Touch Me Not (Mint Editions (Voices From API))

Touch Me Not (1887) is a novel by José Rizal. Published in Berlin, the novel was originally conceived as a collaborative project to be written by a group of Filipino nationalist writers living in Madrid. Disappointed in his comrades’ lack of engagement, however, Rizal wrote the novel alone, blending aspects of his own life story with his critique of Spanish imperialism in the Philippines. Banned by Spanish authorities, the novel was smuggled into his home country, where it quickly galvanized Rizal’s fellow nationalists in opposition to the Spanish Empire. Returning home to Laguna province after seven years in Europe, Crisóstomo Ibarra, a young mestizo man, attempts to pick up the pieces following the death of his father. Noticing some hostility from Padre Dámaso, a local curate who had long been a friend of his family, Crisóstomo soon learns that his father’s death may not have been an accident after all. Focusing on his goal of building a school for the local children, Crisóstomo longs to do justice to Don Rafael Ibarra’s legacy. When he goes to visit his grave, however, he is told by the groundskeeper that his father’s body was moved to a local Chinese burial ground following an order by Padre Dámaso. As the story unfolds, a vast web of conspiracy involving Spanish authorities and Filipino revolutionaries threatens Crisóstomo’s life while testing the limits of his loyalty to family and nation alike.

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José Rizal (1861-1896) was a Filipino poet, novelist, sculptor, painter, and national hero. Born in Calamba, Rizal was raised in a mestizo family of eleven children who lived and worked on a farm owned by Dominican friars. As a boy, he excelled in school and won several poetry contests. At the University of Santo Tomas, he studied philosophy and law before devoting himself to ophthalmology upon hearing of his mother’s blindness. In 1882, he traveled to Madrid to study medicine before moving to Germany, where he gave lectures on Tagalog. In Heidelberg, while working with pioneering ophthalmologist Otto Becker, Rizal finished writing his novel Touch Me Not (1887). Now considered a national epic alongside its sequel The Reign of Greed (1891), Touch Me Not is a semi-autobiographical novel that critiques the actions of the Catholic Church and Spanish Empire in his native Philippines. In 1892, he returned to Manila and founded La Liga Filipina, a secret organization dedicated to social reform. Later that year, he was deported to Zamboanga province, where he built a school, hospital, and water supply system. During this time, the Katipunan, a movement for liberation from Spanish rule, began to take shape in Manila, eventually resulting in the Philippine Revolution in 1896. For his writing against colonialism and association with active members of Katipunan, Rizal was arrested while traveling to Cuba via Spain. On December 30, 1896, he was executed by firing squad on the outskirts of Manila and buried in an unmarked grave.