The

Letters

The following is Rizals letter to his sister Trinidad, which he

wrote in Heidelberg, Germany on March 11, 1886.
MISS TRINIDAD RIZAL
MY DEAR SISTER TRINING,

Since I left our country, I have received only four or five lines
written by your hand, one or two insignificant news about you and
nothing more. I don't know how you are and I cannot imagine your
person. When I left you, you were very small. Now within two months
you are going to be 18 years and in four years I suppose that you
have grown up and you are becoming a young lady. At your age,
German women seem to be 20 or 24 years, as much for their faces as
for their ways. The German woman is serious, studious, and diligent,
and as their clothes do not have plenty of color, and generally they
have only three or four, they do not pay much attention to their
clothes nor to jewels. They dress their hair simply, which is thin, but
beautiful in their childhood. They go everywhere walking so nimbly or
faster than men, carrying their books, their baskets, without minding
anyone and only their own business. As I said to Pangoy, they are
home-loving and they study cooking with as much diligence as they
do music and drawing.

If our sister Mara had been educated in Germany, she would

have been notable, because German women are active and somewhat
masculine. They are not afraid of men. They are more concerned with


It is a pity that there in our country the principal
adornment of all women almost always consists of clothes
and finery rather than of knowledge. In our provinces, women
still preserve a virtue that compensates for their little
instruction - the virtue of industry and tenderness. In no
woman in Europe have I found the latter virtue in such a high
degree as among the women there. If these qualities that
nature gives to the women there were exalted by intellectual
qualities, as it happens in Europe, the Filipino family has
nothing to envy the European. For this reason, now that you
are still young and you have time to learn, it is necessary
that you study by reading and reading attentively. It is a pity
that you allow yourself to be dominated by laziness when it
takes so little effort to shake it off. It is enough to form only
the habit of study and later everything goes by itself.
I hope to receive a letter from you to see whether you
are progressing or not; if you can, write me in Spanish.
Your brother

To the Young Women of

Malolos

In this letter, Rizal discusses the rightful duties and

responsibilities of the Filipino mother:
Raise your children close to the image of the true God.
Awaken and prepare the mind of the child for every good
and desirable idea --- love for honor, a sincere and firm
character, a clear mind, clean conduct, noble actions,
love for ones fellowmen, and respect for God. Teach
these to your children Teach your children to guard and
love their honor, to love their fellowmen and their native
land, and to perform their duties. Tell them repeatedly to
prefer death with honor to life with dishonor. They should
imitate the women of Sparta. The country should not
expect honor and prosperity as long as the education of
the child is defective, as long as the women who raise
the children are enslaved and ignorant.

In the letter, Rizal also gave the following advice

to unmarried women:
Why does not a young woman ask of the man she is
going to love for a noble and honorable name, a manly
heart that can protect her weaknesses, a noble mind
that will not permit him to be the father of slaves? Instill
in his mind activity and industry, noble behavior, worthy
sentiments, and do not surrender your young
womanhood to a weak and timid heart. When she
becomes a wife, she should help her husband in every
difficulty, encourage him, share with him all perils,
console him and drive away his woes, always bearing in
mind that a heroic heart can endure any suffering and
that no legacy is as bitter as the legacy of infamy and
slavery.

In summary, Rizals letter to the young women of Malolos

focused on five major points (Zaide & Zaide, 1999)
Filipino mothers should teach their children love of
God, country, and fellowmen.
Filipino mothers should be glad and honored , like the
Spartan mothers, to offer their sons in defense of
their country.
Filipino women should know how to protect their
dignity and honor.
Filipino women should retain their good racial values,
but should also educate themselves.
Faith does not consist merely in reciting prayers and
wearing religious pictures but also in living as true
Christian should, with good morals and manners.