Prosperous Voyage”, as  Kapitan Tiago and his kind had done in their time.  Rizal’s droll description of Kapitan Tiago’s devotion to this saint may be a bit exaggerated, but it does mirror the attitude of many people towards saints

The saint to whom he promised the most, and whose promises he was the most faithful in fulfilling, was the Virgin of Antipolo, Our Lady of Peace and Prosperous Voyages. With many of the lesser saints he was not very punctual or even decent; and sometimes, after having his petitions granted, he thought no more about them, though of course after such treatment he did not bother them again, when occasion arose. Capitan Tiago knew that the calendar was full of idle saints who perhaps had nothing wherewith to occupy their time up there in heaven. Furthermore, to the Virgin of Antipolo he ascribed greater power and efficiency than to all the other Virgins combined, whether they carried silver canes, naked or richly clothed images of the Christ Child, scapularies, rosaries, or girdles. Perhaps this reverence was owing to the fact that she was a very strict Lady, watchful of her name, and, according to the senior sacristan of Antipolo, an enemy of photography. When she was angered she turned black as ebony, while the other Virgins were softer of heart and more indulgent. It is a well-known fact that some minds love an absolute monarch rather than a constitutional one, as witness Louis XIV and Louis XVI, Philip II and Amadeo I. This fact perhaps explains why infidel Chinese and even Spaniards may be seen kneeling in the famous sanctuary; what is not explained is why the priests run away with the money of the terrible Image, go to America, and get married there. (Chapter 6, Noli me tángere)

Click Here for the Text in Context

The Morong Church

Next stop would be Morong which, although not mentioned in the novel, has a church at least a few centuries old, with its massive walls still intact and one can imagine how the church must have been used as a refuge from the piratical Moro raids.  From the church tower, one could view the whole of Laguna de Bai.  The lake is often called Laguna Bay, which is quite wrong because “bai” that means “lady” was anglicised into “bay” which is a sea inlet almost in the shape of a half moon.  Laguna (lake) de Bai, therefore, means the lake of the lady that must have been a reference to Mariang Makiling, the diwata of the Mt. Makiling overlooking the lake [click here].  This, then, is the lake in Chapter 23 where the trip of Ibarra and Maria Clara together with their friends, escorted by the mothers and aunts, naturally, was so charmingly described.  Elias and Ibarra had an encounter with a cayman (a kind of crocodile) that almost cost Elias his life.  The group went to the lake before dawn on a Sunday and Rizal took this as another opportunity to attack hypocrisy:

The old women did not want to visit the other corral but wished to return, saying that the day had begun inauspiciously and that many more accidents might occur. "All because we didn't hear mass," sighed one.

"But what accident has befallen us, ladies?" asked Ibarra. "The cayman seems to have been the only unlucky one."

"All of which proves," concluded the ex-student of theology, "that in all its sinful life this unfortunate reptile has never attended mass--at least, I've never seen him among the many other caymans that frequent the church."

Click here for the text in Context

Today, there are no longer caymans in Laguna de Bai, and the big fish corrals of wealthy owners had diminished the area from which small fishermen can make a living.  Sadly, the lake is no longer as clean as it was in Ibarra’s time.  Industrial wastes from factories nearby have grossly polluted it and organic wastes have made the lake one huge garbage bin.  Even so, it has remained beautiful.  A small restaurant called the “Dalampasigan” is built right on the shore behind the municipal hall of Los Baños, with half of the dining hall extending about 10 meters to the water.  The tour group can make a brief stop here for an afternoon snack before the last stop at the Rizal shrine in Calamba.  In the afternoon light, one does not need much fantasy to imagine how the merry group of Ibarra and Maria Clara had enjoyed the ride in the “two large bankas fastened together and picturesquely adorned with garlands of flowers, leaves, and ruined cotton of many colors. Little paper lanterns hung from an improvised canopy amid flowers and fruits.”

The church in Calamba, the municipal hall behind it, and the public market nearby make up the classic formation of towns during the Spanish period, but it is no longer the “town center” which has followed the commercial area near the national highway.  Right next to the church is the Rizal shrine, which is maintained by the National Historical Institute.  This means that the Rizal-Mercado family must have been wealthy enough to afford such a location.   The architectural style of Rizal family home is very similar to that of Casa Manila and many other old houses that can still be found in Calamba and Lumban in Laguna, as well as in some towns of Quezon Province like Tiaong, Candelaria, and Lucban.  At the back of the house is a grove that must have had fruit trees and flowering shrubs during Rizal’s lifetime, where the tour group can have an hour of recalling the tour’s highlights.

If there is enough time, the tour can have side trips to the towns of Lumban and Paete.  Lumban is the center for the manufacture of jusi and piña cloths that are made into dresses, barong tagalog, mestiza dress, fans, handkerchiefs, and even tablecloths and matching napkins.  Paete is, of course, famous for its woodcarvings.