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Jeffrey B. Viernes
Professor Agaton Passion, Jr.
IP 431: The Life and Writings of Rizal
29 February, 2016
Tears of Pain and Suffering of a Mother
The Spanish colonizers ruled the Philippines for more than three decades. Though, they
have many contributions in the cultural and political development of the country, the Philippines
suffered multiple lacerations, shed tears and blood, and cried stridently for freedom and
independence from its government. Dr. Jose Rizal wrote Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
to talk about the arrogance and despicable use of religion by the Spaniards to achieve their own
desires and rise to power. Rizal infused different characters in his novels to reflect the reality in
the society he exists, and one of the characters is Sisa.
Sisa is the loving, caring, and nurturing mother of Crispin and Basilio, who were servants
of the church. Sisa is a symbol of a loving mother and a submissive enduring wife. She devoted
her entire life in serving her husband and their children. Though she was maltreated and abused
by her husband, she remained faithful and loving to her spouse. Her family resides in a small
nipa hut, near the rice fields and far from the glamorous town city. She was uneducated but she
nurtured her two sons with life lessons and good manners. In the novel Noli Me Tangere, she
became nonsensical and insane after the death of her two sons. She suffered major depression
from longing to her two sons and had delusional paranoia from the traumatic events that
happened into her life.
Sisa, a young Filipina woman possibly on her mid thirties, has an angelic adorable facial
features before she endured the brutality and violence of her husband. Her small eyes express

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sadness and gloominess that is partly hidden from her long lashes. The eyes were deeply gazed in
the horizon and painted with tears from the pain and suffering she endured from being separated
to her two sons. She has pale lips etched with melancholy and a tinge of sorrow. However, when
she is with her two sons, her lips are marked with unending happiness. Her low toned voice is
sweet, tender, and calming to hear. She serenades sweet lullaby songs to her sons, which sets
them to sleep. Her skin is clear, light brown complexion, describing the kayumangging
kaligatan. Starvation and agony had made her cheeks prominently pallid and hollow. She had
abundant dark curly hair that had been set effortlessly without decorative hairpins or comb. She
is wearing a white short-sleeved, collarless blouse and a simple stripped skirt, with wraparound
cloth in her waist and a panuelo embracing her shoulders. Her blouse and skirt were marked with
mud and dirt and the edges of her skirt are frayed. Her feet were covered with dust and had
suffered a lot from being exposed to the heat of the ground and from walking without any
slippers.
Towards the end of the novel, Sisa became more emaciated and unkempt due to her
depressed state and malnourished body. Her eyes transformed into frantic, frightened, and
agitated gazed providing her an anxious and inexpressive appearance. She wandered in the city
screaming and howling strange sounds to look for her lost sons. Her voice had a strange quality
unlike the sound produced by human vocal chords. She never stopped wandering around the
village smiling, talking, and communing with all of natures creation, except the people
surrounding her. Though her mind is disorganized and might have forgotten some pieces of her
memories, her heart continues to remember the sweet memoirs of her two sons. The love of a
mother does not fade even when challenged with mental illness because the heart will always

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make its way to remember what the mind might have forgotten. The tears that smoothly flow
from her eyes embodied every pain and sufferings in her heart from being detached to her sons.
Sisa is a submissive character that regards her husband as god. She endured the cruel
beating of her husband when he comes home drunk or lost from gambling games. She tolerated
the abuses and cruelty of her husband in order to keep her family intact and due to her fear of
being cursed by God. She is working as a servant to a well-known family in order to provide
food for her own family. She is a loving mother with pure heart and is always thinking of her
family. Though she is uneducated and poor, she values her reputation and dignity as a woman.
Sisas life in the novel resembled the Philippines who is abused by its Spanish colonizers.
Her sons embodied the Filipino people who were maltreated and abused by the Spaniards.
Though the heart of the nation is ready for a revolution, the body is still weak to face its enemy.
Filipinos were fragmented and disorganized leading them for fatal defeat. Not until the country
unites as one body, the country will remain infected of the cancer. The novel awakened the
Filipinos to the truth that had long remained silent, although not entirely unheard of. The novel
also provided a spark in the beginning of the different revolts in the country against the Spanish
government and missionaries. The Philippines is our motherland that nurtured us with food and
wisdom and it is our duty as her children to protect her from being abused and maltreated by
intruders.