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[av_heading heading=’Iloilo marks Lopez-Jaena 161st birth anniv today’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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ILOILO City – Ilonggos are celebrating the 161st birth anniversary of hero Dr. Graciano Lopez-Jaena today.
It is a public holiday in this city and Iloilo province.
The center of activities this morning is the Graciano Lopez-Jaena Park, also known as Jaro Plaza. The Graciano Lopez-Jaena Foundation is spearheading a memorial program.
Lopez-Jaena, born on Dec. 18, 1856 in Jaro district, was considered the “first Filipino propagandist” in the struggle for freedom from Spain. What is now known as Jardin Elena on Fajardo Street, Jaro was the hero’s birthplace.
Historians regard Lopez-Jaena, along with Dr. Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar, as the triumvirate of propagandists that challenged Spanish rule in the Philippines.
Lopez-Jaena wrote the satirical story “Fray Botod” which depicted a fat and lecherous priest.
Botod’s false piety “always had the Virgin and God on his lips no matter how unjust and underhanded his acts are.” He reaped the friars’ fury and thus left Jaro for Spain in 1879.
In Spain, Lopez-Jaena founded and edited La Solidaridad, a newspaper that aimed to galvanize Filipinos to into demanding independence. He also gave fiery, nationalistic speeches. There he met Rizal and del Pilar.
Believing that “the pen is mightier than the sword,” Lopez-Jaena personally conveyed his demand for freedom in a speech before the Spanish officials in Madrid, Spain on April 27, 1883.
He died of tuberculosis at age 39 on Jan. 20, 1896 in Barcelona, Spain and was buried by the Sisters of Charity in an unmarked grave at the Cementerio Sud-Oeste.
He did not live long enough to see the fruition of his efforts aimed at freeing the Motherland from colonial Spain./PN
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