Maria Clara at Ibarra (MCI) is finally on Netflix, complete with English subtitles! As I’ve said before, there are many things that I like about this series. When I reviewed it for the first time, it had not yet aired its adaptation of El Filibusterismo, the sequel to Noli Me Tangere.
Well, I finally got to watch the El Fili part of this drama until the end. I give it an overall grade of “B”, which stands for “bad grade” in traditional Asian standards, but it's still a decent rating. I do like MCI even if I’m not gonna rave about it because of my serious reservations.
The Daenerys of the Rizal Novels
Aside from its weak points that I previously mentioned, the quality of the drama deteriorated because of the way GMA-7’s writers depicted Elias and Crisostomo Ibarra. In MCI, Elias goaded Ibarra to join the revolution against the Spaniards. But in Jose Rizal’s novel, Elias wanted radical reforms only, which reflected Rizal’s stand on Philippine sovereignty.
That’s very clear in the Soledad Lacson-Locsin English translation of Noli. On the day that he conferred with Ibarra for the first time about the plight of the masses, Ibarra asked Elias what ordinary Filipinos wanted from Spain. Elias replied, “Radical reforms in the armed forces, in the clergy, in the administration of justice…more respect for human dignity, more guarantees for the individual safety, less power to the armed forces…the reformation of the clergy…”
On the other hand, Ibarra just wanted to “educate” native Filipinos at first, hence his attempts to establish a school. But he didn’t see governmental and religious reforms to be necessary. Ibarra even said in Chapter 50, “The government, to make itself respected, needs an entity with unlimited power and the authority to impose it…To keep the Philippines, it is necessary that the friars continue as they do, and in the union with Spain lies the welfare of the country.”
Ibarra swung towards the extreme end when the Spaniards framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. As they were escaping from the guardia civil in Chapter 62, Ibarra said to Elias, “Now I see the horrible cancer that gnaws at this society, which grips its flesh and demands violent eradication. These have opened my eyes…they have made me see the wound and compelled me to become a criminal! There is no God, no hope, no humanity; there is only the right of might! I will make (Filipinos) see their misery…I shall tell them that against this oppression rises and protests the eternal right of man to secure his liberty!”
Elias protested, “The innocent people will suffer!” To this, Ibarra said, “Much better still!”
Why did Elias resist a bloody revolution against the Spaniards? According to him, “The country, Senor, does not think of separating itself from the Motherland (i.e., Spain). It asks for nothing more than a little liberty, justice and love. I myself will not follow you; never will I resort to these extreme measures while I see hope within men.”
But in MCI, it seemed like Elias and Ibarra only differed in terms of methodology: Ibarra wanted a Central Intelligence Agency-type of regime change, which entailed influencing the Spanish authorities into intensifying the hardships of Filipinos so that the latter would rebel. On the other hand, MCI-Elias only resorted to primitive guerilla tactics to overthrow the fully-armed Spanish government to spare the innocent.
Hello??!! The innocent would suffer either way! Canon-Elias obviously saw that.
Historical Revisionism for Me But Not for Thee
If the producers of MCI wanted to justify the revolution against Spain, they should’ve made a biopic about Andres Bonifacio instead. After all, both Rizal and Bonifacio had valid points about their stand on colonialism.
But they shouldn’t have changed Noli and El Fili. First of all, they completely cheapened the characterization of Elias and Ibarra. Watching MCI, you’d think that Ibarra was instigating an armed insurrection just because he wanted revenge. Yes, he wanted revenge, but he also had a profound philosophical justification for his actions.
On the other hand, I couldn’t understand why MCI-Elias was opposing Ibarra’s machinations when he and his guerilla friends were benefiting from them. What on earth was supposed to be the issue between the two?
As for Klay — ugh, I’ve never watched a character that was so incredibly annoying! She was likable and relatable during the Noli part of the series. But in the latter parts, her narcissistic rants just made me sick. The writers tried too hard to make her feminism pivotal to the series even if they were cringey. They should’ve just let Noli and El Fili be and focused instead on weaving the Klay-Fidel sublot into the story.
Ah, mainstream media! Your celebrities and political pundits can’t stop yakking about canceling people for questioning traditionally held historical narratives. But when you engage in historical revisionism, we’re supposed to shower you with applause and awards?
Fantasy Turns into Reality
Because of this, I wanted to give MCI a C or a D. I just gave it a B given the difficulty of producing a high-quality, commercially viable historical portal fantasy series about the Rizal novels. I enjoyed a lot of MCI's episodes anyway. Still, when it comes to Asian dramas, Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 3 and Dae Jang Geum take the cake for me.
I just realized that in a way, one of the strengths of MCI is that it might be a foreshadowing of things to come. In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), people would be able to bend reality according to their desires, just like what Klay did in the historical portal by creating her own version of the Rizal novels. When that time comes, it will be more difficult to discern truth from error, and it will be easier to enslave people by deceiving them.
A shallow reading of his novels would make us believe that Rizal views formal schooling as the antidote to the gullibility that makes us susceptible to oppression. But I think the ending of El Filibusterismo reveals that Rizal wanted us to gain something far more important than academic competence. But that’s for another article.
Part of the problem I think is consumerism. The mainstream media is committed more to how much they can earn versus what the audience can rightly learn from the stories they produce. It does not help that the liberal leftists have taken hold too.
Such in-depth analysis of the characteristics of Ibarra and Elias! Bravo Annie!!!😀