Ray Gerard D.

Angeles
September 15, 2014
Response Paper: Miguel Syjucos Ilustrado
As I started thinking on what to type in this document, Im mentally battling with myself
on whether I liked this story or not. Ive been hearing quite a lot about this novel from my
classmates who took Philippine Narratives and they gave this book a very good review. Learning
that we have to take this for emergent literature, I felt quite happy since I would be forced to
make time to read this novel. Finally, I got to see the hype that was all over this book.
In a nutshell, the story is about Miguel, an apprentice writer trying to find the last and
possibly greatest manuscript of his mentor, Crispin, whose body was found dead in the Hudson
River. Because of this, Miguel was forced to go back to the Philippines his home country to
find clues about the manuscripts location. In the process of doing so, Miguel reflects on his life,
his struggles with his family, and the nuisance of calling the Philippines home. At the same
time, we are thrown into the life of Crispin as stated in his autobiography and the biography
being written by Miguel. Both stories seem to be related and are juxtaposed to each other. One
seems to compliment the other and vice versa.
The story also reveals issues in the Philippines brought about by the colonization of the
country by Spain, America, and Japan as well as the self-colonization that took place post-war.
These issues are revealed in the narrative in relation to the lives of Crispin and Miguel as well
the earlier generations of their families. We can see Miguel reflecting on how politics and
tradition affected his life and his relationship with the family. We can also slightly see the scope
of power literature can reach in the Philippines and abroad. These issues are more or less what
Miguel thinks about most of the time.
This is where my problem with this story lies. My problem stems mainly from the
character, Miguel. Miguel with his thoughts made me feel detached to the story. Hes describing
a Philippines that I know that I should know but at the same time, what I imagine is a
Philippines that is a stranger to me. Another thing about Miguel that makes me feel detached to
him is the differences of the lives that we had. Here we see how fitting the title is.

Ilustrado is a story narrated by one Filipino that has been living abroad for a very long
time. His identity has absorbed the western ideals that can be acquired there, thus making his
perspective a little bit different than ours. In a post colonial reading of this, we can probably see
here the question of identity for a character that is a native, but has been away for the longest
time. My problem with this character is simply because he comes off as someone who is
incredibly whiny about many things that do not concern him. Its as if Im reading the laments of
a person whos thinking of problems that he is not directly involved or related to. I do not hate
him for this, but I feel very detached to the story because of this character which is a bit sad.
However, this aura of a character may have been intentional, to capture exactly the idea
of what an ilustrado is, of ideas and ideals the ilustrados believed in, of the difference of
perspectives between a Filipino living in and one thats living out of the country. It may have
been intentional for Syjuco to create this character in order to describe the Philippines in a
grittier. Maybe he wanted to describe it from a person that is not used to the Philippine landscape
and has a more ideal image as to how it can look as to how its supposed to look; but these are
all just maybes.
Overall, the piece was masterfully written, with a great choice of words and impeccable
timing. His way of intertwining related stories stemming from the lives of the two characters as
well as these characters writings is a joy to read. He puts a nice touch to the story in the end,
messing up our familiarity with the novel and giving us a new way of presenting a narrative.
Now, remember the internal battle I mentioned at the beginning of this paper? Well, it
turns out; I still have mixed feelings about it. I think this book is worthy of the hype and the
recognition it received. As I went deeper into the story however, I also found this book as
something thats not everyones cup of tea.